Grist has some answers, and all of their meaty research is in the below video!

Recently, Grist posted this interesting video about why America eats (and expects to eat) so much meat. The answer is a bit more complicated than you may think.

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Eating Meat Isn’t Manly and Vegetables Aren’t Girly

Sard-In: The New ‘It’ Food in France is a Tiny, Sustainable Fish

Should You Care About the Water Footprint of Your Food? Foodie Underground

The post What’s Up With America’s Meat Obsession? [Video] appeared first on EcoSalon.

This week’s Link Love is full of inspiration: from solar-powered windows, to a man buying a chinchilla farm to free the animals to gorgeous recycled styles from Topshop.

Guy walks into a fur farm and…buys the place so he can free all the animals? Hells yes. [via Ecorazzi]

See-through solar cells could turn your windows into power stations [via Grist]

Fecal transplants are real, and yes, technically a medical thing. [via Organic Authority]

Ha. Thanks, Clickhole. These Iggy Azalea gifs are the bee’s knees. [via Clickhole]

Britian’s Topshop has launched its latest recycled collection, and it’s awesome. [via Ecouterre]

Related on EcoSalon

Link Love: Russell on Robin + Doing Dishes + DIY Deodorant Recipes

Link Love: Whole Foods Delivers + Vinegar Cleaning Without the Smell + Why You’re Always Late

Link Love: The Best Supermodel Street Style + Juicing at Home + PETA and Detroit

Image via Topshop

The post Link Love: Chinchilla Freedom + Solar Windows + Topshop’s Latest Recycled Collection appeared first on EcoSalon.

This week’s Link Love is so warm and cozy it should keep your mind off the Polar Vortex for a little while. xo

Start warming up with this super lux DIY recipe for a “Winter Wonder Hand Cream” from esthetician and beauty expert Jessica Bartley. [via Well + Good NYC]

Has the Digital Age robbed us of our ability to have good conversations anymore? An MIT psychologist tries to slow us down and revert us back to the dying art of dialogue. [via The Atlantic]

What a way to spend a day…a café that charges you by the minute, not by the menu item. How quaint and new-world at the same time. [via Grist]

Oh, there’s nothing like spending a cold winter’s day contemplating the ambiguity of our diet options, Neal Pollack style. [via Dark Rye]

They’re back…Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David are teaming up again for something, er, rather, I think that’s nothing. [via A.V. Club]

Related on EcoSalon

Link Love: Green Jobs in 2014 + We Need to Talk about TED + How to Love a Woman

Link Love: Sexy Appetizers + The Best Photos Ever + Are You There, God? It’s an 80-Page Judy Blume Interview

Link Love: Evangeline Lilly’s Butt, the Anti-Antibiotic + The Other McCartney Loves Bears

image via A.V. Club

The post Link Love: DIY Wintery Lotion + A Pay-By-The-Minute Café + Seinfeld’s Return appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now.

Would you choose food over sex? Because apparently 1 out of 3 singles would. [Via Today]

Take the time to be happy, which means stop doing these 10 things. [Via Elephant Journal]

Hanging planter gardens, so hot right now. Make your own with this guide. [Via Curbly]

The Olympics are fast approaching, and if you’re like us, you have a twinge of London fever. Here is a roundup of excellent London-focused blogs to follow. [Via Traveling Greener]

Can’t travel this summer? Get some map art instead. [Via CasaSugar]

The joys of working – and eating – on a vineyard. [Via Small Kitchen College]

The ultimate summer delight? Foraging for a dinner party. [Via Grist]

Nope, mermaids definitely are not real. [Via Gadling]

Image: -mrsraggle-

The post Link Love: Choosing Food Over Sex and The 10 Things You Need to Stop Doing to Be Happy appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now.

An economic burden on people and governments? Yes, we’re talking about same-sex marriage bans. [Via TakePart]

Can a fast food chain ever really adopt a Slow Food approach? We think not, McDonalds. [Via Grist]

In New Orleans, an old mayonnaise factory is turned into an arts incubator, complete with recycled tires for insulation.  [Via Curbed]

Art is a powerful force. Here’s another example in temporary street art that promotes peace. [Via Treehugger]

Is there a cleaner gender? That is debatable, but as it turns out, men’s offices have more bacteria. [Via National Geographic]

Image: TakePart

The post Link Love: The Economics of Same-Sex Marriage Bans and Fast Food Going Slow appeared first on EcoSalon.

Existential angst? That’s for amateurs. True purveyors of panic disorder know that solastalgia is where all the cool kids hang out.

You might know it: that feeling of powerlessness when you see your local nature reserve steamrolled to build a new housing estate, or the helplessness you experience over climate change. The feeling that, as an individual there is so very little you can really do, and worse, there is no escaping it. Move to the wilds of Canada? I don’t think so. Run away to the Australian Outback? Not a chance.

For me, it began after watching The Age of Stupid. I left the screening gasping for breath. That’s it then, said my brain. Humans are too stupid, too selfish, too ignorant. My life, my plans, my hopes will never come to fruition because in 10 years time we’ll be embroiled in all-out global war ending, inevitably, painfully, finally, in a Cormac McCarthy-style denouement of doom and horror. Wonderful.

My form of campaigning – environmental journalism – came to a pretty abrupt stop after that. I couldn’t focus on anything environment related without being sent back into that panic. I didn’t want to read anything or speak to anyone. In a desperate rush to meet a deadline without doing any of the things that are usually required to write an article I used an old interview with a very well known politician, got all my facts wrong, wrote an opinion that was funny round the dinner table but mortifying when I saw it in print, got threatened with the Press Complaints Commission and that, as they say, was pretty much that.

A year and a half later and I’m just about ready to get back on the eco-horse. I’m feeling strong. I’ve got a bucket full of optimism and another of patience. I’ve started speaking to old contacts again, explaining that my absence was largely down to panic and terror and the occasional insanely unprofessional outburst.

Curiously, instead of cocking their heads to one side in faux sympathy with the crazy lady I’ve found people relating.

“Omg,” they say. “I know exactly how you feel.”

“Some days it’s all I can do to keep it together.”

“Some days I have to lie down in a dark room for a very long time.”

“It’s not just the weight of work on my shoulders,” one person told me, “I feel like I’ve got the entire future of humanity on them.”

Environmental campaigners deal with a lot. News about the state of the world is bad enough, but to be interested in conservation or renewable energy or growing your own food or not wasting stuff is also to open yourself up to plenty of abuse: we’re all soap-dodging, tree-hugging, work-shy deluded, good for nothing liberals, not to mention all those secret meetings we have about being power crazy commie socialists who want to control the world through taxes and fear and conspiracies about invisible see-oh-twos.

Because it’s something we’re passionate about or interested in, it doesn’t seem to follow that it can also be stressful. Yet daily, we are surrounded by the loss of things we care deeply about. Daily, we are let down by ineffective laws or politicians. Daily, we are disappointed in humanity. These aren’t the kind of things that fly in gently and kiss you on the forehead and it’s exactly because of that passion and interest that it is stressful.

Porcelain, Kate MacDowell

The existence of solastalgia was first discussed in Philosophy Activism Nature by Professor Glenn Albrecht in 2005. In academic circles, it’s a word that crops up from time to time but it isn’t something we hear in everyday conversation. Perhaps more commonly discussed is ecopsychology, which on a very basic level links psychology and ecology, suggesting that exposure to the natural world can aid, among other things, mental health problems.

The corollary of ecopsychology is that our diminishing natural environment can create or exacerbate mental health problems, or simply lead to a serious freak out. But while ecopsychology has its own eponymous peer-reviewed journal, and there are organizations dedicated to helping those with mental health problems find solace in the great outdoors, those involved in environmentalism are largely unsupported.

It is, of course, entirely possible that there is no support out there because no one is asking for it, but maybe no one is asking because no one else is asking. We can’t keep it quiet forever though, people are starting to notice we’re cracking up. So here goes nothing:

Hi. My name’s Sarah and I find dealing with all this environment stuff pretty stressful. I don’t want to have another conversation about arsing wind turbines or bloody recycling. I just want some action. Climate change scares the living daylights out of me and makes me furious in equal measures. Please be nice to me, and to everyone else out there. In the meantime I’d like to offer some tips for keeping it together when it all seems to be falling apart.

Look for the positive stories
Joy can be found in small places. Every success, no matter how small, is inspiring. Environmentalist and author Paul Hawken said, “If you just look at the data, and you’re optimistic then you’re not looking at the data. However, if you look at the people, and you see what’s happening in the world and you’re not optimistic then you don’t have a heart.”

Tell people you’re not prepared to discuss it
If you want to use reusable nappies, it’s no one else’s business. Tell them it’s not up for discussion. If you want to sell your car, it’s no one else’s business. Save your energy, save your sanity.

Don’t read the comments
Just say no to comments, unless they are on a particularly supportive and positive website (I heard about this great one called Ecosalon). Put the internet down and walk away.

Spend time with people who get it
Is there a Green Drinks in your area? If not, set one up. You don’t even have to talk green, but you know if you do it probably won’t make your head explode.

Celebrate life
That’s what it’s all about after all. Hug some trees, call your mom, smile at a stranger, spread a bit of joy. Feeling really enthused? You could even hug a climate change denier.

Image: Spanner Films, An Artist’s Journal, Tigr

The post Hi, My Name Is Sarah And I Need An Ecopsychologist appeared first on EcoSalon.

It’s the end of June already, and the earth’s half-spin around the sun has brought us ladies plenty to wring our delicate little hands about. From Iranian clerics blaming earthquakes on our breasts to oil spills wreaking havoc on our pregnancies, 2010 has made us reach for the smelling salts on numerous occasions. Here at EcoSalon, we’ve covered women and the environment with vim, bringing you celebratory communiques alongside melancholic missives. Below, you’ll find a roundup of the news in 2010 thus far. If the past six months are any indication, the rest of the year will be a doozy. Feeling faint yet?

• Is GINK the new DINK? It used to be that childfree couples were called DINKs – Double Income, No Kids. But the great American greenwash has influenced reproductive choices as well, with an increasing number of couples citing the environment as a reason to go kidless. A recent study by Oregon State University added fuel to the fire, revealing that not having kids is 20 times more environmentally friendly than any other day to day green task, like recycling. Lisa Hymas of Grist coined the term GINK – Green Inclinations, No Kids – to describe childfree tree huggers like herself.

• Condoms came under attack earlier this year, with women’s health writers and scientists bemoaning the prophylactic’s sorry environmental record of sullying our beaches and clogging up our landfills. While greensters wondered whether condoms are biodegradable (likely not – their decomposable latex is mixed with human-made chemicals), we asked another question: why have this conversation in the first place? Condoms, as a blogger at EcoGeek noted, are “the single most important environmental innovation” ever, curbing environmentally-catastrophic population growth.

• Congress attacked killer chemicals this spring when members of the House and Senate introduced versions of the Safe Chemicals Act, a bill meant to fortify a toothless, decades-old law against allowing dangerous chemicals in household products (we all know how well that one worked…hello bisphenol-a). Uteruses in America rejoiced at the news: the Safe Chemicals Act is a boon to women, whose reproductive systems have been under siege by infertility-causing chemicals in water bottles and other plastics.

• In April, an Iranian cleric asserted that women who don’t cover up cause earthquakes. His declaration–meant to dissuade Iranian women from unveiling–ignited a response in the U.S., when blogger Jennifer McCreight organized a Boobquake, a day in which women wore low-cut tops without tectonic incident to prove the cleric wrong. But what could have been a bold political stunt turned into a ho-hum protest, with men egging on their breast-baring peers while feminists complained that the plight of Iranian women became fodder for a Girls Gone Wild spectacle.

• As if the earthquake itself didn’t cause enough damage, sexual violence rates spiked in Haiti in the months after the disaster. According to an article in Women’s eNews, aid workers in a major Port-au-Prince refugee camp fielded daily reports of rape, prompting the United Nations to send a special unit of 130 female Bangladeshi soldiers to address the violence. Lamentably, the post-disaster rape crisis was not unique to Haiti alone; many Hurricane Katrina survivors were similarly re-victimized.

• On the 50th anniversary of the birth control pill, we noted that the pill’s invention by women’s rights crusader Margaret Sanger initiated the era of modern family planning, allowing women to choose the number and spacing of their children – a boon for their health and the health of their babies alike. But while the pill has done its part to keep our skyrocketing population in check (if you think things are bad, just imagine the world without it) its environmental record isn’t spotless – the hormones in the pill, excreted into waste water through urine, cause fatal mutations in fish populations.

• When a Houston tanning salon called upon the spirit of Coco Chanel to promote its new earth-friendly false tanning beet spray, we called foul. As legend has it, Chanel sparked the tanning craze in America when she stepped off a boat in Cannes with perfectly bronzed skin. Though Coco was a pioneering designer, breaching the boundary between menswear and womenswear, the tanning trendsetter didn’t galvanize women to leave the drudgery of housework in order to bask in the sunshine. Rather, Coco inadvertently created another unrealistic beauty standard.

• While much of the initial news surrounding the BP oil spill focused on the disaster’s effect on wildlife, we asked about its impact on human livelihoods. Coastal Women for Change, a community organization that sprung out of the post-Katrina haze to bring attention to the need for improved childcare in Biloxi, Mississippi, has stepped up after the spill by serving as a conduit for information from the Environmental Protection Agency to the local fishers. The biggest challenge? Getting fishers of different ethnic and economic backgrounds to rally together for their interests.

• Last year, journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn published their book Half the Sky, a groundbreaking tome arguing that international aid is more effective when directed toward women. While Kristof and WuDunn described women as the gatekeepers of health and well-being in their communities, they left out one green detail: the fact that women also hold the keys to conservation. In Indonesia, the Environmental Ministry has begun offering classes on water conservation to women in rural areas who are responsible for fetching and distributing water to their families.

• Men are from Mars, women are from Venus, but we all care equally about the earth, right? Wrong. According to several articles this year, men and women display their green pride differently, with men working for big picture sustainability while women, ever the quibblers, take on recycling and composting projects. We pointed out the ludicrousy in this theory, noting that a handful of anecdotes don’t constitute a trend. With all this talk about men, women, and their green differences, we lose sight of the why we should go green at all.

• As if the oil spill wasn’t dangerous enough, the chemical dispersants used to clean it up could spell health risks for pregnant mothers and their unborn children. According to information recently released by the Environmental Protection Agency, chemicals that caused health problems in the cleanup workers on the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill are being used again today. Pregnant women have been advised to stay as far away from the contaminants as possible – a tall order for those women who actually live in the Gulf.

Image: xjyxjy

The post A Look Back at Women and the Environment in 2010 appeared first on EcoSalon.

John Kerry’s climate bill is an important component of legislating to stop climate change, but it’s falling to pieces due to Senate infighting and lack of sponsorship. It’s especially important to pass the bill now with the real possibility of a Republican majority come next election. The bill’s required carbon cap is desperately needed in slowing the rate of emissions.

The Kerry-Lieberman climate bill is out now, and with it comes a fateful decision for the political left in the U.S.

If the left’s institutions and messaging infrastructure succumb to internal squabbling or simple indifference; if the public is not actively won over and fired up; if President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) stick their fingers in the wind to see which way it’s blowing … the bill will fail. The default outcome now is failure. Very few people in Washington, D.C., today believe the bill has a chance of passing.

The odds are long, but the bill could be saved if the left — and I mean the whole left, not just environmentalists — pulled together and fought like hell. What’s needed is concrete political pressure. That means tracking who’s for it and against it; relentlessly pressing for commitments; actively organizing in a few key Republican and centrist Democratic states; pressing establishment pundits and media figures to cover it; calling out those who stand in the way of progress; and never, ever letting Obama and Reid have a moment’s peace until they fulfill their promises.

The left hasn’t shown itself particularly capable of that kind of single-minded campaign. And there’s no guarantee it would succeed even if attempted. Without it, the bill’s failure is all but inevitable.

For a complete examination of the bill’s importance, check out the full-length article at Grist.org.

Editor’s note: Article by David Roberts. Originally published by our friends at Grist.org. Grist is a media organization that has been dishing out environmental news and commentary with a humorous twist since 1999. Be sure to visit them and say hi, and follow Grist on Twitter, too!

Image: The Sierra Club

The post Leaning Forward: Why the American Power Act is Worth Fighting For appeared first on EcoSalon.

For an exhaustive look at optimizing energy use, look no further than self-professed “green geek” Catherine Mohr:

Robotics engineer Catherine Mohr is tired of enviros “long on moral authority and short on data.” She’s got a smart TED talk clip about the greenest options for (a) wiping up a yogurt spill and (b) building a house. The point in each case is that the best option is often not what you’d expect.

Continue reading the full story over at Grist.

Image: billhr

The post TED Talk on Building a Greener House appeared first on EcoSalon.