No car today (and perhaps tomorrow?)

Today is Carfree Day, where you leave your car untouched..

It's a worldwide celebration highlighting the many problems caused by our dependence on cars, including air pollution, global warming, stress, and other issues.

According to World Carfree Network's website "Every September 22, people from around the world get together in the streets, intersections, and neighborhood blocks to remind the world that we don't have to accept our car-dominated society."

The idea of the movement is of course to challenge the concept that we cannot live without cars and encourage people to check out eco-friendly alternatives (public transpiration, walking, cycling, etc.). They also call governments to assist people who want to replace their car with greener alternatives by making these options more available and convenient.

For many people, especially those who don't live in big cities, life without a car is not an option, as there are no real other options even to get to the supermarket or a local coffee shop.

In any case, for everyone today is a good opportunity to leave the car untouched and think of the ways we can make our transpiration choices more sustainable.

To get more information about this day and what's going on today all over the world (How about having a parking meter party ?), please check out the World Carfree Network's website.

Enjoy this car free day,
Raz

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Recycling rocks in Philly!

At first I learned about it after reading a post of Sarah Schmalbach at Philly STYLE Magazine. Then I went to GreenFest Philly and saw some of the people involved in it. And now all is left to do is to get to Philly on Saturday, Sept. 29 and climb to the roof of Whole Foods on market and 10th streets. There you'll find a unique event combining activism and party - Rock & RecycleNOW.

So what is it all about? over the past 18 months RecycleNOW Philadelphia has been collecting over 12,000 signatures, lobbying for public hearings, and making sure the next mayor of Philadelphia will implement a dependable weekly curbside recycling program for everyone in the city.

Their request is simple: expand the recycling pilot projects conducted in Chestnut Hill and West Oak Lane by RecycleBank to all of the city. RecycleBank is a private company that initiated a brilliant recycling program based on an offer people cannot refuse - receive incentives to recycle more. The program rewards resident participation by each with up to $400 a year in discount shopping coupons. You recycle more, you get more coupons.

The idea was to combine attractive incentives with simplicity and comfort - residents were given a single 35 gallon container for all recyclables: glass metal and plastic food containers and all kinds of paper including Cardboard. This way it became much easier for them to recycle (check RecycleBank's demo to see how it works).

RecyleBank created a Win-Win-Win program where everybody wins: residents (more comfort, more coupons), the city (smaller amounts of garbage save the city money) and the companies providing coupons (green promotion for them). No wonder the program is a huge success and increased the percentage of recycling according to RecycleNOW Philadelphia in as much as 125 percent. But somehow, the organization says Philadelphia's city officials remain skeptical of these results and, as it has with previous successful pilots, called for more study.

And now they need your help and support. As they write on their website "Enough is enough. The Recycling Alliance of Philadelphia here calls on you and all Philadelphians to raise our collective voices and let our elected officials know in no uncertain terms: implement and expand Recycle Bank™ recycling program immediately, every week from homes and businesses in every neighborhood across the City."

I support this call as RecycleBank's model succeeded where many other models and ideas have failed and this is the reason they have spread to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York. So, it seems only logical to expand it to the rest of Philly for the benefit of both the residents and the city.

The event will feature live performances by Philly’s best local bands: The Capitol Years, The Swimmers, The Adam Monaco Band, Adam and Dave’s Bloodline, Sarsaparilla, Tough Guys Take Over.

The event will take place between 3 to 7 pm. Tickets are $15 and available at http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/fundraiser.html

So rock and recycle, show your support and come to the party!

See you there,
Raz

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

And the Emmy goes to..

Last Sunday was the night of the Emmy awards. I didn't see it, but later on I heard that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, hosts of two of my favorite TV shows (the Daily Show and the Colbert Report), presented together the winner of , joked about green stuff, from Al Gore to carbon offsetting. So, I looked for it and found it on YouTube (is there anything that doesn't get there?).

So for all of Stewart and Colbert fans who didn't see it, here it is.

Enjoy,

Raz

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

As The Wheel of Time Turns... R.I.P.: Robert Jordan

Never been good at obituaries so I'm going to let this piece from Shelf Awareness bear the brunt of it:

"Robert Jordan, the author of the Wheel of Time fantasy series, died on Sunday of the rare blood disease amyloidosis. He was 58.

Tor publisher Tom Doherty called Jordan "one of the great storytellers of the 20th and early 21st centuries; Jim's Wheel of Time is a towering epic of power and scope, he was a man of courage and heart and vision but for me, first of all, he was my friend of 30 years."

Jordan, whose given name was James Oliver Rigney Jr., taught himself to read at age four and began reading Mark Twain and Jules Verne a year later. He was a graduate of the Citadel, where he studied physics, and was a Vietnam veteran. He started writing in 1977. He wrote the Michael Fallon historical romance trilogy under the nom de plume Reagan O'Neal and seven of the Conan novels. His Wheel of Time series, which includes 11 volumes and a prequel, has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Jordan was reportedly working on an 12th volume at the time of his death. His blog is at dragonmount.com "

I've read all 11 volumes in the series, and plan to get my hands on the prequel. I discovered Jordan while living on an island with only one ok book store, and an outrageous customs policy on importing books privately. Luckily they stocked the series, and I discovered it while browsing the shelves. Throughout the better part of 2 years I always had a Wheel of Time book somewhere in my vicinity, and I am grateful of that.

Best,
Eylon @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

How Do you Say "Sustainable Reading" in Chinese?

Martin Daniels of The Booksellers Association brings us this story about an interesting business model coming all the way from Shanghai, which allows book readers to get their books for free by allowing sponsors to plant advertisings in the pages. Sounds familiar? No wonder, this is more or less the business model that keeps most of the content on the internet free, and many free magazines floating. Only this time we're talking printed books. Yep, it's time for China to teach us something about innovative business ideas, and BookGG may be just the first of many.

So how does this work? Martin Daniels explains:

"The consumer selects the book and then selects the sponsors with their placement on your book until the price of the book drops to zero. The book is then printed and posted.

For every free book, you need to have a book ticket, which you get once you have registered. You then earn further book tickets by referring new users or orders or buying into an account, which will issue new tickets every month.

Every advertising sponsor can only be selected by an individual once so promoting you to spread your sponsors and in effect find out about others. The sponsor receives all personal information.

Finally the books are printed on demand by Bookgg and contain your sponsors adverts."


So although I personally don't relish the idea of flipping through my new book while being annoyed by ads, I do believe that I would go for it to get a very expensive book I really want for half the price. And frankly I don't mind my purchases being sponsored, especially when I can choose the sponsor, and if sponsors are categorized for me with some conscious labels such as "fair-trade" and "organic".

But what most appeals to me from a Sustainable Reading point of view is the fact, that a successful venture like this in the west can also help popularize print-on-demand technology, which is apparently already quite popular in oh so unsustainable, or so they say, China.

So let's wait and see, shall we?

Best,
Eylon @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Book site of the week: Your home library

From this week on, we'll recommend you on bookish websites or blogs that we like. My first one is actually a site that is dedicated to home libraries - Your home library.

This is the a great site that gives you the opportunity to check out home libraries from all over the world. I believe you can learn a lot about people, their culture and the place they live in from their libraries. Anyway, it's always fun and interesting to take a glance at someone's house from within :-)

This site is of Kim from the Netherlands, who explains on the site that "It started off as me, wondering about your home libraries. I have always been interested in libraries, big and small. Since most of my readers have a passion for books, I am wondering what your library looks like. It does not have to be a proper library, like you see in fancy houses. It could be just a space in a room that is dedicated to your book collection. Or just the most important shelves. No matter how big or small: I would love to see it!"

So, if you want to show the whole world your lovely library, just send Kim email. She is also responsible for the interesting blog KIMBOOKTU,which is defined as "gadgets to book lovers' site.

Both sites will be the first ones to enter our list of the bookish blogs and sites we like on the right side of the blog.

Enjoy your library and have a bookish weekend,

Raz

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

p.s. on the picture here, we can see Maggie's library from the site.

A little bit skeptic about the skeptical environmentalist

This was the week of Dr. Bjorn Lomborg. An article on the New York Times (‘Feel Good’ vs. ‘Do Good’ on Climate) and an appearnce on the Colbert Report. All of this because of a new book he wrote "Cool it - The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide To Global Warming".

The book, according to his website, is "a groundbreaking book that transforms the debate about global warming by offering a fresh perspective based on human needs as well as environmental concerns." Dr. Lomborg does not deny global warming. He just don't think it's the most urgent issue and also think we put too much money in the wrong solutions (Kyoto protocols for example). Besides his criticism on the current approach to global warming and its expected results, he thinks we should first focus on more immediate threats such as malaria, AIDS, polluted drinking water and malnutrition.

I understand and agree with some of its criticism on the Kyoto protocols, but I definitely don't agree with the idea that the focus on global warming prevents us from dealing with other urgent issues. These issues (malaria, polluted drinking water, etc.) were critical before anyone started talking about global warming. The lack of success in resolving these issues are caused by the same main problem that brought on us global warming - the illnesses of the modern world. Maybe fixing these illnesses can help us solve all of these threats all together.. how we do it? well, that's a discussion for another post in ther near future :-)

Anyway, it's always interesting to read new ideas, so check out his book, and of course his appearance at the Colbert Report, one of my favorite shows!




Raz

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!