Earth Day: Market the Solution, Not the Problem

Male bass with eggs in their testicles. Endocrine disruptors in household products creating intersex fish and amphibians with six legs--legacy pollutants like PCBs in our drinking water, in the fish we eat, and in the tar on roads.

Who cares? The 20 year old discussion about clean water has lost public attention.

But ask what's safe to eat and drink? And people care. Frame the issue so it addresses traffic and taxes and watch activism grow.

Earth Day is getting more attention this year than ever before, much of it from companies hungry for marketing opportunities. So I narrowed my options down to doing just one thing for Earth Day--I'm watching Frontline, Poisoned Waters, a PBS special about the impact of unchecked development around my former hometown, DC metro area. I used to live in Vienna, Virginia near Tysons Corner. What has happened to the area in the past 20 years is an ecological plague. It could also be a model for how to undo the decisions of greed.

Photo of Yellow Crowned Night Heron by Fran Palmeri

Every Day is Earth Day

Did you know: that using Facebook for one year adds almost 2,000 pounds of carbon to your personal footprint?

As a gift to Mother Earth on her special day, GenGreenLife.com has teamed up with Cooler Inc. to offset the carbon equivalent of an entire day of using Facebook for each person that adds this app! So share it with your friends and help us exceed our goal of gathering 20,000 people to offset 100,000 pounds of carbon on Earth Day.

To add Every Day is Earth Day to your Facebook profile, click here: <"a href=http://apps.facebook.com/gengreenearthday http://apps.facebook.com/gengreenearthday

The "Ick Factor"

One of the hottest amenities in travel is hypoallergenic rooms. We've been offering them for years to guests with sensitivities, but also to people who don't want to be exposed to whatever bacteria and bugs came with the guy who slept there the night before.

In addition to being super-clean and free of dirt-holding carpeting and upholstered furniture, our self-catering holiday homes and vacation rentals are purified by steam-cleaning the floors and tile at 120 degrees, changing the anti-microbial HEPA air filters, no use of aerosol spray cleaners or fresheners, disinfecting with hydrogen peroxide, sun light and fresh air, and fragrance free cleaning. Mattresses and pillows have dust-mite covers and no VOC paints and finishes keep toxins out of the air. These methods also cut down on dust, pollen and other irritants.

As Practical Traveler, Michelle Higgens wrote in the NY Times, "This much cleanliness is a bit neurotic. But its not enough for hotels seeking health-conscious consumers to just offer organic food..." She also notes that most hotels offering these amenities charge a 5 to 10 percent premium.

Resources for pure vacationing:

Smoke-Free Hotels

Asthma and Allergy Foundation

Indoor Air Quality Association

Canadian Centre for Occupational and Health Safety

Special Offers at Smoke Free Hotels

More Time, Less Stuff

Luxury isn't about stuff, having "stuff" means pollution, trash, uneccessary death of wildlife and sacred animals. The very bags for our "stuff" ruin the luxury of our personal and planetary health. These videos make the case: Less plastic, more life.

Local is the New Luxury

“Whether in a remote corner of Africa, or in Damascus, one of the oldest cities on earth, or in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the highest standards of hospitality are achieved…without sacrificing the distinct qualities of local cultures and concerns.”
--Condé Naste Travel, Editor in Chief, Klara Glowczewska

Luxury these days is about having the time to take it easy, it’s not about stuff. It’s about having the smarts to spend your money deliberately, with companies and people who share your values. It’s about having enough heart to care for your health and the well-being of your loved ones—including Mother Earth. That luxury is a blessing for me this Thanksgiving (in the US). I hope it is for you also.

Free Staycation--From Your Desktop

Take a trip around the world and return feeling uplifted FOR FREE. Watch this short Flash.

Who Says Money Doesn't Buy Happiness?

Secret Florida: Laid Back Luxury and Romance

If you think Florida is all golf courses and palm trees, you haven’t explored St. Augustine. While I have been known to poke fun at Florida, I can’t get enough of “The Old City.” Whether you love romance or adventure, you need look no further than this playground. Just a short drive from Orlando or Jacksonville airports, it sits on a sound where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Matanzas at two inlets.

For the big picture view of how the city is laid out and a taste of the natural wonder, start off with a sunset cruise with sweeping city and harbor views from the Schooner--Freedom--a 72-foot tall ship. Departs from the City Marina next to the Bridge of Lions. Or for more exercise, walk up the 219 stairs at the St. Augustine Lighthouse for views you’ll never forget. Beats a Stairmaster any day.

St. Augustine was founded in 1565, long before Jamestown, the English colony in Virginia and 55 years before Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. One of it’s many claims to fame is it is the oldest European settlement in North America. Of course the Hopis were here long before the Spanish. With no cars allowed on some of the historic streets, the town is a walker's dream, full of quaint nooks and crannies to explore, quirky museums, unique shops, and art galleries with everything from Dr. Suess to work by local artists.

You can paddle 20 different runs to Anastasia Park or Crescent Beach from the Matanzas River where you can kayak or canoe alongside dolphin and manatee while bird watching, fishing or just reconnecting with yourself and the natural beauty.

Bald eagles nest from October to March and wright whales can be seen blowing as mothers and calves migrate from colder waters. Or catch Sea Monsters, a new film from National Geographic at the World Golf Hall of Fame and IMAX Theater.

New restaurants mean even world-traveling foodies can make mouth-watering discoveries and lasting memories. One such spot opened this summer. Fifth generation Chef Jean Stephane Poinard moved from the famed culinary region of Lyon with his charming, wine-making wife, Valerie, their children, and their sous chef to open Bistro de Leon. The name is a clever nod to the culture-combo. And when you're ready to recover from indulging in their baked goods and sauces, the revitalizing food of Present Moment Café offers an creative counterpoint across the tracks on King Street.

95 Cordova is an elegant spot to hit for a late dessert and quiet jazz. Don’t be afraid to wander in dressed in your touring clothes. Located in the Casa Monica Hotel where guests stroll through in everything from wedding attire to shorts, the gracious servers treat you the same in a business suit as in your coverup and bathing suit.

For a few laughs and an entertaining spin on accurate history, end another evening with a trip on Ripley's Ghost Tour. While many guides offer ghost outings, Ripley's includes a camera, an EMF meter and a spooky trip into the Ripley Museum after hours. You'll also find professionally trained guides give more fact than mythology with Ripleys. Believe it or not.

The St. Augustine Wild Reserve offers tours for small groups to see their rescued exotic pets, mostly big cats that didn't make Siegfried and Roy or other Hollywood pussycats.
See the EcoLuxury website for links to all the sites mentioned, suggestions for when to go, and how to save money. Caution: you’ll find no listings for tourist joints where you might overpay for the view and mediocre food. We figure you can find those on billboards and in hotel lobby brochures. We don’t get paid for advertising, we do it as a courtesy to our vacation rental guests.

Travel For Peace

Travel can be more than a vacation. It can be used to achieve social change.

Louis D'Amore, founder of The International Institute for Peace Through Tourism(IITP), believes tourism can foster world peace. IITP is hosting their first European Conference: Bridging The North-South Divide Through Sustainable Tourism Development" October 21-25, 2008 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. If you are interested in learning more visit the IITP website or read an interview with Louis D'Amore at http://ecoclub.com/news/067/interview.html and check out what ODE had to say about him here

Hummingbirds Headed South

We love hummingbirds, especially the ones that fly around Sedona. That's why we call our house, "Casita Colibri," Little House of the Hummingbirds.

Each fall thousands of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds migrate from Canada through Mississippi to their winter home in Mexico and Central America. Moving like a river of birds, they traverse the fields and woods and then make a non-stop 500-mile flight over the Gulf of Mexico.

Vital to our ecosystem as pollinators, 9 species are Critically Endangered, 14 Endangered, 19 Near Threatened, and 6 Vulnerable, totaling 48 species worldwide.

Hummingbird habitat is being lost to development and fragmentation, as forests give way to logging, and crops. All of these changes can impact hummingbird populations. The status of the Ruby-throated population is robust, however, and bodes for a spectacular migration in Mississippi, where the little birds are already arriving.

8,100 people gathered to watch the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds fly over Mississippi, the largest crowd ever gathered at Strawberry Plains Audubon Center for the ninth Hummingbird Migration Celebration. Hummingbird banders tagged a record 281 birds over three days and recaptured one adult female that had been banded at the center on Sept. 9, 2006.

"Hummingbirds may be small in size, but they are mighty in their impact as ambassadors for nature and conservation," said Madge Lindsay, executive director of Audubon Mississippi. "When you see one of these fragile looking birds up close, you can't help but be inspired by the amazing diversity of life on our planet. It is breathtaking to think that a creature weighing a tenth of an ounce can survive such a perilous, long journey."

Tips for attracting hummers to your backyard from Audubon here.

Photo by Bill Stripling

Going For the Green: Thoughts on Guilt and Greenwashing

"These days, it seems just about every business is finding a way to go green, making it that much harder for well-intentioned consumers to distinguish companies with green products and services." --Entrpreneur Magazine

Green guilt, extreme green, green washing—the over-exposure to green messages leaves me feeling eco-fatigued. Businesses greenwashing in hopes of getting attention has created a backlash of cynicism against the green trend. What's an easy going green gal to do?

I confess, I'm not a purist, I find it to be rigid and confusing. Twenty percent of going green requires expensive, complicated, difficult choices about which most people disagree. I focus on the 80% that has clear impacts instead of giving up because of the debatable and often painful 20%.

The way I see it, lots of people doing 80% makes a bigger difference than a few zealots doing 100%. I set a rational, reasonable example that people can follow, rather than condemn those who are unable or unwilling to adopt a perfectionist’s all-or-nothing approach.

Is that a cop-out? Is that nurturing? Economists say it is the law of diminishing return. The last 20% isn't worth the trouble it takes to go after.

Having said all that, I lose respect for businesses that claim to be green for common sense things like recycling. I find lodgings that claim to be green because they ask guests to use less water or because they switched to flourescent light bulbs laughable.

I give my business to those who assert their green-ness in writing. Certification from third parties that verify eco-friendly practices also offer credibility and I have a few for my business just for that reason. But the field of listings is so crowded, most consumers can't tell one from the other. What it seems we can tell is that it takes a variety of efforts to support local residents and protect the environment and no light coat of green can cover up for lack of substance.

Living on the Edge

By Guest Blogger, Fran Palmeri
Nature Photographer

When I moved to Florida I thought it was kind of cute that yard birds were the live kind. Then I realized birds were in people’s yards because they had nowhere else to go. They’re forced to coexist with humans on chemically treated lawns, mulch, concrete and asphalt. Sandhill cranes take up residence on pesticided sod by an algaecide treated pond, wood storks hang out in a dumpster behind a restaurant, and ibises nest in a mountain of debris on a construction site. Dumps are another common habitat for birds and other creatures with no where else to feed.

Our fellow creatures often live life on the fringes of developed areas. Our ignorance, lack of concern, greed, and short sightedness has forced wildlife to make do with hideous substitutes for all that is natural, that is real, that is YES, to paraphrase Cummings.