All posts by Lisa Tae-Ran Schroeder

 
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Plastic grocery bags: a continuing environmental scourge


Here's a familiar scenario. You go to the grocery store, get your items and, at the checkout counter, a bagger puts your items into several plastic bags. The bags are never filled to capacity, sometimes only a few items are put into each bag, and usually the bags are doubled. You then head out of the store with many more bags than you need. And when you get home, after you unload your groceries, you'll stuff all these bags into an already large sack of plastic bags from previous visits.

Since plastic grocery bags were introduced in the 1960s, the nation's — as well as the world's — environment is now plagued with this non-biodegradable pollutant. Billions and billions of these plastic bags are consumed each year, only to end up clogging up landfills — never to biodegrade — or littering the streets or disturbing nature's balance by choking wildlife and plugging up waterways. But using paper bags as an alternative is not really the best solution. An excellent article by National Geographic says that making plastic bags is actually less harmful to the environment than making paper bags. Paper bags do biodegrade faster but, if placed in a landfill, can take the same amount of time as plastic, which is thousands of years. Plastic bags are an environmental scourge that have many countries worldwide already addressing the problem.

Bans
Plastic bags have created such an environmental problem that many countries as well as cities now have full or partial bans on the bags. According to reusablebags.com, several African countries as well as Asian countries have banned plastic bags. Australia and the city of Paris are actively moving forward for complete bans on non-biodegradable plastic bags.

Taxing bags
And in some countries that still allow plastic bags, in order to cut down on consumption, customers must actually purchase the bags at the checkout counter. European countries are a forerunner that actively charge their customers for plastic bags, so most savvy consumers carry reusable canvas bags to avoid the charge.

Problem with the United States
The "Live free or die" mantra was started during the War of Independence, and it is still in many ways exactly how we Americans feel we should be able to live. We are a "throw-away" society and feel it is our right to use and throw away as many plastic bags as we want. Taxing people's right to plastic bags also seems contrary to being American since we have it drilled into our heads that taxes are bad. Our resources for landfills and wide-open spaces are also much more abundant than smaller countries such as in Europe, so we don't feel like we're running out of room.

Partial solutions:
Buy and use canvas bags
Some stores give customers a few cents off for each canvas bag they bring in and use instead of plastic bags. Another advantage is that canvas bags hold more objects and are very sturdy which leads to using fewer bags to bring your groceries home in. The advantages of canvas bags also reduce the amount of plastic bags that end up in landfills. Think about it — if you go to the grocery store once a week and use two canvas bags instead of getting say six plastic bags, that's 312 fewer plastic bags consumed by you alone in one year.

Recycling programs
Some grocery stores have bag-recycling programs, where you can drop off your plastic bags at the store before you go shopping. The state of California recently created a bill that makes recycling plastic bags mandatory. There are school programs that let kids team up with stores to help recycle their plastic bags and, by doing so, receive incentives. Reuse your own pile of plastic bags for garbage or storage — the more use you get out of one bag, the less the demand for new plastic bags.

keeping the earth ever green

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How to fight global warming, use less energy


Sitting in almost 70-degree heat in January a couple weeks ago brings the growing problem of global warming to mind. Global warming is caused by greenhouse gases released into the air via energy consumption and is a major problem that the world must deal with. Americans may think that what they do to contribute to this problem is minimal and there is nothing they can do about it. But because there are 300 million people in the United States and because it is the number one greenhouse gas emitter in the world, each individual is responsible for contributing to this environmental disaster. The impact that you make adds up but there a few steps that you can do to lessen the footprint of your contribution to global warming.

Save energy, consume less, consume green
Energy consumption not only releases carbon-based emissions that contribute to global warming but also creates a deep dent in consumers' wallets. Rising oil prices and tapped-out reserves create a demand that you, the consumers, ultimately pay for. Reducing energy consumption and using alternative clean energy sources help the environment as well as your monthly bills.

Green power
Check with your energy provider to see if there is a green or wind power alternative. Switching over to a clean energy provider is usually as simple as filling out an online form. Green power usually consists of a mix of energy created by low-impact hydroelectric sources and wind power. Natural sources of energy keep the carbon burned by traditional energy suppliers out of the air.

Energy-saving appliances and light bulbs
Buy and use energy-saving appliances like light bulbs, refrigerators, and televisions. The less oil-based energy you consume, the less greenhouse gases are released into the environment. Although energy-saving light bulbs are more expensive than traditional light bulbs, according to The New York Times, they last 10 times as long and use 75 percent less energy. The energy consumers can save with these bulbs has been creating an impact. The retail giant Wal-Mart is aggressively marketing the bulbs as part of their chief executive's commitment to reducing energy consumption. Internationally, under Cuban President Fidel Castro's "energy revolution" program, all Cubans will receive energy-saving appliances including energy-saving light bulbs to replace the old energy-inefficient incandescent ones. Castro's light bulb replacement program has also inspired Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to distribute these energy-saving bulbs to his citizens.

Choose not to use energy
Energy use can also be limited by just not using it—from walking up the stairs in your office building rather than using the elevator to using a drying rack for laundry instead of a clothes dryer.

There are many small, simple things that you can do to lessen your carbon-based energy consumption that leads to global warming. Change a light bulb, walk up the stairs, sign up for green energy. A small change in your habits now will ensure a better environment for those in the future.

keeping the earth ever green

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Abandoned Christmas trees: plastic stands still attached


The holiday season is over. The most obvious sign is the dried-up, discarded Christmas trees thrown out onto the sidewalk. Most waste-disposal companies have tree recycling programs that pick up the trees easily, create natural compost, and leave biodegradable shavings behind. What poses a problem is when the tree stand is still attached.

For the next week anyone can walk down a random block in New York City and see piles of old Christmas trees waiting to be picked up and recycled. Look closer and notice that a few of these trees' owners couldn't be bothered to make a little extra effort to actually remove the tree stand. They just threw it away with the tree. Maybe they think to themselves that they can just buy another tree stand next year, what's another $20? And probably that's what tree stand manufacturers want because more sales for them means — duh — more profits.

The City of New York Sanitation Department has its own Christmas tree curbside recycling program. Their website specifically states that: "residents should remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from holiday trees before they are put out at curbside for removal." A quick call to their public info office confirms that they will not pick up trees if they are not au natural — meaning if there is anything artificial still attached to the tree, it will not be collected. When the tree is not collected for recycling, that means it ends up in a landfill, cluttering up the world rather than being dispersed naturally.

In a few thousand years the tree might actually biodegrade, but the plastic stand attached to it will still be here. How many chemicals were leached into the air and water to make that plastic stand? How many chemicals will be leached into the air and water from that same stand when it is lying in the landfill?

If there are approximately five stands left on discarded Christmas trees on one block in Manhattan, with Manhattan compromising 6,718 blocks (according to survey work laid out by the Fund for the City of New York), that would be approximately 33,590 trees not recycled and the same number of tree stands left to clutter the landfills. If these owners had taken maybe five minutes of their time to remove the stands and stored them to use for next year, that would be $671,800 less they would have to pay collectively for a new stand next year plus 33,590 less plastic tree stands languishing in the landfill. Once landfills get filled up, new ones need to be created, which in turn creates higher taxes for you.

Recycling Christmas trees is good for the season, good for the environment, and good for the cities and towns with these types of programs. What's not good is a lazy approach to throwing a used tree to the curb without stripping it bare. The biggest loser here is you. You will ultimately pay for the higher taxes it will inevitably cost to build and maintain more and more landfills — and all this because someone didn't remove their tree stand.

keeping the earth ever green

 

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Mystery odor: what you can’t smell actually hurts you more


There was a scare in the air in New York City on Monday morning. The cable and local tv stations were all over the story. The cause was a so-called mystery odor permeating the air. Was it a biological weapons attack? Was it cancer-causing chemicals? Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quick to announce that the odor was not harmful, yet the actual source of the smell is still a mystery; fingers now point to New Jersey. But the media frenzy over this tiny blip of an environmental air concern was — as usual — overwrought.

The media likes to attract viewers and that means sensationalizing the so-called news. Only when it seems like there is some sort of instantaneous event, i.e., a bad smell, that vast media coverage is warranted. Cable and local TV news are the worst offenders because they have so much airtime needed to be filled. They jump on events like mystery odors because it actually gives them something to do, something to talk about, something to — ahem — fill the air with.

Every day there are more harmful, non-odorous toxic pollutants spewed into the air than during the few hours this mystery odor was smelled. Anyone living in the city is breathing in carbon monoxide emitted from the thousands of vehicles driven daily. Anyone who opens his or her apartment windows can see evidence of polluted air in the form of little black particles that blow in and dirty up the sill. These same black particles and toxic gases are breathed in every minute, every hour, every day that you are alive. Where is the media report about that?

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are six common air pollutants: ozone, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and lead. Breathing in any of these pollutants isn't good for you. They can cause anything from neurological disorders to asthma or ultimately death.

Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas released primarily from vehicles. It is odorless yet you breathe it in everyday, and in concentrated amounts it can be fatal. Not only is this gas dangerous to you, it also has caused the "greenhouse effect" that has led to global warming.

The federal Clean Air Act of 1990 put caps on vehicle emissions levels and has had success in reducing the amount of carbon monoxide blown into the air. According to the EPA, in 1992 — only 15 years ago — carbon monoxide levels "exceeded" these emissions caps in 20 cities, which meant that more than 14 million people were overexposed to this harmful gas.

Even though emissions levels of carbon monoxide have fallen significantly under the Clean Air Act regulations, clean, non-polluted air is still not what the vast majority of Americans breathe everyday. What you don't smell is much more dangerous and definitely warrants more media coverage than one half-day mystery odor.

keeping the earth ever green

 

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Searching for spice

One American’s adventures in pursuit of the famed spices of Sichuan Province, China.


Markets are a still a big part of life in rural China and are usually the main place that people buy their groceries. The Zoiige market sells quite a few varieties of colorful peppers.

It didn’t start as a slow burn, or a tingle, or even a twinge. I had expected the hotness to build up gradually, the supposed intricate balance of heat and flavor to melt in my mouth. I had expected to douse the fire with cold beer and kick back feeling satisfied by finally eating an authentic spicy meal. Instead, the food instantly numbed my mouth, I could barely eat it, and I had immediate heartburn.

I was sitting in a huoguo, or hotpot restaurant, in Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan Province. I came to Sichuan searching for spice, and knew that this was the place for it. My guidebook gave me high hopes, proclaiming Sichuan to be an authentic source for spicy food. The book even included a Chinese saying, “Shi zai Zhongguo, wei zai Sichuan,” which translates into: “China is the place for food, but Sichuan is the place for flavor.” Sichuan cuisine — or Szechuan, as it is more commonly known — is renowned for its hotness, which is something that I have always sought but was unable to find in American Chinese restaurants. Back home in the United States, I always needed to order the food “extra spicy.” I craved spice, so I came to the source.

Sichuan Province is located in the southwest of China and is about the size of France. Its unique positioning has the natural beauty of the high mountains of Tibet on one side with the Yangtze River creating the border with other neighboring provinces. The authentic Sichuan pepper originates in the Himalayan region and is sometimes called “mountain berry” in Chinese. It is a hearty small peppercorn that has medicinal anesthetic qualities.

This is contrary to the belief that the red chili peppers inside Szechuan dishes in the U.S. are real Sichuan peppers. Sichuan cooking incorporates both the Sichuan peppercorns and red chili peppers to create fiery and mouth-numbing dishes. Because Sichuan is home to 53 ethnic minorities, including Tibetans and Hui (Muslims), there is a wide range of cuisine. But spice, I find, is the universal language here. I start my journey through Sichuan in the Tibetan town of Langmusi and wind my way down to Chengdu, sampling the variations of spice along the way.

Fresh peppers are often used in Sichuan cooking but sometimes dried or powdered spices are just as good. Many varieties of dried pepper are sold at the Zoiige market.

A spicy sort of satisfying

Langmusi straddles the border of Gansu and Sichuan provinces with the White Dragon River splitting the two, but most of the town lies on the Sichuan side. Because it is a growing tourist spot, many of the signs are in English, and the restaurants have English menus. And since the town is mostly Tibetan-speaking anyway, knowing Chinese isn’t an advantage here.

In the restaurant attached to the Langmusi Hotel, I ordered “spicy chicken” in English, not exactly knowing what would arrive. The dish came out pretty straightforward: strips of chicken with sliced green peppers and rice. The taste was definitely spicy, not bland like the Chinese food back home in America usually is. The sauce was delicate, garlicky, and had no traces of peppers except the green ones in the dish, but they were mild. Soon the taste began to build up. It was hot and satisfying. I left the restaurant relatively pleased by my first encounter with Sichuan spice.

The Tibetan food I encountered was not spicy at all, even though the Sichuan pepper originates in the Himalayas. My short experience with it on a two-night stay with Tibetan nomads near Langmusi proved it to be hearty, filling, and salty. Tibetan nomads live off the land, herding yaks and sheep and living in tents. Their lives are filled with physical labor and the harsh conditions of their high cold grasslands, so heavy food helps them sustain life. Most of the Tibetan meals I had consisted of potatoes, cabbage, and a little mutton fried up in a big pot and served with rice.

However, one of the best meals I had was during my stay at the second nomad tent. The daughter-in-law of my guide cooked noodles with cabbage and mutton into a stew. It seemed like the same thing I had been eating at the last tent—tasty and filling but not zingy. But at this tent, there was something special; after I was served, I was given a little pot of hot oil. I eagerly added the spicy oil to the dish and started eating, the spice adding the perfect zip to the food. This proved to me that the taste for spice could be found anywhere in Sichuan, even in a black yak-hair tent on a grassy hill 12,000 feet high in the mountains.

Noodles are eaten at any time of the day in China. Around nine in the morning, passengers on a packed bus from Songpan to Chengdu stop for a rest to eat spicy noodles, prepared by the steaming bowlful.

A spice like never before

Zoiige is another Tibetan town in Sichuan that lies between Langmusi and the tourist town of Songpan. I made a stopover on the way to Chengdu. Not many signs were written in English, and so I entered a restaurant with a little trepidation. Most of the restaurants in China are specialty places, meaning some places serve only noodles, while others serve only dumplings. Walking by this particular restaurant, I noticed that another customer was busy with a huge bowl of spicy noodles, making it easy to decide what to order. I walked in and pointed to his bowl and said “mian tiao” (noodles), feeling pleased that I could order in Chinese. The waitress then asked me a question, and I shook my head and said “wo bu dong” (“I don’t understand”). So she went in the back and brought out a big pot of spicy oil. At this I smiled, shook my head yes, and gave her the thumbs-up sign. This was definitely understood. A large bowl of noodles swimming in spicy sauce with beef chunks and scallions was soon put before me, and I began to eat. It was very spicy and, at first, easy to eat. Another waitress came out to see how I liked it while she refilled my teacup. Soon it began to taste a little too spicy and maybe even a little greasy. Then it definitely became too spicy and my mouth was too hot to finish the bowl. I left feeling a little silly that I couldn’t handle the spice that I had so eagerly pursued. But this, I figured, was a one-time occurrence.

The author eagerly anticipates dishes cooked in a classic Chengdu “hot pot,” a split pot with mild fish broth on the left and spicy oil on the right.

I finally made my way to Chengdu and the hotpot restaurant. Hotpot is a Sichuan specialty, and it’s the one thing visitors shouldn’t miss. There are numerous hotpot restaurants around, easily identifiable by the burner in the middle of the table. I entered hesitantly and ordered mostly by pointing at other people’s tables. The waiter walked me through the process and I waited eagerly for my super-spicy meal. The restaurant was beginning to fill up with large groups of people gathered around their tables, chatting loudly. A large metal pot split down the middle was put on the burner on my table. One side had red oil with lots of red chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns floating around, the other side had a milder fish broth. The liquids began to boil, and I was brought dishes of sliced meat and vegetables. You cook these by putting the morsels in the oil or broth, snagging them with chopsticks, and dipping them in a sesame-flavored sauce on the table.

The cooking part was actually the most fun. I happily dipped my meat and vegetables in the boiling oil and then put them on a plate to cool before tasting. I ate the first piece of meat and it was numbing, absolutely searing; I could barely taste anything. I tried to clean off the meat by dipping it into the fish broth, but the spice had already been seared into it. Eating the food was actually painful, and my stomach was beginning to feel upset. I decided to cook the rest of the food in the broth side, but the fire from the first few pieces of meat hadn’t yet dissipated. In fact, it felt more intense. I sat in the restaurant for quite some time trying to finish the rest of my meal. I managed to barely finish the vegetables cooked in the broth, and only consumed half of the meat cooked in the oil.

As I left the restaurant feeling a little defeated by the heat of the meal, the waiter gave me a look that I took to mean, “you foreigners can’t handle real spice.” And I agreed with him and felt humble. I came to Sichuan looking for spice, and I certainly found it. But in the end, my seared tongue and aching stomach proclaimed that Sichuan spice is serious business.

A big bowl of steaming hot noodles is a delight on a cold day. After just arriving in Zoiige, the author agrees to lots of spice in the noodles but is anxious to start eating. Indeed, the dish turned out to be too spicy.

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