Feeling Green

I'm feeling green today and only a small part of it has to do with me not getting much sleep or my AH+ last night.

I was at the Green Festival today and I was very impressed with the size of the event and the turnout. I am not sure exactly what I was expecting, but by 1 PM the place was pretty full and the admission line was very long. There weren't as many "exhibits" as I was hoping for, but there was a lot of great information on just about every facet of the environmental movement. I liked the way the booths were set up in "neighborhoods" with sections for alternative energy, eco-friendly household and cleaning products, Colleges offering green MBA programs, eco-oriented investment options, clothing, vegan foods, environmental initiatives and even a City Of Chicago section.

Mayor Daley attended and made a great speech where he laid down a challenge for every Chicago resident. The 5 step pledge is to replace 4 light bulbs with CF bulbs, turn off water while brushing teeth, replace 1 car trip a month with walking, biking or public transit, plant or care for a tree and replace plastic shopping bags with reusable bags. The impact of every Chicagoan following through with these 5 actions together would be amazing. Daley said his goal is to make Chicago the greenest city in the World, he must be a reader of my blog, or at least someone told him about my last post. Olympics 2016, and we might as well take 2020 too.

Green Options offset the emissions that I created travelling to the festival(for the record I took the train and walked), and Planktos offset the carbon footprint of the entire event.

The only thing that disappointed me about the event was the speaker before Daley. He was a cattle rancher or son of a cattle rancher who is now a vegan and his message is one that I absolutely hate. He said that the next time someone tells you that they are environmental to ask them what they eat. He was basically saying that if you are not a vegetarian that you aren't doing enough, or you are less environmental than him. This is the kind of nonsense that turns off normal people, and stops some from even trying to learn why he is saying it. As far as I am concerned as long as you are making an effort and at least trying to educate yourself, you are environmental. Even if all you do is recycle, it makes a difference. Obviously I wish everyone did more(why else would I talk about it so much), but I also understand that awareness and education are the only way for us to make a significant difference. If people are insulted or told that the little things they do aren't enough, they will shut down and continue to ignore the problems. I am sorry if living the life of a rancher has saddled him with so much guilt that he feels the need to get everyone to stop eating meat, but I enjoy meat. I am aware of the carbon footprint of cattle, but I also understand that for under $5 a year(according to Carbon fund) I can offset the footprint from eating up to 2 burgers a week.
I have a lot of information to go through before I can really cover everything at the event, so stay tuned and I will drop some more knowledge on you.

Vail ski resort is now 100% powered by wind. The company has purchased wind energy credits equal to their entire electricity use, which now makes them the second largest purchaser of wind energy in the US. Some people don't understand the fact that even though Vail isn't using wind turbines at their resort, they are paying for that energy to be produced which others will then use instead of traditional power sources. When alternative energy isn't available, the purchase of energy credits trades your dirty energy source for clean renewable options elsewhere in the country. The more companies that purchase energy credits, the more renewable energy will be produced which will make it more readily available throughout the rest of the country. Thank You Vail.