Merry Wanderer of the Night:
green books

I don't know about you, but I always thought the whole lawn care thing was stupid. My dad spent his whole weekend mowing the yard when I was a kid and it looked so boring. It didn't help that when he taught me how to mow the lawn I ran into the clothesline. I never mowed again.

But seriously-- why do we care so much about lush green yards? It's supposed to be a sign of dedication, hard work, neighborliness, and pride. Unfortunately lawns across America are poisoning the people living on them and their neighbors. See, the green grass in all these yards is not native grass which means it requires a lot of upkeep, including a pesticide called 2,4-D. 2,4-D causes lots of nasty problems, the most terrifying is a type of blood cancer. It's easily absorbed through the skin and lungs and causes other problems besides cancer, like nausea, vomiting, and birth defects.

I'm a huge fan of the This American Life radio show and recently I watched the TV show on Netflix. In season two episode two there is a story about a Bulgarian man living with his wife in the United States. He loves his home, neighborhood, and wife, but he refuses to mow the lawn. This is seemingly the only argument he and his wife have, and his wife is terrified of what will happen if he doesn't start mowing the lawn. I mean, terrified. Rightly so. Slow Death by Rubber Duck mentions three cases where people were taken to court for not keeping up their lawn. In all these cases the lawn owners won, but I'm sure there are cases where they have not.

Interestingly the writers of this book didn't really do any experiment related to 2,4-D. The reason they didn't is cosmetic pesticides are illegal in Ontario. And Quebec. And Alberta. Rightly so, as "[i]n farming families in North America, for instance, there is a higher incidence of miscarriages and birth defects than in the general population. Farmers in Ontario who use pesticides also have lower sperm counts and poorer-quality sperm than non-farmers" (202). The effects of pesticides aren't just limited to farms and those who apply pesticides to lawns though, they effect everyone. Unfortunately cosmetic pesticide bans are extremely rare in the U.S. because it is such a huge industry and people continually buy into the green lawn dream, whether they really believe in it or are just following the crowd.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Aths and I have reached the end of our journey with Eaarth. She posted an amazingly well written post about our obsession with progress and growth today. You should all head over to Reading on a Rainy Day to check it out. I feel so lucky to work with someone who can express passionate ideas about the environment as eloquently as Aths!

I have been absent from the Internet for most of the day, mostly because I was at work all day. While I was at work I listened to several podcasts about environmental issues, but one really stuck with me. If this episode of Organically Speaking doesn't get you thinking about food and the dangers of how we currently manage food I don't know what will. It's about the spinach scare that happened not too long ago. It's funny but full of helpful information. This was my first time listening to this podcast but I'm definitely going to be a subscriber from now on.

Speaking of podcast, the new episode of Green Reads will be up by tomorrow-- be on the lookout!

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Awhile ago I announced that I planned on reading all of my humongous Montaigne essay collection in 2011. The year tends to start more in February for me than January, because January is my birthday month so I'm never on a "normal" schedule. I'm planning on updating the Montaigne reading list later today so you can follow along with what I'm reading if you so choose. I'll post my thoughts about the essays I read every Monday along with some questions about them. EDIT: The new schedule is now available online.

I bought a few books recently that I'm really excited about. The first is Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books

, which is about Jackie Kennedy Onassis and her career as a book editor. I heard about this book in December on Books On the Nightstand and wanted it immediately because I love biographies and I think biography in books sounds like the best kind of biography. I also got House of Leaves

due to a superb recommendation from my friend Marleen. The book looks super bizarre but I can't wait to read it, which is unfortunate because I don't think I'll get to it until Spring Break. I bought Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd

on a whim while perusing the newly arranged Young Adult section at the Barnes and Noble in my mall. It's a story collection including stories and art from M.T. Anderson, Libba Bray, David Levithan, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Westerfeld, and several others.

Today I'm catching up on some reading and doing a little homework. Jason and I are also recording a new podcast for Green Reads. I'm talking about a book I'm super enthusiastic about, Farmer Jane: Women Changing The Way We Eat

and Jason is talking about The 1,000-Year Flood: Destruction, Loss, Rescue, and Redemption along the Mississippi River

. Keep your eyes peeled for that so you can hear about these great books!

Is anyone else going to Book Expo America this year? I'm going and I'm still looking for a roommate if anyone is interested-- let me know!

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

I have returned to Iowa City, which is awesome and crappy at the same time. I have two and a half weeks between me and winter break and those weeks are full of papers and exams. Luckily, I'll definitely blog more because I won't be at my parents' house where it is quite difficult for me to blog. This is why I really sucked at blogging last week. I did some Black Friday shopping over the weekend (I shopped for five hours!) and got the backpack I will take with me to the Netherlands and Germany over winter break. I can't believe how close this trip is now, it doesn't even feel real.

Remember a month ago when I was all excited about recording a podcast with my boyfriend? It was called Green Reads and we were going to talk about books and the environment. Well it's back! We posted a new episode over the last week and you can read about it on our Green Reads blog and listen to the episode there. Please follow us and leave us comments! You can also subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and every episode will show up automatically for you. The road is a little bumpy right now, but we have another podcast in the works and it will get published very soon. We're working to make this the best we can.

Now I'm off to go for a walk and think about an essay I'm working on today. How were your Thanksgivings if you are in the States, and how were your weekends if you are not? Did you get any reading done? I, for one, did not.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

For one year Vanessa Farquharson decided she would make one environmentally friendly change every day. She would keep a blog about her progress, and try to figure out what all of this green movement stuff meant. Sleeping Naked Is Green: How an Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days

is the book version of her blog, although they're very different. The blog had in-depth posts for each change, while the book only has a little bit about a few different changes every month. And sometimes nothing about the changes at all, just a mention of the change and then a story about a date she had that same day. Something completely unrelated. If you can't tell by my lackluster introduction, I was less than pleased with this book.

Maybe I should preface the rest of this review with a statement: I'm an environmentalist. I pretty big environmentalist. I recycle, bike/walk instead of drive whenever possible, buy organic food, recycled products, make homemade cleaning products, take military showers, wear clothes several times before washing. Yeah, I'm kind of green. But there is still so much more I could do, so when I picked up this book I thought maybe I would also pick up some new ideas. Which I did, let's make that clear. I'm planning on creating compost box after reading her description of hers, and there were a few other ideas. But for the most part, I think this book was a cheap ploy to cash in on the media success of the green movement. Oh, and a way for her to brag about how she started dating her boyfriend.

The biggest problem I had with this book was the lack of information. She says she did something, like stop using paper towels, but she never goes into why she decided to make that decision. She doesn't talk about any research she did, and scientific information to back up that decision. And without education, people are not going to make a change. Another problem I had with this book is that she complains relentlessly about everything. She decides to wash her hair with natural oils instead of shampoo, and then complains and complains about how this will prevent her from getting a boyfriend because what kind of guy will date a girl who uses oil to wash her hair. She decides to bike instead of drive to work, but then complains and complains about how this is going to prevent her from wearing cute outfits to work, and that's she's going to have to take backpack (God forbid!) with her to work. She has a real thing against backpacks, just hates them. And there are multiple instances in the book where I was under the impression she was doing all of this to meet hipster guys instead of for herself. To her credit, she does stick with some of her changes and stops complaining about them after a few days, but honestly my view of her was not the greatest, and I didn't find this book to be very interesting, helpful, or mind changing.

I'm giving this book a D.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.