I didn't need those lungs ANYWAY

Hey there,

Until I started getting sick and tired of sitting in rush hour traffic, I loved to drive. Of course I also loved to breathe. In fact, I was going to write this post on yet another reason I love Hybrids and other Fuel Efficient cars – new designated rockstar parking spots, according to AutoblogGreen.

But then as I started doing my research, I started finding scary sorts of numbers on what exactly is going on when I'm sitting in traffic:

• In slow moving traffic, pollution levels are 2 or 3 times higher inside the car than outside
• 10 times more polluted than even the typical dirty outdoor air in the Los Angeles area
• The fumes found inside the cars have been linked to a variety of respiratory problems, including allergies, asthma, and lung cancer
• Studies have shown that [for heart patients] exposure to [the stress of] road traffic can trigger heart attacks and that air pollution increases the risk for cardiac death.

And it isn't just sexy, savy adults like you and me that are affected! Anyone here EVER want to have kids??

• A study of pregnant women in four Pennsylvania counties found an increased risk of preterm births linked to chronic exposure to high levels of air pollution during the last six weeks of pregnancy.
• A study of three low-income neighborhoods in New York City found that infants born to nonsmoking mothers faced a possible increased risk of cancer from living in areas with elevated urban area air pollutants.
• A third study in the Czech Republic found evidence that the mother’s exposure to air pollution may even alter the immune systems of the fetus.

Guys, this hot chick doesn't just need you be the hottie in seat 61 because I want to save the planet and meet a smart fellow like you.. I'd like us both to be able to breathe when we DO meet!

Gas masks, anyone?

xoxo
Moxie

Sources:
This is not my...: http://www.thisisnotmy.co.uk/Facts.php
Traffic Documentary: http://www.trafficdocumentary.com/index.php?id=45&tx_ttnews[cat]=17&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=81&tx_ttnews[backPid]=13&cHash=c59ca24109
American Lung Association: http://lungaction.org/reports/sota07_heffects_childrenshealth.html
WebMD: http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20080908/heart-patients-bypass-traffic-pollution

Grassfed Greenie

Hiya,

I'll be honest. Sometimes I just need a steak. It is that simple. Blame it on the moon, blame it on all the exercise, whatever. But when the bike rubber hits the road, sometimes I want meat. I mean, switching my lights to florescent, using canvas bags, biking more.. all start to become normal everyday things and (like Avida mentioned in her New Year's post) taking them one at a time makes it easier. So what about those nights when I'm craving a nice steak and a hot stud to help me grill it?

Thanks to my friends at Live Earth Farms, I found a way to make my meat moments healthier for the planet and me: grass farming. Not to be mistaken for the farming of certain *ahem* plants.. grass farming is a more environmentally sound way of going about things; with pasture land for the animals instead the manure pits and lagoons of feed lots! Even some sexy farmers have hopped up their awareness; if we're going to eat meat, switching to grass farming is another immediate and effective solution towards saving our planet. It increases topsoil holding onto carbon emissions while creating fertile land, it also decreases the literal crap lying around and turning into even more pollution! Joel Salatin (who was made famous by Michael Pollan's The Omnivore’s Dilemma ) points out that 70% of all of the grain grown in the U.S. goes through feedlot cows (cows NOT grassfed). That means we have 70% more pollution from trucking and shipping grain, and additional land that that isn't being used as pasture or more environmentally friendly purposes!

That isn't even the health aspects of things: University of Missouri, Columbia found that the meat is leaner as well. But it isn't just the University's findings, Eat Wild just happens to spell it out healthwise:

• Switching to lean grassfed beef will save you 17,733 calories a year

• Meat from grass-fed animals have 2-4 times more omega-3 fatty acids -- that means you are 50 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack and less likely to suffer from depression, schizophrenia, ADD, or Alzheimer's disease.

• Meat and dairy products from grass-fed ruminants are the richest known source of CLA. Why should you care about CLA? Oh... CLA may only be one of our most potent defenses against cancer.

So if you're one of those hotties occasionally needing that meat treat, cut the feed lot crap and support local grassfeeding farmers. Open a bottle of red wine and check out Eat Wild's directory while we work towards a more vegetarian diet with the local Farmer's Market produce I got!

Keep green sexy!

xoxo

Moxie

Hot for CSA

Hi there!

I love Community Supported Agriculture. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I know what you're thinking: Where are those pictures of Moxie in a pair of Daisey Dukes? No.. wait, what is it, you ask?

Well, a Community Supported Agriculture program (or CSA) is the hottest thing in a box since the compact fluorescent light bulb. OK, technically it is a locally owned and operated farm that hotties like you and I buy shares of the goodies from. They then send us a box of all the lush treasures of the season. Some CSAs, like my Bay Area favorite Live Earth Farm, even have egg and bread options along with their shares. When I went home for the holidays, my folks cooked up some of Live Earth's veggies and the food were amazing.

Now, we all know that smart, green guy who knows how to cook is a hero to any hot chick, so the best part, besides the sustainable food itself? The newsletter we got from them with great recipes! I'm voting we make Ms. Debbie one of the Hot Chix, especially for her genius in the kitchen! She knows food and the recipes are simple enough even for me! She gives suggestions for what to do with the box's bounty and the website even lists recipes by key ingredient. Everything I tried was WONDERFUL and I know I'm going to have to do a little more biking around here to make up for those seconds!

Now, I'm going to warm myself with another hot buttered rum, and plot how to find my local CSA at home. Maybe sign myself up for the larger share and make it a party at Moxie's place when the box comes in... Yum!

Slumber party, anyone? We'll play “keeping warm, sustainably..”

xoxo

Moxie

The Lightning Temple; Studying Science and Sustainability

Hey Sparks,

OK, I'm not going to say something like “you light up my life,” but you certainly light me up when I hear exciting ways we can have fun, save our planet, AND thereby save ourselves. That is why I'm juiced over the most recent thing to lighting me up: Amoration's Lightning Temple.

To quote their site: “ The Lightning Temple is a 45' tall interactive art installation and touring stage which incorporates electricity, and theatre...using a nest of audio modulated Tesla coils in the place of traditional speakers.”

I was scoping their volunteer meeting and listening to what their goals are. I have to say: They're are Hot. They're sexy. They're building and touring a 45' structure that has the goal of having a practically non-existent carbon footprint. It will teach people about the future of sustainable, green technology and put the Sexy back in Science. To keep it fun and interesting? It will also have DJs, fire and lightning spinners, video, sound, dancers, and interactive stations. Put it all together and Lightning Temple will show people how a combination of solar power, Tesla coils, and wireless technology* can eventually replace extension cords and gas fumes -- for a whole lot more fun!

God, I knew green geeks were sexy, but these guys take it to a whole new level! Hey, I wonder if they'll let us do a Hot Chix shoot on the Temple... Hot Chix Dig Tesla?

Zap!

xoxo

Moxie

P.S. Oh, and because they're completely non-profit, any donations are tax deductible!

* the link is to a video where someone demonstrates with an LED the possibility to power the light, using receiver and a Tesla coil. These guys are going to do the same thing, on a bigger scale! Bye-bye extension cord mazes!

What do hot baths and MIT students have in common?

Hey Sexy,

What do hot baths and MIT grad students have in common?

I love them both. Honestly. There's nothing like immersing myself in deliciously hot water while a sexy, smart fellow talks to me about saving this little blue planet I call home.

But, unlike knowing when to turn that hot water faucet off, 84% of my MIT grads* underestimated how much governments need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to balance the environment! That's like not knowing when to stop all that water from overflowing and sinking us all!

Instead of all the parts per million mathematics, try Bryan Walsh's Bathtub Analogy:

If you're going to help me run me a nice hot bath, you wouldn't fill it any more than the bathtub could hold OR faster than the overflow could handle, right? The problem with carbon emissions is that they build up over time. What we release into the environment continues to heat the globe for many years afterwards. So we can't just "stabilize" our emissions at their current level - we must drastically reduce them. If MIT grads that are studying science and the environment don't get this, how do we expect our politicians to?

We need to work from the bottom and the top. So help save me AND the world with a grass-roots, environmental campaign, and make sure to call your elected officials too! Here are some other easy and fun ideas some hot guys have floated my way:

l Shopping at local thrift stores (save money AND the planet!)

l Turning decorative gardens into food producing gardens (I can stop and smell the roses... and the snap pea blooms, and the cherry blossoms..)

l ..and if you can, Take the Stairs! (giving you a nice butt for us to admire AND saving the energy of an elevator!)

So I'm going to go conserve a little water by finding a friend to shower with.... but in the meantime, keep those ideas coming to us, and please help.. a little now makes a big difference down the road!

All yours,

Moxie

* OK, they're not technically my MIT Grads... they're really John Sterman's. He happens to be a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Sloan School of Management, who popped the question to 212 MIT grad students with training in science, technology, mathematics and economics. (Time Magazine, article by Bryan Walsh, Oct. 28, 2008)

Happy New Year!

Did you have a smashingly green New Year? Carpool to Breakfast of Champions?

We did it casual style here at the Hot Chix house... a few ladies, some chocolate lava cakes, can't go wrong with that, eh?



Speaking of can't go wrong, take a look at those new year's resolutions. Did you stick something green in there?

It doesn't matter what aspect of your life you decide to tackle first. Make those Resolutions manageable! If you're picking a new "green" plan - go for something you can do incrementally and long term. Instead of "I'm going to bike everywhere always!" pick one trip a day that you're going to do by bike instead of car. Or maybe sub in one vegan meal a day. Or plan to manage a specific electrical usage better (turn those lights off!). Make sure you write down your plan and post it somewhere you can see. Even better tell your friends and family what you are planning so they can help you meet your goals.

We all love to take on the world, but if you manage your enthusiasm it will last a lot longer, and we all like that!

Keep it real,
XOXO,
Avida

Putting the pieces together

I like the Japanese government. They're ability to even make climate change cute is quite charming:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/japanese-government-animation-explains-global-food-security.php

I especially dig on the way they put all the pieces together. It's not just about the economic import / export disparity, or the health impact, or the "food security" issue, or the support of local business, or climate change, the choices that consumes make affect *all* of these things.

That's the kind of systemic thinking that will lead to real change.
Good job, Japanese governmental animators,
XOXO,

Avida