Celebrate Earth Day with Fringe

In honor of Earth Day, why not take a gander through Fringe's most recent and environmentally-themed issue? 

And while you're at it, we're a mere $114 away from our website re-design goal. Consider a $5 or $10 donation through the widget on the right.

The Birds & The Bees: Green Porno

Famed Blue Velvet actress, Isabella Rossellini stars, directs, and produces the online short film series, Green Porno—a show devoted the sex lives of insects and marine life. How did I miss this?!? Apparently, Rossellini always wanted to direct films but could only think up short stories that weren't long enough for the big screen. Her chance came when The Sundance Channel wanted to produce a series for the 3rd screen (i.e. ipod, internet). Rossellini's childhood dream was to write about animals, and The Sundance Channel said sound good, but make it flashy! And what better to catch people's attention than sex? Thus, Green Porno was born. Not only is the show hilarious and scientifically accurate, but it's incredibly artistic—almost all of the costumes are made out of paper and manipulated manually. Go to the website and watch them all! Here's her piece on the mating habits of bees. Enjoy!

Green Your Library

Eco-Libris and the Fringe Environment Issue go together like recycling and paper.  

Ever feel guilty about all the dead-trees lying around your house?  You can assuage your conscience at Eco-Libris, by planting a tree for every book you read at the bargain-basement price of $5 for 5 trees.  Eco-Libris has also been active in pushing publishers toward environmentally sustainable practices.

I had the opportunity to put a few questions to the CEO of Eco-Libris, Raz Godelnik about environmental writing, the Kindle, and how Eco-Libris actually works:

What prompted the founding of Eco-Libris? And why address your environmental concerns toward books and not, say, dishwashers?

For me it all started when I learned more about the environmental impacts of paper while doing some research for articles I wrote for an Israeli newspaper. I realized that it might take a while to get to the point where eco-friendly alternatives will replace virgin paper. Then, I talked with some friends about the idea of giving people the opportunity to balance out their paper consumption by planting trees and received good feedback about the idea.

The decision to focus on books was made after learning that only less than 10% of the paper used for printing books is made of recycled paper and because most books don’t have yet an online eco-friendly alternative, like magazines and newspapers. 

So, if you want a book, you usually find yourself purchasing the paper-made version. You also can’t tell people to stop reading books, because books are such a wonderful thing and an important part of our culture and education, so it seemed to me only natural to offer book lovers a new alternative to make their reading greener - planting trees for the books they read. I also love books - my mother is a librarian and I grew up in a house full of books - so it made me very happy to get myself occupied with a venture that is focused on books!

Btw - I read that using dishwashers can be in some cases more eco-friendly than hand washing.

Are there a few publishing companies that are doing an exceptional job of being environmentally conscious?

There are some big publishers that are ahead of the rest with greener practices, such as Random House, which set up a goal of increasing the use of recycled paper it uses to at least 30% by 2010 (from under 3% at in 2006), or Scholastic, the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books, which announced last year on a new green policy will increase its publication paper purchase of FSC-certified paper to 30% and its use of recycled paper to 25%, of which 75% will be post-consumer waste.

Photo of Raz Godelnik, CEO of Eco-Libris

I would like to mention especially two publishers:

One is another one of the big publishers - Simon & Schuster. On the general level, it will also increase of the use of recycled fiber from its 10% in 2007 to a 25% by 2012 for books printed and bound in the U.S. Also, their Children's Publishing Imprint created last fall a new green series of books for children - "Little Green Books". This is the first eco-friendly line of children’s novelty and storybooks, aimed at parents and children looking to learn more about the environment. 

Each book in this series is devoted to educating children about the benefits of being green, and all the Little Green Books are made out of recycled materials. This is a great educational effort of S&S that is aimed at both kids and their parents and we're actually very proud to collaborate with them in their educational efforts - we co-sponsored an educational contest with them celebrating the new series and you can also find our tips how to save in paper on the Little Green website (PDF).

The second publisher I would like to mention is a smaller one that sets up a unique example of how a green publisher is capable of shining even in days of trouble economy. I'm referring to Chelsea Green Publishing, which is one of my favorite publishers, not only because of their great green books, but also because they walk the talk and exercise many green practices, including "printing 95 percent of our books on recycled paper with a minimum 30 percent post-consumer waste and aiming for 100 percent whenever possible." 

Are small publishers and publishers of literary journals behind the curve on using recycled material, or ahead of it?

It depends. Some like Chelsea Green Publishing and Island Press are at the front. Others are lagging behind. Being small has its own advantages (more flexibility, it's easier to make changes) and disadvantages (more difficult to negotiate better prices because of smaller volumes) for a publisher, and I believe it has a lot to do with the people who lead the publishing and their values. All in all, today when the premium for using recycled paper is much smaller (in some cases there's no premium at all), it's easier for small publishers to do this move and shift into using recycled paper.

Why did you decide to make Eco-Libris a for-profit venture?

We did a lot of thinking before we decided to start operating as a for-profit. We chose the for-profit model because we got to the conclusion that this model is the most effective one to accomplish our goals.

I think that nowadays it’s more understandable that there is no contradiction between doing good and doing well, or as one of our partners once said "profits and the environment are not at odds—only greed and the environment conflict each other." Microfinance is a great example of how you can combine a business approach with social goals and do it very successfully. We aim to follow this model and, as a green business, to be committed to both making reading more sustainable and to the triple bottom line: environmental, social and financial.

What place do you think the environment has or should have inside literature? Any favorite nature writers?

Environment is becoming a more significant issue in our life and our culture, and I think this shift is also translated into literature as well as to other cultural forms such as films and music. Still, this process takes some time so you don't see yet a flow of books on green themes, but there's definitely a growing number of them. Some of my favorite green writers are Bill McKibben ("Deep Economy"), Michael Pollan ("In Defense of Food", "The Omnivore's Dilemma") and Kelly McMasters ("Welcome to Shirley").

 Slate's Green Lantern column has suggested that carbon offsets may not be worth it, depending on how efficiently an organization spends money on recapturing carbon. So, in light of your plant-trees-to-offset-books program: Does planting a tree for every book you read really negate the carbon footprint of buying a book? 

I believe much depends on the quality of the operation, whether you plant trees or invest in projects that generate alternative energy for example. If you do things right (like planting the right trees in the right place and manage the planting area later on properly) you can definitely receive the added value you're seeking in terms of carbon reduction.

We don't calculate the carbon offsets as we don't offer carbon offsets - our offer is very simple: to plant one tree for every book you read, sell, write or publish. The difference is not only in wording , but in the approach. 

Our approach is a much more holistic approach - we don't see trees only as carbon sinks, but as a precious natural resource that should treat with much more respect, as they provide many important benefits to the soil, water resources, living species and local communities. It's similar to the approach of UNEP's (United Nations Environmental Programme), which sees the overall benefits and significance of planting trees, on both environmental and social levels. That’s the concept behind the Billion Tree Campaign initiated by Nobel Laureate, Wangari Maathai (the campaign, by the way, also featured us on their website).

Why did you choose communities in Central America and Africa as places to plant trees -- why not plant trees in the US? How does planting tree help the communities you've chosen?

Eco-Libris partnered with three highly respected US and UK registered non-profit organizations (AIR, SHI and RIPPLE Africa) that work in collaboration with local communities in developing countries to plant these trees. These trees are planted in high ecological and sustainable standards in Latin America (Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Belize, Honduras) and Africa (Malawi), where deforestation is a crucial problem.

We chose to focus on these regions because we wanted to plant the trees where they have the most value. Planting trees in these places not only helps to fight climate change and conserve soil and water, but also benefits many local people, for whom these trees offer many benefits, such as improvement of crops (some trees are interplanted with crops to conserve the soil and organically fertilize the crops), protection of important water resources, assistance in decreasing the chances for natural disasters such as floods, and additional food and income (from fruit trees for example). 

So it's a very good feeling to know that these trees not only help the environment, but also provide these local communities with an opportunity for a better future and we're very proud in that. You can visit our planting partners' website to read more on their work with these communities (links to their websites are available at our partners' page).

Do you think that electronic publishing is going to overtake the dead-tree publishing world through devices like the Kindle? Or is the feel of paper against one's hand so magical that it will endure?

Firstly, I'd like to say that we don't know yet if e-books are better to the environment than paper books. Electronic books indeed don’t need paper and therefore no trees are cut down for their production. They don’t need transportation or physical storage and therefore no extra costs and extra footprint are required to bring the e-book from the publisher to the reader. Yet, there are other factors to be considered, such as their production, materials used, energy required for the reader’s use, and how recyclable they are. We follow articles and research done on this issue on our website.

So what’s the verdict? We still don't know yet as we’re lacking a full life-cycle assessment of reading e-books using Kindle (or Kindle 2 now) or other similar electronic book readers. Until we have that, we can’t really tell if and to what extent e-books are more environmentally-friendly in comparison to paper made books.

In respect with the question if e-books will rule the book business, I agree with Margo Baldwin of Chelsea Green Publishing that we'll continue to see significant growth in sales of e-books but their market share will remain relatively slow for the near future. I believe we'll need to see a cultural shift that will take a couple of decades before e-books will take the place of paper made books as the main platform of reading.

Fringe @ Eco-Libris

Today the Eco-Libris blog gave the environment issue of Fringe a really nice shout out, including an interview with Editor-in-Chief Lizzie Stark.

Watch this space tomorrow for Lizzie's interview with Raz of Eco-Libris, as well as some commentary on the environment issue.

Keeping up with Thoreau

Fringe's Special Enviro Issue debuted today, featuring literary selections with a special focus on green and environmental topics. Fringe isn't the only journal looking toward the environment for inspiration, though.

Ever since Henry David Thoreau famously "roughed" it on the shores of Walden Pond, writers have used their natural surroundings as fuel for their creative fires. Lately, though, this environmental concern seems more omnipresent than ever. While staffing my company's table at AWP, I was surprised by the number of people who asked if we published any nature writing anthologies. We don't, but it got me thinking that it's a good avenue to consider pursuing, since it's obviously a hot button issue that's in demand and in the forefront of our global consciousness.

I also came across two literary journals while at AWP that focus primarily on the natural world. The Fourth River is a journal run out of Chatham University in Pittsburgh, and "welcomes submissions of creative writing that explore the relationship between humans and their environments, both natural and built, urban, rural or wild. We are looking for writings that are richly situated at the confluence of place, space and identity, or that reflect upon or make use of landscape and place in new ways." Instead of the ubiquitous pins and postcards, they were giving away envelopes of wildflower seeds, which I found smart and charming as a marketing tactic.

flyway journal is affiliated with the MFA in Creative Writing and Environment program at Iowa State University and has just recently devoted the journal exclusively to publishing writing about the environment, though the journal is 15 years old and has always been linked to the unique environmental writing program.

One thing I find myself wondering about these two journals is if they are so dedicated to the environment, then why are they both print journals? Shouldn't they consider becoming online only, thus saving the paper, ink, and other environmentally-destructive resources traditional media necessitates? Just a thought...

Pollyanna All Grown Up

You know how irritating it is when you got up at 5:30 a.m. & someone complains about getting up before noon? That's how I feel about the "Go Green" and "Stop Global Warming" movements. See, in the summer of 2001 I was a 21-yr old bright-eyed canvasser for the Florida Consumer Action Network (FCAN) for roughly a month. We were trying to get TECO to upgrade the coal filtering system on a nearby power plant whose out-dated technology was exempt from EPA regulations because it had been grandfathered under the Clean Air Act. FCAN had science on our side, and the mission at hand was small, attainable (they did finally make TECO retrofit the plants), and non-threatening to the status quo. As a canvasser, my job was to educate the public, get them to write petition letters, and solicit donations preferably $15 or more. The "public" was different middle class neighborhoods in the Tampa Bay area, some of which were close enough to the TECO power plant that you could see smoke stack over rooftops. I thought the job would be a cinch.

I was cussed out, got doors slammed in my face, was called a liar, and even worse, I was educated that people can be so cold that even when they didn't attack message or messenger they were still not moved to do a darned thing about their own environments--an insight into how people can not vote in their own interest. On my last day of canvassing under the hot Florida sun my only donation and letter came from a teenage girl who worked at Pizza Hut. After four hours of solid "no's" and a particularly rude old lady who husband was on an oxygen machine, I was crying on a curbside. My lesson learned was that the adult world didn't want to hear an inconvenient truth. I had a little hope for the upcoming generation but concluded that if our parents and grandparents wanted to breath dirty air that increased sickness in the elderly and infants, then they deserved what they got.

Fast-forward to the present, and I feel like I did as a 2002 peace protester by the time the general population questioned the Iraq war in 2007. Sure, you are better late than never, but while I was arguing with you hard-heads, look how much worse the problem has become. What I have now is not hope but apathy. I'm glad the general population wants to go green and wants to save polar bears and virgin rainforests and water sources, and I believe that every small change we make has a small effect on the world (as a vegetarian I save roughly 100 animal lives a year), but for most people environmental issues are a sexy fad that environmentalists are wise to capitalize on to get as much change on the books as they can. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I won't be holding my breath. I will however be reading Fringe Magazine's environment issue!

Recycle Runway

I’ll go ahead and confess that I’m not the greenest person out there. I recycle (mostly), I take public transportation when I can, and I even watched Al Gore’s movie (though I’ll confess to getting bored and turning it off about halfway through).

Okay, so I’m kind of horrible, and it’s probably people like me who’ll be responsible for the end of the world as we know it. But that is why I appreciate the efforts of the environmentally-conscious all the more.

Those people include Nancy Judd, who’s managed to turn recycling into art (something even I can get on board with). Out of her green studio comes Recycle Runway, a project that “strives to change the way the world thinks about the environment through innovative educational programs and couture fashions made from trash.”

The runway turns recycled materials, like Coke cans (see photo), CDs, and phone books, into high fashion—then exhibits the clothing in airports throughout the country, most recently gracing the concourses of Pittsburgh International Airport. Judd also offers workshops for young people to create their own recycled fashion, providing them with a fun and unique way to get involved in environmental efforts.

Check out the runway’s Web site to learn more.

Animals Are Entering Our Lives

(photo credit: Morris Grover, Oregon State Parks Ranger)

Now they are coming back to us,

the latest homeless, driven by hunger.

--Lisel Mueller

I

In 1906, the last sea otter--once native to the Pacific waters off the coast of Oregon--was killed. After that, they were declared extinct. An attempt at reintroduction for this federally-protected species failed in the 1970's. Since then, there have been two major confirmed spottings: off the Yaquina Head in the 1990's, and Cape Arago in 2003. On Wednesday, February 18, 2009 an Oregon State Parks employee photographed a lone sea otter in Depoe Bay Harbor. Whether there are others remains to be seen.

II

According to the "Findings" section of the March '09 issue of Harper's, "Confused and dead pelicans were turning up far from shore in California, pygmy killer whales were disappearing off Hawaii, and coyotes were encroaching on Detroit."

III

The American pika, known in mountain country as "rock rabbits," and familiar to hikers in the high country for their familiar "peep" as they dart into their burrows on boulder fields, are threatened by global warming. They are adapted to cold weather, and can die from exposure to temperatures as low as 78 degrees. More than a third of known populations in the Great Basin mountains of Nevada and Oregon have gone extinct. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is deciding whether the pika warrants endangered species status.

IV

This morning, on my way to work, two dead Canadian geese were sprawled out in the road, near the on-ramp to Highway 224. Not an uncommon occurrence, as bands of geese often feed on the grass along the shoulder and between interchanges. They sometimes wander into the road, and at such speeds cars and trucks travel, they cannot move quick enough out of the way.

Guilty pleasures

So apparently recycling is a maddening waste of time, money and good intention (in the UK at least; we’re feeble novices at this sort of thing) but hop over to the East and behold the wonders of re-use – a Buddhist temple made from (empty) beer bottles? Genius (and wonderfully eye-catching).

It need not be said that some serious changes need to be implemented if we’re going to take the task of stretching the life of our lovely (if somewhat abused and exhausted) planet out a couple of decades longer. But what will become of one of life’s most precious simple pleasures – the humble novel? I’m hardly lusting over the thought of these daft pseudo-book gizmos; you can stuff in as many wonderworks as you want, but if it ain’t printed on sheets of paper stuck together I just can’t imagine it evoking the same degree of pleasure.

That said, I do feel a twinge of guilt at the unholy tree-carnage that precludes the creation all those exquisite books we so justly swoon over. And just think of all the godawful stuff shuffling around out there… ooh, the shame. Save the trees! Don’t print substandard nonsense! Better still – and here’s my half-assed solution to the decadence of ‘real’ books – gather all the bad books together, mash them into a mushy pulp and give them the chance to be reborn as something glorious and worthy of the poor trees who died so that people like me can curl up under one of their kind and read bits of sublime word-joy printed on their felled kin.

Hmm, so in lieu of my own inspiration, let’s cast our eager eyes towards the upcoming environment issue of Fringe… coming soon to renege our jaded souls with the glory of green. Be exicted.

the joys of composting

In honor of the upcoming Fringe Enviro-themed issue, I'm discussing a simple luxury San Franciscans tend to take for granted. The little green bin...


The little green bin is one of my favorite things about SF, but it's so trashy. Literally. Citywide (bay area wide, more specifically) composting allows businesses and residents the chance to turn any food scraps, paper food packaging, and compostable to-go ware into...wine.

That's right.

Green bins are provided by the city, and set out on the curb along with trash pickup. Restaurants usually have an equal number of compost and trash bins. It's in the restaurant industry that you can really see the impact composting has on waste disposal. At the end of a busy shift, the compost bins are jammed full, while the trash...maybe halfway, and that usually just plastic wrap.

The yard trimmings and unwanted leftovers of San Franciscans get turned into compost, which is used in the vineyards of Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties. While the thought brings a slight shift in meaning to the concept of terroir, the actual practice of composting couldn't be easier.


While composting isn't always perfect...and often kinda gross...it's one way to make a consistent contribution to living a green lifestyle and turning your own waste into something positive. If you're interested in composting but don't have a citywide program, check in with local community gardens. There are plenty of those in Boston, and most tend to have a compost pile that members contribute to. Or start your own compost pile in the backyard, and grow some food!

I will admit, we have a black composter in my yard, but 90% of the time I use the city's green bin (yes, because it's closer to the house). If you're interested in learning the hows of home composting, the New York City compost project has pretty comprehensive information on getting started.