What happens in my webinar stays in my webinar. Videos to “Make” People Take Action:

• Via Funny Sites
• While You Do Nothing
• Talk Like a Condom, Bold Videos and Social Media
• Be Draconian, Rewarding, Quirky
• Be Old School But With Color

Thanks to the Western Sustainability Pollution Prevention Network for inviting me to give this talk.

[Unhelpful thoughts are like birds you might not be able to stop from crapping on your head. But you can stop them from nesting in your hair.] -Chinese proverb (photo credit)

Seal food in taxidermy squirrel, glass or metal to prevent roaches or mice and avoid pesticides.  Pests can chew through plastic and paper. (No squirrels were killed to make that bottle).

My niece loves to eat ants.  When she’s not here, I use less-toxic tips to get rid of them.   Aerosols can trigger asthma.  So I avoid them.

I also use less-toxic pest management tips for roaches because my niece doesn’t eat them yet.

Check out hazards of pesticides and safer strategies to manage any pest in your building or landscape.

Oregon State will do that and deliver them to women who want them in Africa. 

Without pads, women skip five years of school or work over their lifetime.   Some women in India “use the dirtiest piece of cloth, if any cloth is available, because when they see blood…they think something sin is coming out. They don’t understand infection…can actually go in. Using the dirtiest piece of cloth, they wash it but cannot even dry it… because hand pumps are always put up at an open, public place…Sometimes…there are two to three women…share the same piece of cloth…A woman died of tetanus as she used a piece of a blouse with a rusted hook.” (Read more).

This is beyond that not-so-fresh feeling.

Spare the thrift store and landfill from your nice but slightly holey towels.  And spare us from seeing you in “vintage” hammer pants again.

Mail them to Mirabelle Fernandes-Paul, c/o Oregon State Women’s Center Menstrual Pad Movement, 149 Snell Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331. 

Feel good knowing your fabric could keep a woman in school or work for five years.   

Play this funny mashup of ads for girls and boys.  Give gifts that aren’t pink and blue (at the end of this post).

Feel pressured to act like a man or be lady-like?  Sick of violence in the news?  What’s it got to do with when people are called “guys” when they’re not, ask if a baby is a girl or boy, or say women aren’t good at math?  Guess how women and men scored when they took the same math test twice but in the second time, they had to state their gender?  

Find out in this funny TEDtalk by Jeff Perera.  Here’s what youth said in his events:

“When I ask boys to name things that they like about being a boy…Many…share thoughts such as how they don’t like that boys get very competitive, leading to aggressive behavior…  [One boy said] boys aren’t encouraged to raise children…Encouraging girls to be ‘more lady like’ and more sugar and spice, leaves them struggling to raise their voice when they face injustice….”

Why care?  Well, one woman didn’t get copywriting gigs until she changed her name to James Chartrand and made this site that seems like there’s an “i” in “pens”: 

Jobs came pouring in.  Her day rate doubled.  ”But what got me the most was…nobody told me it was too expensive. Nobody asked me to bring it down….When I use my real name and I do business, there is always, always, ‘Is that the lowest you can go?’” she said.  

Things you can do:

If people are called “guys” when they’re not, you could say, “How come everyone is called ‘guys’but men aren’t called ‘gals’?  Some of us aren’t guys. Yet. ;)”  I haven’t thought about transitioning from female to male but you never know who has.

If people ask about a baby’s gender, turn to the baby and say, “Baby, choose your gender. ;)” 

If you tell people they’re good-looking, they might develop unhealthy body image issues.  That’s why I compliment people on things they can control as in, “I really like that fanny pack on you.”  

Share this TEDtalk by Amy Cuddy on how to be confident (or fake it until you make it).

Find out if you’re good at negotiation. 

Share this video game that a dad hacked so Pauline rescues Mario from Donkey Kong or Sesame Street show where Supreme Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor says being a princess is “not a career.”

Try gender neutral language like Washington, Florida, North Carolina, California, New York, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island and Utah.  In Washington, laws were rewritten so terms like fisherman and freshman are replaced by “fisher” and “first year student.” “Penmanship” becomes “handwriting.” 

Give gifts that aren’t pink for girls and blue for boys:

The Official Guide to Dysfunctional Parenting pokes fun at starting “girls age two on a fat-free diet…and boys age one on Militia magazine…”  What’s funnier is it looks like a kid’s book.  

The coloring book, Sometimes a Spoon Runs Away With Another Spoon, has a girl who is ready to fix a truck, be president, and a boy who doesn’t want to be Superman.  It’s one of the few books I found that made me feel better after I read that:

• 57% of kid’s books feature males as central characters.
• Boys won’t read books that have girl heroes but girls will read books that have boy heroes.

AMightyGirl.com also lists 1,000 books, toys and films of courageous girls.

And it’s never too early to get kids of any gender a recycling truck and tool set made from recycled bottles.

Yeast Ice Cream and Mad Libs to “Make” People Change

How can you “make” people do good?

1. Start with a quirky story about yourself.
2. Invite them to take a funny, baby step.
3. Make it hard to do the wrong thing.

For example, what if you can’t stop eating ice cream?  Hide your clean spoons somewhere inconvenient, like in your dirty laundry.  When I was out of spoons, I ate ice cream with a butter knife.  So hide those too. You wouldn’t eat ice cream with a fork or sharp knife, right?  Right?   

Or say you’ve been meaning to join boxer Mike Tyson, Ozzy Osbourne, Vanilla Ice, Mr. Rogers, and Steve Martin and be vegetarian.  Or maybe you just want to try a Meatless Monday.

We all like at least one vegetarian dish.  I bet you’ll agree if you play this Mad Libs game I made.  Maybe you like burritos.  I like yeast ice cream.  That’s right: super salty, tar-like Vegemite yeast.  I had it in Vancouver. 

Think about it.  Wouldn’t you rather hear that instead of getting lectured on how it’s better to be vegetarian?  It’s easy to tell people, “don’t do XYZ.”   But, you’ll have more fun and success if you invite them to try something weird just once.

…at wet cleaners. They don’t use these chemicals found in dry cleaners: 

• Perchloroethylene (perc) is known to cause cancer, spontaneous abortions, diminished cognitive ability, liver and kidney damage.  Cancer-causing perc off gasses (comes off) your clothes.  Short-term exposure can cause headaches.
• GreenEarth is a potential carcinogen.
• Hydrocarbon solvents contribute to smog formation, which is known to cause asthma.

So drop your pants at wet cleaners in San Francisco, Los Angeles and in your town.  And tell dry cleaners:

• Wet cleaners that switched from dry cleaning reduced their energy and water bills.
• About grants and costs of wet and dry cleaning (in Korean and Chinese).

These things are tastier when you recycle packaging and earn money for schools/nonprofits.  Just post this sign.

Therapists see increased bickering between couples over going green.  Signs can keep the peace.  Customize and print ones above- drag and drop pictures of what can be recycled or composted where you are.  That’s what I do for fun when I travel because each place recycles different things.  Join the club. 

Try the funny poster below of where to recycle even more (foam, Brita filters, tennis balls).  You know, the usual.  If you find a better poster, tell me.

 _____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

FAQs:

Can I use this poster outside the USA?  This poster only lists recycling companies in the USA.  When I couldn’t find recycling when I travel in places like Borneo, Malaysia, I brought things back to the USA to recycle.  If you do that too, join the club. 

Isn’t it wasteful to print this poster?  To make it easy to recycle, we need a reminder above our trash.  That’s what behavior change theories suggest.  This poster helps people to see all the surprising things that can be recycled.  So if one poster gets you to recycle, then it’s not a waste of paper. 

Who’ll recycle these things for me?  Will the poster print fuzzy?  A professional printing company prints it crisp.  It includes photos of where to recycle:

Packaging:

• Candy/energy bars wrappers
• Bags for chips, cookies, cheese or coffee         
• Cartons for soup, milk, juice
• Plastic envelopes or bags
• Packing peanuts, bubble wrap, Styrofoam blocks, 
• Padded or Tyvek envelopes.  Yes, I actually mailed mine to alanalantt@aol.com who’ll reuse them.
• Egg crate-like foam (polyethylene- PET)

• Adult toys
• Automotive
• Batteries
• Building supplies
• Cleaners
• Cooking oil (used)
• Electronics earn you money.  Companies at Earth911.org won’t dump toxic electronics in other countries.
• Lighting
• Paint 
• Medications 
• Pesticides
• Fire Extinguishers
• Furniture 
• Eyeglasses
• Clothes Hangers 
• Carpet  & padding, linoleum
• Tennis Balls
• Trophies
• Yoga Mats

Is the poster printed green?  It’s printed on 12” x 18” cardstock:

• With Century Gothic font (saves more ink than Arial) with vegetable inks.
• On 100% post-consumer recycled paper processed with  no chlorine, which releases cancer-causing chemicals.