“Only when all contribute their firewood can they build up a strong fire.”Chinese proverb. It was a beautiful, sunny fall day today, and I was out for my walk, reveling in the colors of the leaves and the crispness of the air, this being my favorite season. As I passed the neighborhood elementary school, I noticed that some classes were sitting outside, having lunch under a shelter. The kids were sitting on mats, all spread out per COVID guidelines, and appeared to be enjoying themselves. Observing this made me think once again about how adaptable and flexible we need to be to cope with the multitude of challenges, large and…
-
-
We Have Solutions to the Climate Crisis
The emotional weight of the findings in the IPCC’s latest report is real, and the conclusion is therefore unmistakable: we must double down and act without delay. We have known for many decades that at some point, this day would come when the climate crisis was not a distant future occurrence but happening now. The only remaining question is, how fast will we take action to reduce the consequences of this planetary emergency? Now that the climate crisis has become too obvious for all but the most determined denialist to ignore, there are two types of risky reactions. The first is despair. Some will skip straight from denial to doom,…
-
Creative Ways to Cut Your Holiday Waste
Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, American household waste increases by more than 25 percent. Trash cans full of holiday food waste, shopping bags, bows and ribbons, packaging, and wrapping paper contribute an additional 1 million tons a week to our landfills. As we celebrate the holidays, it pays to be mindful of sustainable consumption and materials management practices. They may help you focus even more on caring and celebration during this holiday season, and could even reduce the strain on our fiscal budgets and the natural environment. Giving • Less is more. Choose items of value, purpose, and meaning – not destined for a yard sale. • Give treasure. Pass on…
-
‘Bird Emergency’
Study Shows North American Bird Population Has Fallen by Nearly One-Third in Less Than 50 Years “Protecting the natural world is essential to saving birds and humans alike” Study Shows North American Bird Population Has Fallen by Nearly One-Third in Less Than 50 Years North America lost 29 percent of its bird population—around three billion birds—over the last 49 years, according to a new report. “Decline of the North American avifauna,” a study released on Thursday in the journal Science, found that the continent has seen a net loss of 2.9 billion birds since 1970. “The birds are the canary in the coal mine,” The Bird Conservancy of the Rockies’…
-
Picking Peas
Where Have all the Bugs Gone? Why are insects important? “When I was a kid….” No, I’m not going to say that I had to walk many miles to school in the snow. However, I will say that I remember that on summer evenings we would go for rides in the countryside, all of us in the family car, the windshield of which would be covered by smashed bugs. Loads and loads of smashed bugs. Ask any older person – they will remember that. I realized a few years ago that the bug-spattered windshields no longer happen. I will admit that it’s kind of nice not to have to soak…
-
A Word to the Wise
The recently released draft report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) paints a grim picture of planet Earth in the days ahead. The main point is that humans have waited so long to curb emissions that a hotter future is essentially locked in, as are more droughts, more forest fires, more crippling heat waves, more sea-level rise, and more floods. Moreover, the greenhouse gases that we have already pumped into the atmosphere will stay there a long time, inflicting misery for years to come. Continuing to pour greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere will create a domino effect of changes that will have severe consequences for humanity. The report’s…
-
The Green Burial
Green burial is a way of caring for the dead with the minimal environmental impact that aids in the conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions, protection of worker health, and the restoration and/or preservation of habitat. The standard conventional funeral, complete with embalming and burial in a lawn cemetery, is fraught with health hazards. In addition, it requires the permanent installation of non-biodegradable vaults around non-biodegradable caskets. Embalmers have an eight times higher risk of contracting blood diseases such as leukemia, and three times higher risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), while groundskeepers are more than twice as likely to develop Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD); both are…
-
Light Pollution Affects Migratory Birds
When investigators in the UK recorded the calls of migratory thrushes at night, they found that call rates were up to five times higher over the brightest urban areas compared with darker villages. The findings, which are published in Ibis-International Journal of Avian Science, provide support to previous and ongoing research indicating that artificial light at night affects migratory birds. “We harnessed the respective strengths of citizen science, passive acoustic monitoring, and machine learning to gather evidence of the impact of artificial light at night on migratory birds,” said corresponding author Simon Gillings, Ph.D., of The British Trust for Ornithology. “Finding that even modest urban areas without high-rise buildings can influence migration…
-
Gratitude
What will you remember most about this last year in which all of us were faced with a pandemic that abruptly put a halt to “normal” everyday life? I have to admit that it was pretty unnerving at the beginning when it was all an altered reality. Simple activities such as going to the grocery store made us anxious, and we rushed to get our food and leave as quickly as possible, and then we washed the food when we got home. It was stressful, no doubt about it. My husband and I both felt such gratitude that we were retired and not having to figure out work, educating children,…
-
Invest in the Future:
When is the Best Time to Plant a Tree? As I sit in my recliner, looking out at our yard through rain-streaked windows, I am overcome with pride and a wonderful sense of accomplishment at what I see. What was an abandoned field 18 years ago, today has raised beds for vegetables, four different types of berry bushes, plus a wide variety of other flowers and plants that are colorful and beneficial to wildlife. But it’s the trees that we have planted over the last 18 years that amaze me the most. They are an eclectic group of paulownia, ash, apple, plum, fig, locust, cedar, maple, and mimosa trees, all…
