7th Gen Blog

Last week’s deadline for the EPA to object to the proposed International Paper Company test burn of tires and sewage sludge in the boiler at their Ticonderoga, NY plant passed without any comment from the EPA. This lack of objection means that International Paper is now free to conduct the test burn, which will send all kinds of big time nasty pollutants (fine particulates, dioxin, mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, and benzene to name a few) into Vermont’s air simply because the company refuses to spend a few bucks to install up-to-date pollution prevention equipment on its smokestack.

Now that the last hurdle has been jumped, the company is proceeding with the test burn. Though it needs a couple of weeks to prepare for the burn, the fuse has been lit.

The truth is that even though I was a vegetarian for 13 years, some years ago I lapsed in my commitment and returned to eating meat. Recently as part of my passion to reduce my own CO2 emissions, I read that on average eliminating the consumption of meat will save as much CO2 as switching the car you drive to a Prius. For most of us driving and eating meat account for about half of our total emissions. (The calculation is based on the energy used to grow the feed for a cow including the fertilizer, the methane emitted by the cow, the transportation of the meat, ect.)

As I was sharing this with a coworker we’ll call the Cowboy, he told me that it’s not an issue for him as he kills his own meat, occasionally eats road kill, and has even been known to take advantage of the occasional wayward bird that mistakenly makes its way into his office. (Remember – we’re in Vermont!) When and if he buys meat in a store, he makes sure it’s local and organic!

I’m don't know what I’m going to do, but I'm sure it won't involve hunting or eating road kill.

Monday, September 11th, 2006,
Charlotte, Vermont

I spent yesterday looking out the windows of planes. Looking down on a world I could barely see, feel or touch. For the better part of twelve hours I made the trip from Cortes Island, to Seattle, on to Washington, DC, and then home to Burlington, walking into the door of my home at the stroke of midnight.

Today is a celebration of sunlight, bright green colors, and crystal specks glowing off the lake. This is an amazing place to come back to on a day like today. Well actually it's an amazing place to return to almost any day but today especially. This is a day to decompress, to go slow, to look and listen. A day without phone calls or e-mail. A day to be home.

I got to spend some time during the week hanging out with Andy Stern, the visionary President of the Service Employees International Union, the biggest, fastest-growing union in North America. I have often joked that “unions” are like a bad brand. Either someone needs to reinvent them or they will continue to die. Well Andy Stern is the man.

He thinks systemically about whole solutions that benefit all stakeholders. He knows than unions can’t thrive if they put companies out of business and that redesigning our health care system (we spend twice as much as the UK and we’re half as healthy) is perhaps the most critical change we need to make to ensure we can continue to create an environment that allows America to compete in the global marketplace. Wal-Mart Watch is also his brain child and while controversial, he deserves lots of credit for getting Wal-Mart headed in the right direction. His new book is just out,
A Country that Works – Getting America Back on Track. I can’t wait to read it! In the meantime, I’ve been checking out his blog entries
at the Huffington Post