Breathe in the Coal Dust - Those Are American Particulates, After All

In reference to: ‘Bristol Bay: “Most valuable salmon fishery in the world”’ (CNN, October 10, 2017)

‘Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt met on May 1 with the CEO of the Pebble Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of the mining company, CNN reported on September 22 based on interviews and government emails. Little more than an hour later, according to internal emails, the administrator directed his staff to reverse Obama-era protections for Bristol Bay, which had been created after years of scientific review. Based on that work, the previous administration had aimed to pre-emptively veto certain mining activities in the ecologically important region’

While climate change proponents have known for years why it is that high-ranking climate deniers deny with vehemence, EPA Chief Scott ‘Screw You Earth’ Pruitt has done little to convince us that his argument is anything but based on money.  It is both fascinating and disheartening to see little more than a shred of effort by Pruitt and fellow denier-minions to conceal the fact that their denial comes purely from a position of greed. 

The Trump Administration and Trumpers nationwide seem content to make most arguments on the state of the nation and the world a matter of nationalistic pride. As though Americans should, by some patriotic bylaw, be content to inhale carcinogenic particulate matter, to drink tainted ‘drinking water,’ to essentially strap on an American flag bib and lap up the waste of those companies that profit off of the largely American-made market system that has ensured their monetary success. Any trees felled or species annihilated isn’t the company’s fault - they got in the way of that CEO’s American dream! 

All of this is frightening to a young person who (if all goes well) will live on this planet for many more years than the deniers in Congress or those seated behind fancy desks perched high above city streets. It is frightening not only to consider the physical ramifications of unchecked climate change which has already been seen in hurricane-ravaged Texas and Puerto Rico (yes, ok, climate change didn’t cause a hurricane, but it certainly made its impact worse); what is equally frightening is to consider the difficulty of having a real conversation about climate change in the United States. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Sequel made this point as he aligned the environmental crisis with a democratic crisis in the US. How do we, the fearful, hold a productive conversation with they, the dubious, when all that is on the line is of greater import than party affiliation? What does the latest model of the iPhone matter if future societal stability is squandered away under the guise of ‘American innovation,’ a thin veil concealing environmental degradation that will inevitably lead to the destruction of communities and a complete deterioration of clean air and water. 

It seems to me that climate deniers are content to doom their children, grandchildren and beyond to an age of fear and instability, to a world too toxic for life to thrive, and all in the name of profit. Unfortunately for them, Mother Nature doesn’t give a rip about your Maserati, and she will arrive again and again to collect her toll. But this problem is a global problem, and Mother Nature’s wrath will be enacted on us all, the guilty, the environmental activist, the blissfully unaware.

Every human on this planet needs food, water and air to live and I hope that one day we can be united behind our commonalities, our shared humanity, and not divided by our socially-constructed differences. Until then we must continue to broach the conversation and ask the tough questions. We are living in an age of mass production and consumption of digital data and we, the stressed-out activists, must exploit the time-space distanciation afforded us by the internet and continue to get the word out, for minds are changed every day. 

See the World from the Warmth of Your Single-Burner Stove

October 12, 2017

Dear day-dreaming, destitute millennials,

Put down your phone for a moment: relieve yourself of the torment of seeing the world in vivid colors brought to you by National Geographic photographers, Insta-influencers who have somehow managed to make a living off of travel (still trying to figure that one out, but sign me up if one of you do), and your BFFFLyfe from college who had a trust fund and it didn’t bother you but now you’re unemployed and living off Trader Joe’s O’s and Two-Buck-Chuck, incessantly checking your LinkedIn for that view from a recruiter so you can tell your mom that ‘things are moving!’ all the while that BFFLFLF is taking a(nother) gap year to sort out what she REALLY wants to do. 

Now more than ever do you want to travel, to see that world and live that promise to 90′s kids that education and hard work will take you wherever you want to go!  SMH.  

But it’s not just that you want to discover new things, meet new people and breath new air; you want to escape. You want to go where your phone won’t work, where you don’t have to think about how many job positions may be being filled just before you submit your application, or how you could be making yourself more of a ‘stand-out candidate’ by proclaiming a 140-character-long, well-informed response to the latest debacle on Twitter.   

And so, to all my fellow no-trust-fund, smiles-through-the-pain millennials, I have an alternative for you.

Time to cook, bbs.

Before you start in with ‘girl, I burn cereal’ or ‘last time I cooked I was evicted’ let me just say: if you can read, you can cook (my apologies to the illiterate community and my additional apologies for writing my apology #insensitive). 

When I find myself day-dreaming about the shores of Thailand, about the sounds and smells that must resonate and drift through the narrow, cacophonous streets of Bangkok, instead of torturing myself by looking up flights I can’t afford, I turn my attention to dinner. 

I think most of us can agree that dinner is already the best meal of the day - so make it count.  

Start with what you have in your fridge or your pantry - an eggplant, or maybe a half bag of Mahatma rice? It’s best if you start with what could be a main feature to a dish like rice, pasta, or a vegetable or meat. Maybe you don’t have anything at home (except for cat food, of course) and so think about something you had a restaurant that you really liked - a rice bowl with tofu, a spicy spaghetti, or a hummus plate. 

Now go forth, pick your basic ingredient and desired destination (Thai Tofu! Spicy Tomato Sauce! Mediterranean Eggplant! Indian-Spiced Chickpeas!) and see if Buzzfeed’s Tasty has made a handy little vid for you (probably!).

But if you’re like me and prefer the feel of a book (if you get the book dirty then you’re doing it right), these are a few of my favorite things: 

Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes

*For standard asian recipes and some very handy imagery for the intrepid asian grocery store goer

Essentials of Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan 

*Italian Mammas agree: Marcella is QUEEN 

Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi

*Many recipes are Middle Eastern in flavor, but all will make your vegetarian friend cry with bliss (honorable mention: Caramelized Garlic Tart. SWOON)

Affleck Apologizes for Groping: So What?

October 12, 2017

In reference to: ‘Affleck Apologizes for groping Hilarie Burton’ (CNN, 10-11-2017)

There was something in the air when Ben Affleck’s initial response to the allegations made against Harvey Weinstein emerged on my Twitter feed.  The entire Weinstein (I keep typing Weinstain and it doesn’t feel 100% wrong) scandal already had me feeling both enraged and unsurprised, an unfortunate, nearly jaded response to the sexual harassment and predatory behavior towards women in Hollywood.  But to then see responses from other power players in the industry begin to creep in, I felt a mixture of ‘ABOUT TIME, ASSHOLE,’ ‘I want to believe that had you known, you would have spoken up,’ and ‘…disingenuous.’  The last feeling is the hardest to shake, perhaps ushered in by the cacophony of media voices calling upon industry elites to respond to the scandal, a cacophony so loud that the responses, to me, seemed tarnished by a layer of forced response.  It was as though the responder did not necessarily wish to respond but was instead pushed by their PR team to get a statement, any statement, out there.  Now this is not the case with all of the responders, of course, but rather was a sentiment reserved for those men that have been closely associated with Weinstein in both a public and personal way.  To put it more simply, notable members of the Hollywood boy’s club.

And so it was when Affleck posted his response on Twitter, and I saw a few others - both close friends and Twitter celebs I admire - like his tweet, that a voice with a resounding boom echoed throughout my mind: ‘bullshit.’  And lo and behold, that voice and the mass of other naysayers were correct as Affleck was then called to explain his hypocrisy as he himself was caught on camera groping women.

Affleck now, having been slapped on the wrist for his hypocritical pandering to the nation, apologizes.  But I ask: so what?  Yes the apology is better than referring to his behavior as ‘locker room’ bullshit, but to apologize for something that he did years ago fails to carry much weight in my eyes.  If he felt remorse for his actions, or recognized that what he did was wildly inappropriate then he would have either apologized after the incident occurred, or he would have reached out to Burton ON HIS OWN to apologize for his actions. But the fact is he has never felt remorse and he does not feel remorse now.  What is most worrying is the years that have gone by during which time it never occurred to him that his actions may have affected Burton, that maybe, just maybe, she did not enjoy the groping hands of a horny young star.  Rather, it seems that in Affleck’s eyes, she enjoyed it.  And why shouldn’t she?  After all, who wouldn’t want to be manhandled by a star?  ‘When you’re a star…you can do anything.’