If Oprah Talks, Will People Listen?

Yes, I sometimes take my lunch late and watch Oprah. Today I have no problem admitting it. I would like to think that I witnessed a world-changing event. Or at least a U.S.-changing event. Because, usually, when Oprah talks, people listen.

Today (27 October 2005), Oprah brought global warming to the average American household.

After giving away $100,000 to two women who turned in a man charged with child abuse, Oprah welcomed Leonardo DiCaprio on to talk about global warming.

First she and Leonardo attempted to put into normal-speak an explanation of global warming, and why we should worry about it.

I think the movement could use a better spokesperson. In fact, Oprah did a better job of explaining the issue for her audience than Leo did. I mean, I'm glad he's doing this, but he could use some coaching in how to speak about it.

The topic of peak oil (without calling it that) also came up, as our dependence on oil was named the #2 cause of global warming (after coal), and that this oil was running out. Then they talked about ways that the normal person could make a difference. The top three recommendations were:

1. Buy compact florescent light bulbs for at least the top five most used lights in your home. (If everyone in the U.S. did this, it would be the equivalent of getting 8 million cars off the road.)
   
2. Get rid of your SUV and buy a hybrid or other fuel-efficient car. (Oprah admitted that she drives one of the five worst SUVs -- in terms of pollution and mileage -- on the market. Why didn't diCaprio challenge her to get rid of it?!)
   
3. When making a major appliance purchase look for the energy star label that indicates high efficiency.
   

Here's what I wrote to Oprah after the show:

Kudos to you for discussing global warming.
And Oprah... what will it take for you to give up that SUV? How about using yourself-- as you so often do-- as a model -- this time for becoming more environmentally conscious?

• Make some sort of challenge to encourage others to give up their gas-guzzlers. Perhaps start with your colleagues-- other celebrities. But also be sure to encourage us "normal folk".
  
• When you give things away, give environmentally-conscious things away.
  
• Get Nate to take on making "green" renovations-- not to fancy multi-million dollar homes, but to the homes of the "rest of us".
  
• Encourage people to conduct home energy audits (it's going to be cold and heating fuel will be expensive this year).
  
• Commit to printing O Magazine on recycled paper with soy-based ink.
  

You are the most powerful woman in the world and people pay attention. You started making a HUGE contribution to public understanding of global warming with today's show. Now follow through!

I realize now I would have added something about diapers. At the end of the show, Oprah presented the disturbing facts about how many diapers fill the landfill every day. And that they don't break down for several years. But she didn't offer a solution. So instead of making all those moms feel bad, what can they DO?

All in all, though, I thought it was a great show, and I am eager to see what happens next...

Conduct a Home Energy Audit

As we watch the price of natural gas soar (we use it to heat our home), we're looking into how we can tighten up the house. We have storm windows that offer some help, but this 1908 house has a lot of "leaks". We've decided to get a home energy audit-- where a professional comes through your house and tells you where and how you can further tighten up. Then we'll negotiate with our landlord what we can do. (We figure it's in her best interest to tighten up the house-- it will improve its marketability, and should she choose to return to it, save her $$ on energy bills.)

While searching for information about such audits, I found the following resources:

• NPR did a story Oct 7, 2005 on How to fight Rising Home Heating Costs. It has a lot of great tips you can implement. Some easier than others.
  
• The Alliance to Save Energy has an online home energy check-up, and they've included a PDF workbook to do the audit with your children (frankly, *I* felt that *I* could learn from this booklet...
  
• The ASE also teamed up with Washington Gas to produce a video about home energy audits
  
• The U.S. Dept of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) hosts a page about energy audits.
  
• The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DoE) hosts a page about Home Energy Efficiency, including a page about home energy audits. They also include recommendations for choosing and preparing for a professional home energy audit. They also say that you can contact your state or local "energy or weatherization office" to find professional home energy auditors.
  
• I found the Washington DC Energy Office. It's "Home Energy Rating System Program (HERS) will establish and promote a home energy rating system for existing homes. Through a home audit, HERS will identify energy efficiency improvements that need to be made to reduce home operating costs and improve comfort. Such improvements and eventual rating will allow homeowners to qualify for lower rate mortgages or energy efficiency home mortgages. The HERS rating should also help home sellers property, to be more attractive to buyers. Energy efficiency improvements will be financed by energy efficiency mortgages offered by financial institutions brought into the program by the DCEO." Unfortunately there is no information provided on the site about how to get such an audit. (I've emailed sharon.cooke AT dc.gov for more info.)
  
• Another helpful web site said that you can find professional auditors through the National Association of Energy Service Companies but I found nothing there (I've emailed them for more info).
  
• Ahh... isn't this sweet? The American Petroleum Institute is also recommending home energy audits.
  

Regarding professional home energy audits, Montgomery County's web site recommends: "To find a professional energy auditor you can contact your local gas or electric utility [I looked on the Washington Gas web site and could not find info on getting someone into the house]; check the telephone directory for residential energy audits under "Energy;" or contact the National Association of Energy Service Companies (NAESCO), 1440 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005, phone (202) 371-7812. If you use an energy services company, be sure to check company references, insist that the contractor use a "calibrated" blower door for accuracy, and ask for a thermographic inspection. These precautions should allow an effective and helpful determination of your home's energy efficiency needs."

What is very frustrating about all this research is that after an hour of pretty extensive searching, I could find NOTHING that lists specific places to call to request such an audit or to find out how much it would cost.

It's not the talk; it's the action!

I think I've mentioned (more than a few times) that I have been unable to "reach" my niece with my efforts to engage her and my other relatives in issues related to peak oil. But I shouldn't be worried... she and her mate are doing great work in Boulder, just the kind of work I think is needed. Glad to see it!

• March 7, 2005: The Kitchen Drives Monroe Organic Farms to Double Its Production
  
  
• August 23rd, 2004: Hugo Matheson brings Slow Food to his table at The Kitchen
  
  
• May 15th, 2004: The Kitchen and Whole Foods Boulder team up to bring sustainable Seafood to Boulder residents
  

Thank God for Friends!

Dear Debra forwarded me this link that was a perfect postscript to my encounter with Jared Diamond.

Ideal Bite: A sassier shade of green, a source of irreverent "green" advice geared towards busy people with busy lives. Be sure to sign up for their free daily email tips for living a greener lifestyle. And they also have a blog I intend to follow.

Yes it may be a bit too irreverent, but dear God... we need that sometimes...

One of my worst days

I usually read every night before falling asleep.

My preferred genre is fiction. But I'm all out of fiction (that I've read anyway-- in some cases multiple times-- it's clearly time for a trip to the library).

My husband's doom-and-gloom book pile, however, grows weekly.

Last night I picked up Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.

I'd read most of his Guns Germs and Steel, a book that seems to have crossed over from doom-and-gloomers to the mainstream. (I saw my sister reading it last year.) So I thought, maybe this one will pull me in.

Like my niece with Heinberg's writing, I could not get through the first chapter.

I picked it up again this morning, and tried again. Couldn't do it.

The first chapter focuses mostly on what's happening to Montana-- about the impact on the environment and the economy of the failed mining and timber industries. (That's as far as I got, so if he wrote more about Montana, I didn't read it.)

Folks, this is a heavy book. Just shy of 600 pages. I don't think I got through 30. What he's describing in this chapter is just one state. This stuff is happening all over the place. This book, like so many others out there (as well as a good portion of what's on National Public Radio) only serves to convince me that we, the human species, are doomed. We've doomed ourselves. We've so badly exploited the earth that sustains us that she will simply stop sustaining us. She is the landlord; we are her tenants. She will boot us out. I have no doubt of it. Whether through famine, flood, bird flu, terrorism or whatever, we will be ousted from our tenancy.

And, as the rest of the title of Diamond's book makes clear, we will have CHOSEN to be evicted. Chosen by our actions, by our inactions, by our ignorance, by our utter arrogance.

This isn't fatalism. If it was, I'd throw in the towel. I'm not doing that. I will live my life, continue to do what I think is right. Continue to have discussions about living sustainably and in respect of nature, continue to work on my own habits that work against this. But I have absolutely no doubt that Mother Earth will survive, and we will not. We have broken our lease agreement time and time again. Will will be evicted.

For me the only question is "when?"

My Peak-Oil To-Do List

Why? Why am I doing this? Why is this important to me?
I am doing this for Luca. For Jason. For August. For Jesse. For Ella. For Hannah.
For Henry and Corinne. For Ethan and ... for the ones who aren't born yet.
That's why.

(not in any particular order)


1. Research local and organic sources of foods
   
   
   
   • Jonas and Judith Stoltzfus (jstoltz AT pa.net) run JuJo Acres Farm which produces USDA certified organic limousin beef (no growth stimulants, hormone treatments or antibiotics used). They are in Loysville, Perry County, PA and welcome visitors (717) 536-3618. They sell by the pound or by the quarter. Their steaks run from $5.09-$15.89 per pound, depending on the cut. Roasts run from $3.56-$7.13 per pound. You can also purchase quarters for as low as $3.10 per pound plus the cost of butcher's fees ($.18-.28/lb.). (Prices changing 1 Nov '05.) Email them for a brochure and directions to the farm. They have family in Annapolis, MD and Falls Church, VA, and can arrange to bring meet with them when they visit.
     

     
     I use GMail for various things, and sponsored links that came up related to the above message included these:

     
     

   • Lasater Grasslands Beef in Colorado. [Putting here for my family members there...]
     
   • Organic Prairie Farms sell in Safeway and Whole Foods throughout most of the country.
     
   
   
   
2. Start a neighborhood discussion group to talk more about local self reliance and other issues about the impact of peak oil.
   
   
3. Examine our stock of jars and get what we need to do some canning.
   
   
4. Learn how to can and/or dry fruit and vegetables.
   
   
5. Start improving the soil in our garden.
   
   
6. Research locally made clothing and shoes.
   
   
   
   • Organic People directory of organic foods and products
     
   • Union Jean Company supplies American-made, union-made products.
     
   
   
   
7. Build up a store of two months worth of food.
   
   
8. Rebuild the emergency preparedness materials that we compiled for y2k.
   
   
9. Get worms for our compost pile.
   
   
10. Buy wind power from our local utility. It IS available. See wges.com
    
    
11. Be an Activist.
    
    
    
    • Organic Consumers Association has a campaign going on to get one million people signed up by Dec 2006 to commit to buying locally and organically.