Lamoore Designs

Blog Action Day
Posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007

Today, I am one of 16,235 bloggers writing on one issue: the environment. How did this get organized? Click the banner above to learn more. What is the purpose? To see what can happen when a large chunk of the "blogosphere" unites for one day on one issue.

Here's the slant I'm taking on the environmental theme:

"Think Green vs. Just Think" or "Why I'm not throwing away my Camaro"

Coming from someone making a living selling "green stuff", this may seem an unlikely message at first: I want to talk about why Buying Green is not always the best choice.
It seems the "buy green" initiative has (finally) hit the mainstream. Every third item on the shelves is suddenly "the best choice for the environment." I watched with interest when the whole world threw away our old lightbulbs in favor of the new "green" kind. I've noticed the shift in automobile approval ratings for "gas-guzzlers" vs. newer hybrids and sub-compacts...big old cars are becoming "passe". Consumers have pushed retailers to start using paper rather than plastic shopping bags.

More and more of the choices we make as consumers fall into the "this or that" category, where "this" choice is better for the environment than "that" which is BAD for the environment. And what's wrong with that? Well, it's deceptive. Presenting only two solutions to one problem tricks people into thinking only two options exist. (Think of George Bush's "you're either with us or against us".)

Not only is it not true, it's often the other options that make the most sense!

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For example, we can conclude paper is indeed more environmentally sound than plastic...so plastic loses, and paper bag factories rejoice. But the best choice? Cloth bags.

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What about those new lightbulbs? I don't believe that inventing a bulb that uses less energy gives people any incentive to do the right thing--turn the lights off!!-in the first place. I may be crazy, but I find this new light isn't bright enough anyway, so I end up using an extra light so I can see what I'm doing. Oh, and, they have poisonous mercury inside.

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It seems the degree to which a product is demonized is directly related to how much money is at stake.
The automobile industry is busy inventing new environmentally friendly cars and telling us to be ashamed of our old ones. The popular new=good, old=bad sales pitch. But what about option #3: keep your old car, but drive it less? Pound for pound, my old relic-monster-muscle car with the 350 four barrel v8 engine is probably the greenest car on the block...it rarely leaves the driveway! Keeping a running list of all things I need to travel to do/get means no more running to town for just one thing. How do we get *everyone* to drive less? Raise the price of fuel. By a lot. Ridiculously expensive Gasoline would make driving a luxury and carpooling a necessity. The economy? Yes, maybe it would fall apart, maybe that's just what we need.

"We don't want a bigger piece of the pie,
We want a different pie."
-Winona LaDuke

For the Love of Dog
Posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007

October so far has already brought many blessings, but why, then, are the crickets chirping in this journal-space, you ask? The answer is....

MAGGIE!!
Once again, my heart has been stolen away by a wee doggie...a 6 month old Welsh Pembroke Corgi we brought into our home and hearts October 1st. Yesterday was Thanksgiving, here's what my "Grace" would have sounded like--
Yay and thank goodness for wee doggies, for turkey dinners with family, and for the bountiful, abundant, endless beauty of Cape Breton in the Fall!!

"Driving myself to distraction
Until you got in my way
I was just whistling Dixie
'Til you struck up the band
And they started to play"
-Amanda Marshall

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