A Now for Something Completely Different

This is the most ass-backward idea that you'll ever hear.  It goes against everything we think we know about how to restore grasslands -- reclaim them from the deserts they have become.  We're not talking true desert environments here, we're talking land that used to be verdant. 



What do you think?  Crazy, huh?

Forks Over Knives

You want a powerfully persuasive argument against eating meat and dairy?  See this movie. 

I eat meat and dairy, and I love it.  As I age, however, I'm looking at health strategies that will keep me fit and even reverse the ill affects of my diet thus far.  I want to stay vital as long as I possibly can.

I don't eat much fast food.  I don't eat a lot of processed foods, but sometimes I get the urge for a bag of chips or cheetos, or even a McDonald's hamburger (the plain one, the itty bitty one).  And I love Gelato.  Really. Love. It.

I've known the ill health effects of our American way of diet for 35 years after reading Diet for a Small Planet.  I began a vegetarian diet that lasted maybe a year.  Peer pressure brought me back to eating meat.  It was just so much easier to eat what everyone else was eating.

But once again I am faced with my concerns about health, both my own and that of the planet.  In addition, I do look at the amount of suffering of innocent animals in the production of our food.  I've turned a blind eye for a long time, knowing the horrors of meat production, but not wanting to see the truth of it because, gosh, it may change my carefully ordered set-up. 

I ordered the cookbook, with 300 recipes for all seasons.  Gonna give it shot.  Gonna cook it for family meals and see how it goes over.  The documentary is on instant streaming on Netflix.  I highly recommend it, especially if you are skeptical about a plant-based diet.

I'll keep you updated how how it goes for me and my family.  Will we become converts?  Stay tuned.

Clean Water For All

I have joined the effort to raise funds for the organization Water.org.

How much do we take the availability of clean water for granted in this country? I know I do.  Turn on a tap, it's there.  Even turn on  your garden hose, it's there.  There is no effort needed.

I used to do a lot of back-packing. Out in the wilderness for up to a week, we sought clean water sources from streams and rivers.  In my short time of back-packing, sources of clean water became more and more scarce.  So, we began to take pills on our trips to drop into our collected water to clean up and render it safe to use.  You do not want to get a water-born illness while backpacking.  Ruins the entire trip and could kill you.  I also remember how utterly delightful the first shower after a trip was.  Hot water cascading over a grimy and tired body.  I understood what a luxury this was.  It was heaven on earth.

I intellectually understand how out of reach this basic resource is for many of the world's population.  But I watched the video and read information about the work of Water.org and it inspired me to do what I could from my comfy place at home in America.



The statistic that more people die of water-born illness than from war rocked me.  The fact that providing clean water to a village actually enables girls to go to school and get an education -- that moved me.  When girls don't have to spend their lives in search of water, and in the transport of that water (on their backs) over miles and miles to and from their villages, they are liberated.

I have just a few days left to raise the $100 that I committed to.  This amount of money will provide 4 of our fellow humans with clean water for life.  Please go to my link and donate.  I have had several friend donate $5 and $10.  That's all it takes, if we all do it.

Thank you very very much!

Scary News

Citizen K is always enlightening. I can't keep up with the horror of life on this planet, so he does it for me. This is good - he's a good filter and if he can stand it, then we all benefit. He linked to this story about the oil moratorium and its threat to 2 wealthy conservative families in Louisiana: In trying to prevent another blowout in the hazardous deep water environment, President Obama had unwittingly delivered would could prove to be a lethal blow to some of some of the wealthiest arch conservative activists in the state. If the President did not realize the full extent of the in-state political implications of the moratorium, it did not take too long to become evident.

And tar balls are showing up in Texas. Good on you, BP. I'd like to scream and pull out my hair, but that's pretty self-indulgent and useless.

California: We're On Fire

Photos by Dana.

We had our summer trip to Tassajara just in time. They are now evacuated. You can read more about it at Sitting With Fire. Funnily enough, I received an invitation in the mail last week from the San Francisco Zen Center to join them at a planning meeting to expand the facilities at Tassajara Mountain Zen Center. My immediate reaction was, "Don't expand it! It's already getting too big!" Well, let us hope that it doesn't require rebuilding. It has survived many close calls before, the fire departments work hard to keep the center out of harm's way.

On a happier note, check here to see the increases in marriage licenses per county in California since the CA Supreme Court ruling. It's fun to see where all the fun is happening! Now, that's hot.

Leonard Cohen - Anthem - Nature

This song breaks my heart...and uplifts it at the same time. " There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."

Some heartbreaking shit going on in my extended family, and the key (last night) was to bbq a steak, talk with my sister, and watch Cohen's "I'm Your Man" again.

Peace.

Retail Therapy

This looks like an interesting read, especially after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Shopping Our Way...isn't available yet on Amazon, but one of our local bookstores is featuring the author next week.

While I understand that simply consuming differently doesn't an eco-movement make, it can help. Follow the money. Always. If people change their buying habits, selling habits will change. Seems as if Szasz is saying, though, that people are lulled into a sense of safety because they substitute retail products for political action. I'll have to read the book.

I dunno...do we have the will or the time to make real change?

Further Along

Uvas Creek Levee these days

Back in the day, 1967 to be exact, my dad entered a local newspaper photo contest to document the environment. I don’t recall if the assignment was to record trash dumps, or something generally environmental. It was 40 years ago, however. Dad took my older sister and me out to the local ‘creek’ where people tended to dump trash. He had us pose, intrepid youngsters in our gingham dresses, complete with bobby socks and saddle shoes, perched on the steep creek bed recording the mountain of trash with our little Instamatic cameras.

Well, the photo got in the paper, and therefore provided the family with a great amount of satisfaction all the way around.

Forty years later and I’m blogging for the environment. I’m walking for the environment. I drive a hybrid car and use compact fluorescent light bulbs. I recycle my glass, aluminum, plastic, paper and cardboard. I use a cloth bag when I go shopping (still working on the missus). I’ve lived through droughts, water rationing, electrical shortages, brown outs, and daylight ‘savings’ time. I’ve watched the use of Styrofoam food containers almost disappear in my community. I select some of my personal hygiene products because they are made in environmentally sustainable ways – and – they work beautifully! Organic vegetables and hormone-free milk, free-range hormone free chickens are available at all the main grocery chains. When I find a home cleaning product that actually works and is not harmful to the environment, I buy it. Not all my household cleaners can boast eco-friendliness, alas. Sometimes convenience and effectiveness counts.

Listing these things reminds me that I, and countless others, have made strides in the last few decades. I’m a ‘tree-huggin’ Californian, and proud of it. Even dad, a Republican (sigh) who doesn’t believe global warming is happening, believes in conservation of our natural resources. He was an early member of the Sierra Club (before they went all ‘radical’). He recycles water at home whether or not we have drought conditions. He recycles. He drives a hybrid. Here we are, at the opposite ends of the political spectrum, still joining together for the environment.

"Cheer up, brothers and sisters, live in the sunshine,
We’ll understand it all by and by."