Existential Punk

Richmond Into Sustainability? Yea, Right!

  After living in Los Angeles, California for 5.5 years and Sacramento, CA for a few months, i grew to see how EASY recycling was. i was a HUGE recycler at Xavier University in Cincinnati during the early '90's but fell away until my move to Los Angeles in 1997, where recycling was just a smidgeon effort. When Katryna and i first met she was living in Sacramento and I in Richmond, Virginia. She was a BIG recycler and i had begun using my WMA recycle bins. Sacramento's Waste Management is SUPER progressive in that it takes MOST recycleable materials. Central Virgina's, which includes Richmond, Waste Management, on the other hand, is a real joke in recycling and sustainability!

CVWMA has limited things it chooses to recycle versus Sacramento's things it recycles. Sacramento has information here, here and here. Richmod ONLY recycles yard waste by you loading it up in YOUR car and taking it YOURSELF to a location to be determined by calling them. How asinine and inconvenient is that?! VERY in my opinion. We found out that if we put our Christmas tree out on the road for pickup that they will pick it up, but put it in a LANDFILL rather than recycle it! If we want to recycle it WE have to load it up and take it to a designated location, which is on the other side of town. So, we have to decide which hurts the environment less, a tree in a landfill or driving the car to take the tree to the other side of town. i really do not know the answer is but we are putting the tree out at the curb.

We pay taxes and i think Richmond and other places like it need to join the rest of us in the 21st Century and upgrade its recycling facilities and STOP being so picky in what and how they recycle. When i moved into my home in 2005, one of the trash bins had a yellow sticker saying "YARD WASTE ONLY" but my neighbors kindly informed me that program had been discontinued and to use the bin for trash now. That is going backwards and ass backwards at that!

Each year they have two pickups for leaf removal if we put them at our curbs. Once in November and once in January. Their communication SUCKS on when those dates are and which neighborhoods. i called last year and told them my address and neighborhood, and of course, they told me the wrong date. Luckily we got the leaves out in time. This year though, they extended the pick up date and reduced it to one pickup, which will be sometime in January.

Shit like this does not encourage people to recycle. When recycling is limited and made into too much work, then people are LESS LIKELY to take the time and energy to recycle.

What do you think? What is recycling like in your area where you reside?

Electric Cars are Back?!

What happened to the electric car? There was even a documentary made on the subject called "Who Killed The Electric Car". i tried to see this film when it was in Richmond a couple of years ago but it left too quickly before i could get to the theater. This is nothing new in Richmond, BTW!  So, i found it interesting to read this story, especially in light of the fact that the BIG 3 American car companies may fail. i think they should be able to fail as a bailout will not work. Hawaii to be the 1st state with electric car stations as reported at Huffington Post. An excerpt from the article follows:

"Hawaii has unveiled plans to be first in the nation to roll out electric car stations statewide _ a move the governor hailed as a major step toward weaning the islands off oil.

Hawaii imports foreign oil for almost 90 percent of its energy needs. One-third of that oil is used to power cars and buses on island streets.

Gov. Linda Lingle said Tuesday the program would help Hawaii meet its goal of slashing fossil fuel use 70 percent by 2030.

"This is the preferred future," Lingle said at a press conference. "Today is a part of the execution of our energy independence, and our getting off the addiction to oil."

New Chapter on Climate Change

Three Cool RFID Projects to Deter Bicycle Thefts

HT to TreeHugger for this informative article about new technology to secure your green machine.

"Bike theft is a huge bummer and a always-growing problem in cities where bicycles are used more and more for daily transport. Amsterdam has always had a big theft problem, and 20,000 bike were stolen last year in the city of Copenhagen. Bike sharing programs nearly all share the feature of using RFID (Radio frequency ID) in order to identify bikes and help reclaim them if they are lost or stolen. Now RFID programs outside of bike sharing are on the upswing to try to reclaim stolen bicycles as well as deter thefts, and even reduce right-turn bicycle accidents ."

i found treehugger.com through Huffington Post's green page.

Gasoline?! That Is So Last Century!

Check out this article on 7 Electric Motorcycles You Must See! It's so awesome that people are working to green motorcycles and scooters.

"Electric Motorcycles: Cool and Green

There's nothing wrong with "cool", and we have to admit that few vehicles are cooler than motorcycles (at least in theory - not all of us would ride one). You're basically sitting on an engine with wheels. Can't get much simpler than that. They're not always practical, but the people who love their bikes really love them.

But cool is not enough. The vast majority of motorcycles are still running on fossil fuels, and that's a problem. As battery technology improves, we're starting to see more electric motorcycles: Some are commercially available, many are DIY custom jobs. Today we look at some of the coolest ones."

The Untold Story of Lyme Disease

From the site for the film, "Under Our Skin" :

"The terrorist in my body has been found."                                      - Amy Tan, bestselling author                 In the early 1970's, a mysterious new ailment was discovered among a group of children living around the town of Lyme, CT. What was first diagnosed as isolated cases of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, eventually became known as Lyme disease, a potentially serious illness triggered by spiral-shaped bacteria, similar to the organisms that cause syphilis. Today, cases of Lyme disease have been reported in all states. According to CDC estimates, over 200,000 people may acquire the disease per year--more than            cases of AIDS, West Nile Virus, and Avian Flu combined. Many of those untreated will suffer chronic debilitating illness. Some unknowingly will pass the disease on to their unborn children. Many will lose their livelihoods, and still others will lose their lives. As the first in-depth film about Lyme disease, UNDER OUR SKIN will be a feature-length documentary that takes viewers into the lives of Lyme sufferers struggling to find answers and a road back to health. We watch a set of diverse characters battle not only a disease, but what they see as a broken healthcare system. While the popular perception of Lyme disease is of a trivial joint-related problem easily cured with a few weeks of antibiotics, our characters tell a radically different story. They are forced to live with confounding and debilitating symptoms               for months to years, while searching for a diagnosis and effective treatment. As they visit specialist after specialist, so many are told that their problems are stress related or "all in their heads.” Most are misdiagnosed for years with   incurable conditions such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia,   lupus, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimers or ALS. And when these  patients finally receive a Lyme diagnosis, they ask, What is going on? Why are front-line physicians so ignorant of classic Lyme symptoms and the true size of the epidemic? Why does it take the average Lyme patient more than 3 years and $60,000 to be diagnosed? Once diagnosed, why are many physicians and insurers refusing to provide sufferers with lifesaving treatment? And why are many of the physicians who do treat Lyme coming under fire with the threat of losing their medical licenses?                                    On the other hand, we hear from medical experts who insist  Lyme disease cannot be chronic and has become an "epidemic of hysteria"--routinely over-diagnosed and over-treated, with grave risks to public health and our antibiotic supply. The disconnect between the varying perceptions and experiences of Lyme disease is staggering. Journeying deep into the microscopic and macrocosmic world of Lyme, UNDER OUR SKIN uncovers the shocking human, medical and political dimensions of Lyme disease. As the film delves into the lives of those who have been inalterably changed by the disease, a haunting picture emerges of our healthcare system and its ability to cope with a terror under our skin.

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

THANK YOU Katryna, for bringing this to my attention! This is a teaser video to Annie Leonard's incredible film, "The Story of Stuff":