The first green assassin!

Our friends at Do the Green Thing always surprise us with great green stuff, combining wit and a great sense of humor.

This time we're talking about sustainable food or if to be precise why you should consume vegetables when they are in the season (hint: it's not only the better taste..).

Here is some more info on this video from Do the Green Thing's website:

The story of a man with a gun and a mission - to eliminate all instances of unseasonal vegetable consumption.

Written and directed by the brilliant Michael 'Watercress' Wright and starring the magnificent Daniel 'Legume' Lapaine with deft editing by Simon 'Water Celery' Wilcox and a purringly perfect soundtrack by Michael 'Mango' Mertens. Produced by the kind people at Mustard in association with the equally kind people at Eat Seasonably. Huge thanks to all.

Enjoy the video!



Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Happy Holidays (and an advice on what to do with your holiday cards)

It's the festive season now and we would like to wish you all happy, peaceful, enjoyable and of course green holidays!

It's also an opportunity to remind you that if you look for tips and ideas how to green your holidays, you should check the great website of our friends Lynn and Corey of Celebrate Green! - http://www.celebrategreen.net/

And if you're one of those who already got many holiday cards (you've got a lot of friends..) and don't really know what to do with them other than just throwing them to the recycled paper bin, here's a video that might be helpful, especially if you're looking for something creative to do with your children (source: Do The Green Thing):



Best wishes,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Do the Seven Green Things!

We're following Do the Green Thing for a while and update you every month with their monthly Green Thing, which is always presented and explained in a fun and interesting way.

After their first year, which was very successful reaching over 2.1 million people from 171 countries worldwide and helping save in excess of 3.4m KGs of CO2, the Green Thing team has just launched a completely redesigned site.

It's not only a design, it's also a shift in the focus - from monthly green recommendation aimed to inspire people to go green, they shifted to to focus on seven green things you can do - and enjoy doing. These things include as you can see prior monthly recommendations, as following (from their website):

1. You get from A to B without any C when you Walk The Walk
2. It’s delicious but it causes more CO2 than cars so go Easy On The Meat
3. Resist the urge to buy the latest and Stick With What You Got
4. Turn down the central heating and turn up the Human Heat
5. The art of wasting nothing and using up everything: All-Consuming
6. Instead of jetting your way around the world, Stay Grounded
7. Don’t leave it on or even put it on, Plug Out



this video is designed by Andrew Rae of Monkey Dust fame, illustrated by Tom Baker and voiced over by Aaron Willmer).

As always you're welcome to explore their great website - http://www.dothegreenthing.com and do the Green Thing!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Do the green thing on September: Walk the Walk

Every month we update you on the monthly green recommendation of our friends at 'Do The Green Thing'. This month they ask you a simple request: Walk the Walk.

And they explain:

If we all drove a little less and walked a little more, the world would be a lot nicer place to live.

Powered by your legs and a hearty breakfast, walking burns no fossil fuel and causes no CO2 emissions but still gets you from A to B. Slower? Well, sometimes. In a better state of mind? Nearly always.

So walk the walk instead of driving the drive. It’s much better for the environment, and as an added bonus will help you burn off any excess donuts/glasses of wine/Cornish pasties you might have consumed.

Need more reasons to leave your car in parking and start moving your feet? check out this page http://www.dothegreenthing.com/green_actions/walk_once/why, as well as this video clip:

Enjoy your walk!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Do the Green Thing on July: turn off those sucking machines

Welcome to The Machine. Every month we update you on the monthly green recommendation of our friends at 'Do The Green Thing'. This month they ask you to turn off those sucking machines.

What does it mean and what machines exactly we're talking about? The Green Thing team explain:

"This month we’re wrestling back the power. You see, we’ve slowly let machines take over – and not even big, scary machines like The Terminator or the Daleks. No, the ones that sit in the corner of our rooms looking all fun and innocent and labour-saving whilst secretly guzzling electricity like there’s no tomorrow.

Because unless you turn them off once you’re finished, they carry on sucking on the teat of your household power supply like needy greedy babies.So this month, let’s regain control of our electricity bills by terminating our X-boxes, tellies and hair straighteners when we’re done with them.And once you’ve spent one day shutting down every Sucking Machine you’re not using and snuffing out every light you don’t need, come back and click DONE IT so we can count up all the CO2 you’ve saved. Machines Suck. Don’t let them."

And if you want to see how you can suck them back, check this video clip, called 'The Riddle of the Noodle':



Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Do The Green Thing on June - recycle so it will be reborn!

Every month we update you on the monthly green recommendation of our friends at 'Do The Green Thing'. This month they offer you to do the recycled/reborn thing.

What does it mean? The Green Thing team ask you to recycle everything you possibly can for one day this month and they explain:

"When you chuck something away, you’re effectively slamming the door in its face, calling its mother something unpleasant and saying you never want to see it again. But the thing is, you will see it again - and rather than being something useful like before, this time it’ll be something noxious. Maybe it’ll have turned into a greenhouse gas after decomposing in a landfill site – or perhaps it’ll come back as acid rain after being incinerated.

Either way, you’ve killed it before its time and it will haunt you like some kind of vengeful, pollution-spewing poltergeist. Which is why this month’s Green Thing is to recycle everything you possibly can for one day. Make sure your rubbish ends up Reborn as something new and beautiful instead of trashing our environment."

Here's someone who is doing it quite often - Jesse Hackett aka Elmore Judd goes to a recycling centre, picks up some random bits of metal and wood, uses them to make some amazing instruments and then uses them to make some amazing music. Filmed by the talented, willing and helpful people at Firecracker Films (www.myspace.com/elmorejudd, http://www.firecrackerfilms.com/)


Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Do the green thing - stick with what you've got!

Every month we update you on the monthly green recommendation of our friends at 'Do The Green Thing'. This month they offer you to stick with what you've got.

What does it actually mean? here's their explanation: We're all guilty of buying things we crave but don't really need. And so this month, Green Thing asks you to Stick With What You Got.

Buying too much stuff puts an insane strain on the environment. It's a waste of the raw materials used to make them as well as the fossil fuels used to produce and transport them. And with peer pressure and ad pressure telling us we're inadequate until we get the latest thing, it puts a strain on our happiness too.

Looking for an example? you got one:



(And btw, we like both Mickey Rourke and Yael Naim..)

I would like to add that if you really need to buy something, just buy wisely and look for the best way to make your purchase as eco-friendly as possible.

Yours,
Raz @Eco-Libris

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

Take a short sharp shower on April

After asking to eat less meat on March, Do The Green Thing gets into the bathroom and ask us to take a short sharp shower on April.

What's the big deal with long showers? They explain: The planet’s supply of water is running out and showers use bucket-loads of it. They also use a lot of energy turning cold H2O into nice, hot H2O. So by trimming just a few minutes off your showering time, you’ll use less water and save CO2 whilst getting rid of your BO(2). If everyone in the UK cut their showering time in half, we’d save 3.6 billion litres every single day.

So take some short, sharp showers this month and save some precious water. But don't forget to get clean while getting green :-)

And of course, the recommendation comes with cool videos, like this one - Tom William's Short Sharp Shower Deck.


Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree with Eco-Libris!

Go easy on the meat this month!

Did we mention we're fans of Do The Green Thing? Yes, we are! And like we do every month in the last couple of months, we're happy to bring you their green message for March: go easy on the meat!

No, they don't preach you to go veggie. They just want you to eat a little bit less meat this month. If you ask yourself why, they're happy to explain:

Now, meat may be tasty – in fact, it’s downright delicious, especially in pie format. But unfortunately it’s also responsible for massive emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

The way cows, pigs, sheep and even chickens are reared (no sniggering) uses lots of fossil fuels, creating lots of CO2. Farm animals also have a nasty habit of producing vast quantities of methane, as you’ll know if you’ve ever picnicked downwind of a cowherd.

A recent UN report found that meat production was among the top 3 creators of greenhouse gases (including methane which is 23 times more harmful than CO2). It’s responsible for 18% of global emissions, more than the entire world transportation industry.

To produce just 1kg of beef, enough for a spag bol for you and 5 friends, creates a whopping 34.6kg of CO2. It’s enough to make you choke on your chops.

Livestock agriculture is also a major cause of deforestation and soil erosion, as well as being a huge drain on our water supplies. To produce that kilo of beef for your spag bol takes an eye-popping 15,000 litres of water, much more than you need to produce a kilo of cereals. Added to all that is the fact that farm animals, particularly cows, are a windy bunch. They’re responsible for 37% of global methane emissions, which is even more than Michael Winner.

So this month, do your bit for the planet by going Easy On The Meat. You don’t have to go complete veggie – chopping out a couple of portions a week would be a fine effort.Every time you turn down a turkey or bat back a bacon buttie, let us know you’ve DONE IT so we can add up all the CO2 saved by heroic Green Thing members.

As always the message comes with funny videos (and also audio files), such as this one:




Enjoy the green thing!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Coach House's Top Five Valentine Books

Valentine's Day is almost here (five more days, I checked..), and I'm happy to bring you few recommendations of Evan Munday, a publicist from Coach House Books (a Canadian publisher and printer of high-quality innovative fiction and poetry since 1965) on how to celebrate Valentine's day with your loved ones a unique literary way:

We know that day of forced romance is soon upon us, so if you're infatuated with a lover of great Canadian literature, we guarantee you'll be able to woo your Canlit casanova with one of these sigh-worthy Coach House titles:

1.) Pulpy and Midge: Our titular couple spends their evenings ice-dancing, and their lunch breaks talking on a food court pay phone. Will Pulpy and Midge's happy marriage disintegrate when tyrannical office boss Dan and his lascivious wife Beatrice enter their lives?

2.) The City Man: The City Man is a darkly funny romance between a newspaperman just recovering from a breakdown and a member of a Kensington Market pickpocket ring. It'll steal your heart faster than a stall can pinch a poke.

3.) All My Friends Are Superheroes: Shelia Heti (The Middle Stories, Ticknor) said it best: 'This book is like a kiss in the afternoon sun ... I expect this story will replace boxes of chocolates and flowers in courting rituals to come.' The future is now, people.

4.) Age of Arousal: Corsets burst with unbridled desire and petticoats are raised with much relish in this lavish, sexy play set in 1885, after the advent of the suffragettes and the typewriter.

5.) Nellcott Is My Darling: Who hasn't fallen in love with a boy who works at a record store, smokes too many cigarettes and is just wrong for you? That's why we're sure you'll love this novel, which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award.

Check out these and other Coach House titles, as well as our February events - including David McGimpsey in Toronto, Cara Hedley in Vancouver, a launch for Reel Asian: Asian Canada on Screen and more - at http://www.chbooks.com.

Thank you Evan for these great recommendations. If you want to get future updates from Evan, you are welcome to join Coach House Books Facebook group.

And if you missed yesterday's post, I remind you that if you are anywhere near Soho Square in London on Valentine's Day, Do The Green Thing invites you to come to be there at 1.30pm and become a part of the world's first Body Warmth Flash Hug.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

February's green thing - use body warmth

We follow 'do the green thing' for a couple of months (check the green thing for November, December and January), and we're always happy to follow their advice. This month we're called to Use Body Warmth (and turn your heating down a bit or off for a bit).

The Green Thing explains the logic behind it: It’s not an overnight job to stop the planet from overheating, but one way we can help is by not overheating our homes. Heating uses more energy than anything else indoors and creates the most CO2 which is the main cause of climate change. So if you turn your heating down a bit or off for a bit it’s a great way of doing your bit for the planet.

You’ll probably find you’re quite comfortable living at lower temperatures but if you’re chilly, don’t reach for the radiators. Try putting on a jumper. Even better, put on a person. Either way, use some body warmth. However you do it, you'll save nearly half a tonne of CO2 over the year if you keep doing it. However you do it, you'll save nearly half a tonne of CO2 over the year if you keep doing it.

And here's a little visual example how it can be done:



and there's also a special green activity planned for Valentine's Day:

Come to Soho Square at 1.30pm on Valentine's Day and be part of the world's first Body Warmth Flash Hug.

The plan: turn the heating down or off for a bit in your homes or offices, come to Soho Square at lunchtime, hug some beautiful people (or some of the Green Thing team) then go back to your unheated homes and offices with a huge body warmth boost.

If you're on Facebook then sign up to the event here.

Enjoy doing your green thing,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read

Do the green thing and take the stairs in January

We turned the lights off early and had some fun in the dark in November. We bought an old thing in December. And now we're taking the steps.

Yes, our friends at Do The Green Thing keep making our green life more interesting by giving us challenging green missions. This month they ask us to be heroes and take the stairs.

Here's their explanation to what's the logic behind it:

Labour-saving machines save us labour, that’s the point. They transport us from the ground floor to the fifth floor. They take us from A to B. They wash and dry and cook and clean for us.
But these machines use energy which produces CO2. It would help if we could use them less or use them more efficiently.

Take lifts. Or rather don’t. If you work on the 25th floor of a skyscraper, fair enough. But lifts are like vertical taxis - you wouldn’t hail a cab to go 100 feet down the road so why summon one to take you a few floors up?

So use less machine power and more of your own steam power. And if you take the stairs or find a way to resist other labour-saving machines, please come back and click DONE IT so we can count how much CO2 we’ve all saved.

Check out their website for more information. They have great videos, audios and it all comes with a great sense of humor, a you can see from the following video:




Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Do December's Green Thing

Yesterday I received an email from the people behind the great site 'Do The Green Thing' reminding me of their green thing of December - buy an old thing, not a new thing.

They explain on their website that "new things are the fanciest and most specced-up things and have the almost irresistible appeal of being the latest things. But manufacturing a new thing uses resources and energy, all of which creates CO2, so instead of buying a new thing, buy an old thing. Old things save us CO2 and come with character, romance, mystery and history all included as standard."

We introducded Do the Green Thing on November, when their recommendation was to turn your lights off early and have some fun in the dark. Their humor is funny as always as you can see from this video:



Check out their website for more interesting green materials (including great videos) and don't forget to look for an old thing or two!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: a great green gift for the holidays!

Do the green thing

Today I want to recommend on a new great website - Do the green thing.

Green Thing according to the site wants to help make a difference in the fight against climate change. It wants to help us achieving a more sustainable lifestyle, where we emit no more than 1 tone of CO2 a year.

Green thing encourages us to do a new green thing every month and keep doing these things throughout the year. They know it's only a start, but an important one that can make a difference eventually : "once enough people do the Green Thing, Green Thing can use this people power to persuade governments and businesses to do the Green Thing too and make changes necessary to begin to reduce the other fifty per cent."

I like their style, very light and British (in a good and humoristic way!). October's Green Thing is Walk once, to college or work or wherever. This month they encourage you to turn your lights off early and have some fun in the dark. What kind of fun? you could sleep or think a dark thought (listen to the audio here, it's hilarious).

Check also their video clip on their homepage for more ideas, and don't forget to join them and do a green thing or two this month.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: a great gift for the holidays!