Books for Earth Day

Here are some books that address themes related to Earth Day, to conservation, and the environment. Happy reading!

Rogue Commute Challenge

In the spirit of reducing our carbon footprint, of enhancing personal wellness and honoring the interdependent web of life, I’m asking co-workers if they'd be interested in forming “Rogue Commute Challenge” teams.

Book bags from shirts and other materials

Repurposed shirts and other materials find new life as decorative book bags. They’re great as a planet-friendly alternative to throw-away gift wrapping paper and could as easily hold a digital reader or tablet as they could hold a traditional printed book. Appliqued onto the bag in front is the international symbol of the library.

Generation holds ‘fate of the earth in balance’

For the first time, “a generation of people [hold] the very fate of the earth in balance.” For the Huffington Post, Marilyn Sewell, a Unitarian Universalist minister, lists 10 reasons why more people are not crying out for change. (Distributed by UU World’s The Interdependent Web.)

Cross-posted to RVUUFian Parents on Facebook

‘Crunch’ by Leslie Connor

I subscribe to various email lists related to library services to children, and in response to requests for recommendations on two very different topics, one book immediately came to mind.

I posted a review of Crunch by Leslie Connor (Katherine Tegan Books, 2010) in December 2013.

More recently, I recommended the book across one of the listservs I subscribe to. My recommendation was in response to a request for books with an environmental theme.

Set in present-day, Crunch depicts what happens when gasoline supplies abruptly disappear.

Jackson County SMARTWorks: Mobile water station

“Water on Wheels”: That fresh, clean and mobile drinking water station viewed Friday during Fourth of July in Ashland, Oregon is a service of Jackson County SMARTWorks.

Bear Creek Greenway: Ashland to Phoenix trip

Bridge along the Bear Creek Greenway north of Ashland

Jonathan and I rode our bikes up the Bear Creek Greenway on Saturday, from Ashland to Phoenix, Oregon. The trip represented enormous progress in our efforts to free ourselves from dependence upon driving a car.

12 percent of households don’t have car

From the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (citing a 2009 National Household Travel Survey), come a variety of statistics about U.S. transportation that may startle and inspire. Among them, one in 12 U.S. households does not own a car and 11.9 percent of all trips in this country were done by walking or bicycling.

Water refill station at Fourth of July celebration

Water on Wheels

Some kind of awesome: The “water on wheels” refill station encouraged reusable bottle use during the Fourth of July celebration in downtown Ashland, Oregon. It was an unexpected pleasure, this being a federal holiday event and not, say, the Rogue Valley Earth Day celebration.

Consumer choices carry environmental weight

The message of two videos viewed this week for my women’s health class is that consumer decisions carry weight. The resulting impacts are entirely up to us.

Handmade pouches work great for bulk dry goods

At the Ashland Food Co-op, my handmade pouches work great for purchasing bulk dry goods. I got the idea from unbleached muslin sacks that are sold at the co-op.

I repurposed these sacks from bandannas and crocheted drawstrings from newspaper-bundling twine. Each pouch has the tare weight embroidered on it.

Combine these handmade dry-goods pouches with handmade grocery sacks and our shopping trips at the co-op are occasions for living the value of sustainability.

Upcycled fashion: Gown from shopping bags by art major Johanna Boy

Photo credit: Southern Oregon Goodwill

Check out this gown made from plastic shopping bags by Southern Oregon University art major Johanna Boy. Seeing her model this gown was a highlight of the Earth Day celebration at ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum.

Goodwill Industries of Southern Oregon hosted an Upcycled Fashion Contest Runway Show, featuring work by area students.

I hope next year that there is an entry division for adults. Nearly everything I wore -- a T-shirt depicting Kliban’s Cat on a Swing, a sweater with Om medallion, a bucket hat -- plus my shopping bag were repurposed from other things.

Bag from pillowcase, pants leg, tablet-woven straps

This is my most lavish upcycled market bag yet: “Kivrim” trim, created with tablet weaving, forms the straps of this hand-made shopping bag. The upper body of the bag was made from a pillowcase, the lower body was made from a pair of pants. A piece of fabric woven on a rigid-heddle loom is layered onto the bag beneath an appliqued leaf cut out from another piece of fabric.

TapIt Water bottle refill network finds refill venues on-the-go

Ashland Food Co-op allows water bottle refills from the tap

In my women’s health class for general education credit, we are focusing on behavior changes that will lead to healthier lives. One of my assignments this week is to offer advice for a classmate’s goal -- and drinking water is an area with which I’m familiar through the logistics of carrying and refilling a reusable water bottle.

Carrying a water bottle is a great way to stay hydrated. Reusable bottles can be refilled from sinks, water coolers or from drinking fountains that have a high enough arc. I’ve refilled bottles from soda fountain spigots and even at grocery stores with gallon-jug refill kiosks. Try the TapIt Water bottle refill network to find refill venues on-the-go.

Considerable gap between transit and auto costs

Cost of travel for transit-proximate and car-dependant households
Source of data: Taras Grescoe, citing Brookings Institute study

From Taras Grescoe, author of Straphanger (Times Books, 2012), comes this amazing statistic about the cost of travel in households that are near public transit versus those that rely upon cars.

Mixed review for Sonoma County Fair

We went to the Sonoma County Fair this Sunday and I offer a mixed review. First, here are the positive aspects of my experience.

Kate Wolf Festival has ‘green’ emphasis

Jonathan spent this past weekend at the Kate Wolf Festival, where he worked in our friend Evan’s clothing booth. The festival takes place each year at Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville, home to the Hog Farm and Camp Winnarainbow circus camp.

Green publications should promote public transit

Screen capture: Voting break-down from Mother Earth News poll results

An email from Utne Reader this week invited me to take a “green vehicle” survey that was hosted by Mother Earth News. The first few questions had to be left blank because they involved the answerer’s primary vehicle and “public transit” wasn’t an option.

Via Twitter, I asked why “public transit” wasn’t listed as a choice for primary vehicle.

The administrator of @MotherEarthNews indicated the purpose of the survey was to gather driving data but that my message would be passed along.

The survey asked how interested I would be in various types of articles about green vehicles. None of the proposed subjects involved public transportation.

Public transportation made a dismal showing among polling options on the Mother Earth News website in response to “What’s your main means of going places?” Any option that didn’t involve personal auto use gained only minute percentages.

The breakdown in a screen capture I took at roughly noon on Tuesday was car: 43.21 percent (105 votes), truck: 23.87 percent (58 votes), SUV or crossover: 16.46 percent (40 votes) and van: 8.23 percent (20 votes). Among those options that didn’t involve the use of a personal vehicle, the vote spread was bike: 2.06 percent (five votes), feet: 2.88 percent (seven votes) and public transportation: 3.29 percent (eight votes). A total of 243 votes had been cast.

In response to my observation that auto dependence dominates in the Mother Earth News poll, its Twitter account administrator indicated, “I guess this shows that green cars are a good way to get people involved, some areas have terrible/no public transit.

This point may be true, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that “green” personal-use vehicles are the only way to go. I think that if we’re serious about our society’s sustainability, we need to invest in public transit infrastructure. “Green” publications such as Mother Earth News should take the lead in ensuring this is so.

Any carbon footprint that a person’s auto travel makes will be dramatically reduced if he or she shares a commute with many other people.

According to an executive summary for the first half of the fiscal year, 2011/12 for Lake Transit Authority, Lake Transit recorded more than 200,000 passenger boardings from July to December. “This is a 29 percent increase over the same period in 2010/11.”

Individual route productivity included Route 4A along Soda Bay Road with an increase of 72.8 percent, Route 2, which travels over Cobb between Kit’s Corner and Middletown had a 44.6 percent and the Route 8 loop around Lakeport increased ridership by 42 percent.

The Routes 3, 4 and 7 “intercity backbone” between Calistoga in Napa County through Middletown, Clearlake, Kelseyville, Lakeport and Upper Lake to Ukiah in Mendocino County added nearly 15,000 passengers for a 45-percent increase in use.

So as a commuter who daily rides the bus, that puts me in good company.

I ride the bus because it makes my commute affordable. I pay $40 per month for a rider’s pass that gives me unlimited use of in-county routes. Two days before payday, I don’t have to worry about whether I can put gas in the tank.

With gas prices what they are, I couldn’t afford to live and work at nearly opposite ends of Lake County if I had to commute by car. I am blessed with a work schedule that compliments the times when Lake Transit buses operate.

I don’t need a car when I’m at work and I rarely need a car when I’m at home. Much of what I need is within walking distance of my family’s apartment.

Before I travel by auto, I try to determine first if I could make the trip by public transit. That doesn’t mean I never use a car but it does mean I do so consciously.

I really think our society needs to move in a direction where public transit is the norm.

Emergency responders and news reporters need to travel by car to respond near-instantly to happenings and society should license them to do so. They serve vital roles of public safety and information. But the majority of people do not likewise need to instantly be out and about.

We already buy in to the notion that driving is a privilege and not a right by requiring motorists to be licensed and vehicles registered with the DMV.

It wouldn’t take much more to instigate a system where auto use is based upon the purpose it serves for the benefit of society.

Massive investment in public transit to get people where they need to go when they need to get there is a logical first step toward reducing dependence on personal vehicle use. All the better if public transportation is powered through “green” technology.

Online and print publications such as Mother Earth News are in a position to help shape public opinion about the worthiness of such a venture.

I hope they use this position wisely.

Published Feb. 21, 2012 in the Lake County Record-Bee

Sustainability begins at home

The visiting speaker presented a simple message: vote against Proposition 23 in the November election and receive the gratitude of successive generations for stopping climate change.

A stainless-steel water bottle was nestled at the speaker's feet, but in the back of the meeting hall, snacks were being served on paper plates with paper napkins and plastic silverware. The majority of those present did not have reusable bottles or travel mugs, so beverages were being drunk from disposable cups.

‘Alternative’ festival needs to practice what it promotes

The rutted dirt driveway seemed to go on forever and we shifted uncomfortably on our hay-bale seats as a man on a tractor pulled the makeshift shuttle up the road. Uncomfortably jostled by ruts in the roadway, I was relieved to disembark at journey's end.