In honor of Earth Day 2011, we’re “recycling” this 2009 post that inventories the ways we’ve tried to lower our environmental footprint over the years. I never feel sufficiently green compared to a number of my friends, but we do our part and try to be conscious about our choices.
I thought you might enjoy seeing the list and being inspired by changes that aren’t hard to make. It’s organized by the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle.
We’d love you to share ideas not on this list.
Reduce/ Conserve:
1. Walking. We live in a fabulous neighborhood, Summit, in a great city, Providence. Our urban neighborhood feels like a small village. With a half mile walk, we can be at an artisan bread bakery/coffee shop, myriad delicious restaurants, a couple of pharmacies, a deli, an Indian grocery, our work and personal ATMs, cute cute gift stores, a flower shop, a Saturday farmers market and two city parks.
We’re also really close to this incredible tree-lined boulevard that has just under a 4 mile round trip walking path and is bordered by one of the loveliest cemeteries on earth near a river that the public is allowed to stroll through. Did I mention our wonderful neighbors? And the bus runs through it. I rarely drive to bank or run small errands.
2. Bicycling. Jon and I love to bicycle for pleasure and exercise. We are blessed with a number of lovely rail trail bike paths in cycling distance from our home. I try hard to bike to meetings that I can get to in a 20-30 minute ride. I’m still figuring out what “dress up” clothes work on the bike - so far, knee length skirts, capri pants, and some knee length dresses. (I’m a casual kind of gal and so are many of my clients so I don’t find myself in business suits a whole lot.)
Jon’s better about biking than I am, taking his out for most errands and other short hops. I’m a wimp about the weather, so I don’t bike when it’s raining. And as its icy and snowy here a good part of the year (especially this past winter), I skip those months as well. But I’m trying, and every ride is a time I’m not using fossil fuels.
3. Books. I can’t say enough about public libraries. In our case, the Providence Community Library is a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Someone in our house always has a book out of the library. It was particularly a godsend when my daughter lived with us as she devoured a book a day. While I love a good bookstore and try to shop in an independent one when I must buy a book (as I’ll often do as a present), I have to admit that I do a lot of “shelf shopping ” (kind of like window shopping) for new book titles and then order them up from the library. With our statewide lending system, I rarely wait more than a few days for even the very latest books. Plus, our closest branch is just a half mile away so it’s a lovely walk. (Here’s a library fundraising tip: when I hand you the bill to once again pay my overdue fine, how about asking “would you like to donate the change?” I always donate the change, but no one ever asks.)
4. Tap water. We’ve got some pretty good tap water here in Providence and with a water filter, the taste and safety can’t be beat. We keep a pitcher that we’ve filtered in our fridge for drinking. We fill our water bottles (which we’ve got for the bikes anyway) and try to take them with us, even on long trips, to limit our purchase of bottled water to really infrequent occasions. Our country needs to wean itself from its obsession with bottled water.
5. Cloth napkins. We’ve used cloth napkins for all of our regular meals and for small dinner parties since we started housekeeping. I find them so much more pleasing than paper. If we are having a really big party, then I’ll use paper dinner or cocktail napkins. I save leftover plastic plates, forks, knives and spoons and wash and reuse them. ( Though now I’m nervous about doing that with all the concerns about plastics exposed to heat. Luckily, we really don’t use them very often… maybe once or twice a year).
6. Buy local. I’ve been trying to revamp my buying habits to buy from local stores as much as possiblewith the hope that we can reduce the need for more big box stores and their miles of pavement. Unfortunately, the big boxes have been winning. Though I think the recession has slowed them a bit for now. We also have a fabulous farmers market in the summer at the park across the street which is a social and culinary delight. I’ve been paying attention to food items at the grocery store that are locally produced like Narragansett Creamery cheeses (their ricotta amazing), Little Rhody Eggs and Rhody Fresh Milk (though the farmers market eggs are just wonderful. And it’s a delight to get a few blue ones mixed in.)
7. Washing & Drying: We’ve always waited until we have a full load of laundry to run the washing machine. And a full load of dishes to run the dishwasher, with air dry. It’s taken me many years to get over my childhood hatred of hanging clothes as a kid — cold fingers in the winter and leaning over the third floor porch railing to pull in the clothes line was just frightening to miss afraid of heights me. But last summer I asked Jon to string up a clothesline and used it throughout the summer and fall as the weather is warm. I confess that with all the snow and mucky yard that I went back to the clothes dryer this winter. But as the weather turns warm again, that clothesline is beckoning.
8. Energy. We switched all of the incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescents very soon after CLFs came onto the market, with the exception of the few lights that are on dimmers. We also upgraded our ancient refrigerator to an energy star version a few years ago. I now walk around the house with an eye to shutting lights offthough we haven’t purchased one of those super shut off gizmos that you plug appliances into to stop them from consuming electricity even when they are off. Read More >>
The shooting of Congresswoman Giffords and the deaths in Tuscon yesterday sent me back to re-examine a conversation I had with my son just a few days before.
Over dinner, my politically thoughtful college senior son accused me of having crossed a boundary of self-righteousness in my growing scorn towards the party now in leadership in the US House of Representatives.
Neither my intent nor my language included any semblance of violence. But the intensity of my opinions sounded to my son as unwelcome intolerance, not just toward the opposing positions, but toward the people as well. I tried to reassure him that I probably would like the current House leadership very well if I met them in person, maybe even some of the tea partiers, but even if I didn’t like them that I carried no personal animosity toward them. But it didn’t sound that way to my son.
I strongly believe in the principles of nonviolence espoused by Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but this is a lifelong work not yet fully realized, as my son’s voice reminds me today.
When values collide, when the chasm between beliefs seems irreconcilable, that is when we need most to be especially vigilant about our choice of words and symbols and tone of voice.
Thank you Sam. My apologies for my dogmatism. I hear you now loud and clear.
Our sympathy to the people who loved those who were killed. Our heartfelt hopes for recovery to everyone who was physically injured and to those who witnessed such a horrific event. I especially hope for a speedy recovery of civility in political discourse and action in my beloved country.
The Safe Chemicals Act of 2010 was introduced in Congress on April 15th by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Congressmen Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Henry Waxman (D-CA) to overhaul the nation’s failed chemical policy laws.
“This landmark legislation would do a lot to protect the public from toxic chemicals. For example, it would require basic health and safety information for all chemicals, ensure that chemicals meet a health-based safety standard that protects vulnerable groups, including workers and children. It would also provide fast action for some of the most notorious chemicals, like formaldehyde, lead, and toxic flame-retardants.
“The bill can be strengthened by making it harder for potentially harmful new chemicals to arrive in the marketplace, and easier to take known toxins out of the marketplace.
“For example, one provision would allow new chemicals on the market without having to meet the new safety standard. If ensuring consumer confidence and protecting public health are top goals in this reform, this needs to be fixed in order for the final bill to be truly protective of American families.
Today is International Women’s Day. “Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for all” is the theme of this year’s commemoration.
From our vantage point here in the US, it can be easy to forget that many women around the world experience profound discrimination every day without protection of law. And millions of girls and women experience rape, domestic abuse, genital mutilation, and other forms of violence against women, regardless of where they live.
If you are at a total loss for an action to commemorate this day, you can add your voice to a petition being circulated by Amnesty International USA asking the United Nations to develop a stronger agency for women. You can find that petition here.
“Together we must learn to live together or we will perish as fools…
America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. … There is … nothing except shortsightedness to prevent us from guaranteeing an annual minimum—and livable—income for every American family…”
” … Our only hope today lies in our ability to … go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal opposition to poverty, racism and militarism …
“… We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now … Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: ‘Too late.’ ”
It’s hard to be hard-headed about giving to Haiti when people are hungry, thirsty and injured. But before you reflexively hit the DONATE NOW FOR HAITI button on the first email (or text message) you see, take a moment to consider your own values. Even in emergencies, perhaps most of all in emergencies, it’s important to try to give in ways that can help to avert similar disasters in the future.
Timothy A. Wise reminds us that “aid is power” in his 2005 blog posting Humanitarian Crises: What is a Progressive to Do? A lot of American aid power goes, intentionally or unintentionally, to helping entrench American businesses and exports at the expense of local products and producers. Food aid often winds up driving local produce and producers out of business. Reconstruction contracts with international construction firms undercut local professionals, builders and workers. Wise advises sticking with agencies which were present before the crisis and will stick around later and those with clear strategies to build local capacity.
I visited Haiti twice, in 1989 and again in 1995 and I know how difficult life there can be at the best of times. Now, in the very worst of times, Haiti needs our help to survive and recover.
MSF has medical staff on the ground in Port-au-Prince. Although all three of their Port-au-Prince hospitals were destroyed, they will be setting up an inflatable hospital in the next day. I once visited a MSF hospital in rural Haiti. It was an oasis of compassion and care.
We can only hope that this catastrophe will be the very bottom of the seemingly endless well of misery this poor nation has suffered. Perhaps now, the U.S. and the world will turn away from interventions and imposed solutions and support Haitians in reconstruction. That work must literally be “from the ground up” since so much of Haiti’s land has been ruined by deforestation and erosion
My client Grassroots International does exactly that kind of development. In the years ahead, Haiti will need programs like GRI’s on a much wider scale to achieve food self-sufficiency and the long-term prosperity it deserves.
A personal reaffirmation of our commitment to inclusion, civil liberties and human rights for all.
Please add your dreams to this list.
P.S. To President Obama. As you accept the Nobel Prize today, may your award remind you you and your administration that you have much to do to be fully deserving.
Just over 64% of eligible voters voted in the 2008 US Presidential election. Though that was one of the highest turnouts in decades, that’s not even three-quarters of the electorate.
For most US citizens, the risk of voting today is potentially a long wait in line.
Sunday I learned about a woman whose conviction to participate in electoral politics is so strong that she is facing life in prison.
Birtukan Mideksa, a 35 year old former judge and mother of a four-year-old daughter, is serving a life sentence in Kaliti Prison in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for her leadership in the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy party.
You can read more about her case here and also find a sample letter to petition on her behalf.
Why is Birtukan Mideksa in jail?
She was arrested in November 2005 after her party disputed results of local and parliamentary elections. Because post-election demonstrations had turned violent — Ethiopian security forces shot and killed 187 people and wounded 765 others while six police officers were also killed — the government charged Mrs. Birtukan, who had neither used nor advocated violence, with treason.
She was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Local leaders negotiated a pardon which lead to her release in 2007. In December 2008 she had her pardon revoked and was re-arrested and re-sentenced to life in prison after she refused to recant public remarks she had made in Sweden about the events that led to her pardon and release.
In today’s action for universal Human Rights, you can send a message of hope and support to Birtukan Mideksa by sending her a postcard or letter mailed to:
Birtukan Mideksa
c/o Ethiopian Women for Peace and Development
P.O. Box 1318
Wheaton, MD 20915
Some of you may have seen the “60 Minutes” program Congo’s Gold that aired November 29, 2009. The story detailed how the selling of “conflict minerals” such as gold are paying for the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). With almost five million dead, this war has been described as the deadliest war since WWII.
Amnesty International USA describes this as a ” ‘war against women’ where “women and girls are being raped in great numbers as a means of destroying their families and communities.”
What seems so far away and removed from our lives came to us up close Sunday when Congolese refugee Albert Mulenda Rajabu spoke about his experiences in the DRC at the Write-a-Thon for Human Rights sponsored by Group 49 of Amnesty International USA.
Mr. Rajabu, a former teacher, stoically shared his own story of surviving two civil wars despite arrest and jailing for his human rights work in the DRC. But he wept when he reported incidences of sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls. He shared with the room the following story of a survivor’s account of the sexual violence. Read More >>
1. Walking. We live in a fabulous neighborhood, Summit, in a great city, Providence. Our urban neighborhood feels like a small village. With a half mile walk, we can be at an artisan bread bakery/coffee shop, myriad delicious restaurants, a couple of pharmacies, a deli, an Indian grocery, our work and personal ATMs, cute cute gift stores, a flower shop, a Saturday farmers market and two city parks.
