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Problem:

I’ll be the first to admit that my carbon footprint could use some trimming, and that my anxiety about the ice caps melting and climate change in general could use some fuel. I admit it. I’m guilty. I’m sorry, Earth.

But then I found a recent study by the Czech climatologist Martin Mozny that knocked the ennui right out of me. Mozny found that the production of Saaz hops, a key ingredient in pilsners, has dropped significantly in quantity and quality within the past two years.  The reason?  A warming climate.

I reacted as any thirsty American male would: “Wait?  This warming thing is messing with my beer?” and I checked my fridge to see if the six-pack I bought the previous night was still there.

It’s true!  Compared to the crop in the 50’s, the Saaz production today has lost .6% of its usual modest 5% alpha acid. In the small, vulnerable region of the Czech Republic, Mozny predicts a “decline in both yields, of up to 7–10%, and a-acid content, of up to 13–32%, the latter a major determinant of quality.” Researchers believe it’s not only Czech hops that are at stake, but the famous Hallertau Valley of Bavaria is also seeing increases in temperature. The Hallertau region is the world’s largest producer of hops, home to around 1,200 producers who grow hops on some 40,000 acres of farmland.  The beleaguered farmers of these regions wonder if they should be looking for land elsewhere, places more suitable for their crop.

Pardon the hyperbole, but I’m not sure if I want to live in a world where Hallertauer hops can no longer grow in Hallertau. It’d be as if Champagne could no longer cultivate grapes and had to move their farms to England (wine lovers, please don’t look at the article that shows up on your computer when you click this sentence).

Saaz is one of four noble hops, all of which are native from this region of Central Europe, and their use is nothing short of prolific. Whether you drink Ommegang or Anheuser-Busch, Sam Adams or Pilsner Urquell, chances are it’s brewed with a noble hop or variety from this area.  Crack open a brewing science textbook and look how controlled and idiosyncratic every step is, so that each beer tastes like it should.  But without the quality ingredients, it would all be for nothing. I don’t claim to know much, but I know I don’t want to leave shitty beer for future generations — even if all they drink is Natural light.

How to help?  Anyone can do an Internet search on how to slash their carbon footprint, but here at Progressive Wednesdays we respect our themes, and this Wednesday’s theme happens to be beer, so by order of the transitive property we must respect beer and say cheers!

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Make Progress:

• Buy Local
• Learn
• Watch
• Write

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Buy Local:

I’m not going to tell you which beer you should buy here (although we would like to hear some recommendations), but anyone will tell you that buying local will reduce your impact on the environment.  Cases of liquid are quite heavy, and long shipping distances is something we could do without.  Chances are you have a local brewery, microbrewery or nanobrewery near you, and they’re not shipping it across borders to get it to you.  Visit them, pull up a stool, and try out their taps.  Drinking draft beer eliminates energy consuming steps, and everything – the keg, the glass, the lines, and tap – is reused.  Buy growlers and get them refilled.   Be sure to ask them how often they clean their lines too.  Some bars are forgetful, and the beer suffers.

Ask your favorite restaurants to carry local beers, that way small businesses can work together, and you’ll help pump money through your hometown.  I’ve found a few partnerships like this, where the brewmaster makes a custom beer to pair with a restaurant’s entrée.  What better way to enjoy a beer than that?

If your local brewery doesn’t have what you like, ask them to consider brewing up a batch (some breweries do small batch brewing too).  You’d be surprised how receptive they are.  You’ll have to be patient though, them yeast need to do their thing.

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Learn

Don’t have a local brewery near you or you do, but you don’t dig it?  I made a shortlist of some brands that use sustainable brewing techniques.  Some are better than others, but hey, every effort counts….

• Brooklyn Brewery. 100% wind-powered brewery. First NYC company to convert to wind power completely.
• Long Trail. Great line of Eco-Brews.
• Hopworks. Probably the best exemplar of a sustainable brewery, building, and company.  Hopworks of Portland, OR is proof that a small brewery can afford and even profit on going green.
• New Belgium. Don’t really know where to start.  New Belguim was the first completely wind powered brewery.  Their kettles trap steam during the brewing process to reuse.  They even use shelving made from trees killed by invasive species.  Got to love those bikes, too.
• Sierra Nevada. So many things to say about these folks.  They have a “powertracker” that shows in real time how much energy they save.

If your relatives only drink commercial brews then we condone it, but man, just click here to give them some flavor in their lives.

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Watch

The least mentioned, but most obvious ingredient in beer is water, and conserving it is a key step to an environmentally sustainable brewery or home.  Why conserve water?  It saves energy and cash, silly. This video covers a wide range of water conserving tips in the household.  There are even seven suggestions that won’t cost a penny, so you can save up for more beer.  If it’s already out of the faucet, use the extra water to grow a hop garden up the side of your place – your nose will thank you.

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Write:

Have a favorite beer but you don’t know if they’re making an effort?  Write them an email and ask what they’re doing to save energy and keep a sustainable environment.  We’re not talking about donations or charity (although that’s a plus), we’re talking about their brewing process, their building, and their distribution.  Send them a link to one of the great examples of environmental breweries above.  Remember you’re their livelihood. They’ll listen.

Before I go any further, let me admit something: I use plastic bags. (Gasp!) Second, after reading about plastic bags, I think I’m going to plop down a wee bit of cash and buy a reusable grocery bag or three. Why? The statistics are disturbing.

According to a recent report on CNN.com, the EPA estimates that 3.96 million tons of plastic bags, sacks and wraps were generated in 2008 in the United States. In the same year, 1.17 million tons of trash were created by tossing out paper bags. Of all of that, only a combined total of 830,000 tons of plastic and paper bags was recycled in 2008, while a combined total of 4.3 million tons was discarded, including 90% of plastic bags. For point of reference, this is the equivalent, speaking in terms of weight, of nearly twelve Empire State Buildings.

Sure, we live in a fairly plastic world. And we’re constantly adding more plastic to it. But that doesn’t mean we can’t reverse the trend. And that doesn’t mean we’re doomed to continue on a course that we’ve previously accepted as the norm. If we were fatalists, then Progressive Wednesday wouldn’t exist.

So, why is all this using and dumping without reusing so problematic? In typical circumstances (for example in landfills), a polyethylene bag will take more than 1,000 years to degrade.

While some Californian politicians had good intentions, a ban on plastic really isn’t a solution. This would likely turn people toward paper and compostable bags, both of which carry with them serious environmental impacts of their own during the manufacturing process.

I’m sure I’ll still use paper and plastic bags. I’m sure some of those will hit the trash. But I’m going to make a conscious effort to change my ways.

Join me, friends. We’ll do this together. For information about finding a recycling center near you, just click this sentence. For information about buying reusable products, just click this sentence.

As the polls closed on Election Day 2004, I watched the state-by-state results eek in from the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Columbus with a thousand other volunteers, including Jerry Springer, the former mayor of Cincinnati, and Eric, who'd road-raged his way down from Rochester, New York, in his rusty and rust-colored – ˜86 Monte Carlo, to lend a hand for the final few days. I bit my nails to the quick and pulled and twisted at my goatee. The news seemed grim.

And so, the war would rage on. And the poor would increasingly fight it. And our broken health care system would cause more bankruptcies. And monolithic business would rule instead of wise environmental stewardship. And I felt too guilty to sleep. But it was that night, and deep into the morning, that Eric and I came up with the idea of Progressive Wednesday, a new way to empower people when there weren't elections, and hell, even when there were. And it was that night we decided that helping to fix the election process would be at the top of our Wednesday list.

Two weeks later, I attended a public hearing with sworn testimony by Franklin County residents reporting voter suppression, fraud, and the inequitable distribution of voting machines in both poor and predominately African-American districts, which made 2004 Ohio seem a little too much like 1960 Mississippi.

Since I'm not a Democrat, I now deeply question why I didn't just support a so-called “third-party– candidate like Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian candidate, or David Cobb, the Green candidate. But my experience helped me question, even more, the process by which we select our elected officials and the ways we decide whom to give our vote. I imagine I'm not alone.

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Make Progress:

We'll definitely be returning to this topic time and time again, because it's intensely complicated and similarly significant to not just our rights as Americans, but to what we value as a human right. What follows, then, is a beginning. Consider the starter's pistol fired.

• Bookmark
• Call
• Write
• Read
• Wear

Photo thanks to this voter.

Bookmark:

It's a little bit difficult to describe Project Vote Smart in 304 words, but here goes:

• This non-profit uses oodles of volunteers (from the right and the left) to examine “voting records, campaign contributions, public statements, biographical data (including their work history) and evaluations of them generated by over 100 competing special interest groups.–
• In addition, they “test each candidate’s willingness to provide citizens with their positions on the issues they will most likely face if elected through the National Political Awareness Test.– In other words, they see if candidates will openly, directly explain what they stand for — a tall order in some instances.
• You can also use Project Vote Smart to learn about judges, congressional legislation, voter registration, polling locales, ballot measures, and lots and lots of accurate et cetera.
• The Project also offers up a Voter's Self-Defense Manual, a must-read for progressives of any political ilk. The booklet can be downloaded as an Acrobat file, or you can order one by giving them a jingle: 1-888-868-3762.
• They are truly bipartisan: “No one can join the Project’s board without a political opposite.– And whose served on the board? Carter, Ford, Dukakis, McCain, McGovern, and Goldwater, to name a few.
• They don't take cash money from special interests. To quote: “We do not accept contributions from any corporations, labor unions, or other organizations that lobby, support or oppose candidates or issues.” The money comes only in the form of donations by individuals (70%) and philanthropic foundation grants (30%). Plus, 83% of their funds go directly into their programs and content.
• U.S. News and World Report has this to say: “Project Vote Smart would make the Founders weep with joy.– The New York Times pointed out that the Project kicks so much tail that “even the Federal Government recommends it.–
• This service — this wonderful, wonderful service — is completely free.

Want to read more? Go check it out for yourself. Then bookmark it. You'll want it down the road: we guarantee it.

We'd also like to ask you to give some love in the form of greenbacks to this incredibly worthy, dare we say essential (okay, we dare), this essential cause. Even if giving means three bucks. Here's the beauty of your generosity: not only do you help out this organization whose sole purpose is to help you as a voter, but your gift is tax-deductible, and you can choose how the money is spent. So give a little and have them spend it wisely.

But remember to bookmark it, baby, remember to bookmark it.

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Call:

This sucker might come as a shock, but the Constitution does not guarantee American citizens the right to vote.

We'll give you a second to reread that sentence. Okay, now that we've got your attention we'll give you all the support we need to prove it to you. In the Supreme Court decision Bush v. Gore, the Court ruled: “The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States.– We think, well, we think this is a load of crap, and not cute little rabbit pellets– ¦ no, we're talking a dump truck full of nasty elephant waste.

We'd like you to take five minutes right now, immediately after reading this, and call your Senators (take a peek and make sure your boss ain't lingering around). Just click this sentence to find a list of all the Senators with phone numbers for each. Here's what we'd recommend saying:

• “I'm a voter from [name your state], and I'm outraged that there's no Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing my right to vote. If Senator [last name] wants my vote the next time [he or she] is up for reelection, then [he or she] will introduce or support legislation that would guarantee this basic American right.–

Be sure to thank them for their time.

If such an Amendment existed, folks could sue states for voter fraud, suppression, a lack of equal protection, and faulty machines or a lack of functioning ones. There are 7,800 different election jurisdictions. This adds a lot of variables. If there was a Constitutional Amendment, there could be a universal voting system for all elections. Fairness. That's what we're talking about here. Accountability. Equality. A more perfect union.

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Write:

Even though we're far, far away from the next national elections, we think it’s more apropos to deal with this topic well before November, which is, of course, National Pomegranate Month.

Okay, here's the main idea of our letter-to-the-editor campaign: Our fellow Americans, Election Day should be a national holiday.

Now, it's hard to argue with a day off (though we're sure the workaholics out there could give it a shot). But we think for the sake of the U.S. of A., voters deserve a greater opportunity to choose what goes down.

Here are some talking points for ya to use and morph and personalize and localize to your heart's content:

• Election Day is an excellent way to emphasize the importance of community.
• As a holiday, we'd be reaffirming the cultural significance of voting.
• Voting was a central catalyst behind the founding of the country.
• Voter turnout in the United State for presidential elections ranks 65th in the world. Democracy deserves better. Common sense dictates that a holiday would raise voter turnout.
• Most workers paid hourly can't afford to take time off work to vote.
• Polls in some states close as early as 7 p.m., further limiting turnout.
• Long lines wouldn't seem as daunting since folks wouldn't need to hustle back to work.
• Election Day is already a holiday in Puerto Rico.

Here's a link to the newspapers throughout the country to help you find the address and specific requirements to the daily “Extra, extra, read all about it!” in your community. You can always check out our How to Read Newspapers tool. Also, you might want to take a gander at our How to Write Letters to the Editor tool, both in brief and in full.

Photo courtesy of this literate picture-clicker.

Read:

Adopting Election Day as a national holiday and banging out a Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote seem like two it's-about-time steps in the right direction.

There's got to be more we can do to help out so-called “third parties– and their very qualified candidates. Third parties deserve a greater voice in our country, and having more voices, more opinions, and options seems incredibly American to us. Two-party domination seems a bit archaic, a bit undemocratic.

There are several suggestions out there for ways to change the ways we vote and the ways third party candidates get treated on ballots. These ideas include:

• Fusion voting.
• Instant run-off voting.
• Popular voting.
• Range voting.

We'll be returning to the topic of election fixes in the future, and we're curious what your thoughts are about each of the various options. After you read about each, let us know what you think by leaving a comment or by contacting us. Let us know which you prefer, which you have questions about. Your comments will help us decide which ones to support down ye ole road. So, thanks in advance.

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Wear:

Okay, this one's easy enough. We'd like to encourage you to plunk down a few bucks, snag yourself this t-shirt, and wear it around all year long (taking it off occasionally to shower, make the love, and maybe even wash it here and there). Sport it when you head to the grocery, the gym, the Grand Canyon. (Speaking of the Grand Canyon– ¦.)

This is a way to send an honest and constant message. Plus the word “vote– is bad-ass as Mr. T and drop-dead gorgeous as Rita Hayworth. Since you're reading Progressive Wednesday, we're confident you're a little bit of both, too.

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Change:

We don't mean change like nickels and dimes, and we don't mean change like when you trade in your business casual for actual casual. We mean in the ways you spend your Washingtons, Lincolns, Hamiltons, and the ever-popular Benjamins (from what we hear, it's “all about– the latter). Money, in America, is power, so with some slight alterations in the way we redistribute our paychecks, we can all empower American workers all the more.

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1. On a recent trip to Topps (one of the two major grocery store changes in Western New York), I was about to use the self-serve checkout to purchase toilet paper, Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch, and an avocado (I know, I know– ¦ weird) when Jeremy, an old friend of mine, saw me, waved, then yelled, “Hey Zambito, you're taking someone's job away.–

He was right. So here's our advice: use real, live, human cashiers at grocery stores instead of the self-serve checkouts with the creepy, HAL-like voice telling you what to do. By taking this simple action, you keep more people employed. Yes, many of today's cashiers are teenagers, but the majority are not and need all the support we can give them. The extra few minutes you spend in a line waiting helps put cash in someone's pockets. Plus, I mean, when else can you scan the tabloids and not feel dirty about it?

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2. The notion of a 15% gratuity is a social custom in the United States, and by no means requisite. Most restaurant servers work off tips, because the federal minimum wage for servers is $2.13 an hour (you read that right). This 15% nonsense seems unjust.

A server in a diner probably works harder than a server in a fancy, schmancy ristorante, and yet receive less in tips simply because the food costs less. So, since tipping, as archaic as it is, isn't going anywhere anytime soon, we'd like to offer up this little tidbit of progress: add two bucks.

Figure out whatever tip you think the person “deserves,– and then add two bucks. Not only will you make someone's day (since a surprising number of people tip far less than 15% if they tip at all) and you'll help that person, coincidentally enough, eat.

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3. Count with me, people: 1, 2, 3, 4. Below you'll find four companies that treat American workers right, and get our PW seal of approval. These companies aren't perfect. Let's call them “more perfect– than most others. So, if and when you can, try plunking down your hard-earned money with these companies.

1. eBay – Yes, eBay. They offer health insurance for PowerSellers and their employees. eBay let's its employees use health care debit cards to tap into their FSAs. By buying off eBay, you get to help out the smallest of business (the sellers). As an added bonus, the head honchos at eBay donate generously to charities and respect the environment.
2. Southwest – This progressive airline has dolled out hefty signing bonuses to baggage handlers and provisions agents. They support changing the mandatory retirement age of airline pilots. Southwest has the highest paid pilots in the industry (I don't know about you, but I want my pilots– ¦ I don't know– ¦ happy?). They also build strong relationships with front-line employees and among front-line employees.
3. Costco – As of 2005, “Costco [paid] its full-time workers an average of more than $16 an hour, while also picking up 92 percent of the cost of employees’ health-insurance premiums– and “82 percent of Costco workers are covered– by the plan. And check this out: “after four years with [Costco], a cashier can earn around $44,000, including bonuses.– Enough said.
4. New Balance — This company, I promise you, sells many sneakers made right here in the U.S. of A. (that means America). Take that Nike!

My love of reading, and the written word in general, began when I was young. First grade, to be exact. I spent much of the school year at home, sick. I missed 40 days of school due to illness, then was forced to take half-days when I returned. Because of the numerous doctors appointments I had, we developed a routine, my mother and I. We would go to the pediatrician, then to The Book Corner in Niagara Falls, where I was allowed to pick out 2-3 books I wanted. I would invariable have begun reading one of them in car by the time we arrived home. I still remember the way I felt every time we entered The Book Corner. My mind would race and begin to fill with ideas of what I wanted to read, what I would choose. The whole store seemed filled with wonder, with possibilities.

Luckily, whether by nature or nurture, my daughter has inherited my love of books. Everyday she is excited to tell me what book they read at school, and not a night goes by without the request for a story — or six. Her current favorites include: Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann, There’s a Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone, and Curious George by H.A. Rey. And thanks to birthday, Christmas, Easter and “just because– presents from her grandparents and great-grandparents, her collection of books is rapidly approaching the size of mine. The time we spend together, cuddling and reading her books is magical; I’ll almost be sorry when she can read them herself. I’ll miss the way her eyes light up when we’re reading, and she starts the next line before we turn the page, and the giggling that ensues when we read something silly.

I can’t imagine my life or home without books. Yet, all over this beautiful world, our nation included, there are homes where books are in short supply or simply non-existent. I will never forget the look on my daughter’s face when she first learned this — it happened when we were in Wegmans this past weekend, doing our grocery shopping.

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Entering the store, I had noticed a large bin that contained brand new books collected for a book drive sponsored by a local literacy group. So, as we shopped, we picked out several books that Grace had enjoyed, and as we left, I had her help me put them in the bin. Knowing she would wonder why we had done this, I prepared myself for the onslaught of questions. However, only two queries arose. The first: “Why did we put the books in that big bin?” I gently explained, in a way she would understand and without being frightened, that some people were not able to have books, that some people simply didn’t have enough money to buy them as we did, even when they work very, very hard. The look on her face was both sad and contemplative. After a bit of silence came the second question: “Well, maybe I can give them some of my books. I have lots and lots of books. Maybe we could do that mommy?–

When we got home, I went straight to my computer and to the site Reach Out And Read. I looked up our state, located a donation center and contacted them for information on how to donate books. Grace picked them out, and they’re sitting on the table, ready for me to bring to her pediatrician’s office (the donation site). I did a bit of research and was astounded and pleased by the number of book donation sites I found. Here are a few of my favorites: Reading Is Fundamental, First Book, Books for Kids Foundation, and the Literacy Empowerment Foundation.

These amazing organizations provide books to both children and schools that lack the funds to purchase them. I urge you to support them, whether by donating books, organizing a local chapter, or a making small monetary donation. They do something not many organizations can: they bring a world of possibilities and joy to children who desperately need it. That, my friends is something we can all be proud of.

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Editor’s Note: You can read even more about the importance of books to kids by reading our Wednesday on the subject: “A Book Does a Body Good.” Just click this sentence.