This is the Greenest Site Ever’s first ever guest blog post! Be kind to Dan Harrison of Envirogadget.com and DailyEcoTips.com.  He’s a Brit so take it easy on him.  They are very sensitive, especially around tea issues.

…and back to “Being Eco-Friendly Means Losing Your Sense of Style”

FAIL!

 Why didn’t they think of a way to re-design the surface of the solar cell so that it could be matched to any other clothing? Rather than match the clothing to the panel? Look at the solar-powered tie, it looks stupid. Supposedly good for charging your phone using the pouch in the back of the tie. It does make your phone that little more vulnerable though. Probably wouldn’t take much for it to fall out either.

Then there’s the solar-powered fan on a baseball cap. Right, if you have no shame and enjoy having people pointing and laughing at you, it’s perfect! Sure you can see the practical use for it, however, it does nothing in the area of aesthetics. It’d rather waft a newspaper in front of my face than wear that cap.

wearing this means you have given up on ever finding love.

So listen up green-gadget-clothing designers! Make stuff that people would actually want to wear!

This article was written by Dan Harrison of EnviroGadget.com and Daily Eco Tips.com. Dan is enthusiastic about green gadgets and encouraging people to do their bit for the planet in small easy steps.

It’s nice to see that local luxury companies aren’t going out of their way to exploit a global crisis for profit.

I do have to give them credit though, the ad is particularly clever. I wonder how many African babies had to die for them to get the diamonds that are in thier store.

These creatures are not worth saving, they are creations of the devil.  Except the last one, that fish is awesome:

Sometimes when I look at Denver’s horizon, which is rife with smog, I ask myself: “What the hell can I do?” And then I feel a bit helpless in this whole green and environmental movement and with my tiny, yet awesome, blog.  I feel like nothing is getting done or that my actions are, in the scheme of things, meaningless.  But then I remember the quote that’s on my mission page:

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.” 

-Edmund Burke

what he probably would have said if he was born today.

And then I don’t quite feel so helpless anymore.  However, it does stir up some anger in me.  It gets me thinking how many people out there do literally nothing for this very reason.  I can understand not doing something out of ineptitude, fear, or sloth but not doing something because it’s not making a HUGE impact…dumbdie dumb dumb dumb.  

There’s a law in banking/business (and basic common sense) that a very little number times a very big number equals, well, a REALLY big number.  Point being, that a bunch of people deciding NOT to do a little thing results in ALOT of bad while the inverse is true if all those people decide to do their little thing.  This is what keeps me typing, even if it’s another puppy post.  

So here’s a very simple and easy call to action:  Do one small thing TODAY to help make this world a little bit greener, friendlier, or awesomererer.  Pick up a piece of trash on the street, open a door for a little old lady, or smile at someone who’s having a bad day.  Keep those small deeds pumping and make a difference and be a part of that REALLY big number.

i think those two green people are about to do it...right in front of the koala

Well, I decided to get a little more involved than just writing a blog.  A more hands on approach, if you will. I wanted to volunteer, but there was a part time payed position that fit into my schedule perfectly. What’s better than doing good for the planet?  Getting paid for it!

I’ll let you know how the interview goes and report on exactly what I’m doing here on the blog so you can track my progress or lack thereof.  

Check out Greenpeace’s site by clicking here.  They also have numerous blogs, but none of them are as green or as awesome as this one.

Bye for now!

So I decided to take a day to experience nature instead of griping about what’s happening to it.  The appreciation took the form of a 14,285 foot hike to the top of Gray’s Peak.  It was awesome and beat the hell out of my sea level body.  I’m sure I will experience crazy soreness tomorrow, but today I’m just glad that I was able to see this:

my phones camera really doesn’t do them justice… 

HAVE FREAKING DOORS!

I guess doors are too much to ask from Mr. Big Box Store.

I was headed over to the King Soopers (a grocery store chain in Colorado) last night with a major case of an Oreo attack.  When I got there, I couldn’t believe my eyes: this grocery store has no doors!  It just pumps AC all day with this gaping hole in the front of the store.  According to my Oreo attack comrade and Colorado native Craig, they do the same thing in the winter and have heat pouring out of the store’s orifice, spewing hot air twenty-four hours a day seven days a week.  They never close, and neither does this wasteful cavity.  It’s kinda like Rush Limbaugh’s mouth.   

Is it too much to ask to have freaking DOORS when the average heating bill is supposed to break $500 dollars this winter?  They’re making it a crime in to do this in NYC:

The crazy thing is, that this is dealing with stores that have doors but opt to keep them open in the hot summer months to draw customers into their AC.  King Soopers, however, didn’t even have doors in their blueprints.  I can see that conversation in my head:

Architect:  You know you really don’t need doors and it’ll save X dollars in door costs.  Doors are getting very expensive, because the magic that makes them open automatically has to come from never never land which is, like, really far away.

King Sooper Person-in-charge:  Wont that be an insulation problem?

Architect:  Dude, I’m an architect.

King Sooper Person-in-charge:  Sorry, you’re the expert.  I’m sorry I ever doubted you.  In that case, do we need walls?

I jest, of course, but I’m sure there was a conversation of the pros and cons to build this behemoth of a grocery store and some dude in some office weighed the lists of door pros and door cons and the pros lost.  Unfreakin’ believable.  

Enjoy your $120 a barrel oil King Soopers and enjoy one less customer.

(I did buy the Oreo’s though, they’re like crack.) 

Is there any reasoning to NOT having doors?  I’m sure this is and I would love to know what it is.  Can anyone inform me?

it's way easier being cheesy than green, chester

After traveling over 1800 miles across this country I came to a bit of a realization:  it aint easy being green. This country is designed for waste, especially rest stops.  It’s like convenience has replaced common sense. For example, rather than have a clean and cool filtered water fountain/dispenser where I could fill my water up each rest stop I went to had at least two vending machines whose sole purpose was to vend petroleum covered water.  

As far as green selections for food, you can forget about it.  I didn’t pass one exit or rest stop that had fresh local produce.  Despite the fact that lots of them were right next to giant farms.  

And of course, if you want to drive cross country, you’ve got to use gas.  

To summarize, there were plenty of options to eat crappy, use oil, and consume things that would be thrown out in under an hour.  Basically, tons of options to hurt your body and your environment and none to do the opposite.  As far as being green is concerned, you’re set up to fail!  It just got me to thinking how far we all really need to go to change.

I don’t know if the pictures show it, but these things are huge!

1154 miles in and I’m still in Iowa. Gas mileage is down to 26.7 mpg. I think this is mostly due to the fact that I’m averaging 75 miles per hour and using cruise control.

More later!

Doesn’t Iowa look exciting?