What I do find incredulous are the number of people who are using this latest Al Gore scandal to “prove” that everything he ever said about global warming must be false. It’s crazy in my opinion, but it’s not like he hasn’t faced such ad hominem arguments before. A few years ago when the energy bills from his Tennessee home were made public, certain people used his wastefulness to tell the world once and for all that all those inconvenient truths weren’t actually true. It’s like the argument that absurd book, Good Intentions, made against Christian environmental actions – it argued that because some environmentalists purchase carbon offsets they are just hypocrites and so therefore global warming doesn’t exist. Sigh. Apparently most of these people missed the day in college when they covered logical fallacies.

Yes, Al Gore is a sucky messenger if not a sucky human being. So what, so are most of us. I published an entire freaking book on living justly in regards to consumer habits, and I rarely make it a week (or a day) without doing the exact opposite of what I advocate in the book. Sure, I feel a twinge of guilt each time I make a beeline for the children’s clearance rack at Old Navy or order a cheeseburger with meat of indiscriminate origin. But in no way do I assume that my (or Al Gore’s) failure to be perfect in any way discredits the truth of our message. Sure we are hypocrites and scum-bags, and don’t set very good examples, but our failings don’t have the power to create a falsehood out of truth.

If being a hypocrite (or general all-around jerk) proved that one’s beliefs are false then Christianity wouldn’t exist in this country. For that matter, most of the good and just things we belief wouldn’t exist. I can wax eloquent online about being an empowered woman who stands up to sexism, but in reality I don’t always have the strength to be that person fully. In truth I am often plagued by self-doubt and confused by the lies fed to me by my culture as to my worth as a woman. Do my struggles make my beliefs about equality and empowerment pointless? Or are they simply part of the process of claiming a belief while still being a fallible human being?

If there wasn’t room for grace in our faith, then who would follow Jesus? No one is capable of loving one’s neighbor, obeying God, denying oneself, and taking up the cross to follow Jesus every moment of every day. As much as I agree with and strive towards those things, I often let myself get in the way. I know when I’m being greedy and selfish and unloving and a jerk, but even as I do those things I cling to the belief that I shouldn’t. That doesn’t excuse me in any way or negate the fact that I am a hypocrite. But neither does the fact that I am a hypocrite negate the validity or goodness of what I believe.

We are quick to crucify the messenger in our society. Granted, some messengers might need to be so treated, or at least removed from their pedestal. Others perhaps could simply use a bit of understanding and grace. But we tread dangerous ground when we are so indiscriminate to throw the baby out with the bathwater – to disengage our minds to the point that we reject truth in our gleeful tar and feathering of its source. If our world is falling apart and being destroyed by our own hands, so what if Al Gore is a dick? If he’s broken the law, treated women as objects, and been a hypocrite he of course needs to be held accountable. But it is our minds clouded with zealous shadenfreude that are proved foolish when we confuse the messenger for the message in such a way. We might all be hypocrites and selfish jerks, but we can do better than that.

As I say in the podcast, I truly hope this oil spill serves as a wake-up call for America. While I fear it may be a news blip that captures our attention for a moment and then the real clean-up gets left to the handful of people who really care, I still have a bit of hope that it will force us to open our eyes to the need to rely less on oil. We all use oil, we all are to blame for demanding cheap oil in this country. We have a responsibility in this incident that we should own up to. I hope as responsible human beings we will be willing to make the sacrifices and changes necessary to turn away from environmentally hazardous sources of energy.

I hope too that Americans will use our outrage and voice to ensure BP is held accountable to clean up the mess they created as well. When incidents like this have occurred in other areas of the world, the major oil companies have often evaded any responsibility for their destruction of local environments and economies. I mention in Everyday Justice how ChevronTexaco has destroyed the Niger River Delta through similar oil spills and toxic fallout from their refineries. When local women there could no longer make a living fishing (as they had for generations) because of the pollution they protested and asked Chevron to clean up the mess they had made. Chevron hired local mercenaries to deal with the protest who ended up killing some of the women and burning their boats. Courts later decided that Chevron was not responsible for the actions of the mercenaries they hired. While these multinational companies have so far gotten away with pollution and atrocities in third world nations, perhaps the tide will shift now that America is affected. Granted, poor fishermen and Louisiana natives are not high on our country's priority list (as seen by the response to Katrina), but at least there might be slightly stricter legal pressure to hold BP accountable in this situation. Or, at least, one can always hope.

So if you're interested in exploring these topics further, download the podcast and join in on the conversation.

I address these questions (and then point out why I think those questions miss the point) in a new post I have up at RELEVANT Magazine's Reject Apathy Site. So if you've ever wondered about what sort of impact you can really have, I suggest you check out my post and then share your thoughts!

It’s World Water Week and the focus is on how to provide clean drinking water to people around the world. Over 1.4 million children die from drinking water related issues every year – clean water is a necessity for life. But even as the awareness of the worldwide need for clean water grows, few people realize the growing toxic menace in our own tap water. But the truth is that pharmaceutical drugs and personal care products increasingly are found in our water systems. Few or no discharge standards or monitoring systems currently exist to regulate these items. But trends occurring in local rivers and lakes – fish dying, mutating, or changing sex in mass – have sparked scientists to look into what is actually in our water. The culprits – drugs and medical wastes, contraceptives, anti-depressents, blood pressure medication, antibiotics, perfumes, musks, soaps, cleansers, sun screens, and thousands of other chemicals now manufactured for human use and health care. These are chemicals our water works systems don't test for regularly and so they aren’t removed from our wastewater. But they are impacting our world in a big way.

We think we are “getting rid” of those old pills we flush down the toilet, or we don’t care about the hormones we pee away. Maybe if we thought about it, we’d assume that these things are removed by wastewater treatment plants. But there aren’t even systems in place to test their presence in our water, much less Federal standards regulating their levels. So into our local waterways we pour antibiotics and endocrine inhibitors causing superbacteria to breed and schools of fish to literally change sex (leading to no more baby fish). Then we return this water to our treatment plants where these chemicals are still not dealt with before they return to our drinking water. We are exposing ourselves to low levels of antibiotics, Prozac, and estrogen on a regular basis. And the health implications are only beginning to be understood. What happens to young boys who are raised on a cocktail of estrogen? What about people suffering from blood clots for whom hormone therapy could equal death?

Solutions are difficult. Drug and cosmetic companies lobby hard against any regulation of their products and dispute any studies showing possible harmful effects of these chemicals. It would be impossible to restrict people from dumping pills down the toilet, or from merely using the toilet to eliminate their chemically laced bodily wasted. Testing standards would require the government’s involvement (which the lobbyist are fighting against), and developing treatment plans would cause the cost of clean water to skyrocket. (and just fyi, bottled water has all the same problems). So you can see why the water world fears this impending crisis.

We promote charity causes to help dig clean water wells in other countries, but our very affluence has turned our own water into an untreatable toxic mess. The world water crisis is scarier that we think.

For more info check out this article on PCCP’s in the environment or this study on the most common chemicals in our drinking water.

After just spending two weeks in Illinois and Michigan where we experienced the cool wet summer that everyone is annoyed by, it was a bit of a shock to return to the triple digits here in Texas. We have nearly set a record for the number of days over 100 this summer (the average is 12, we are well over 60). But worst than the heat is the drought. Central and South Texas are experiencing the worst drought in recorded history. Since September 2007, rainfall has steadily decreased. Even last year as the hurricane brought downpours to places like Chicago, the storm clouds simply blew right over us without releasing a single drop. As of yesterday Austin imposed stage 2 water restrictions. These are the sorts of restrictions that prohibit the running of outdoor fountains, require restaurants to serve water only if the customer asks for it, and land you with serious fines for wasting water. But even before these strict restrictions people had voluntarily stopped watering for aesthetic purposes. Around town I would see empty flowerbeds with signs that read "Doing the right thing is doing without flowers." My yard is long since dead, my flowers shriveled, and my vegetable garden barely staying alive. It's forcing us to be aware of how wasteful we can be, and take care to conserve. (and yes, we have a timer in the shower).

But doing without carwashes and green lawns is nothing – those suffering the most are the farmers. Texas is second only to California as a food producing state, but there are entire counties that have lost their crops. Cattle farmers too are suffering as there is nothing for cows to eat. The grass is dead and there is no hay to even be bought – the cows are starving. Losses from this drought are in the billions of dollars. It is strange since this is a localized drought. In this weird world of climate change, much of the country is wetter and cooler than average, so many don't know about the record heat and drought in this corner of the country. But we need rain and need it desperately. Down here instead of "rain, rain go away" the kids are singing "rain, rain come again." While being forced to be better stewards of our water is a good thing, the suffering is extreme. So if you are so inclined – please pray for rain.

What I don't understand are the "sight pollution" complaints. The communities than ban clotheslines or gardens or solar panels or wind turbines because they are unsightly. While it's disturbing that people these days would even consider gardens or clotheslines outside of the normal pattern of day to day living, I also don't get why it is those things that are banned. These communities allow cookie cutter houses fitted with multiple satellite dishes. Garish banners and windsocks dangle from their porches and garden gnomes and polyresin angels peep out from their gardens. Come Fall, giant inflatable Winnie-the-Pooh vampires and mass-produced scarecrows adorn their lawns. Signs advertising their roofer, pool company, security system, or electric dog fence stand alongside pronouncements of what issue or candidate they are voting for. And yet they can't dry their laundry in the backyard taking advantage of the benefit of sunlight to sterilize because some people say it pollutes their view. It's not like the solar array is being built to block their view of a mountain range or the sunset over the lake, it's all just part of all the other everyday stuff in their neighborhood. But apparently stone geese wearing clothes but saving the planet is not.

It's so silly, that I really just wonder if it is an excuse spread by the electric companies. Of course they don't want people going green, using alternative energy sources like the wind our the sun – it will make them lose money. But since they can't say that they are too greedy to take care of the earth, they introduce the idea of sight pollution – that it is offensive and inappropriate to have to witness environmentalism in action.

I don't know. Anyone have any better ideas? I'm just trying to wrap my mind around why tacky yard art is okay but a clotheslines isn't.

It takes stuff like The Daily Show to point out how absurd the typical objections to organic food truly are. The saddest part is that the lies being fed to us by so-called experts are based on studies funded by chemical companies. Big oil, big fertilizer, big pesticide have to convince us that dumping tons of their synthetic chemicals into the environment is the only way to grow good crops in order for their companies to survive.  In fact they even sell genetically engineers seeds that require stronger and more potent doses of their chemicals to grow. Of course, they are going to say whatever they can to ensure they keep selling product – even if what they are doing harms people and the planet.

But people believe what they are sold in advertisements. And these businesses know how to use the language of organic to their own ends – saying that farming without synthetic chemicals is uncaring, unsustainable, and unhealthy. It reminded me of food activist Michael Pollan's recent lament on Democracy Now!. After his recent books have pointed out the health and environmental dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup, he has noticed a number of products advertising that they are made with "real cane sugar" as if it's a health claim. They took his warning about how we are slipping synthetic sweetener into everything as a way to sell sugar as the healthy option. It's not that people are missing the point, it's that the point has been twisted to serve those it originally tried to fight. (Pollan's advice by the way, is to simply don't buy any food you have ever seen advertised.) But Pollan also comments, "the language of sustainability and the critique of industrial food is being picked up by some of the major players within industrial food, either as an effort to co-opt the rhetoric or simply confuse the consumer and the citizen."

It is this deliberate confusing of the public that gets to me. I have no issue with advertising in general – if you've got a product to sell, sell it. I even don't get too bothered by the "buy our wrinkle cream and you too will look as young and sexy as our 19 year old airbrushed model" sort of advertising either. We all know that stuff is a lie, but we buy the stuff anyway because we wish it were true. But having Monsanto claim that over-farming, trends towards mono-crop varieties, and continued use of synthetic chemicals in farming are "sustainable" is a damned lie. Sure people have the right to define words however they like, but this is one of those times where I really don't want the bad guys to win just because they have more money and power.

So once again, thank you The Daily Show, for being the voice to speak truth to power.

Then I had to wonder at the need to advertise one's justification for not driving a hybrid. Are people so worried that they are being judged that they need to apologize for what they are not doing? I personally get this a lot. My friends and family are starting to realize my commitment to sustainable living and ethical consumption. So much so that they now apologize to me for actions like serving non-fair trade coffee or using paper plates. It reminds me of the tendency for people to apologize to conservative Christians when they say a curse word.

But then I asked myself if that is really such a bad thing (and yes, it's quite common for me to argue with myself – I'm weird, I know). I'm not a fan of guilt as a motivation, but is it really such a bad thing to admit that there is a better way even if you are not there yet? I personally find more hope in hearing people say they are working towards a sustainable future than in some of the recent SUV commercials I've heard (i.e. 'now that gas prices are down, it's the perfect time to buy a luxury SUV"). I think it goes beyond guilt to the reality of attainable solutions. This statement doesn't have to be an excuse or a justification, but a goal. It is someone talking about the basic things they are doing to help change the world.

At least, that's how I like to see it.

Fuel is the outcome of activist and writer Josh Tickell's quest to stand up to our country's addiction to oil and propose alternative solutions. It recently won Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival and is in many ways unlike any other documentary I've seen recently. Most documentaries that speak to fuel usage and the global crises it causes are fairly doom and gloom oriented. They paint a hopeless scenario, are pretty heavy-handed with the guilt, and speak vaguely to the need for change. Fuel though is different. While it unequivocally points out the problems with petrochemical corporations and our political dalliance with oil, it does so from a very personal perspective. Tickell tells his own story – from his mother's heath struggles common to those living near the Louisiana refineries to his experiments with veggiemobiles. His candid approach is a constant reminder that the fuel crisis is not just an abstract phenomenon, but a very personal issue.

But what really sets this film apart is its hopeful outlook for the future. There are alternatives out there – solutions are available, we just need to jump on board. Tickell spends a good portion of the movie describing the early biodiesel/ethanol movement. I appreciated that he dealt head on with the worldwide economic and pollution issues involved in some of the production of those fuels. But he then moves on to describe better biodiesel options (like algae based fuel grown from wastewater) and the potential behind other alternative energy sources like solar and wind energy. These aren't vague options he suggests either, but he outlines plans for exactly how these technologies can work, help create jobs, and benefit the economy. Everything from multistory greenhouse gardens that can feed entire cities to Sweden's plan to be petroleum free by 2020 are presented in this hopeful view of the future. I liked this tangible and practical vision and left the theater wanted to invest or something in algae fuels and windmill technology.

Unfortunately as positive and practical as the film was, to make a real impact it needs to be reaching the masses. But I have a feeling that the few people seeing the film are already on board and fairly informed about these issues. Case in point – out of the six of us in the theater watching the film, I saw that two of those couples drove a Prius and a Smart Car (can I just say I was glad I was in my compact car and not the family SUV…). They are already there, I'm trying to get there – but real change will take a major movement. It will take the US government doing what many European governments have done and subsidize the eco-friendly options (instead of our oil addiction). It has to be practical, easy, cheap, and widespread for it to happen.

So I encourage you to go see the film if it is playing in your area. Get educated about these solutions. We don't have to be addicted to oil, there are viable alternatives. And this movie is a great reminder that there is hope.

Tags: Fuel Film, Josh Tickell, biodiesel, environment, oil addiction, alternative fuel