The Boomer generation isn’t used to being inconvenienced after all these years.

There’s a curious thing that you sometimes see in certain parts of America – signs at gas stations advertising their fuel as “100% GASOLINE! NO ETHANOL!” If you’re wondering exactly what kind of seal-clubbing, earth-befouling hillbillies these signs are meant to attract, I’d like to introduce you to my parents.

They drive giant SUVs any time they have to travel farther than two driveways away. Everything they buy is either single-serving or disposable, to assure maximum trash. They print their emails, double–bag their groceries in plastic, and run the A/C with the windows open. And, they believe that ethanol is bad for their cars because someone once forwarded them an email saying so.

I, their tomato-canning, bus-riding, cloth-napkin-using pinko commie daughter, am a constant source of mild puzzlement to them, and whenever I visit, I always try to drop a few hints.  Judgmental, yes, but I can’t help it. “You know,” I say, “you guys go through so many soda cans, it’s a shame you don’t recycle.” I even point out that their town offers free unlimited curbside pickup as well as free bins. But to them, it’s just not worth the hassle. I once asked my dad if he’d ever consider switching to grass-fed beef, explaining all the problems with factory farming. “But Allison,” he said between bites of steak, “That’s what makes it so tasty.”

We recently had a conversation in which he claimed new research is proving that oil doesn’t really come from dinosaurs, and is actually a renewable resource. I am not making this up. He was totally convinced that once the data came in, the world could forget about all this wind and solar stuff and just drill baby, drill. (I actually looked into this theory, and it’s a fairly popular topic on World Net Daily, on the home page between birther conspiracies and ads for Goldline.)

Although my parents’ tendency to throw garbage from moving cars probably puts them slightly further on the spectrum of environmental disdain than the average American, there are sadly, millions of people like them. People who will only accept green living when it becomes cheaper, easier, and more convenient than the way they live now.

It’s not that they haven’t noticed what’s happened over the past 30 years – it’s that their generation, aside from that tiny vanguard who gave us the first Earth Day, doesn’t want to be put out. They care, just not enough to do anything about it.

This difference in philosophy isn’t about Democrat versus Republican, science versus religion, or coastal versus heartland. It’s a generational thing. My parents and everyone before them grew up believing that the environment and all its bounty were simply theirs for the taking. They came of age in a time when land was plentiful, oil was cheap, America was the greatest country on earth, and God put the fish and the trees there for us to consume.

To them, slow food, reusable bags, and riding bicycles is undoing decades of technology and innovation that made life easier and more convenient. When they play golf in Las Vegas, they don’t look at lush, green desert fairways and see an abomination, they see a triumphant example of man’s ability to harness nature.

The problem isn’t just convincing people like my parents to acknowledge scientific facts or making green technology affordable and available. The problem is convincing them to endure a little inconvenience. It’s convincing them to eat a little less beef, hitch a ride to work, and leave some cake for the rest of us. It’s also convincing them of the scariest thing of all – that much of that magical progress they and their generation made wasn’t really progress at all.

I don’t know what the solution is, besides waiting for them all to die out (doesn’t that seem like the answer to all Boomer-related problems?). For now, I try to nudge my parents in the right direction when I can. They’ll never install solar panels or think about food miles, but I’ve already convinced my mom to start buying vegetables at the wonderful farm stands that populate the Midwest during the summer and fall. That’s a start. The next step, when she gets home with a dozen ears of sweet country corn, will be getting her to recycle the damn bag.

Image: Dominic’s Pics

EventAn Earth Day party hosted by EcoSalon and SF’s Bar Agricole.

For greenies and foodies alike in San Francisco, one of the best things to come out of 2010 was the launch of Bar Agricole, the gorgeous modern tavern in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood. The all-star founding cast includes legendary mixologist Thad Vogler (Beretta), chef Brandon Jew (Magnolia), Eric Johnson (Delarosa), and Mark Ellenbogen (The Slanted Door). Tucked in next to Slim’s on 11th, Bar Agricole is rustic and sleek, a LEED-certified gem of reclaimed woods, exposed beams and enormous blown glass fluted chandeliers.

But it’s not just the design that wows. Bar Agricole serves delicious seasonal fare – think creamy chopped liver on toast and organic squash fritters – and farm-to-bar cocktails. Ingredients are sourced locally, including herbs and lemons from the patio garden. This comfortable, beautiful space is run by some of the friendliest bartenders and staff in the city, which is part of why I’ve been stopping by for happy hour and dinners since the restaurant opened last August. So when our managing editor, Amy, and I were there for a business meeting recently, we decided to ask Thad what he thought about an EcoSalon party on Earth Day.

Where else but a green, chic spot like Bar Agricole for EcoSalon’s Bay Area readers? Thad agreed, and a plan was hatched. We invite you to an EcoSalon gathering this Earth Day (April 22nd). Come by between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. for special organic EcoSalon cocktails by Thad and the team – a perfect way to end a day of volunteering and Earth Day activities. We’ll be enjoying drinks, tapas and chat, plus a few surprises. Stay tuned for updates! We look forward to meeting you.

Date and time: April 22, 2011 7-9 p

For location: Bar Agricole

For further information: editor at ecosalon dot com

ColumnIf you can read this sentence without corrective lenses, you are pre-disposed to eco-activism.

Let me make one thing clear: I am not old. Although, to be perfectly honest, I am not exactly young, either. On the continuum of age, I happen to fall at the precise numeric midpoint between Miley Cyrus and Betty White – a piece of pop culture trivia which somehow strikes me as deeply significant. If I had to guess, I would say that I am also somewhere between those two women when it comes to my wardrobe, my taste in music, and my bong habits. But when it comes to recycling, I feel like I belong firmly in the ranks of the elderly.

Recycling, much like computer skills, comes organically to those in their 20s and younger. Being planet-friendly is natural to them, since they have never known a world where newspapers could be carelessly thrown out, along with banana peels and tuna fish cans. For young people, recycling is easy and automatic – it is embedded in their DNA, along with Facebook and an endless fascination with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. But the biggest eco advantage for young people is that they can easily read the teeny tiny numbers inside the teeny tiny triangles on the bottom of plastic recyclable goods. Whereas I – squinting, in full daylight, and holding the item as far away from me as my arms will allow – cannot.

Those numbers tell you what a particular item is made of: a number 1 means the container is polyethylene terephthalate, and a 3 signifies the presence of polyvinyl chloride. Items with a number 1 or 2 are the most likely to be recycled, but for anyone over the age of 40 these numerals – especially when imprinted on clear plastic – are almost impossible to read. My friend, Pat, solves this problem by waiting until her kids come home from school before disposing of anything plastic. My own solution is to be constantly surrounded by a ginormous collection of reading glasses.

I used to think of glasses as fashion accessories –  like an extremely functional pair of earrings. When I was young, and didn’t really need glasses to see, I enjoyed the “smart girl/sexy librarian” vibe I thought they lent me. If I liked a pair of frames, I would buy the glasses and wait for my eyes to deteriorate into them. Then came a near catastrophe, when misreading the directions on a medicine bottle almost caused me to give my daughter an overdose of Robitussin. At that point, glasses were no longer an accessory, but a necessity. Today they have become something of a fetish. I have glasses that I keep upstairs and some that stay downstairs; there is always one pair in my car, one in my office, and another in my purse. This past week alone I discovered forgotten glasses in my junk drawer, the pocket of an old winter coat, and under the dog’s bed. And there is one massively strong pair I keep around just for texting.

But the numbers on the bottom of jars and bottles are so ridiculously small that even plentiful access to reading glasses doesn’t necessarily help.  This strikes me a galling example of ageism. The Boomers invented ecology – we are, after all, the generation that dreamed up Earth Day. We should not be carelessly shoved aside by a youth oriented eco culture.  Recycling information should be printed in a font size that even mature adults are able to see. It’s bad enough that people my age can’t wear skinny jeans or two-piece bathing suits anymore – at least let us recycle our Activia containers.

Editor’s Note: Susan Goldberg is a slightly lapsed treehugger. Although known to overuse paper products, she has the best of intentions – and a really small SUV. Catch her column, The Goldberg Variations, each week here at EcoSalon.

Image: e-magic

Green Acres was the place for me in the sixties, light years ahead of its time as a green comedy. A savvy businessman is fed up with the rat race of the concrete jungle, flees Park Place and whisks his dilettante wife to Hooterville to grow their own food, befriend local yokels like con man Mr. Haney and Arnold the pig and live a simpler, yet more abundant life. It was a hoot. Who in the Camelot era wanted to live with such sacrifices?

Years later, the earnest eco revolution has spawned a new brand of humor (it’s just that hip!) as we parody the seemingly all-consuming agenda, as in the Audi Green Police ad shown during the Super Bowl. It lampooned the campaign for reusable bags, keeping water consumption down and using low energy appliances. I thought it was poignant because we have gone to extremes at times with the monitoring of consumption. It takes extremes to save the planet, and if humor works, make em laugh!

In addition to the Audi ad, eco humor has seeped into various sitcom story lines and entertainment specials. Among my faves: Saturday Night Live’s Chewable Pampers (all great taste and no waste in eco-friendly containers); and F*ck The Earth Day with old coot Jack English: In the spoof ad for celebrating the day after Earth Day in April, he tells us to ignore the hippie alarmists and do what makes us feels good – like leaving the lights on, driving a hummer and pouring oil on a duck.

And then, there is the new breed of stand-up comics, finding unlimited material in the green lane.

Take Bob Hirschfeld, a self-described business satirist-turned eco satirist, who offers his Funny Green Business presentations at corporate conferences held by Forbes, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Cox Communication, Honda, and IBM to name a few.

Bob makes audiences laugh at the inconsistencies woven into the eco agenda pointing to well-intended solutions aimed at lowering our footprints. “I was at a bookstore where I got the book, 100 ways to Save the Planet,” he recalls. “Number one was buy less paper! So I returned the book.” He also takes harmless stabs at LED bulbs (how many dollars does it take to screw in a lightbulb?); the complexities of sorting plastics for recycling and the embarrassment of low-flow potties not really doing the job of flushing waste in just one flush – especially at dinner parties where your hosts question why you’re taking so long. You can watch his spiel here:

Convention Connection in Malibu, CA which books Bob and other acts, says it gets many requests for green speakers for events, and stand-up brand humor is an added bonus. “Any speaker or entertainer tries to look at the trends, and green is certainly in,” observes booking agent, Kiela Hine. “Humor for all times has tried to make light of things that are difficult and that is a good thing.”

Brings to mind the song Smile, Charlie Chaplin’s theme music for his last silent picture, Modern Times about a tramp struggling to live in modern industrialized society. The song asks, what’s the use of crying? If you light up your face with gladness, you will see the sun come shining through. If Chaplin only knew to what extent we have screwed the divine paradise we have been gifted. I can laugh about it here and there, Charlie. But it is hard to hide the sadness and just smile.

Images: Sitcoms Online, Edna Purviance

From the Hill”¦

Call Earl Warren! Recent speculations about the cause of the oil spill in the Gulf implicate North Koreans, Al Gore, Venezuelans, the Chinese and Communists. You’re reading that right.

The mainstream media’s consensus is that the spill was a result of offshore drilling activities. But there are some fun holdouts I can’t let go unnoticed.

First there are the earthers, which basically represent a faction of conspiracy theorists who are convinced that timing of the event (it occurred right on the cusp of Earth Day and during a period of political contentiousness over drilling) is just too close for comfort. Basically, they’re giving it the Zapruder treatment (there was another shooter – er, spiller!).

Says the Dakota Voice:

“Rush Limbaugh pointed out that the explosion occurred on April 21st, the day before ‘Earth Day.’ He also reminded us that Al Gore had previously encouraged environmental nut jobs to engage in civil disobedience against the construction of coal plants that don’t have carbon capture technology. ‘Eco-terrorists’ exist and have done millions of dollars worth of criminal damage. Fire is one of the main tools of their evil trade. I’m not claiming the Deep Horizon was bombed by eco-terrorists, although I don’t believe it’s out of the realm of possibility. But, it would take some serious money and ability to pull off an attack like that, so I would tend to think much bigger than college hippie eco-wackos with some money-backing – a foreign government, perhaps.”

And don’t forget the the North Koreans! Aided and abetted by the Ruskies, to boot!

Dakota Voice:

“[Michael] Savage said there is a theory on a Russian website that claims North Korea is behind this. The article claims that North Korea torpedoed the Deepwater Horizon, which was apparently built and financed by South Korea. Torpedoes would make sense for the results we see.”

So the spill was in fact caused by Commies (operating under the code name Obammies), who are eco-terra-rists with green thumbs and green cards, and who upon deeper analysis are actually Red Chinese Muslims from South America. You see, America isn’t the only country drillin’, baby, drillin’, so it would make sense that one of our rivals might pull a Tonya Harding on us.

What are your conspiracy theories? Let us know in the comments! And remember, always question and look to the skies waters!

Editor’s Note: This is the latest installment in Christopher Correa’s weekly column, Hill/Street Greens, examining the environmental deeds (and misdeeds) of Washington, D.C. and Wall Street.

Image: uscglantareapa

The worst greenwasher last week was Earth Day herself. It’s tough to say who got more media play on her international holiday – naughty corporate sponsors or the bloggers who outed them.

Spin Cycle

Rainforest Action Network’s Greenwash of the Week video featured a laundry list of major Earth Day sponsors who are among the worst eco-offenders on the planet. From Cargill, the huge agribusiness concern that is wiping out the Indonesian rainforest to produce palm oil, to Chevron, one of the biggest polluters in California.

Run for Your Life

Wall Street Cheat Sheet gave its award for the most obscene Earth Day greenwash to Dow Chemical Company, nuclear plutonium polluters and sole suppliers of napalm during the Vietnam war. Dow was the platinum sponsor of Live Earth’s “Run for Water” event at 193 locations in 45 countries. Fortunately, the irony wasn’t lost on Brooklyn event protesters, who dressed as grim reapers while others faked keeling over dead.

Watered Down

Topping Inhabitat‘s “Top Five Dumbest Greenwashed “˜Earth Day’ Gimmicks” list were the new Poland Springs “eco-shaped water bottles,” which claim to use an average of 30 percent less plastic than other water bottles the same size. That means Poland Springs uses three and a half liters of water – rather than five – just to make one half-liter plastic bottle. So it’s only 70 percent evil?

Click and Cry

On Earth Day, beautiful scenes of green fields, wind generators and rainbows were projected onto the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem, while Israeli tanks and bulldozers destroyed a Palestinian family’s fields of wheat, rye and lentils for no apparent reason. [via Media Monitors Network]

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment in Liz Barrett’s news column, Green Scene, covering what’s fascinating in green weekly.

Image: Stella Blu

Is Alicia Silverstone just another Hollywood pretty face? As if! This adorable, animal rights “Betty” is anything but Clueless. Ever since the release of her best-selling book, The Kind Diet, the vegetarian celebrity’s become a leading voice for the green foodie movement, advocating the benefits of a plant-based diet to the mainstream.

Covering everything from the benefits of buying second-hand, to cruelty-free fashion and garden composting tips, her blog now boasts 15,000 subscribers. Supporting sustainable businesses and experimenting with earth-friendly practices, she doesn’t just talk the talk, but also walks the walk!

So what can we learn from Alicia’s Kind Life movement for Earth Day?

1. Transitioning to a veg-friendly diet is one of the best things we can do for the planet.

“Despite all of our recycling, energy saving, and water conservation,” explains Alicia, “most people still don’t know they can have the greatest impact on Earth adopting a plant-based diet.”

We hear so much about carbon and global warming, and yet methane emitted by livestock accounts for 19 percent of total global emissions. If everyone in the U.S. gave up meat, we would reduce U.S. emissions by six percent overnight. We’re supporting billions of livestock in factory farms that take up precious resources like water, grains, and land. It takes 11 times the energy to create animal protein than grain protein.

Finally, you might have heard: just reducing our meat intake by 20 percent creates the same energy savings as switching a standard car for a Prius.

Doesn’t have to be hard, just check out Meatless Monday for inspiration and make the start of the week meat-free.

2. Buy less material goods

We waste so much energy on materialistic goods, when much of what we buy travels thousands of miles from where it’s made to only end up collecting dust on our shelves. I love that instead of promoting ecologically-void brands, Alicia shops on Craigslist, uses freecycle.org and helps spread the anti-consumerist Story of Stuff. She’s big on giving handmade gifts from Etsy too. Consider all these great sources before buying your next toy.

3. Consume less water

Having started a Take Back the Tap Facebook Campaign, I was impressed how much great information Alicia provided during this year’s World Water Week – including how to make your own low-flush toilet. Flushing less water can save hundreds of gallons of water a month as well as taking shorter showers. So Alicia says, “Don’t flush unless you have to!” She also goes as far as recommending waterless car washes in auto-obsessed L.A., how awesome is that?

I respect that Alicia raves about the movie “Flow” to grasp the world water crisis, and unlike other female stars, she’s savvy enough to stay clear of bottled water marketing.

But like many vegetarians, for Alicia “eating kindly” is the ultimate water conservation method. She explains that one 16 ounce steak uses the amount of water needed for six months worth of showers!

4. Get your hands dirty and know thy food

So you’re already shopping at the farmer’s market. Why not take the leap and start to grow your own veggies? Learn the principles of organic gardening in permaculture. If necessary, start with herbs like basil and mint in individual pots or a simple raised bed for lettuces. Alternatively, support your local CSA and get some beautiful produce delivered to your door. Check out what’s in season and eat accordingly.

Then get a worm-friendly compost bin to save food waste from going in landfills.

5. Buy eco-friendly products

Now more than ever, we get to vote with our dollars. We can rant or rave about products through social networking tools and word-of-mouth marketing. So Alicia says choose wisely! Her blog provides lots of links to “living well” resources like earth-friendly make-up and home design.

Ultimately, Alicia’s Kind Diet celebrates Earth Day everyday. But whether you become a flirt or Superhero, these tips for Earth Day will contribute towards a greener planet.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post courtesy of Vera Churilov. Vera is a health educator and writer on sustainable food and plant-based living. You can read more of Vera’s work at Nourish the Spirit.

The average American uses 650 pounds of paper a year. Over the course of a lifetime, that adds up to roughly 18 tons. And with business cards, brochures, receipts, expense reports, and takeout menus, it’s easy to see how all that paper adds up, threatening to overwhelm you and your desk.  

Enter the Neat Desk. This handy little gadget contains a high-speed desktop scanner and digital filing system to convert all that paper into organized, digital files.

With the Neat Desk, you can insert up to 50 pages at a time and its Automatic Document Feeder scanner does the rest – using patented “Intelligent Text Recognition” software to identify key information and transfer it automatically to the digital filing system. Then you can search your scanned documents by keyword or export the data to QuickBooks, TurboTax and Outlook.

Neat Desk helps you organize business cards, keep track of expenses for tax time, store all kinds of business or personal documents, and more, reducing the need for paper files. Pretty cool, huh?

And the best part is”¦ all this can be yours. In celebration of Earth Day, we’ve teamed up with The Neat Company to give one lucky reader a NeatDesk (a $399 value)!

For complete giveaway rules go here, and you’ll find FTC guidelines here. Good luck! And don’t forget to check out our other giveaways running this week: The Aquaovo Therm-O and three sets of Lush’s most popular naked products!

Happy Earth Day!

Around EcoSalon HQ, opinions are divided. While some of us have our reservations about Earth Day – our Editor-in-Chief Sara Ost has a great answer to the question “does Earth Day still matter?” over at Treehugger today – it is an important day for rallying big names around a very important cause, and with enough people rallied around the cause, awareness of environmental issues is more likely to take hold every other 364 days of the year. Former President Bill Clinton is one of those big names, and as a Digg Dialogg Earth Day Special, he sat down with Boback Firoozbakht to answer user submitted questions about the environment, Earth Day and climate change. Take a look at the video, and weigh in with your thoughts about our environmental progress.

Here’s to sustained conversation about the environment every day of the year!

Earth Day is less than 24 hours away and it’s a great time to get your house in shape and figure out ways to make your little corner of the world a little greener. Whether your new to low-impact living, or could write your own book on the subject, take a look at this list of home-greening tips and see if there’s a project you might want to tackle.

1. Dial down energy consumption

Keeping your thermostat in check is pretty common advice when it comes to lowering your energy consumption. For instance, setting your air conditioner at 78 degrees during the summer can save you 3 to 5 percent more energy than keeping the temp lower. Now is also a great time to put all your home electronics on power strips so you can shut your computer or stereo down completely when your not using it. Electronics plugged directly into a wall continue to draw trickles of power even when turned off, which wastes energy and cash. Curious about how much overall energy you use in your home? WatzzOn is a cool little web-based application that can help you figure it out.

2. What about our furry friends?

Don’t leave Fifi out of your Earth Day shape-up. The pet care industry is filled with eco-friendly products like organic dog biscuits and natural kitty litter. Of course, the number one earth-friendly thing you can do for the planet is to get your pet spayed or neutered. I know it’s tough to resist the urge to have mini versions of your beloved cat running around, but the responsible thing to do is not contribute to the pet overpopulation problem. Make that appointment today, Fifi will understand.

3. Clean the house without holding your breath

If you’ve got a dozen bottle of harsh household cleaners under your kitchen sink, make a pledge to replace them with environmentally safe cleansers as they run out. You can buy them commercially from most big name grocery or retail stores, but if you really want to know what goes into the cleaners your using, just make your own.

4. Don’t forget the laundry room

Green blog Low Impact Living says a home’s washer and dryer can produce as much as 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide in a single year of use, so get in your laundry room and figure out how to cut that figure down. If you’re able to, start by drying your clothes on a clothesline. If that’s just too much of a time commitment, then see what you can do about your washing machine. Whenever possible, wash clothes in cold water. They’ll get just as clean, but without using extra energy to heat your wash water. If you’re really ambitious, you can even collect the grey water from your washing machine and use it to water plants and grass.

5. Waste not, want not – water, that is

Speaking of water, grab a two liter soda bottle, fill it with tap water and sink it into your toilet’s water tank. You’ll use less water in the bowl with every flush. Spend a few minutes installing low-flow shower heads and faucets for an even bigger water savings.

6. Funny-shaped light bulbs are no laughing matter

Replace all the light bulbs in your home with compact fluorescent bulbs for a huge energy savings of up to 75 percent. The corkscrew bulb may look goofy and 23rd century, but who really sees them beneath a lampshade anyway, right?

7. Ditch the paper towels

It’s habit to grab a wad of paper towels to mop up kitchen spills, but maybe it’s time to cease and desist. Frugal living blogger Maya over at SimpleMom took the plunge and says she loves her completely paper-free kitchen. She relies exclusively on cloth towels and napkins that she washes regularly, so check out her system if you want to know more. Our own Susan Johnston took SKOY cleaning cloths for a test drive and says they work “just as well as – if not better than – a regular paper towel.” That’s all the convincing I need to give it a try.

8. Compost is your friend

After dinner, you’ve got to discard piles of vegetable peelings and other food-related detritus anyway, so why not drop it into a compost pile and use it on your garden or lawn? Composting drums are widely available, but if you want to show off your DIY chops, make your own bin instead.

9. How does your garden grow?

Use Earth Day as a nudge to start your own garden. Nothing beats fresh tomatoes and crunchy radishes in a salad and in fact, they’re on the list of the 10 easiest vegetables to grow at home. If you’re already rocking a great garden patch or don’t have the space to get your garden groove on, how about a little vertical planting instead? The setup requires little to no soil and will make just about any bare wall look really awesome.

10. Green up your home office

If you work from home, you’re already making great strides toward a more positive impact on the planet – no air-polluting commutes, for instance – but are there ways you can improve your home office even further? Probably. The same power strips you used for your home electronics are perfect for your home office. Add your computer, monitor, router, printer, even your electric pencil sharpener to one and shut everything off at the end of your workday. Look around for eco-friendly accessories for your must have gadgets and cell phone. For instance, Hypercel makes a line of smartphone cases designed to extend the battery life of your favorite devices so fewer used batteries end up in our landfills (plus the company has great in-house recycling policies). For a comprehensive look at all the ways you can green your home office, don’t miss Planet Green’s Work From Home Guide.

How will you get your house into shape for Earth Day? Share your tips in the comments below.

Images: HGTV, turtlemom4bacon