Green Parent Chicago

The Thought That Counts: More than ever, we need to rethink how to live our lives in meaningful ways without excessive spending

Growing up, your holiday may have meant a special dinner with family or searching through gaily wrapped boxes for those bearing your name. Perhaps you cherish a familiar song you hear only when the weather turns crisp, music that reminds you of a simpler time surrounded by people you love.

For better or for worse in the United States, whether due to credit card debt, the foreclosure crisis, job loss or pay cuts, this holiday season many of us are forced by hard economic realities to reexamine our role as “consumers”. More than ever, we must rethink how to live our lives in meaningful ways without excessive spending.

If this year finds you with strained finances or if you’re simply growing concerned about your contribution to a sustainable planet, celebrating a Christmas and holiday focused on “gifts that give back” can help shift the focus from excess to caring for family and friends, our community and the world we share.

What do the holidays mean to you personally? What might you discover about yourself, your family or your friends if you planned your holiday differently? Would you get to know one another better or share your knowledge and skills with someone who needs your help or guidance?

Lessons of Generosity and Thoughtfulness
Making dramatic changes in your holiday routine may seem drastic, but small efforts do add up. Lynn Colwell, co-author of the book Celebrate Green says that much like recycling, once we get a feel for how easy it is to have a simpler holiday, it’s hard to return to our old ways. She suggests starting one small step at a time.

“If you do it and I do it and everyone else does it, then it makes a big change, ” she says.

Colwell insists most people ordinarily spend more extravagantly than they need to because we’ve come to believe it’s the norm.

“We buy without thinking…we’re all on autopilot,” she says.

Long hours on the job leave us feeling overwhelmed. Standard marketing and advertising messages tell us we deserve a break. But there can be greater satisfaction from hard work than a life of luxury.

If you’re a parent, you may wonder how to bestow lessons of generosity and thoughtfulness in your children’s hearts. A simpler holiday is a wonderful way to provide your family with new and exciting traditions while providing an example for years to come. Kids love to help plan the family feast, bake and frost cookies, create decorations and wrap gifts. There seems to be no limit to their enthusiasm for the season.

Gift ideas long on play value include books, classics like wooden blocks, musical toys or instruments, building kits, art kits and art supplies, puzzles, dolls, board games, museum memberships, class/activity fees and science kits. Don’t hesitate to peruse second- hand stores for kids’ gifts, too. Many items there have been quickly outgrown before their usefulness has.

Clutter-free ideas include requesting baby-sitting, a special outing or a day trip for your kids with a family friend, aunt, uncle or grandparents.

Holiday Unshopping
Green America, a national nonprofit promoting social justice and a sustainable economy, suggests “unshopping” as a way to minimize impulse spending. They suggest holding potential purchases up to specific standards:

-Do I really need and want this? Can I get by without it?
-Is it made from renewable or nonrenewable resources? 
-Is it made of recycled materials and is it recyclable?
-How long will it last and how will I dispose of it?
-Can it be maintained and repaired?
-Could I borrow it, rent it, or buy it secondhand?
-Is it overpackaged?
-Is it worth the time I worked to pay for it and its cost to the environment?

Other unshopping ideas may include a book/magazine exchange or a cookie exchange: guests bring a dozen or two home- baked batches of cookies and their own tins, then each fills their tin with an assortment to bring home.

Organizing a toy exchange among families is great fun too, as many moms and dads prefer to pare down their child’s toy collection before the holidays arrive. Consider giving your time and knowledge as gifts. If you’re musical, offer friends music lessons for a month. Know how to knit? Help a friend on a new sweater pattern he/she always wanted to try.

Envying a garden of home-grown produce? Exchange your skills with a green-thumbed friend for help getting your veggie garden started. Have a way with words? How about resume help for a friend who’s job hunting? Give a home-cooked meal in exchange for pet sitting. Great with numbers? You could offer tax-time help or accounting.

If you’re time challenged but interested in giving an experience gift, consider theater or performance tickets, gift certificates for a much-needed spa service, fine dining or a bed-and-breakfast stay.

Buy Green, Buy Fair, Buy Local, Buy Used and Buy Less
To curtail spending, try the time-tested frugal tradition of a secret Santa exchange: a small group gets together, agrees on a price level and/or theme, they draw names, then each person gives a gift to another and gets a gift from another.

When purchasing new items, consider buying from local businesses, a community gift or craft fair, or social enterprises and nonprofit organizations that support green initiatives or benefit local residents.

Just a few of the many social enterprises and fair trade shops around Chicago include:

Beeline (beelinestore.com) helps men and women re-entering the community from prison establish a work history, good work habits, and gain skills to further employment through sales of their natural, honey-based, personal care products and all natural honey.

Sweet Miss Giving’s (sweetmissgivings.com) is a bakery and jobs program that offers rich, decadent baked goods with over 50 percent of all profits going to help formerly homeless and HIV/AIDS-affected men, women, and children.

Bright Endeavors (brightendeavors.org) assists homeless and at-risk young women achieve self-sufficiency and independence through the production of Dreambean Candles, a line of eco-friendly and socially responsible candle products.

The Greenheart Shop (greenheartshop.org) and 10,000 Villages (tenthousandvillages.com) are nonprofit fair-trade shops that offer housewares, gifts, clothing and more.

Green Genes Boutique (green-genes.com) stocks eco-friendly and sustainable products for children and parents. All of their packaging and gift wrap are made from recycled and biodegradable materials.

To find more local businesses offering green and fair-trade goods and services visit Local FirstChicago.org  or ChicagoFairTrade.org.

Get Creative and Get Together
A décor swap is an easy way to refresh your home for the holiday. You can also make holiday décor out of items you already own. Create handmade cards and more using scraps of wrapping paper, old card fronts, buttons, felt, decorative paper, cardboard, construction paper, scrap yarn, fabric, flowers and fruit (real or faux) and decorative dishware. You may be surprised at how creative you can be with what you already own.

For gift wrapping, use recycled paper, comics, dish towels, receiving blankets, fashion scarves or make your own fabric gift bags. Children’s gifts may be wrapped in colorful playsilks which can later be used for imaginative play and dress up. To wrap homemade treats, use recycled brown paper bags, decorated with stamping, paint or stickers.

Forget slaving over a hot stove and host a potluck. Make the gathering the focus over the getting. Include activities like music, caroling, games and crafts or ask each guest to bring an ornament to trim the tree.

Alternatives to hosting a bash include attending a worship service, a free concert or theater event or planning an outdoor activity like ice skating, sledding or visiting a winter festival. After the fun, gather indoors for hot cocoa and cider.

Spreading the Holiday Spirit and Cheer
When possible, extend your generosity to someone who needs extra help or support this season. ChicagoCares.org helps individuals, youth, families and groups locate volunteer opportunities around the city. Christopher House, an organization benefiting low-income children and families, holds an “adopt a family” program each holiday. Participants can learn more at ChristopherHouse.org.

Alternatively, you can give needed items on a charity’s wish list or organize a donation among friends and family to a cause you collectively support. GiveForward.org, the brainchild of Chicagoans Desiree Vargas and Ethan Austin, makes it easy for anyone to set up a fundraising account online for causes both large and small.

While it’s true the holidays come but once a year, perhaps this time, instead of facing traffic jams, long checkout lines and maxed-out credit cards, we can look upon the season as a celebration of possibility, a time for opportunity and a fresh start to a new year.

-Christine

This article originally appeared in Mindful Metropolis magazine.
photo credit: ali edwards, flickr

EarthTalk: Is The Dairy Industry Trying to Stop Soy from Being Called "Milk"?

Dear EarthTalk: Is the dairy industry really trying to stop soy milk makers from calling their products “milk?” They must feel very threatened by the preponderance of soy milks now available in supermarkets.                                                                                     -- Gina Storzen, Weymouth, MA

Indeed, just this past April the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), a trade group representing dairy farms, petitioned the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to crack down on what it calls “the misappropriation of dairy terminology on imitation milk products.” NMPF has been asking for such a ruling for a decade, and argues that the soy industry’s “false and misleading” labeling is now more common than ever.

 According to NMPF president and CEO, Jerry Kozak, the FDA has let the issue slide so that the meaning of ‘milk’ and even ‘cheese’ has been “watered down to the point where many products that use the term have never seen the inside of a barn.”

Furthermore, Kozak adds, the use of “dairy terminology” on non-dairy products can lead people to think they are eating healthier than they really are, especially because non-dairy products “can vary wildly in their composition and are inferior to the nutrient profile of those from dairy milk.”

The website FoodNavigator-USA.com reports that on the other side of the Atlantic, the European Dairy Association (EDA) has also called for the term ‘soy milk’ to be replaced with ‘soy drink’. EDA also suggests other options including ‘soy beverage’, ‘soy preparation’ and ‘soy-based liquid’. It’s no wonder the soy industry isn’t quick to give up the milk moniker, given how catchy the alternatives could be!

Jen Phillips of Mother Jones magazine takes issue with the dairy industry’s sense of ownership when it comes to terms like ‘milk’, ‘cheese’ and ‘dairy’. “The word ‘milk’ has lots of uses and has been used for non-dairy milks like coconut for a long time,” she reports, adding that consumers already know that soy milk isn’t dairy milk. “Instead,” she writes, “the move to ban ‘milk’ from non-dairy products is a transparent ploy by the NMPF to hurt the soybean industry that, thanks to increasingly health-conscious consumers and ethanol production quotas, is growing stronger every year.”

She also disagrees with Kozak’s claim that dairy milk is healthier than soy: “Actually, soy milk and dairy aren’t that different nutritionally, except for that milk is fattier,” she says, explaining that a cup of vanilla soy milk has 30 fewer calories than a cup of two percent cow’s milk. And while dairy does have twice the protein, soy milk has 10 percent more calcium. “It’s a bit of a toss-up nutritionally, but I'm lactose-intolerant so I’ll choose the ‘milk’ that doesn't make me gassy and crampy.”

Phillips adds that, since 90-100 percent of Asians and 50 percent of Hispanics—two of the fastest growing immigrant populations in the U.S.—are lactose intolerant, “NMPF might want to think less about fighting soy and more about how they’re going to deal with people who can’t drink milk to begin with.”

CONTACTS: NMPF, www.nmpf.org; FDA, www.fda.gov; FoodNavigator-USA.com, www.foodnavigator-usa.com; EDA, www.euromilk.org; Mother Jones, www.motherjones.com.

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk®, c/o E – The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; [email protected]. E is a nonprofit publication. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe; Request a Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

"Radical Homemakers" Review and Interview with Author Shannon Hayes

It took just over half a century for the U.S. to shift from an agricultural model to an industrial based society. All the while, the balance of societal focus solidly turned toward the view that only through work outside of the home, in an increasingly corporate dominated society, working for the advancement of a commodity or product finely tuned and crafted to ultimately detract from the value of one’s home life, could men and women find absolute personal and career fulfillment.

Shannon Hayes, author of the book, “Radical Homemakers” (Left to Write Press 2010) believes the cause of this major shift lies with the acceptance of the idea that American society exists and thrives for the betterment of the capitalist corporate economy.

Hayes’ book (much like Kalle Lasn’s timeless 1999 analysis of global consumerism “Culture Jam” ) functions as a manifesto, a hard examination of the stagnant creed that the “global economy” is the be all-end all of human existence. The book is an historical account of how American women and men came to accept this self-defeating and dehumanizing view throughout the 20th century. But also, in its second half, it serves as a detailed account of couples, singles and families with young children who have renounced this view and chosen homemaking instead, to promote, as Hayes describes, a “life-giving economy based on the principals of social justice, democracy, care for the planet and its inhabitants.”

Much more than merely caring for children’s daily needs, cooking and cleaning house, being an active participant as a radical homemaker allows one to “take a constructive role in society”, a much more fulfilling goal than that envisioned by the 1950’s tradition of the mentally and psychologically suppressed housewife. Hayes makes clear time and again that her book is not an attack on the many working professionals whose vocations help cultivate a life-serving economy. Attacks like these, such as the so called “war” between the working mother and the stay at home mother, more often originate from the mainstream media, providing further evidence of how a society that exalts corporate success must undermine the value of the home worker and homemaker in order to survive.

This past spring, Green Parent Chicago spoke with Hayes on the origin of her journey into radical homemaking:

How did you come into the idea of homemaking? Did you have doubts about your own abilities to carry out your decision and the merits of this choice?

I grew up in the hills of West Fulton, NY, which lie in the northern foothills of the Appalachian Mountain chain. I loved my life with my family, neighbors and farm, but no one thought that a young family could make a viable living here, as there were no economic opportunities. But I was so physically, spiritually and emotionally connected to this place, the idea of leaving left me in a state of distress. My husband had a job in a nearby town, so we thought we could live here and commute to outside jobs.

Thus, we bought our house while I was still in grad school. I shared an apartment w/another girl, then came home on weekends. Two weeks into this arrangement, when the first mortgage bill came, he was fired. When I came home from grad school that weekend to talk about what we should do next, I saw that he had saved the chicken carcass from the bird we'd roasted the weekend before, and he'd boiled it and made a simple soup. He'd lit the fire, pulled a chair up close for me to warm up (it was a cold November night), and handed me a bowl of soup, saying nothing. I cried and cried, then realized that we'd manage.

We talked a long time, and came to the conclusion that we had been at our most economically vulnerable when we were counting on full-time jobs to pay for the roof over our heads. One angry boss, and the income stream was gone. We were engaged and had been planning a wedding the next summer. We eloped instead, and used our savings to support ourselves and began working odd jobs and developing our homemaking skills. My parents gave us a wedding gift of $5000 as well, which we figured we could rely on, until we got back on our feet. I still have some of it sitting in an account. We lived frugally, our mortgage was paid off in three years, and we never looked back.

When you talk to people about Radical Homemaking, are they skeptical about the egalitarian nature of it? You write about an egalitarian dynamic between men and women that is one of the cornerstones of Radical Homemaking. What are your thoughts on naysayers that believe this is unrealistic given society’s entrenched views of gender roles?

Generally the naysayers aren't directly in front of me. So far, they seem to be far removed, hapless internet bloggers who’ve read some article about the book, written by someone who hasn’t actually read the book, and are coming to conclusions about the book based on, well, as best as I can surmise, e-gossip. I think that people who come into contact with Bob and myself, or who have contact with any other true radical homemakers, or who have read the stories of the folks profiled in the book, understand that egalitarian relationships are possible. For certain, we all know of families where the balance of power is out of whack. But, I think that most American couples have come to see this as the exception, rather than the norm, unless they are committed for some reason to not believing it.

You profiled urban homesteading radical homemakers, Nance Klehm from Chicago and Kelly Coyne and Eric Knutzen, who live in Los Angeles. What have you found are special factors that radical homemakers must consider in an urban setting?

We rural homemakers have it a lot easier. Many of us living out in the country have family and community traditional knowledge to draw from for support. This way of life also doesn’t bear the stigma that “homemaking” in the city does. Lots of rural folks get by using subsistence living skills. It’s not unusual. Nance, Kelly and Eric had to rediscover and reinvent technologies and methodologies for working in their unique urban ecosystems. They also have a culture around them that may not support or understand their values (although I hope that is rapidly changing). They must deal with ridiculous city ordinances that keep people dependent on a consumer culture, such as codes that forbid keeping poultry.

That said, I think that this is where things are really exciting. Radical Homemakers in urban areas are coming up with phenomenal innovations, and are doing tremendous work to increase the sustainability of urban landscapes, without requiring that they over-tax the surrounding rural areas. They also must be teachers, writers and spokespeople, active agents of change in our culture, helping urban folks to understand that soil is not dirty, that we all bear some responsibility for supplying some of our own sustenance, without relying on simply the dollar to buy everything.

What has feedback from readers been like?

It has been from rural, urban and suburban folks, and it has come from all over the world. I am surprised by how many people have been living this life for a long time, guided by their ideals, but have felt ashamed or somewhat invisible in this culture, because they didn’t bear a “job label” that enabled them to be counted and seen as contributing members of their society. From those folks, I receive a lot of thank yous. I get letters from couples who have used the book as a way to talk about their lifestyles and true sources of happiness, and as a starting point for changing their household dynamics. That’s pretty amazing. I also get letters from folks who are Radical Homemaking in situations with even less money, and in even more improbable conditions. Those really make me smile, because they are showing me the great expanse of possibility.

Learn more about Shannon Hayes and her husband, Bob Hooper, and read online stories from readers of the book here.

-photo credit: RadicalHomemakers.com

EarthTalk: Walmart's Green Efforts Too Little Too Late

Dear EarthTalk: I heard that Walmart is having a bigger positive impact on the environment than any other U.S. institution. What are they doing along these lines? -- R. Schlansker, Beaverton, OR

Walmart has indeed been working to clean up its image in recent years, and many environmentalists are pleased with the company’s commitment to reduce its massive carbon footprint. Many, however, view the company’s initiatives with skepticism, especially considering its overall impact on communities.

What’s noteworthy on the environmental front is not so much the significant energy and emissions the company is reducing at its stores and distribution centers and in its vehicles, but the ripple effect that its new carbon-cutting policies are having on the entire supply chain. This March, Walmart CEO Mike Duke announced a new goal of eliminating 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gases from its global supply chain—the equivalent of taking more than 3.8 million cars off the road for a year—by the end of 2015.

“To find these reductions, Walmart will be asking its estimated 100,000 suppliers to cut the amount of carbon they emit when they produce, package and ship their products,” reports Dominique Browning of Environmental Defense Fund, which has been a key advisor to Walmart on green issues. Browning cites Walmart’s elimination of large laundry detergent bottles—since so much of them are water and energy-intensive to ship—in favor of concentrates sold in smaller bottles. As a result, concentrated laundry detergent is now the top seller at not only Walmart but at other stores, too. Walmart also convinced CD, DVD and video game makers to make their cases lighter to reduce transport carbon emissions, and they helped energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulb sales by spurring makers to refine their designs.

Many environmental and community advocates, however, consider Walmart’s pro-green efforts as too little too late or insignificant in relation to the company’s larger impact. Walmart Watch, a nonprofit group run by the Center for Community and Corporate Ethics, says the company has paid numerous fines over the last decade for violating air and water pollution rules, and that’s its green initiatives will easily be erased by its sheer growth which will mean more energy usage, more delivery truck trips and even more miles driven by consumers to get to Walmart stores that displaced smaller, more local ones.

Wake-Up Walmart, a project of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, says the company—which employs two million people in its 7,000+ stores—is also no friend to employees. Its average wage, says the group, is six percent below the Federal poverty level for a family of four and its move into urban areas, aside from destroying small businesses, often depresses other nearby wages where similar jobs otherwise pay as much as 18 percent more than Walmart. Further, says Wake-Up Walmart, the company pays $5,000 less yearly to full-time female employees than male ones, and its health plan is so poor that it forces many employees to rely on publicly assisted healthcare, at taxpayer expense.

Walmart Watch says the company has also been fiercely anti-union: “Labor law violations range from illegally firing workers who attempt to organize…to unlawful surveillance, threats and intimidation of associates who dare to speak out.” Meanwhile, Walmart made a $14.3 billion profit in 2009, and its CEO earned $12.2 million in 2008, 587 times the annual income of an average full-time Walmart associate.

CONTACTS: Walmart, www.walmart.com, Environmental Defense Fund, www.edf.org; Walmart Watch, www.walmartwatch.com; Wake-Up Walmart, www.wakeupwalmart.com. 

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk®, c/o E – The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; [email protected]. E is a nonprofit publication. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe; Request a Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

-photo credit: Colin, courtesy Flickr

At the 2010 Chicago Swap-O-Rama-Rama

A second successful Swap O Rama Rama ran this weekend at Chicago Waldorf School in the city's Rogers Park neighborhood and drew participants of all ages. The 3-day DIY workshop series and clothing swap included several creative stations featuring activities using recycled and repurposed fashion and textiles, including knitting, sewing stations, recycled legwarmers, ipod cozies, batik, fabric painting, tie dye, embroidery and beading. A repurposed fashion show kicked off the event Friday night. 

 

 

 

 

Read more about the history of Swap-O-Rama-Rama and the anticonsumerism credo (created by Wendy Tremayne) that started the movement.

What If You Could Only See Good Ads Online?

As regular readers of Green Parent Chicago know, we support a less commercialized childhood, favor a return to the outdoors and often feature discussion on pervasive marketing tactics invading our everyday life and destroying our connection to the natural world.

At Green Parent Chicago,we made the decision to only feature businesses that offer ethical alternatives to the multitude of products filling our homes and the earth's landfills with waste, products that support efforts to help level the playing field for workers and the environment.

Recently, DoGood Headquarters contacted us about their new DoGooder browser plug-in that helps people take positive action. We were naturally excited by the prospect of it.

Founded by Faisal M. Sethi and based in Ottawa, the company's free plug-in lets web users turn their browsing into donations that support green initiatives and social change. Sethi says the company plans to donate 50 percent of profits to charitable organizations.

I installed the plug in on my own browser and have been using it for the past week.

Here is how it works:

When a web page loads, any of the standard advertising on that page is hidden by the DoGooder plug-in with calls for philanthropic action, health and wellness ideas and thoughtful green related initiatives. (See an example in the image above.)

There's always the option on any web page to view the original ads by right-clicking and selecting "show original ads", selecting "allow website to ignore DoGood" or by just temporarily disabling the plug-in during a browser session. A number at the bottom of your browser logs how many "good" things you've seen while online.

What's the experience like? For starters, instead of viewing glaring flash ads for the latest ABC primetime cop drama (I don't even own a TV) or the newest Walmart holiday sale, I was greeted by positive words that offered inspiration, action and information on solutions. Quite easily, I had been given back more control over my browsing experience. Several questions soon popped into my mind, so  I posed them to Sethi about DoGood and his company's mission:

How do you earn money to donate? I am assuming you sell advertising space with DoGood. Which in turn is donated to charities?

Sethi: "We earn money based on ads, yes, but ads we hope actually have some social value. Eventually, we will be integrating more Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability advertising, more charitable causes, more green oriented companies, et al. From revenue generated from said ads, we will give back 50% of our profits to causes and charities."

The number on the bottom of my browser (Goodie Points), is that mostly for my own satisfaction? The number of Good things I have seen. Does it correlate to any of your statistics or data on use of the plug in?

Sethi: Yes, the number at the bottom right is there to make you "feel good", but it also does correlate on some level to the amount of funds an individual is generating for revenue back to causes. The more Goodie Points you see, the more money you as an individual are raising. We are working on integrating a system that is more definitive, that is, you have donated "x" amount by surfing the web today, and together, all DoGooder have donated "x" amount.

How is feedback? Positive? What's the most negative assumption you've heard about the DoGooder?

Sethi: "Overwhelmingly positive. It has been outstanding. Not only do end users have control over what, when, and where they see online advertising, people are generally excited about being able to give back to causes without changing a single thing about their daily routines.

I have gotten some really interesting feedback from a few parents that also view the DoGooder has a way to educate their kids, and keep them away from all of the generic, and often offensive online advertising prevalent on the internet. 

The most negative thing we have encountered thus far is the notion that we block ads, and thus, are effecting general publishers bottom lines. I've replied to this fallacy a few times over, so if you have questions, kindly read our Publishers Note on our web site. We aren't in the business of shafting people, we are in the business of doing good."

Though the DoGooder is still in beta, the company boasts that they've had over 1500 downloads so far. If the plug-in becomes widely popular, here's hoping DoGood Headquarters will provide a transparent way for users to monitor where profits are being donated to and an updated list of organizations receiving funds.

For more information, or to download and try the DoGooder plug-in visit: http://dogoodhq.com/

-Christine

International Day of Climate Action: Chicago Groups To Rally Saturday at Fisk Coal Plant

Over 25 environmental groups will rally Saturday at Fisk Coal Plant to demand strong domestic and international policy action from President Obama as he sets forth to join international climate talks in Copenhagen.

The rally, in solidarity with International Day of Climate Action held worldwide, will take place at 1 p.m. near the Fisk coal plant at Dvorak Park in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood at 1111 W. Cermak Rd.

Organizers say the single biggest source of global warming pollution and air pollution in Chicago is Midwest Generation's Fisk and Crawford coal fired power plants. Midwest Generation is currently being sued by the EPA for violating the clean air act while operating these and 4 other sites within Illinois.

Saturday's rally will include guest speakers Executive Director of Greenpeace Phil Radford and 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore and music and activists representing youth and families from the communities of Pilsen and Little Village.

Activities and educational demonstrations planned for the rally include:
-The Rolling Sunlight, a solar-paneled truck to power the stage
-Solar panels to warm up coffee and hot chocolate for everyone
-Mock Wind turbines
-Energy Election ballots where you can vote for clean energy or dirty coal
-Face of Climate Change art display: those attending the rally may bring a photo of someone effected by climate change to add to the display (ex. kids, grandkids, friends, community members etc.)

To read more about the environmental cost of coal fired plants in Chicago and Illinois see: http://lvejo.org/coalpower.htm

Turn Off Your TV and Turn On Your Imagination

TV Turn Off Week is a twice yearly week long voluntary respite from television watching, an activity that in some American homes consumes "more than 151 hours of television per month -- an "all-time" high -- up from more than 145 hours during the same period the previous year," according to a recent Nielsen company report. The increased amount of tv-watching among Americans is attributed to better recording devices, the availability of more cable channels, and increased viewing of streaming internet video.

Each year, organizations and families counter this time spent watching by participating in TV Turn Off Week. Once in the spring and again in the fall, organizers and proponents of reduced screen time hope that by showing people the wide assortment of non-screen related activities available at their disposal, they will begin to break their habits of excess tv viewing. 

This year, TV Turn Off Week will be held from September 20 to 26.

What will you do with your time? What will your kids do? How will you keep them from uttering the words: "I'm bored."

First, understand that boredom should be a welcome addition to a child's life, especially if a child is already leading a busy life filled with school, homework, extracurricular activities, sports and clubs. Boredom can lead to quiet reflective time to daydream, make up games, write stories, poems, keep a journal or diary, listen to music, play music, play outdoor, bike ride, or visit with friends or family.

For adults, a tv-free week is a great time to consider doing something you always said you would do with the extra hours. Time to organize an area of your house that needs it, scrapbook those old photos, you've been meaning to get to, go on a date with your spouse or partner, schedule in an extra workout, take up a new hobby or cook a new meal from scratch. 

You'll surely save time and here's the bonus: you'll save energy from less electricity usage, too.

Find a wealth of TV free activities for kids and grown-ups to stir your imagination here.

**Don't forget to check Green Parent Chicago's Upcoming Events calendar for more tv-free, fun things to do around town that week and all throughout the month.**

-photo credit: flickr, STV033

Does This Disturb You? Docu Screening Explores Effects of Commercialism on Kids

"Consuming Kids", a new documentary by the Media Education Foundation is described as "an eye-opening account of the pervasive and pernicious effects of children’s advertising on the health and well-being of kids."

The film explores the increasingly pervasive ways corporations attempt to access the daily habits of American children hoping to shape them into lifelong consumers.

Hear what some reviewers of the film had to say:

"An outstanding film with an urgent message, Consuming Kids is remarkably researched and elegantly executed. It leaves no room for doubt that relentless marketing to children is hurting their mental and physical health. Turning a child's sandbox, filled with so much imaginative potential, into a shopping mall is a crime. It is not what children consume, but what they are directed to think and feel about themselves and their world that is really at stake."
- Chyng Sun, Ph.D. | Creator of Mickey Mouse Monopoly

"Like never before, children today are plagued by a variety of ills, from violence to hyper-sexualization to obesity to rampant materialism. Consuming Kids connects these dots, showing how these problems all relate back to corporate marketers preying on our children for profit. Watching this movie will open the eyes of everyone who cares about children to the disturbing new realities of our consumer culture."
- Tim Kasser | Associate Professor of Psychology at Knox College | Author of The High Price of Materialism

A free screening of "Consuming Kids" will be held Sunday at the Oak Park Public Library at 2:30 p.m. Organizers request those attending to RSVP as space is limited. Several other upcoming screenings in the area are listed here for those unable to attend Sunday's screening.

When "TV Turn Off Week" is Every Week

My husband and I decided to get rid of our TV when we moved to our present home last fall and since then "TV Turn Off Week" is every week in our house. Honestly, our number one catalyst was space: We didn't want the Giant Box (it wasn't a flat screen) taking up valuable space in our future living room. Over the years we've worked hard to amass (through our own collections prior to marriage, swapping with friends, or beloved library book sales) a sizeable library of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. That doesn't even include our children's book collections, which seem to be ever expanding.

Having a large library in our home is of utmost importance to us (we're both writers) and an important part of my own childhood as well. So, it was pretty much a no brainer for us: books or TV. Books won by a mile.

When we made the decision to ditch the box last October, we knew we wouldn't have TV in our home for awhile, quite possibly never again. I was fine with that, he was fine with it and it turned out the kids were fine with it too. The digital transition was eminent and our old TV would require cable or a converter to serve it's purpose anyway. We already had someone in mind who would be interested in taking it off our hands. Though, I was a bit skeptical about my husband's future inability to watch sports as often as he did, he championed the idea more than any of us.

And that's how we said goodbye to TV: on our last day at our old apt. It stood alone, in the now barren room, a giant black plastic encased hunk of metal, glass and wires. See ya.