Tomorrow, May 10, is World Fair Trade Day! And in celebration, World’s Largest Fair Trade Coffee Break happens tomorrow afternoon. Technically, the event happens at noon on the west coast — but any time in the afternoon will do to count towards the total.

So caffeinate wit fellow fair trade activists. In L.A., you’ve got two events to pick from:

>> Fair Trade LA will have a booth all day at the “Revel with a Cause” Santa Monica Festival at Clover Park, 2600 Ocean Park Blvd., in Santa Monica. Go not just for the coffee, but for the solar-powered music performances, recycled crafty activities, international cuisine served on biodegradable plates, and more.

>> Ten Thousand Villages Pasadena will provide hot and iced fair trade beverages - along with chocolate and other samples — to all visitors who celebrate the coffee break with them at 3pm tomorrow. Just stop by the store at 496 S. Lake Ave. in Pasadena. There, you’ll even be able to buy fair trade flowers for Mother’s Day.

Fair trade activities will continue throughout the weekend:

>> Later tomorrow night, celebrate the launch of a partnership between Ten Thousand Villages and Anti-Body to support a new fair trade coconut oil co-op in Liberia. Wine and appetizers will be served. When & Where: May 10 at 7 pm, at Ten Thousand Villages, 496 S. Lake Ave. in Pasadena.

>> On Monday, Jacqueline Decarlo — author of “Fair Trade: A Beginner’s Guide” and former director of the Fair Trade Resource Network — will speak. When & Where: May 12 at 7 pm, at Ten Thousand Villages, 496 S. Lake Ave. in Pasadena.

>> On Tuesday, Jacqueline Decarlo will speak again. When & Where: May 13, at 7 pm, UCLA’s Royce Hall, Room 156, 752 Charles E. Young Dr., Los Angeles.

Tags: fairtrade, coffee

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To the kind readers who emailed to say you’re looking forward to hearing me speak at Green Drinks on Saturday: You are v. kind, but I will not be speaking.

To Hannah and other people who thought I’d be standing at a podium doing a Q&A for an hour: No, I will not be forcing would-be drinkers to listen to an hour-long Q&A on a Saturday night.

Here’s what’s actually happening. In celebration of the upcoming Earth Day, LA Green Drinks is having a special Saturday event at the Whole Life Times office downtown. You’re all invited, BTW:

When: Saturday, April 19, 7 pm - midnight
Where: Whole Life Times, 1200 S. Hope St., Ste. 300, Los Angeles.
Cost: $10 donation, which gets you organic beer, wine, and snacks. There’ll be live DJs too :)

Barent, the organizer, asked me if I’d come early and, during that first slow hour while people are trickling in, hang out behind a lil “ask green LA girl!” sign in the corner, so people with eco-related questions could ask them. Sure, I said. Can you make the sign? he said. Sure, I said.

Somehow, that was written up thusly in the Green Drinks email that went out:

Share in organic wine, beer, and munchies (and, yes, they are yummy!) along with DJs, Green LA Girl - Siel, and guest speaker Jonathan Parfrey, Director of Green L.A. (as well as other speakers)

This is when I started getting emails from people about how they look forward to my speech. I asked for a revision — and this is what went out in the second email:

Green LA Girl, Siel, will start the night informally answering your eco questions and Jonathan Parfrey, Director of Green L.A., as well as other speakers will bring us up to date on the efforts to Green LA.

7 pm Green LA Girl - Siel, informally answering your environmental questions
8 pm Green LA Director - Jonathon Parfrey followed by other speakers

This is when people started wondering why I was doing an hour-long Q&A.

Before that email went out, I pointed out this might happen — but it’s v. hard to convince people who think something is already clear that it only seems clear to them because they already know what the event is about. Try explaining the difference between the above with my suggestion — “the night will begin with some informal mingling over drinks and snacks, with Siel available to answer any eco-related questions and conundrums you may have” — without coming across as a nitpicky bitch….

Luckily all the people involved with Green Drinks are nice and, even though I still think the text is confusing, did try to mollify my concerns…. My main concern was that people would think, from the description, that this event would be a boring, hour-long Q&A, followed by one speaker after another — and decide not to come.

Please come — It’ll be fun, and you’re all invited.

Back to the nitpicky bitch thing — Yesterday I met a couple friends for happy hour at Bodega Wine Bar in Santa Monica. They’d changed the menu a bit — and I found typos! There were wines from both Fance and Framce; a nice reisling was being offered as well.

I pointed it out to our waitress. Oddly, she got really psyched about it, laughed, and went to show someone the typos right away. Maybe Bodega’ll get its money back from the printer? I dunno —

So you might wonder why this blog has so many typos and confusing sentences, despite my constant editing of other people’s work. Suffice to say most people find it hard to edit their own writing –

Photo by Don LaVange

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Latest from Emerald City, my enviro-blog at LAtimes.com

>> A busy Earth Day weekend: Start planning now. Earth Day festivities began last weekend — and will continue on full steam ahead this weekend until we actually hit Earth Day on Tues., April 22 — to be followed by even more Earth Day activities trailing after it. Here’s what to do in L.A. this weekend.

>> Earth Day cleanups: Pick a beach or park. So many beaches and parks, only one Earth Day. If you like to get your hands dirty, then get up early join fellow environmentalists to clean up our parks and beaches this Saturday, April 19. You’ve got three locations to pick from.

>> Going Green in Pasadena with ‘Into Action’ Tuesdays. If you live in Pasadena, take advantage of the remaining “Into Action” Tuesday evening happening at the Armory Center of the Arts this month.

>> Green Living Workshops start on Earth Day. If you’re making an Earth Day resolution to lead an enviro-friendly lifestyle, sign up for the 6-week Sustainable Works Green Living Workshop program for the same price.

>> Earth Day on the Promenade. Some pictures from the sunny day –

And a couple linky posts:

>> A.M. Greenlist: An Edible bus

>> A.M. Greenlist: Earth Day prep advice

>> A.M. Greenlist: No salmon, less transit funding, higher utility costs

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[Part of my challenge to give something away every day for 29 days]

Barneys New York had an eco-ish party today — and I donated an old T-shirt to the cause.

If you haven’t heard already, Barneys, eco-fashion company Loomstate, and the Sundance Channel got together to launch a T-shirt recycling program. The idea: Have people bring in old T-shirts, which’ll be recycled into Loomstate T-shirts for Barneys Green Holiday 2008 Collection.

So if you’ve got an old T-shirt, stop by your nearest Barneys to drop them off. You’ll then get a 20% discount on women’s Loomstate for Barneys Green and men’s Loomstate merchandise — until April 27.

Anyway — Tonight was the kick off party for this recycliing event in L.A. Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward performed beautifully –

I went with my friend Katie, who was shocked that M. Ward was indeed just life-sized — not uber tall and larger than life ….

The set was short and sweet.

Thanks for the ride home, Ferris :)

View my page on 29-Day Giving Challenge

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Due to overbooking, I won’t be able to make the hoopla happening in front of the Kodak Theatre in conjunction with the CNN Democratic Debate today. I won’t even be able to make the Westside Extension meeting about the Subway to the Sea (though I plan to go to a later one).

But in case your sched’s free and clear today, here’s a couple events you’ll be interested in:

Put the heat on the media to ask presidential candidates about global warming. The California League of Conservation Voters says the “most-watched reporters” are not asking presidential candidates about global warming issues: “Since January 2007, they have asked presidential candidates a total of 2,938 questions. Just 6 of those questions mentioned global warming.” Thus, they’re rallying about it in front of the Kodak Theater, starting at 2:30 pm.

Get presidential candidates to make parks a campaign issue by supporting Teddy Mather — a.k.a. a costumed bear — for the presidency. The National Parks Conservation Association will be demonstrating in front of the Kodak Theatre today starting at 4 pm. You can greet the bear and sign NPCA’s petition.

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Got a sweet tooth? Find out where your sugar fix could be coming from — green LA girl readers’re invited to a special free advance screening of The Price of Sugar, an eye-opening documentary about the way this sweet stuff gets produced.

When: Wednesday, October 10th, 2007, 7:30pm
Where: Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica , CA 90403
RSVP: Call 323.461.2020 x 485 ASAP, as space is limited.

A bit about the film, which received the Audience Award at the 2007 SXSW Film Festival:

On an island known for its tropical beauty, tourists flock to the resorts of the Dominican Republic . Not 10 miles away, thousands of dispossessed Haitians labor in the sugarcane fields under slave-like conditions cutting cane, much of which will eventually end up in the United States as sugar.

Too depressing, you say? Father’s Office is just a couple blocks away, so drown your sorrows there post-screening. Plus, watching the film doesn’t mean overwhelming guilt and anguish whenever you bite into something sweet: Fair trade sugar’s extremely easy to find now — even at Albertson’s and other mainstream supermarkets — since the sweet company Wholesome Sweeteners decided to dive into fair trade with both feet.

I plan to be there — Say hello :) And remember — You have to RSVP. Do it now. The film opens in LA Oct. 19.

Tags: priceofsugar, sugar

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Did anyone else know it’s Rideshare Week this week?

I found out via an email from USC, urging me to “Join us at Tommy Trojan October 3rd to see alternate ways of commuting to campus” and linking me to a Metro page where, for pledging to rideshare, I could “one of many prizes: Urban Cruiser electric bike, AAA membership, Disneyland tickets, gift cards and many others.”

But the pledge page had no info ’bout this prize thing — or a link to a page with any other info ’bout the week. Plus, I’m signed up to get Metro press releases — and got no notice of the week. Then I checked MetroRiderLA and some other LA-based blogs — No mention of Rideshare Week there either.

I checked back on the Metro homepage a few hours later, and finally, some info ’bout Rideshare Week showed up.

Yes, it’s happening, from Oct. 1 - 5, 2007. Yes, you can pledge to win prizes. You can even write ’bout your rideshare experience to TV Host and Producer Huell Howser; he’ll feature some of them on his show Visiting.

Many commuters, I’m guessing, missed a potential day of ridesharing fun, but at least there’s 4 more days to go. The LA-area universities at least seem to be on top of things. USC, like I said, sent out that mass email; UCLA’s even got a mini event series together for the week!

As for me: It’s tough to rideshare if I’m just walking from my bed to the desk, but I’m carpooling with Jenny to this sustainability event at Antioch on Thursday, and so have signed the pledge! Hopefully I’ll win something good –

Relatedly — If you find yourself so busy you’re considering a personal assistant, you might do better — saving money and stress and time — by just moving closer to work and cutting out the commute altogether.

Tags: rideshareweek, rideshare

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Earlybirds: Join the Bird Year Ride on the Pacific Coast Highway. Bird Year’s a project of 15-year-old Audubon Society member Malkolm Boothroyd, who’s been traveling and documenting the many species of birds he sees on his way during his bicycle-powered, emissions-free trip from Alaska to the Salton Sea.

And this Saturday, Malkolm and his family’ll hit LA County. You can be one of the bike activists joining the LA County Bicycle Coalition to guide the group down the PCH, from the Ventura County Line through Malibu to the Santa Monica Pier, where the Audubon Society host a short press conference.

When: Sat., Sept. 29, 2007, 7:15 am
Where: Meet at Jamba Juice at 11911 San Vicente Blvd @ Montana Ave., Brentwood
Bring: Helmet, tubes/patch kit, hydration, nutrition, healthy curiosity about bird life.

From Jamba Juice, you’ll bike up to meet the Bird Year People at Neptune’s Net, just above the Ventura/LA County Line, at 9:30 am. For those who don’t want to bike that far, you can meet up with the group around 11:30 am at PCH and Cross Creek and bike down to the end destination, Santa Monica Pier, arriving sometime between 12:30 pm - 1 pm.

According to LA County Bicycle Coalition, “Our early morning ride up PCH will be moderately paced, and our ride back should be leisurely, as we guide Malkolm’s 10-12mph group (including at least one trailer) safely on PCH, and hopefully learn a thing or two about avian life.”

For more info, contact LA County Bike Coalition at 213.629.2142.

Tags: birdyear, bike, bicycle

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Not 1, not 2, but 3 big fairs and festivals are going down this Sunday. Without thinking, I’ve committed to going to all of them — Maybe I’ll see you out there? My itinerary:

First comes Just Lives Festival, since it starts ridiculously early at 8 am in conjunction with the Hollywood Farmers’ Market. There’ll be music performances and a 10 am talk by Jacqueline DeCarlo, author of Fair Trade: A Beginner’s Guide, at Groundwork Coffee (1501 N. Cahuenga) — but mostly I’m just going to check out the fair trade and sweat-free goods on sale, see if any look good on me.

Getting to Just Lives: Catch the Metro 704 at 8:09, barrel down Santa Monica Blvd, switch to Metro 210 at Vine, exit right in front of the farmers’ market. Est. time: 45 mins.

An hour there, then it’s off to the West Hollywood Book Fair. Not particularly green, but I am a grad student in the English department after all. Panels of note: L.A. avant-garde & underground literature at 11 am, and WAP! (Women’s Avant Poetics): The Current Revolution in Women’s Innovative Writing at 3 pm. In between the 2 panels I’ll check out the booths, maybe even enter the ACLU of SoCal’s a “Civil Liberties Haiku” contest.

Getting to the book fair: Reverse route, getting back on Metro 210 at 10:04 and switching to the 704 west at Vine, to exit at Santa Monica and San Vincente Blvds, a block away from the fair. Est. time: 28 mins.

Then it’s off to catch the tail end of the Abbot Kinney Street Festival, which has added a Green Design Block Party since I wrote about the event. Put together by epOybOx, the party’ll feature art by Dianna Cohen and environmentally sound apparel, design and furniture.

The festival has a whole line up of speakers at the green tent:

Getting to Abbot Kinney: Back on the 704 west at 4 pm, switching to Metro 333 on Ocean, to exit at Main and Brooks, right at the entrance to the festival. Est. time: 56 mins.

Afterwards I’ll hop on the Big Blue Bus 1 for a 15 min ride back home without ever battling festival parking issues — by which time I’ll have caught up on my podcasts –

Wish me luck — Everything’s contingent on my actually getting up before 8 –

Update, 9/27/07: Grand Avenue Festival’s this Sunday too! (via blogdowntown). Unfortunately, my sched’s already full :(

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October’s fair trade month — a nice fall month for cozily sipping on fair trade coffee while nibbling on fair trade chocolate. Plus, the trade month nicely dovetails with Halloween; I’d also like to think it serves as a month-long kick-off for my birthday on All Saints Day –

No idea what fair trade is? Start here. Now for the fun stuff:

First, kick off fair trade month a day early with the Just Lives Festival, happening at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market on September 30. Get your fruits and veggies and fair trade chocolate and sweatshop-free clothing all in one go –

Then on October 1, enter the “Connect with Fair Trade” sweepstakes run by TransFair USA, the US certifier of fair trade products. Winners’ll get fair trade products, though I’m not sure what these are going to be exactly. Hopefully chocolate?

If you’re a filmmaker — or want to be one — enter the Fair Trade video contest and win a trip for two to Peru. Submit a short video (max 5 mins) on the theme of “Connect with Fair Trade” by Halloween and get ready to travel.

Then it’s Halloween prep time! Global Exchange is once again selling Fair Trade Trick or Treat Action Kits: For $15, you get 42 pieces of Equal Exchange Fair Trade mini chocolates, a stack of festive Halloween postcards, traditional Papel Picado Mexican party streamers, and a recycled Trick or Treat Bag.

BTW — You can now get a daily dose of Halloween by reading Creepy Los Angeles, a new blog for Angelenos into Halloween, the supernatural, or urban legends –

Then it’ll be my birthday. Yay!

Tags: fairtrade, fairtrademonth, halloween

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