STOP Global Warming!
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Dear beloved fans, What is a Global Warming page doing on a Klezmer/Bluegrass website? We play music that's been passed down from generation to generation. We need to think about what we're passing on to the next generation. Climate change is only a part of the problem. The lifestyle that has emerged in the last 100 years of cheap oil and high technology is not sustainable. The current crisis of disappearing honey bees is alone enough to cause global famine in four years. If we don't change fast, our coastal cities will be underwater, our food supply will be disrupted and we'll be in the midst of an unimaginable disaster. Yet the possibilities for change are right in front of us. The idea is taking hold, and I'm hopeful that we'll make the right choices. In the long history of human civilization, it has only been 150 years or so since everyone ate locally grown organic food because that's all there was. All music was live music. Think about it. I'm not advocating a return to the stone age, but I looked around and noticed how much of our energy use is just sheer waste. It takes a bucket of coal to generate the electricity to dry a load of laundry, and some miner is paying for it with his life right now, and the runoff from strip mining is poisoning someone's well. So I hang up my laundry now. I can do that. I started eating local food and I'm just amazed at how much healthier I feel, even after a winter of cabbage and parsnips - maybe especially after that. There are a million ways to save the planet without even giving up anything we love - and it's fun! I planted a tiny garden and met all the farmers at the farmer's market. I cook locally-grown shabbat dinners for my friends and I watch the world change. In July of 2006 I started handing out energy-saving flourescent lightbulbs at all my concerts, along with information about what you can do to stop global warming. I want the light bulbs to give people the idea that the environment is a problem that YOU can actually solve. I've handed out lightbulbs across the country since then and have gotten mixed reactions, from puzzlement to enthusiasm, and a little heckling. But now I'm starting to hear a round of applause when I talk about the light bulbs, because awareness is growing and I'm seeing audiences full of people who are already working on it. (***Oct. 2007 note: just found out about the mercury in CFL's and have stopped distributing them for now - see below for more info) There are enough people surfing the internet right now to solve the environmental crisis, but each one has to do something about it. Here is a list of ways to start. Send your suggestions to info@klezmermountainboys.com and I'll add them to the list! 1. Learn more about it. Take a look at www.climatecrisis.net, www.stopglobalwarming.org, www.earthsave.org, http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/ . Read Collapse by Jared Diamond, Plenty, by Alisa Smith and JB Mackinnon, and watch my blog on myspace http://blog.myspace.com/klezmermountainboys for more recommendations. 2. Eat locally. The average American meal travels 1,200 miles by freight or air to get from farm to plate. Plant a garden, even a small one! Start using your local farmer's market or CSA (community supported agriculture). 4. Save electricity at home. Switch to energy-saving flourescent light bulbs. I get them here www.energyfederation.org/consumer/default.php PS These contain mercury and have to be disposed of carefully. Go to http://www.lamprecycle.org for more info. I believe Ikea is also accepting used bulbs for recycling. 5. Hang up your laundry instead of using a dryer. Let your hair dry naturally instead of using a hairdryer. Turn off the lights you're not using - the list is endless. 6. unplug your cellphone charger and your dvd player when you're not using them. They drain energy even when they're not turned on. 7. Drive less. My van died, and I decided not to buy another car. A musician without a car?! Oy vey! and guess what - I'm fine!! I'm getting to all my gigs on time, no problem! Try it! Use public transportation. 8. Recycle!! It saves energy, reduces garbage and prevents deforestation. Recycle everything, not just paper! find out how here: http://www.recycline.com/ and here: http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/caq/articles/21Things.cfm 9. Plant a tree. Plant a garden. Plant something! A single tree absorbs a ton of carbon dioxide in it's lifetime, gives us shade and reduces soil erosion. 10. Write to your congress people, tell your friends, be an activist! And talk to us - send us your ideas so we can post them here. Thank you for reading this, and stay in touch! ps I just saw a wonderful inspiring and funny movie about global warming! check out http://www.everythingscool.org/ Suggestions from our fans: I saw the movie, too, and while it was very convincing in terms of how global warming happens and how we're causing it, it left out some important facts. Notably, he speaks as if CO2 is the only greenhouse gas there is. As such, he completely ignores factory farming as a source of greenhouse emissions. Methane, which is primarily a product of animal agriculture, is much more powerful than CO2. Read on: http://www.earthsave.org/globalwarming.htm. You forgot to mention that one could take the subway to the klezmer jam (mass transit's always a great energy-saving option). Hi Margot __________________________________________________________________________________________ Did you know that refrigerator freezers are one of the most energy draining devices? Apparently if you fill up a jug with water and place it in the freezer, after it freezes the decreased temperature causes the thermostat to automatically lower the amount of energy used to keep things frozen. Kenny Kosek
Margot --
On your blog, you wrote: "...if you have suggestions for what we can do about the environment, e-mail them to me..."
OK, I've got one. Take a look at my truck... the one that will soon be running on 100% wind-generated electricity:
My mother didn't exactly raise me to be a mechanic, but after I saw Gore's movie, what else could I do?
So now, I've got you and boys wailin' on the 'Pod, while I'm torquin' up the lugnuts. (How's that for an image?!)
Seriously, though -- your tone is so wonderfully expressive, I just love every note of it... Anyway, thank you for the fabulous music... and thank you for re-connecting me with umpteen zillion years of Jewish tradition. Cheers from Houston,
Steve Kobb
P.S.: You're welcome to see my paintings at www.stevekobb.com
__________________________________________________________________________________________ I was just looking at your web-site. I am an environmental activist Naomi __________________________________________________________________________________ Margo! Thank you for contacting EFI. Unfortunately, all fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury. Without it, the bulbs will not work. All of the products that we sell do have the packages marked as containing mercury to recycle them according to your local laws, and a web-site and phone number for lamprecycle.org (1-866-326-bulb). As long as the consumer properly recycles the lamps correctly, there should not be a problem. Sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any other questions or concerns, please let us know. EFI Customer Service Department ____________________________________________________________________ I found some more information about mercury in CFL's on the "Treehugger" website: One of the most contentious points about widespread use of CFLs is The highest source of mercury in America's air and water results from
________________________________________________________ Send in your suggestions and we'll post them here! July 11, 2006: June was relatively quiet for us this year so I had time to focus on this project. Here are some thoughts. One of our fans wrote in that what you eat has a serious impact on the environment. I read up on it and decided to focus on locally-grown organic food, so I've been visiting the Union Square Farmer's Market a couple times a week and I'm getting Community Supported Agriculture from a local farmer www.HellgateCSA.org. I read a beautiful and inspiring book - "It's a Long Road to a Tomato - Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life" by Keith Stewart. And I signed up for cooking classes at the Natural Gourmet Institute to learn how to cook all this stuff! and hey - I'm having FUN!! Some days I think we can stop global warming, and other days I think we can't, but I will tell you this. People are writing to me that they've taken this information and passed it on to 20 or 30 people, that they're excited and inspired. I've met so many wonderful inspiring people at the farmer's market and the CSA. Alone we change only ourselves but together, just maybe, we can change the world. The Great Whoever commands us to make Tikkun Olam (mend the broken world) - and whether we succeed or not, there is a deep abiding spiritual peace and joy in making the effort and sharing it with others. Keep sending us your suggestions and I'll put them on the website. Every person matters. Thanks for reading. Have a safe and cool summer! All my love, Important Links: www.climatecrisis.net |
