So the next entry I was going to write, before the astonishing stupidity and arrogance of Caltrain distracted me, was about an interesting conversation I had with a friend the other night at a (terrific) party. I was chatting with him about vegetarianism and mentioned (as I do frequently here) that my primary concerns are the concerns of humane treatment and environmental impact. He said that he thinks those are valid points, but that my individual decision to be vegetarian doesn't have enough impact to change those things -- it has to come from above; there has to be leadership.

Coincidentally, I recently read a similar contention in a column by Thomas Friedman. Friedman's point was about environmental impacts in general, another subject dear to my heart. He talked about one person buying a Prius, versus a some people high up who got in meetings with New York's taxi organizations to start converting the taxi fleet to hybrids (mostly not Priuses -- SUVs -- which is a bit unfortunate but perhaps more practical from a taxi standpoint).

I certainly agree with the point that change is almost always going to happen faster and be more effective when it's promoted at a high level, and that for things that are ingrained habits for most people, and seem kind of minor (like what they eat and what kind of bags they get at the supermarket), it's very hard to effect massive change on a grass-roots level only.

However, there are two counter-contentions that I would make about why it's essential for all of us to act on our personal ethical beliefs.

The first one could, with rhetorical flourish, be called the Argument From Hypocrisy. With less flourish, we could call the the Argument From Moral Consistency. If I think everyone should eat only animals who are raised humanely and sustainably (and vegetables raised sustainably), then it's ridiculous if I go around telling other people I think they should do it, or setting up laws to promote it, while not doing it myself, even if I say I'm going to start doing it as soon as there are laws or other people are doing it. I don't think this argument needs to be elaborated much. To have any moral standing, I have to be acting out my own ethical standards to at least a high percentage. If I'm preaching and not practicing, what I say rightly has very little weight.

The second one I would call the Argument From Demonstrated Opportunity. If no one is trying to eat sustainably raised animals or produce, then going to Cargill or ADM or whoever and saying "Geez, we think you should raise your chickens/corn/etc sustainably", they'll laugh and say "But look, everyone is buying our corn. No one cares about that, they're happy with what they have." The fact that not everyone is buying their corn or chickens lends weight to the concept that they should change their practices. The same would be true if you go to Congress and say "You should make a law about this". If no one is doing it, they'll say "But no one does this. No one cares." Whereas, if you go to Congress in our world today, you can point to the many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people who are vegetarian or eat only sustainably raised meat, who buy organic produce, who go to farmer's markets. You can say "You should encourage this." It also kills the argument "It's impossible to do this and make money" or just "It's impossible to do this" period.

The same is true for the New York hybrid taxis. What would have happened if no one had bought a Prius, as Friedman is basically recommending (because it doesn't make a difference, right)? That's easy. Hybrids would have been declared a business failure, something no one wanted, and there would never have been an opportunity to even discuss using hybrids in the New York taxi fleet. Therefore, those who decided to buy Priuses to satisfy their personal desires actually did make a difference: they made it possible to discuss implemented hybrids on a wide scale.

And it applies to almost any issue: if no one rode bikes on the roads, we would have nobody to point to when we ask for more bike accommodations (indeed, it would seem clear that we didn't need more). If no one doesn't have a car, if no one actually uses public transit to get around, then we have no one to point to when we ask for better transit. In fact, one of the hardest things to make happen in the transit world is a new route or a new allowance (like bikes on Caltrain). Because it's currently nonexistent or prohibited, there's no direct evidence that it's needed, and so usually (since these things cost money) it's assumed that it isn't needed. There is latent demand for such things, but latent demand has to get very strong and very vocal to be as powerful as demonstrated demand that we create by our own actions. Latent demand is calculated every time a new product is launched or a company is started -- but trying to find latent demand is risky. It's much easier if there's a clear need for a product or service, and we create that proven need for services we desire if we act on our beliefs.

Change has to come from the ground up, as well as the top down. In fact, I would bet that almost all top-down change ultimately originates at the ground level. That's why we write letters to (and lobby) our Congressional representatives. That's why Leo made all the West Wing staffers listen to the fringe people for one day a year. We all have an obligation to do what we can, and tell others what we believe, or most top-down change will never even get started.

I received my cloth bags and Klean Kanteen a few weeks ago. I really love the cloth bags. They can be easily washed and dried (machine gentle cold wash or by hand, drip dry), are soft, hold a lot, are sturdy and don't rip, and are for some reason more likely to be remembered by me when I need them, where the plastic bags weren't.

I like the Klean Kanteen too. It's large and the water tastes clean for several days, though it does gradually get stale. The sports top with extra attached cap doesn't leak and is pretty easy to drink from. However, I do need to buy a new water bottle cage that's coated metal or plastic so I don't get the metal-scraping-on-metal effect, which didn't occur to me before.

And the EvertFresh bags have been keeping a pair of parsnips fresh for a month now. They REALLY WORK. It's amazing.

So, ReusableBags.com FTW.

Writing about something in public can be so motivating! Today I ordered a bunch of cotton bags and a few Evert-Fresh bags from ReusableBags.com, along with a Klean Kanteen. I'm generally a user of reusable bottles already, but there's been a lot going around about Bisphenol A. I'm not generally into getting too worried about that sort of thing, but it's a pollutant as well as a potential endocrine disruptor, so I thought I'd try out the steel bottles, anyway. I shun bottled water generally, since it's bad for the environment and we have extremely safe drinking water here, which, if not tasty, can be filtered at the source.

On plastic bags, one factoid that I love but often forget is that after Ireland introducted a 15-eurocent charge for plasic bags, use dropped 90%. That's a huge amount! Plastic bags are already imposing that cost on the world (and probably more); being asked to actually pony up for some of the cost can dramatically change people's behavior. I wish they would do that here. Offering a bag credit is not nearly as visual as charging for bags, even though it has the same effect, and the bag credits are usually only 5-10 cents, which is a little low.

Also, I found this neat little Walk Score app from the Carfree mailing list. It tells you an approximation of how walkable your neighborhood is based on what services are within reach. My home address scores 65 and my work address scores 52. Interestingly, both are in the "good, but some routine errands still require a bike" range. This really is a good case study showing the limitations of their algorithm. Because of the lack of interconnections between streets, large throughways, and streets lacking sidewalks in the area of my work, it's much less friendly than home for walking around. Still, it does show that it's not so bad -- there are parks, coffee shops, restaurants, and grocery stores nearby. (Yet somehow the majority of my work colleagues drive to get lunch...)

The scores also show some funny categories for places. A church is listed under "library", and "H&R Block" is listed under "Schools". (I guess they offer classes?)

It's also interesting to me that while Menlo Park downtown is rated 100, I'm still only rated 65. Considering the trip to downtown takes me only 10 minutes by foot, I can easily take full advantage of downtown amenities, so I think the score for my address should be higher. (Plus, I'm in walking distance of Palo Alto downtown from where I am too.)

Anyway, it's cool to check out areas that way. It's something I thought about a lot in deciding where I wanted to live, and I think it's something that I think is really worth thinking about. I hear a lot of people say that they can't use transit to get to work, and sometimes that has to do with where work is, but often it has to do with where home is, which is something we do have a lot of control over.

I've been thinking lately about a goal I wish I had put on my 101: think about and implement ways to reduce my consumption of resources. Most notably, what I keep thinking about is how much I throw away, and how society seems to be organized so that everything comes with too much packaging and is meant to be disposable.

I already try to reduce my use of plastic and paper bags from the grocery store, so that's one area where I'm doing well. I also buy in bulk a lot (saves cans and plastic packaging), and re-use containers. I make my lunch instead of buying it in a container or package. (Speaking of which, Mr. Bento made the Cool Tools blog! Mine is still going strong almost a year after I bought it, with only slight cosmetic nicks, and is my constant lunch companion, so I wholly agree that it is a cool tool.) But I still throw a lot of stuff away and when I do think it through, I often realize that I could avoid disposing of the thing by choosing to do something different, though in many cases it would be significant departure from 'normal' behavior.

Plastic vegetable bags or containers are a good example. I do use a lot fewer of these than most people because I try not to get them every time I go to the store or farmer's market, and I try to dry and reuse them and remember to bring the ones I already have when I'm shopping. But I often fail to remember to bring them, and furthermore, eventually the bags get nasty and can't be re-used anymore, and I throw them away. I've looked into cloth vegetable/staple bags (like these or these) and I know they're the answer, but I haven't bought any yet. (These look good too, considering that throwing away food because I don't get to it in time is also wasteful!) And I'm still stymied on what to do about flour. It would just sift out of the cloth bags, but I've never tried to buy it in a container at Rainbow because I don't know how they would weigh it. Apparently it is allowed, because you get a 5-cent credit for bringing recycled bags or containers. (Rainbow FTW also for using "poring" correctly.)

Aside from bags, there's also the containers that I end up picking up, mostly at Trader Joe's. The obvious answer to this is "Don't buy vegetables from Trader Joe's." Which is pretty good as an idea, but then it's Saturday and I suddenly realize I need parsely to make tabbouleh for ariiadne's party, or it's Wednesday and I realize that I don't have enough carrots to make two cups of grated carrots for work's carrot cake birthday treat. Apparently the answer to this is "Plan better." Sigh. But that's hard!

There are a lot of things besides that. Like using rags instead of paper towels to clean up messes. I try to do that but sometimes the mess is really icky, and I don't like to waste laundry space laundering rags either, because our washer and dryer suck. There's turning things off when I'm not using them (which I fail to do with the computer and often lights), getting a dish tub or sink plug wide enough to plug up my disposal to wash dishes so that I don't waste so much water while washing dishes (a serious matter since water reserves are low here). Instead of accumulating or throwing away bread bags, I could make my own bread. And so on.

I already do a lot of major resource conserving things, notably not owning a car, not eating meat or much in the way of animal products, trying to eat local where feasible, using reusable containers, and reusing and recycling containers and packaging. And other big ones I'm not going to do anytime soon, like not having a single-person household. So sometimes I do wonder if it's worthwhile to work on these other things which are something of a drop in the bucket. But I think it's always worthwhile to take a stab at it. After all, if we all save a drop in the bucket every day, then every day we collectively save a bucket!

Good news first: On Monday morning, walking to work, I picked up the head of a red rose (no stem) from the sidewalk. It was a little damaged and dried out, but still beautiful. I couldn't just leave it lying there. I picked it up and cradled it in my hand for the rest of the journey to work. When I got there, I snipped off a little bit of the bottom stem stub and put it in a bowl filled with water. It seemed to recover a bit and has been decorating my desk for the last three days. Today it's starting to wilt, but I've enjoyed it a great deal. And all this from an abandoned rose blossom.

Bad news: Wheat blight. Via Tigers&Strawberries, and as usual Barbara said it better than I ever could.

On a related note, M and I trekked to San Francisco last night to see Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea. It was well worth seeing and is another testament to the amount of critical environmental insanity (and maybe general insanity, considering some of the people in the doc!) going on right now.