Weekend round-up: 29 November 2009

Here's a selection of online goodies and real world events that excited and inspired me this week. Hope you enjoy them too.


Expand your thoughts
Behavioural Economics meets Climate Change: great blog post by Marc Gunther about how behavioural economics might be used to influence people's actions.

Take action

Sign Auckland Zoo's 'Don't Palm Us Off!' petition for mandatory labelling of palm oil in products. Palm oil production threatens the extinction of animals such as the orangutan. It's currently nearly impossible to boycott products containing palm oil, because it often goes incognito in the ingredients list under the ambiguous moniker "vegetable oil". So we're currently unable to make informed decisions about whether to buy products containing palm oil. Sign the petition to show those in charge of labelling requirements that knowing which products contain palm oil is important to us.

While you're at it, here are some other causes you might like to add your name to if you haven't already:

• the Hopenhagen petition to ask world leaders to commit to real change at Copenhagen in December. 
• tcktcktck - pledge that you are ready for the world's leaders to sign a global climate deal in Copenhagen that is ambitious, fair and binding.
• Sign On to ask the NZ climate delegation to commit to reduce NZ's carbon emissions 40% by 2020.

Nifty tools
Read it Later is a great tool for people with long bus or train commutes. You can save websites to your computer or iPhone to explore offline later.

iSwish.co.nz is another great way to deal with clothes that no longer fit or flatter but are still in good condition. It's like a continuous, NZ-wide online schwop.

New Zealand Fruit and Food Share Map on Google Maps. Find out where and when fruit trees and other edible plants near you are available for foraging.

Upcoming events

Next weekend, on Saturday December 5 in Auckland, is the Planet A March + Concert for the Climate. The march starts at 1pm in Albert Park and goes up Queen St to Myers Park, where the concert will go off. Organised by the Sign On folks, Rhys Darby will be the concert MC and Opshop, Don McGlashan, Midnight Youth and others will rock Myers Park. If you're of the pedal-powered persuasion, the Auckland chapter of Ride Planet Earth have organised a mass bike ride as a warm-up to the March + Concert. It starts at 11 am from the Auckland Domain's Winter Gardens. More info here.

Reduce, reuse, recycle... and the neglected "R": repair

There are lots of words starting with R that describe sustainable behaviours: reduce, reuse, recycle, regift, re-home, repair... Society has shifted towards making some of these actions more convenient. Reusable bags are available in most major stores nowadays. Most cities and towns have kerbside recycling.  Online services like Trademe and DonateNZ are great ways to re-home items so that others can reuse them. But one R seems to be lagging behind the rest: repair. Surprisingly often the cost to have something repaired is more than what you paid for it or what it would cost to replace it. Two good examples are shoes and handbags.

The other day I took a handbag back to the store I had bought it from because the metal fastener that held a strap in place had come apart. They shop assistant immediately offered to exchange it for a new bag or give me a store credit. While the offer of a new handbag was mighty tempting, I'd thought about all the resources that must have gone into making my handbag and, since it was in pretty good condition other than the broken fastener, I preferred to have it repaired. The shop assistant was obviously surprised that I wanted to have the bag fixed rather than get a new one, but she said she would see what she could do. The next day I received a phone call from the shop assistant telling me that it was going to cost more to repair my bag than what I had paid for it. The manufacturer was overseas, and she had called a local repairer, who had quoted a price in excess of what I had paid for the bag. I was disappointed, but not really surprised. When I had tried to get my previous handbag fixed last year by going direct to the repairer, the quoted price was enough to convince me to send the bag to the scrap-heap instead. (That bag was in much worse shape than the current one - it was coming apart at most of the seams and one of the straps was nearly broken from the strain of me carrying far too much around in it all the time). It's the same with shoes. The cost to replace worn-out soles can be enough to convince people that they might as well buy new shoes instead.

This pricing situation negatively affects the sustainability of people's behaviour towards broken consumer goods. Many times I've heard people say, "It's not worth getting it fixed". In purely personal dollar terms they're right. But what about when other factors are weighed in? The environmental impact of manufacturing the product, the positive economic impact on their local community from paying a tradesperson to repair the broken item, and the environmental impact of disposing of the broken thing are relevant considerations, but ones that are difficult or impossible for the owner of the broken thing to quantify, even if they turned their mind to it.

In the past, when simply replacing a broken item was not always possible, people were more resourceful and many were more skilled at fixing things themselves. Expecting everyone to become a handyperson is not realistic in the time-starved society of today. But there are still people out there who are pretty handy. If you already know someone like that, you could try to strike up a bargain with them. Maybe they'll fix your shirt that's coming apart at the seams in exchange for you baking them some muffins, or buying them a beer. Or maybe you have skills that you can trade with them. You'll fix their door hinge if they'll sew the buttons back onto your shirts. If you don't know a handyperson, maybe you can track one down through community noticeboards (for example at your local supermarket or in your community newspaper), or maybe someone you know knows someone that they can put you in touch with. If you think that there's even a slight chance that you might be able to fix it yourself, if only you knew how, try googling "How to fix [insert broken thing here]". Obviously use this within reason. If you've never fixed anything electrical before, I wouldn't recommend trying to fix your microwave based on a Youtube video some home handyperson has posted. If you don't think it's worth even trying to fix it then the next step may be to try to reuse it in some other capacity, or to rehome it. Landfill transfer centres often salvage stuff and resell it, and some small repair stores will be happy to accept broken things from you that they can potentially use for parts. I've also discovered a market for broken electrical and electronic goods on Trademe. People list broken items for $1 reserve or thereabouts, and it seems that eager handypeople snap them up to repair and resell. So, it should be a rare occasion when something is only worth throwing out.

Have you got any thoughts to add on the neglected "R", repair? Make a comment below. Handyperson  self-promotion welcome!

Meat-free month update: closing thoughts

Image by RAWKU5

Today it's been a month since I pledged not to eat meat for a month on Blog Action Day. To debrief, I've asked myself some probing questions.

How are you feeling after eating (almost) no meat for a month?

Fine! Avoiding meat has started to feel more natural. The feeling that I'm missing out by not eating meat has become less common. I had a weird episode at the gym last week when I went my regular 'Abs, Butts and Thighs' class, and found my strength had mysteriously evaporated. My first thought was, "Have my muscles wasted away because I haven't been eating meat?"But, it turned out I was actually getting a nasty cold, which must have sapped my strength. Overall, I haven't been able to discern any significant change in my physical wellbeing.

In your mid-month update, you revealed you had cheated by eating meat a couple of times. Have you cheated again in the second half of the month?

I confess, I've cheated one more time. Hayden and I were out at a restaurant with friends for dinner and wanted to share a gourmet pizza. The vegetarian options on the menu sounded pitiful in comparison to the ones including meat. When paying restaurant price for a pizza, I didn't want to shortchange us by choosing one that sounded inferior, so we had the lamb one. But I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would, because I felt guilty the whole time I was eating it!

Are you glad you you undertook a meat-free month?

Definitely. It's good to know that greatly decreasing my meat intake was easier and less restricting than I thought it would be. Now that I've taken the plunge, it would be difficult to switch back to my old eating habits - it just wouldn't feel right. A lot of people were interested in what I was doing, so I was able to spread information about the impact of eating meat on the environment, and show other omnivores that switching to a predominantly vegetarian diet can be simple and enjoyable.

Where to from here?

I don't plan to celebrate the end of the month with a meat feast. My mindset towards meat must have changed, because the idea of gorging myself on animal flesh is not that appealing (unless it came off a BBQ - there's just something about BBQ meat in the summer). I plan to continue eating similarly to how I have this month: vegetarian being my default option, but eating meat when I really feel like it. I hope that will work out to eating meat about once a week or less. I doubt I'll eat vegetarian sausages again though. Even if you coat them in tomato sauce, they still taste like sawdust!

Friday round-up 6/11/09

Here's a collection of mind-expanding, thought-provoking, action-inspiring links to get you through the rest of Friday: 


Expand your thoughts

• Is plastic making us fat? New research suggests that chemical compounds found in plastics all around us promote cells to turn into fat cells during the development process. They  may promote obesity in adults too.
• Climate change as a feminist issue - and it's NOT about population control.
• Bizzare Bicycle Hybrids: How Your Bike Can Be Turned Into Whatever You Want
• My favourite quote of the week (from David Roberts of Grist in this article):

“Lesson: the problems humanity faces are systemic and interrelated. The idea that sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere will save us is akin to the hope that a math equation can be solved by erasing one of the numbers.”

Take action

• For the Kiwis: ACC is considering imposing a levy on cyclists who ride on New Zealand's roads, with figures of $300 to $500 being suggested. Ouch! The reasoning is that cyclists suffer a lot of injuries from crashes on the road, and so make significant ACC claims. Currently motorists are "subsidising" cyclists under ACC. I know ACC is supposed to be a no-fault scheme, but surely the causes of cycle crashes causing injury (of which cars would be at the top of the list) need to be factored in here. You can make a submission on this issue - details here. 
• Want to be better at convincing others of the importance of sustainable living? Download this guide to The Psychology of Climate Change Communication from the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions.
  

Upcoming events
Got your diaries at the ready? OK.

28 November: Grey Lynn Festival

5 December: Planet A March and Concert for the Climate, organised by the Sign On crew.

Please let me know if you know of any other awesome upcoming events, or "wow"-worthy things to visit online. Have a great weekend!

Meat-free month update: half-way

Image by SEPpics

On Blog Action Day, 15 October 2009, I pledged to try eating vegetarian for a month. When I set out to write this update, I was surprised to discover that it's been over two weeks already! That goes to show how easy and satisfying I've found vegetarian eating MOST of the time.

How I've been feeling

In my last update I noted that my energy levels had been good. I have continued to have plenty of energy. I haven't missed the completely stuffed feeling I used to get sometimes after eating a rich, meaty meal. There were a few days near the start when I constantly felt hungry and never satisfied. That has died down, and I have found that so long as I eat enough protein and eat a variety of foods each day, I usually feel satisfied.

Meat cravings

When I started this meat-free month, I feared that I would start to crave meat after a few days, and suffer some kind of withdrawal symptoms. But the cravings I feared haven't really materialised. I had decreased my meat consumption over the last few months, and I wasn't eating all that much meat before I started my meat-free month. I think that's made changing to a meat-free diet less shocking on my system than it would be for someone who was used to eating a lot of meat. As my meat consumption decreased over the last few months, I found that I wasn't missing eating more meat, and I have hardly missed meat since I started my meat-free month. But, I've found that there are a couple of situations where I really want to eat meat. The first is at barbeques after I've had a couple of glasses of wine. It's spring in New Zealand, and I've been to two barbeques since beginning my meat-free month. The first was a work do. We had delicious food and plenty of it. I had specially bought some vegetarian sausages and they were yummy. Once I had eaten I felt full, but I didn't feel satisfied. There was a lot of leftover meat, and I found myself really wanting to eat some. I resisted, and ate some more bread and dessert. I had another glass of wine and tried to stop myself from thinking about the chicken nuggets. I couldn't. In the end I gave in and scoffed a nugget. I hid in the kitchen where my workmates couldn't see me. I'd told them about my meat-free month, and I was hideously embarrassed to be cheating on it. After eating the single chicken nugget I felt instantly satisfied. The second barbeque was at my apartment, on Halloween. Once again I bought vegetarian sausages, and made sure that there was plenty of salad and veges. Once again I had a few glasses of wine. Once again I ate until I felt full, but I still didn't feel satisfied. Once again there was leftover meat. And once again I caved. That time I ate half a meat sausage, and it tasted great.

While I'm confessing, the barbeques are not the only time I've cheated. The other situation in which I've found myself unable to resist some forbidden flesh was eating out at a nice restaurant for a friend's birthday. Everything on the menu that sounded good had meat in it. The only vegetarian options were on the breakfast menu, and we were there for a late lunch. I'm pretty sure the kitchen would've made a vegetarian version of one of the menu options for me, but I didn't even ask. The stir-fried calamari sounded far too good to pass up.

Cooking

I haven't done all that much home cooking in the last couple of weeks. But when I have, I've found vegetarian cooking quick and convenient. Not having to cut up meat for a stir-fry or curry speeds things up, and veges cook quicker than meat. It's spring here and we've been enjoying good weather, so light meals have been the order of the day. I have found one aspect of vegetarian cooking a little challenging: deciding what to make. When you cook with meat, the meat is the central focus of the meal, and it suggests what you should make with it. For example, steak calls for potatoes and salad; chicken breast calls for green curry or honey soy sauce and vegetables to join it on rice. When you have a vegetable crisper full of veges and a couple of cans of beans and chickpeas on the shelf, it just doesn't seem so self-explanatory. But this is just a product of the way I'm used to cooking, and I'm sure I'll get better at coming up with meal ideas over time.

Eating on the run

Most Auckland cafes have a decent selection of vegetarian options. But it's always a miserable selection in comparison to the options containing meat (specialist vegetarian cafes aside). A couple of times when I've been grabbing lunch on the run in the last couple of weeks, I've thought to myself, "This would be so much easier if I wasn't avoiding meat." It seems vegetarian eaters have to eat according to what's available, rather than what they feel like eating.

My overall thoughts and feelings on vegetarian eating so far

After the first half of my meat-free month, I can say that vegetarian eating is a lot easier than I thought it would be, especially in social situations. I even survived a long weekend with Hayden's extended family visiting without eating any meat. Looking ahead beyond the end of this month, at this stage I think I'd be happy to continue eating a mostly vegetarian diet. But I don't think being a strict vegetarian is for me. I really enjoy meat from time to time, and would feel like I was missing out if I tried to cut it out completely. I'm interested to see if my feelings on this change in the second half of the meat-free month.