Green Glossary: Dinner Dialogue

With the holiday season bearing down upon us, we'll surely face countless small talk opportunities. Office parties, family gatherings, maybe even on the trick-or-treat trail-we'll have the chance to chat. But what will we talk about?

Sitting around the dinner table is an ideal time to ponder pesticides, irradiation, and genetically modified foods. From there, you might launch onto topics like topsoil depletion, desertification, and ask the guy seated next to you if he's aware there are few, if any, cod left in Cape Cod.

Maybe while on line at the mall, you can strike up a conversation about, say, dams, SUVs, or nuclear power plants. Global warming is the old reliable but you can spice things up with a savvy segue into how the meat-based diet causes climate change.

Carry a copy of Derrick Jensen's book, Endgame, and try this icebreaker: Since yesterday at this time, 13 million tons toxic chemicals released across the globe; 200,000 acres rainforest destroyed; more than 100 plant or animal species extinct; 45,000 humans died of starvation.

Still, my all-time favorite holiday conversation starter is this: "Hey, do you guys realize we're standing on stolen land?"