Blackout Sabbath

I received the current issue of the Advocate in the mail today sans plastic wrapping. I was going to post about why wrapping magazines in plastic is bad for the environment, but somehow I got to reading the current issue which is their “Green Issue”.

I’m generally suspicious of any magazine that does a “Green Issue” especially when there’s no recycled paper content in the magazine itself =/ That’s another post and a forthcoming project I’m working on as well; trying to convince GLBT magazines that it makes business sense to use recycled paper and to encourage recycling of the magazine after reading it. It’s good for the earth and the truth is, it’s no more expensive to use recycled paper when printing your magazine if it’s done correctly.

There are a few articles in the current issue of the Advocate I found to be interesting. The writing and the content has improved from years ago. There are very few “Out” GLBT folks working in the green movement was the gist of an editorial by Anne Stockwell. Just because we are GLBT folk, you’d think we would be more aware and understand the extraordinary need to take care of the planet. Not necessarily so, as Cole Porter once said. An example would be The White Party and most circuit parties, with all the waste generated by water bottles, people driving to events rather than encouraging carpooling and the lack of recycling at these events. But that’s another blog post to put on the to-blog list =)

One person who does get it is Rufus Wainwright who is promoting a great initiative Blackout Sabbath taking place on June 21st. Basically the plan is: you turn off your lights and power for 12 hours, do nothing (except maybe clean out your dirty refrigerator) and make a list of things that you will do in the coming year in order to help green the planet.

It’s also the beginning of the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun is the closest to the earth in the over the Tropic of Cancer.

The Blackout Sabbath idea was spawned from the NYC blackout that occurred in the summer of 2003 when the electricity went off all over the Eastern Seaboard. People managed to get along in the darkness, without looting. Perhaps the lack of light made people more in a more cooperative mood. We take electrical power for granted for sure. The crux of the idea is simply taking the time on that day without electricity to feel the world around you. Amen!