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Many thanks to Shelly Randall, our conference blogger, for providing the following summary of Day One of the our North American Gathering. Visit Shelly’s Blog, Sustainable Together, at www.sustainabletogether.com.
“We are the ones / We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” was the hopeful message raised in song at tonight’s opening event of the Northwest Earth Institute’s North American gathering in Port Townsend.
Some of the voices were a little off-key, but we just looked at each other, shrugged, smiled, and kept singing.
Not many conferences kick off with rounds and layer songs, but this isn’t just any conference, and the attendees are not exactly shrinking violets. They are bold and innovative environmental activists. They are agitators for change in their communities. They are passionate people with causes–and they are pretty good vocalists, as a whole!
Presenter Gretchen Sleicher (stepping in for Pam Wood, who was unable to present at the last minute) gave a program on “The Great Turning,” which she described as “the adventure of moving toward a life-sustaining civilization”—in opposition to the “the idea that we can keep going and going on a finite planet.”
Using call-and-response, Gretchen taught us songs to illustrate the four “points of the spiral”—Gratitude, Honoring Our Pain for the World, Seeing With New Eyes, and Going Forth. She wrote some of the songs herself, and has collected others from around the world. The words and MP3 files with the melodies are available at songsforthegreatturning.net.
“Songs metabolize human emotion,” Gretchen told us. She is passionate about the power of music to enliven and inspire: here in Port Townsend she co-directs the PT Songlines choir and she leads workshops around the region that combine group singing and Joanna Macy’s The Work That Reconnects.
Judging by the wholehearted participation of the conference’s early arrivals (50 so far, more to come in the morning) and the positive vibrations ringing in the room, the singing was a great icebreaker. We also paired up to do some get-to-kn0w-each-other exercises where we alternated between active listening and sharing our thoughts on topics such as, “Some things that are concerning to me in this moment of planetary crisis are…”
Serious stuff.
“We don’t know if this great turning is happening at the same time as this great unraveling,” Gretchen said. “But if we knew, would it [this global challenge] elicit our greatest creativity? It is a blessing to be alive at this time and not know.”
If you are a NW Natural gas customer, please keep reading. If not, feel free to skip the rest of this friendly message.
NW Natural is running a promotional campaign to enlist customers in paperless billing–which is great in and of itself because it’s less mail for you to deal with and less paper making its way into the recycling bin. But to make things even more exciting, they are offering $25,000 to a small group of local nonprofits–every paperless billing customer gets to vote for the organization of their choice. This is where you come in–NWEI is one of the four nonprofits who will benefit from the campaign, and we need your votes.
If you are already a paperless customer, that’s great–just log in to your account and then vote (this link takes you straight to the campaign webpage too). If you are not already a subscriber, follow the link and enroll today to cast your vote.
This is an easy way to support NWEI, and reduce the clutter on your kitchen counter in the process. To sweeten the deal, we’re also raffling off a copy of the newly revised Voluntary Simplicity book and a $25 Portland Nursery gift card–just email us (staff at nwei dot org) and let us know you voted and we’ll enter you into the raffle. The campaign runs through June 30, 2011 but don’t delay- cast your vote today.
2011 350 HOME & GARDEN CHALLENGE: *Go Grey* from TINBIKE on Vimeo.
As you may have seen on our blog last week, NWEI is partnering with Transition US and 350.org to get people involved in this weekend’s Home and Garden Challenge!
Already, over 700 people around the US are signed up to take action in their communities. Organizing a Home & Garden Challenge in your town (or city, village, county, parish, island) not only helps raise awareness and continue to build local resiliency, it offers an opportunity for citizens to be a part of something much larger. This is the perfect opportunity for communities across the country to come together on a single weekend and show their solidarity.
Let’s get some NWEI folks on the map! Learn more about signing up and taking action here.
Today we have a guest blogger writing on her experiences with NWEI courses! Course participant Sheilah Toomey recently participated in NWEI’s A World of Health discussion course. She was raised in Portland, Oregon and on a farm in Sherwood, Oregon. She is currently retired, age 70, and “watching her budget carefully – especially now that I have committed to buying more local and organic food!” Here are some of her reflections from her recent discussion course:
“Since taking part in recent discussions focused on A World of Health: Connecting People, Place and Planet, I have immediately made lifestyle changes in the areas of what I eat, where I live and what I use for personal care. I’ve researched all my cosmetics, and thrown away almost all the toxic ones. I’ve put a lady-bug sign on my lawn that says “Pesticide Free Zone” and have committed to non-toxic lawn care. I’ve gone back to using just plain washing soda and vinegar for most cleaning.
The course has also reinforced some ongoing habits. I continue to drive less and consolidate errands, which I’ve been doing for years. I also continue to ride my bike to the grocery store for a “few things” in the summer and fall.
In the area of food, I’ve begun to buy mostly organic produce (and have tried to keep calm as I see the total at the cash register). I also subscribed this spring to a vegetable program through a local CSA. I stored away all my nice plastic containers and bought glass containers and waxed paper sandwich bags for leftovers (so, what do I do with 2 new rolls of plastic wrap?). I’m working on engaging community members in making change, and spoke to managers of my two Trader Joe’s about providing tomatoes in glass jars (but am also finding that fresh tomatoes actually make a pretty good spaghetti sauce!). I also recycled the plastic water bottle I keep in my car, and replaced it with stainless steel.
As I write this, I still have two chapters left in the course book. I am afraid to look ahead but look forward to continued changes towards a healthier world.”
Hot off the heels of our April Month of Action, we’re diving into offering a new version of Voluntary Simplicity as well as partnering with Transition US and 350.org to encourage you to join the 350 Home and Garden Challenge!
What is the Home and Garden Challenge?
You as an individual can identify specific actions in one or more of the four challenge areas: food, water, energy and/or community or volunteer on a community project. All we ask is that you register your action so we can show the world just how powerful we are as a movement then check out the Actions Map to see who else is taking on the challenge.
As Trathen Heckman of the Transition US movement wrote in a recent blog post: On a single weekend, May 14th & 15th, thousands of us will take to the streets, the garden, schoolyard, home, apartment and city hall to take action as part of the 350 Home & Garden Challenge…A multitude of organizations across the country will transform, retrofit and revitalize our landscapes and homes to grow food, conserve water, save energy and build community. And we need YOU to join us. Stand up and be counted, inspire your family, friends and neighbors to do the same. Amidst a dizzying array of crises and mounting despair, together with our heads, hearts and hands aligned in action we will bring the hope of this historic transition as we descend from peak everything to community resilience.
There is a freedom in belonging to something bigger than ourselves, when we feel apart of, not a part from things. And it comes bundled with hope. Not a blind, ungrounded faith that things will just work out. It’s hope as a purposefully engaged state of being, in spite of, even inspired by the state of things and a need to live and love with conviction.
These times ask for more from us. They ask for us to rise and shine like spring’s verdant emergence, an unstoppable force of nature.
Here’s to collaboration and to gardening for change!
Here are some resources to help you get started. Register now as May 14th is fast approaching!
Firstly, for those of you who have come along for the journey of Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action, we thank you whole-heartedly. Today marks the close of a month dedicated to taking action– with oil and our lifestyles in mind. We’ve journeyed together exploring driving less, walking and biking more, alternative transportation options, carpooling, home energy use, unplugging appliances and getting more efficient, how to broaden our reach, cultivating community, plastics and food… WOW!
One thing that has emerged for me is how oil pervades almost every element of my life and choices. Every day there are points where I can influence the system– whether it is the food I eat, the transportation I take or the packaging I use or avoid. Another lesson for me is that while my own individual actions matter immensely, I can’t act in isolation if I want to see broad systemic change. I need to ‘broaden my reach,’ as NWEI staffer Lacy Cagle reminded us earlier in the month. I need to insert my feedback more often and I need to engage others as often as I can.
Today’s proposed action is: Reconnect with your commitment.
Similar to our action for Earth Day, today is about reminding yourself what it is you most care about and why it is so important to continue acting with Earth in mind. If you are like me, this month has hopefully given you some new ideas or shown you where you could be doing more. Hopefully it has reminded you of all the ways in which you can take action.
Today and over the weekend as April comes to a close, take a deep breath and look back on what new sustainable habits you have tried this month. What has resonated most with you? What do you want to take with you from this month? How can your commitment to sustainable lifestyle choices be strengthened going forward?
May your commitment to live lightly be strengthened today as we close our month of action. And again, we thank you for journeying with the Northwest Earth Institute as we continue to be the Change.
Today’s proposed action is: Eat lower on the food chain today–by eating a vegetarian or vegan diet over the course of the day. And consider making it a weekly tradition!
Today we turn to an issue that never ceases to spark debate, the impact of the meat industry. The following table via Lloyd Alter of Treehugger is a good visual of the fact that meat products are more intensive to produce.
With “roughly twenty-five times more energy required to produce one calorie of beef than to produce one calorie of corn for human consumption” there is reason to consider at least a partially vegetarian diet.
For those who are already eating a completely vegetarian diet, the next step perhaps is eliminating dairy part of the time.
You may have heard of the Meatless Mondays movement, made popular most recently by Oprah. Check out the website for more on the health and environmental benefits of moderating meat consumption, as well as recipes to try.
And let us know how your Meatless Wednesday goes today!
Continuing along the path of sustainable eating, we turn our attention to the processing and packaging of food. Over the course of the last century, the food we eat has taken on many new forms. Food has shown up in the stores in increasing layers of packaging with more and more energy used to both process and package what we eat.
Today’s proposed action is: Consume only unprocessed foods today in order to cut down on the energy used to process and package; and, similar to what you focused on a few weeks ago when we addressed plastics: avoid items that are heavily packaged.
The issues surrounding processed foods are two-fold: processed foods are more resource-intensive to manufacture, and they are sold to us in more layers of packaging. Think about a typical frozen dinner, even an organic relatively healthy meal will generally be packaged in plastic and then inside a plastic-coated paper box. In addition to being healthier for you, unprocessed foods are more often available in bulk, which means less packaging (or none if you bring your own containers).
Currently, Americans spend 90% of their food budget on processed foods! Today, we propose getting back to basics with the foods we eat–and eating simply, for the health benefits and for the planet!
Today marks the 41st anniversary of Earth Day, with an estimated 1 billion people likely participating – making it perhaps the largest secular civic event in the world (wow!). This week, during Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action, we have turned our focus to community and culture, and how we can be agents of change in our respective circles of influence. What better day than today to reflect on our wider community of Earth?
Chief Seattle said it well when he said, “The earth does not belong to humans, humans belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Humans did not weave the web of life, they are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.”
Today is a day to remember these interconnections. Take time throughout the day to simply notice the many things outside of your physical body that are essential for your survival – and feel gratitude for these things.
Today’s proposed action is: Make a list of some of the key actions you’ve taken this month to address oil and your lifestyle. Pick one of these actions that you’ve taken this month and dedicate yourself to doing that one action indefinitely going forward.
(*If you’re just joining us here on NWEI’s blog, scroll below for a host of simple actions you can take and read on to see what others have been committing to during this month of action).
We don’t have to ‘should’ ourselves into making lifelong changes – whether big or small. We can instead shift towards the life we most want to be living because we are called to act in service of Life from a place of gratitude and from a place of understanding our interconnectedness with that which is beyond ourselves. In this way we can slowly shift our awareness and actions to serving Life at large – and every day is an opportunity to practice this understanding and intention.
Every action we take impacts a greater web of community. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Our way of walking on the Earth has a great influence…The future of all life, including our own, depends on our mindful steps.” Today and always, may we take mindful steps – remembering that every gesture of simplicity, sustainability and kindness truly makes a difference.
*Stay tuned next week as we dive into our final week of Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action, where we’ll be exploring sustainable and local food choices – join us!
This week, during our Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action, we have turned our focus to community and culture, and how we can be agents of change in our respective circles of influence.
So far this month we’ve addressed the importance of taking action at home and work and looked at changes we can make in how we transport ourselves and how we eat. We’ve looked at what we can do about plastics, a by-product of our dependence on oil, and considered how to broaden our reach beyond personal lifestyle choices to now influencing our immediate communities.
Today we bring our focus to what you can do in your immediate community to positively impact both others and the environment where you live. Beyond signing petitions and pressuring our elected leaders to enact changes we wish to see, we must also turn our attention to the immediate circles of living communities of which we are a part.
As Grace Lee Boggs says, “We can begin by doing small things at the local level, like planting community gardens or looking out for our neighbors. That is how change takes place in living systems, not from above but from within, from many local actions occurring simultaneously.”
Today’s proposed action is: Look after where you live. Take one action today to serve your local community or neighborhood.
If you’re not sure where to start, find out what one environmental justice issue in your community is, or one environmental issue that is particularly relevant where you live. Find out what your local government is doing about the issue and contact them with questions or feedback or to ask how to get involved. Another way to look after where you live is to find out what local organizations are doing to address environmental issues and get involved that way. Is there a local action-oriented campaign you could join?
To learn more about how your state has been affected by fossil fuel extraction, for example, take a look at this state by state map of the impacts of fossil fuel accidents in the US from 1968-2011: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/04/fossilfuelmap.html. If you live in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky or Texas, your states have been hit hardest.
This week, during our Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action, we have turned our focus to community and culture, and how we can be agents of change in our respective circles of influence.
Today we’ll take a look at the status of renewable energy in the US and consider actions to support renewable energy. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2010, renewable energy provided 8.2 quadrillion BTUs of primary energy production in the United States, roughly 11% of our total production of 74.9 quads. Biomass/biofuels accounted for 51.98% of renewable energy production, with hydropower accounting for 30.66%, wind accounting for 11.29%, geothermal for 4.68% and solar for 1.38%.
The good news is that the EIA reported that wind energy increased by 28% last year, with biomass/biofuels increasing by 10% and solar and geothermal increasing by 4% each. Also good news: last Tuesday Governor Gerry Brown signed legislation requiring California utilities to obtain 33% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. The current requirement is 20%.
Today’s proposed action is: Encourage your elected officials to consider a similar bill if they have not already done so, and express your support for a National Renewable Energy Standard. (*Senator Mark Udall of Colorado and Tom Udall of New Mexico just introduced a national bill that would require utilities to generate 25% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025).
Also, if you have not done so already, speak with your local utility company about renewable energy options you can sign up for.
For more information on both energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, you can visit the US Department of Energy’s website: http://www.eere.energy.gov/
This week, during our Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action, we’ve turned our focus to plastics.
Yesterday, we talked about the issues surrounding water bottles. Today, we’re focusing on plastic bags.
According to Environment Oregon, there are 100 million tons of plastic trash in the North Pacific concentrated by the ocean’s currents into a toxic soup 1000 miles off our coast where plastic outnumbers plankton 40-to-1. All this plastic pollution in our oceans poisons, strangles, starves, and suffocates millions of sea turtles, seabirds, whales, and fish every year.
For example, here in Oregon alone, we use 1.7 billion plastic checkout bags every year — that’s 500 per person! So many of those bags make their way into our ocean, onto our beaches, and into marine ecosystems. These bags are also notorious for clogging up the gears of recycling machines, creating constant mechanical problems at recycling stations.
Here at NWEI, we focus on individual behavior change and small group learning through our discussion courses and in our EcoChallenge. So we’re challenging each of you to decrease the amount of plastic you use.
Today’s proposed action is: Vow to always bring your own reusable shopping bag whenever you go shopping.
If you’re already doing this, give a reusable bag to a friend or neighbor to double your impact. My wife and I keep a few canvas bags in our car so that when we make those impromptu grocery shopping trips, we never have to use plastic bags.
Also, contact your local elected officials and urge them to ban the use of plastic bags in your community. Several states, including Oregon, are currently considering statewide bans on plastic bags. Make your voice heard!
During this week of Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action, we turn our focus to plastics.
Take a look around — many of the items that we eat, drink, or use in any way come packaged in petroleum plastic. This plastic material is often designed to last forever, yet is commonly used for products that we use just once and then throw away. The effects of this throwaway mentality can be readily witnessed in our landfills and at our beaches that are being overrun with plastic packaging.
As the organization 5 Gyres points out:
“The short-term convenience of using and throwing away plastic products carries a very inconvenient long-term truth. These plastic water bottles, cups, utensils, electronics, toys, and gadgets we dispose of daily are rarely recycled in a closed loop. We currently recover only 5% of the plastics we produce. What happens to the rest of it? Roughly 50% is buried in landfills, some is remade into durable goods, and much of it remains “unaccounted for”, lost in the environment where it ultimately washes out to sea.”
Here at NWEI, we focus on individual behavior change and small group learning through our discussion courses and in our EcoChallenge. So we’re challenging each of you to decrease the amount of plastic you use on a regular basis.
Today’s proposed action is: Reduce one piece of plastic that you use in your daily lives.
If you’re still using disposable water bottles, go get yourself a stainless steel water bottle. If you’ve got friends or family that are using water bottles once and then throwing them away, take this opportunity to talk to them about the long-term impacts of plastics.
Consider contacting your local elected officials and urge them to enact legislation that will decrease the amount of bottled water waste your community creates. This issue in particular is one in which individual communities can make a big difference, so contact your city council and county officials.
Today we continue our focus on transportation by looking at ways to broaden our reach. Individual behavior change is necessary and important in creating the world in which we want to live. Individual actions inspire, motivate, and change culture, especially when enough people work together to make a difference. Here at NWEI, we focus on individual behavior change and small group learning through our discussion courses and in our EcoChallenge.
But we also see the vital importance of working together to change our infrastructure, political systems, and broader cultural constructs, as well.
Today’s proposed action is: Broaden your reach.
Cars produce about 20 percent of U.S. carbon emissions and consume about 44 percent of the oil we use. Consider contacting your representative about implementing a fuel tax or raising the standards for fuel efficiency in your state. Environment America is working on some great campaigns aimed at getting America off oil.
Also, consider contacting your Congressperson and Department of Transportation and telling them of the merits of a U.S. Bicycle Route System, an interstate network of bicycle routes for national non-motorized transportation. You can find out more information here and see what’s going on in your state here.
For the weekend:
Enjoy non-motorized fun, for your health and for the health of the planet. Go for a bike ride, either to a destination you’ve already planned, or just for fun. Or take a hike and enjoy the weather your area has to offer in the spring. Take a picture celebrating your surroundings and how you got there. Send your pictures to contact@nwei.org, and we’ll post them on our blog!
So far in the Month of Action, we’ve examined home energy use and personal transportation. Today we turn our attention to our transportation of food.
Based upon a 2000 study by the Center for Sustainable Systems at University of Michigan, the average item of food in the U.S. travels around 1,500 miles to your table. By another estimate that includes transportation of inputs to farms and factories, typical food items travel up to 4,200 miles in their journey along the supply chain. Regardless of how and what you measure, the conclusion is clear: our food travels a long way to get to us these days.
Over three quarters of that second number above comes from inputs in the food production process. This means that in the carbon-calculating process, where your food producer gets his or her goods is three times as important as where you get your food. For example, buying beef from a local cattle farmer might actually be worse than buying beef from a thousand miles away if your local farmer gets her feed shipped from across the continent.
Production accounts for 45% of food’s carbon footprint, and shipping inputs and food transportation account for 29% of most food’s total carbon footprint. That means that the rest of your food’s carbon footprint comes from your driving to the store or restaurant to get it, as driving in a family vehicle is far less efficient than your food’s travel in a tightly-packed semi-truck.
So what should we do?
Today’s suggested action is: reduce your food’s carbon footprint.
Refrain from purchasing out of season food from far away; maybe limit yourself to one or two produce items from outside your region. Or start your own vegetable garden this weekend.
Purchase some panniers and start biking your groceries from the store. Or resolve to patronize your neighborhood grocer or farmer’s market.
Find out what “local” means to your local farmers, and encourage them to purchase supplies from local producers as well.
Buying local can result in fresher and tastier food, a healthy local economy, and reduced carbon emissions. But there’s no cookie-cutter approach to how to eat sustainably. Truly reducing your food’s carbon footprint requires an investment in your community and in understanding your local food system.
For more information, check out:
http://www.sustainabletable.org
http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/research/marketing_files/food/food.htm
http://www.fastcompany.com/article/food-miles-debunked
Ryan Harper
Deborah McNamara
Kerry Lyles
Mike Mercer
Lacy Cagle
Carolyn White
Rob Nathan
