NC

Boycotting Gas? The Great American Gas Out Sham.

11 March 2013
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Just like every Spring, emails and Facebook feeds are lighting up with news of this year’s Great American Gas Out.

For the small price of refusing to buy gas on this one arbitrarily chosen day (or sometimes chosen weekend), you effectively decrease the profits of oil companies.

Actually, you inflate your own sense of eco-righteousness.  That is about all that you will accomplish.

Gas prices will stay the same (despite the false claims of previous years causing gas prices to fall $.30 overnight).  This “event” is a total sham.

20130311GasOutSham

I have never played along with the gas out, even during my years writing this blog as “Green Grounded” when I yearned to be the most environmentally-friendly gal in town.

Why did I avoid this annual boycott?

Think about it.  Who are we joking to think we are changing anything with this method?

Even the originators of this email suggest fueling up on the 14th, or on the 16th.   Fuel away!  Fill your car overflowing with glorious liquid gold (not the cheese) with abandon!  The oil companies will feel our wrath on the 15th, however, when suddenly their sales are all dried up!

Gandhi said something about being the change, right?  Not staging a one-day protest where you simply put off doing a chore you will happily oblige to the day after.

I feel the same way about Earth Hour, realizing Read more »

To Kill, Or Not to Kill… What’s Greener?

12 February 2013
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This blog was once a true joy to me – an ability to express things I was learning and passion I felt about helping our environment through everyday living.

Slowly, it became a way of what the internet is – preaching to the choir.  Rambling to a crowd of people who perfectly agree with me used to see productive… and then I grew up.

Then it became an awakening that so many people want to do what they can, but get really tired of the condescension they feel from the “green” gurus who tell them they are still failing to do their part.

“American Pickle”, which has also been “Green Grounded” (and something else, I am sure), served to let me vent anger toward advertising and mindlessness in our society.

It has allowed me to show gratitude for new ideas and products and eco-advocates in our world.

My sad, sad absence of consistency since 2010, however, has shown more about my flailing desire to find my “voice” with this blog.

I have stressed whether or not to kill this blog off, and always find reasons to keep it up.  Is using energy on it greener, or killing it?  Death to American Pickle would certainly be greener to my wallet.  Hehae.  Still, I know clearly that it is not death to this, my first voice, my first blog, my extension from my time at WNCN NBC 17, which gave me a platform and understanding of social media back in 2007 when my amazing boss, Maryann Balbo, and a social media expert, Terry Heaton, encouraged me to create this part of myself online.

If it were not for this gift, I would have missed out on a very rewarding experience and personal growths through Facebook, Twitter, and other blogs that I have since created and nurtured.

I just felt the need to address that.  I am more than aware, painfully so, that I have been lackluster in keeping this once successful blog up.  For the three of you that stumble across these last posts and those to come…

Thank you.

Sustainably yours,

Ashley Sue

The Fine Line of Green Worship

6 October 2012
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How do we live our lives, live as Christians, and live sustainable “green” lives simultaneously?

I know not everyone who will read this subscribes to Christianity, but as someone who does, I realized long ago that “living green” so often becomes it’s own version of worship.

The pride and arrogance over all I do to make the world greener, all I know that others seem to be figuring out, all that I teach other and judge them for not doing, and all the things I realized I still did not know that I had to gobble up to reach the pinnacle of green zen…

My search for “Green Grounded” was anything but grounded.  I had made an idol of being green.

So where is the balance?

Another writer deals with this, too, as her family lives “on the crunchier side” as well as has a child that is allergic to plastic:

It’s avoiding all the baggage that comes along with it. It’s avoiding the dogma. The theology of the earth as giver and creator. The “save the earth!” slogans. The idea that more than one child per family is unduly burdening our ecosystem. The explicit understanding that we’re all part of one big cosmic happy place, and that anyone who subscribes to the idea that there’s one true way is just bringing everyone down.

How do we make our difference, live our truth, support the ecosystem and community, all while keeping our eyes and hearts focused on the bigger-yet picture?

Any thoughts on living a balance?

Sustainably yours,

Ashley Sue

Fluoride Rots Your Brain and Kills.

5 October 2012
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OK, I had no idea how to make a headline about fluoride seem important, so I used a cheap tactic.  One of the oldest out there.  Sorry.*

All the same, fluoride is something we Americans are taught to revere.  And we cannot escape it.

From a young age, we get fluoride treatments from the dentist and hear all of these commercials about how great this toothpaste brand and that mouthwash is because of the cavity-fighting fluoride.  Heck, the CDC hails fluoridation of water as one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century.

Fluoride, however, is linked to cancer, bone fractures and weakness, low sperm count, endocrinology issues, and more.  According to FluorideAlert.org,

While the health impact of these exposures remains poorly understood, research shows that comparable doses cause serious health conditions in areas of the world with widespread fluoride poisoning…

…In terms of acute toxicity (i.e., the dose that can cause immediate toxic consequences), fluoride is more toxic than lead, but slightly less toxic than arsenic. This is why Read more »

Get the 811

4 October 2012
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Today’s post from One-a-Day-in-October on American Pickle:

Call 811 before you dig.

I choose this as today’s topic because it is a simple but very important reminder, as we are now in Autumn.  If you are anything like us, you either already started your fall gardening or will soon.

Indeed, while our vegetables are winding down again until Spring, we ripped out two rose bushes and planted a lantana and weigela to our yard this week.  Later this month, we will plant heucharas and transplant daylilies.

We also have, like you, pipes and cables all under our yard.  Some are feet below, while others are perhaps a foot below.  Cable lines, power lines, natural gas pipes, water lines, sewage, and more.

One simple call to 811 makes sure you do not hit the natural gas line and Read more »

Recycling Plastic Bottles Means KEEP THE CAPS ON

14 May 2012
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Hearing the debate for years, I am happy to have it cleared up:

Throw your plastic bottles in the recycling bin WITH the caps ON.

Do not leave them thrown loose into the bin – apparently they just end up in the trash if you do.

Also, make sure you crush the bottle some to get air out before you screw the cap on (but no need to rinse) unless you want the bottle to explode and lose the cap anyhow (again, rendering it to the trash).

Done.

http://earth911.com/news/2010/07/01/the-verdict-is-in-keep-the-bottle-caps-on/

Now Marc and I can stop debating this and move on with our lives.

Sustainably yours,

Ashley Sue

PS.  You can now recycle all plastic in Raleigh, NC except #6.  Not like any of you were doing anything except hurling it all into your bin blindly anyhow.  I see what you recycle when I jog on Tuesdays.

The Argument Not to Vote

1 May 2012
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Not voting is actually the strongest way we can register our displeasure with our current crappy near one-party-rule election system. Not only has no election ever been decided by one vote, but if you do vote for someone it is a positive affirmation and endorsement of their actions for the next four years. If you do not want to live with that then Don’t Vote It Only Encourages Them.

Jake

(from http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/11/03/rethinking-investing-part-2-plus-election-thoughts/)

Our primary is coming up in a week.

Do you agree with Jake, or is Jake a moron?

Is this election different than others?  Why do you think that?

Politically pickled,

~ Ashley Sue

You Want to Talk Gas Prices During Obama’s Inauguration?

12 March 2012
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I have seen more ignorance purported regarding what gas prices when Obama took office.

More inane pictures, more pundits babbling, and more mindless regurgitating of a fact – that gas prices were $1.86 or such when Obama was inaugurated.

A fact is a fact.
A fact is a fact – in context.

This “fact” that is being spewed by the ultra-conservative media and their followers is a fact completely out of context, which as far as I can decide, is no fact at all.

Gas was that price when Obama took the office.  Guess what?

Get it?

I was Read more »

“No Such Thing As Organic Apples. I Wouldn’t Want to Eat Them!”

9 January 2012
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I could subtitle this piece, “Don’t You Know Local Is More Important Than Organic?”

That was my experience looking for organic apples at the North Carolina Farmer’s Market here in Raleigh.

You see, Marc and I have gotten into making apple butter from scratch.  It is so so good.  He and Mama Bull are big fans of apple butter, as is my sister, but increasingly over the years, we have realized that finding apple butter without high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in it is nearly impossible.

In fact, finding apple butter in stores at all is nearly impossible.

Apples have it rough in my world. Let me explain a bit:

  • I once enjoyed their crunch, but never could eat an actual apple again after having my braces removed nearly 15 years ago.  I only drink their juice and eat them fully cooked now.
  • A college professor pushed how important it is that we buy organic apples anytime we buy apple products – the degradation of both our environments and our personal health otherwise is unforgivable.
  • Somewhere along the way, I have learned that apples are one of the most pesticide and fungicide sprayed crops in our country.

Needless to say, when I got to the Farmer’s Market, I noticed that only one booth was listed as “organic” produce.  They had no apples, and they were not open.

Sigh.

A lady at the nearest booth asked if she could help me.

“Actually, could you tell me if you know anything about the pest management and treatment of the apples here?  I am looking for organic apples.”

She boldly belted out, “Haven’t you heard, local is more important than organic!”

I smiled and said yes, but that naturally I am concerned over what I have heard of pesticides in apples.

She yelled, “No such thing as organic apples!  At least, I wouldn’t want to eat them! … They’d be crawling with worms!”

Another booth attendant chimed in, “Without pesticides, Read more »

Voting NO on Raleigh’s Transportation and Housing Bonds (2011)

10 October 2011
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Tomorrow, Tuesday 11 October 2011, voters in Raleigh will not only choose between local electoral candidates, but we will also have a say in a bond for both a transportation bond and an affordable housing bond.

I can honestly say, for the first time, I am seriously considering voting NO on both bonds.

Some argue – with valid points – that Raleigh is strengthened by these bonds.  Bicycle lanes will be built, greenways bettered, and, as New Raleigh reports, help “those living in poverty to buy their first home”.  The total of voting yes on these bonds should cost the average Raleighite about $17 a year to their property taxes.

So why would any decent human being vote no for such things?  Could it be that I want tornado victims to stay homeless and public transportation to stay unreliable at best?

I simply feel that it is the Read more »