Green Your St. Patrick's Day Partying
Well, St. Patrick's Day is upon us. Can you think of a better time to throw a green party? Nope! You can't. So here are some fun and easy ways to get started:
1. Drink local beer
It's probably available down the street from you -- and don't tell me there isn't local beer. Find something from your area with these handy maps from Beermapping.com, which will point you to breweries near you. Just deselect the other options like "beer bars," and "homebrew stores." I'll probably fill up a reusable 64-ounce growler of some Kelso brew, or maybe something from Sixpoint Craft Ales -- both breweries are about two miles from my apartment.
2. And don't throw anything away
Come on -- plastic cups, really? What are you, a freshman? Shell out for some pint glasses! Extra credit if your glasses used to be beer bottles. When I first moved to my new apartment, I asked party-goers to bring their own vessels. That didn't work, so go ahead and use this as an excuse to outfit yourself with some new party-ready glasses.
3. Vegan eatin': Vegan corned "beef" and cabbage
I've never tried this one, but I'll say this: I'm increasingly impressed with imitation meat meals. Especially vegan junk food (like Foodswings in Brooklyn). But if you want to reduce the impact of your St. Patrick's Day food -- or if you want to cater to your friends who don't eat meat, here's a recipe for Vegan corned "beef" and cabbage.
4. Have a clothing swap party
Recession BONUS: Dress in green and bring clothes you don't wear anymore to trade with friends. It's the cheapest, greenest wardrobe option around! Here is the cheesiest possible video explaining the rules of clothing swap parties.
5. Try greener lighting
...which is to say none! That's right -- party by moonlight. Or candlelight. Prove that you can do better than Earth Hour while partying.
6. Hungover the day after? Work from home
If you can work from home, do it! It'll cut down on carbon emissions and loud, awful phone ringers in your ears. Ouch.
Happy partying! And aren't you impressed that I kept myself from using "Erin Go Green?"
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Someone please tell me why I should celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I'm not Irish and I'm not Catholic and no, I DON'T celebrate Christmas. Ever since grade school, when you got punched in the shoulder if you weren't wearing green on St. Patrick's Day, I have abhorred this holiday.
You're right , you shouldn't .. In fact you should hold your breath until the end of the day
Well, you're not in grade school and nobody's forcing you. You can be as glum as you want in your own corner!
What are you doing living in Boston if you're not Irish or Catholic? I'm surprised you're still living especially if you're near Southie!
Um, I didn't hear about the edict forcing you to celebrate anything, Deputy Downer. I have friends in all color and religion, and on St. Patrick's Day most folks I know wear green (and no, it's not because I'd hit them.) Even in grade school, if the kids who weren't Irish didn't wear green, they had the good sense to at least have something on them under their collar they could show so the Irish kids didn't smack them on the shoulder.
Kind of made up for the rest of the year, when we got beat up on our school bus just for being Irish Catholic.
Look, I walk three blocks to my local, down my usual pints and stumble home. What's to green?
Anyway, Sliante everyone! Now get your heathen selves to church!
Silante!
Because God wants us to be green, lol.
Great Article...fun ideas!
http://www.newurbanismblog.com
Sorry, I'm skipping all the Irish brouhaha. I'm practicing abstenence altogether.
Local beer usually tastes better anyways. If people take just small steps locally they can prevent a lot of waste. We have to start small and move from there instead of many who are trying to do everything at once because it can become overwhelming to your lifestyle and make it harder. In five years many experts are saying electric cars will be the norm in showrooms instead of having to special order them. Going green/clean would solve a lot of our problems.
http://meancleantech.com
We have Irish Meat Pies, Boiled Cabbage, Potato and Leek soup, and Green Kool-Aid (for the kiddies). The candlelight idea is interesting. We’ve done that in the past. We have a single lantern (hand made in Colonial Williamsburg) hanging in our basement, and have gone down there before just to play games and tell stories with the kids (it’s amazing how much light it produces).
Yummy and how fun! Can I come over to your house?!?!
If you live in Ohio! : )
And by the way, I forgot the butter sauce for the Meat Pie. Can't have it without!
Necessity generates progress.
You know who killed the electric car? Environmentalists. We would have had safer plentiful inexpensive nuclear power 30 years ago if it wasn't for environmentalists. Instead, we're still burning coal for electricity.
So every time I read a "go green" article I turn on a light bulb. I'm doing my part to make change the right way.
"You know who killed the electric car? Environmentalists. We would have had safer plentiful inexpensive nuclear power 30 years ago if it wasn't for environmentalists. Instead, we're still burning coal for electricity."
Tell me, right wing genius who believes every ill in society must lead back to your favorite whipping post, can you name one insurance company in America that will indemnify a nuclear power plant? There aren't any. It isn't a right or left issue as you wish to see it. To build a nuclear power plant you have to have the government indemnify the liability. What do the bean counters at the insurance companies know that you don't? If it were so safe and effective then why won't one insurance company step forward and write a policy?
Nuclear power is cleaner than coal, but you can start generating electricity on wind or solar the moment it gets plugged into the grid. Nuclear plants take forever to build and usually cost more than their original estimates and still have pollution issues. It's far from a perfect solution and the cost is obviously more than a simple coal fired plant. Blame cost and indemnity issues before you start in on environmentalists. You give them way more credit for political power they don't possess. And you leap to a simplistic scapegoat with little or no evidence to back up your claims. In other words you are what passes for an informed conservative these days.
The solar manufacturing process is toxic and only works when there's sun light. It's also way too expensive to be a viable alternative. Same goes for wind. Hydrothermal only works in certain areas. We can't pipe electricity across a country this large. Yes, a grid exists but the power still must be local for it to be effective.
Nuclear is the only low cost alternative. So yes, I'll blame environmentalists for making us burn coal for the past 30 years.
The problem with nuclear energy has always been -- an accident is too permanent, too catastrophic. And the lowest bidder building the plant makes me unhappy as well.
But all of that aside:
You're a tool with a chip on your shoulder the size of Manhattan.
And burning coal isn't?
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