I am on a continuous journey of self-improvement. I’m currently doing the final edits for my new book: Always Pass Uphill of a Yak: And Other Lessons from Nepal. It will be available in e-book form in the spring of 2021.
When it comes to the environment, it always seems like there’s so much more that I could be doing but here is the start of a list of what I’m doing.
Agriculture
- I have had my own plot at the community garden almost since the time I moved to town twelve years ago. We grow organic veggies -kohlrabi, lettuce, carrots, beets, tomatoes, spinach, peppers, eggplant, pac choi, collards, kale, onions, squash, cucumbers, beans and more. Each year we trying some different things. One time we tried artichokes! I got one artichoke … still so much to learn.
- My husband and I were just asked to take over the task of managing the community garden in 2019. We have lots of ideas but are mostly just getting our feet wet.
- We are members of CT Northeast Organic Farming Association and love to attend their mid-winter conference when we can. This year we learned about hugels. Recently, we made our own hugel.
- I would like to see more of our yard morphed into permaculture. Our yard is heavily shaded and so far we have not had much success with this. My in-laws got me a dogwood tree for my birthday. How’s that for awesome?
- We also try to support our local organic and pesticide free farmers.
Air Quality
- As much as possible we refrain from using our fireplace. Most years we don’t use it at all. A lot of people think that wood burning is okay for the environment. It’s not. The greenhouse gasses of N2O, SO2, and CO2 are released along with lots of particulate matter.
- I own a Chevy Volt … which I love! It can run 45 miles on pure electric (sometimes more in the summer) which is plenty to get me to work and back.
- Our lawn mower is electric and I will never, never, never buy a leaf blower – yuck!!
- In my work for the non-profit, we use Zoom video meetings and get together in-person twice a year at most.
- When we go into New York City, we like to take the train.
Biodiversity
- I’m trying to be more cognizant of issues like destruction of tropical rain forests related to palm oil production and refrain from such purchases.
- I continued to try to bring awareness to issues surrounding species extinction.
- I keep shopping to a minimum and am working on ways to repurpose items.
- I keep my cat indoors for her safety and the safety of wildlife.
- I continue to renew my appreciation for the outdoors by exploring new hikes.
Climate Change
- I have attended anti-pipeline rallies and helped to organize two marches.
- I have run a couple of library programs on the topic.
- I have tried to reduce my personal fossil fuel use.
- I helped to organize a benefit concert for our local Sierra Club chapter which focuses a lot on promoting green energy.
- For my fiftieth birthday, I bought 50 of Al Gore’s most recent book related to climate change and gave them to 50 people asking them to read them, take action, and then pass them on.
- I contact my representatives on related issues often. I hope they recognize my name by now.
- I have tried to educate myself on issues related to natural gas, coal and oil.
Traditional Development
- I tried to stop an unfortunate development in our neighborhood by petitioning by neighbors, speaking at town meetings and writing newspaper articles. My feeling is that we should focus on restoring already-developed areas.
- I make donations to organizations that help preserve natural places.
Energy
- I have switched the lights in the house to LED.
- We use the air conditioner only when absolutely necessary.
- We buy energy efficient appliances when needed.
- We keep long car trips to a minimum and plane travel is rare. On a 2018 trip to Italy, obviously we couldn’t avoid the flight over but we did travel by train, bus and foot the entire way. This was the first plane flight to a foreign country in twenty years. In 2019, we had an opportunity to travel to Nepal so the flight over and back unfortunately added a lot of carbon to the air. I’m hoping technology improves significantly in this area.