Make one thing beautiful

June 20, 2009 at 4:36 pm (Changing habits, Musings)

quiltGoing into this weekend, I was pretty tired of the eternal To-Do list. Items might change, but I never really catch up. And some items never change: clean the kitchen, weed the garden, clear off the dining room table, do the bills. Gah.

I wanted out of my rut this weekend, so I decided to ditch the to-do list and instead focus on making something beautiful. I decided to start with the front flower bed. Flats at the market are $8 – don’t need to make that offer twice! And black-eyed susans were 4/$10. And supposedly perennial, too. Sold!And as luck would have it, my favorite garden store was demoing a meat smoker by offering surprisingly large samples of smoked pork butt, homemade salsa, potato salad, and curtido. Beautiful!

Got home and started puttering, and before I knew it, I’d planted the flat of flowers – mostly in the front bed (let me just pull this grass and clover and elm seedlings out to make room), and also in the shade planter on the back deck (hmm, none of the herbs overwintered…better yank those…), and because I had a few left, I scanned the garden and planted them smack in the middle of my line of sight. That happened to be the edge of the rutabaga bed (just let me toss those last scraggly turnips that didn’t get harvested last week and hey…are those volunteer potatoes? Looks like dinner to me…). And oh, heck, why don’t I plant up this empty pot of dirt on teh deck with the last couple things from that flat? And move the rest of the junk off to the end of the deck where I don’t have to see it? I’ll put it away…later. But at least now I don’t have to look at it.

Dinner’s in the sun oven (baby potatoes and rutabagas, a couple bulb onions, brussels sprouts, and asparagus with a little schmaltz and seasoned salt), so while I’m waiting, I’ll put away this stack of cookbooks (huh, if I wipe down the coffee table, the living room will look really nice…) and take a shower. And if I wash those last couple pans, hey, the kitchen is also beautiful!

I’m glad I decided to ignore my to-do list today. Making things beautiful was much more interesting.

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Carbon Budget – Year in Review

June 4, 2009 at 7:45 pm (Changing habits, Energy, carbon budget, green living)


Goal: 10.25 tonnes
Actual: 14 tonnes

Well, we missed our goal. By a *lot*. We used only about 1 tonne less carbon than last year, so far as I can tell from my less-than-perfect recordkeeping for 2007-08. I’m not happy about it, and I’m not making excuses. I am looking for reasons, though, and ways to cut. But I also feel like we’ve hit a plateau, and it’s going to take some oomph and hard decisions to further reduce our carbon output.

Goal Used June 2008-May 2009 Conversion factor Carbon emitted US Ave* Our use as % of US Ave**
Gasoline 300 gal 581 (26,000 miles) 19.35 lb/mi 11,244 lb 1000 gal 58%
Air travel 9500 mi 6715 mi 0.55 lb/mi 3693 lb 2400 mi 280%
Electricity 4500 kwh 4970 kwh 1.4 lb/kwh 6958 lb 11,000 kwh 45%
Propane 400 gal 689 gal 12.7 lb/gal 8750 lb 1100 gal 63%
Wood 1 cord 1 cord 150 lb/cord 150 lb ? ?
Total carbon emissions 10.25 tonnes 14 tonnes 2205 lb/tonne 24,084 lb 22.7 t 48%

* per household, or for 2 people
**  Every place you look will tell you a different number for average US carbon emissions per household. To get the average figure of 22.7 tonnes, I used the same conversion factors I used for us and applied them to the US averages I found.

Agonizing detail, including several surprising ways we reduced our impact, after the cut… Read the rest of this entry »

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On Earth Day

April 22, 2009 at 11:37 am (Changing habits, green living)

dancingI’m sure many of you out there act every single day to lessen your impact on the Earth, and so Earth Day might seem superfluous at best; commercialized and wasteful at worst.

I invite you to join my own Earth Day celebration:

Go outside, wherever you are, whatever the weather. Be still. Give your attention to your immediate environment. See if it gives any attention back. Accept that this is where things stand right now. And decide where you want to be standing next year.

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One Stone Carbon Challenge

March 8, 2009 at 7:32 pm (Changing habits, Energy, You must try this, carbon budget, green living)

global warmingIf you read this blog, you’re probably familiar with the idea of global warming, and you know that it is going to have serious effects in the coming decades (see this image only if you want to be depressed). You may also know that scientists are suggesting there is a “point of no return” where we won’t be able to stop or reverse global warming. This point is usually described as a ratio of how much carbon (or more accurately, carbon equivalent[1]) is in the atmosphere. There’s some debate about the exact number, but somewhere between 300 ppm and 450 ppm is considered the “safer” level that will prevent the worst of the effects.

Individual people can have a lot of impact on the total CO2 emissions dumped into the atmosphere. The average American household dumps 18 tonnes of carbon equivalents into the air every year. The sustainable level of carbon emissions – that is, the level that every person in the world could emit and keep the greenhouse effect from worsening beyond the point of no return – is one tonne per person per year [source].

If that sounds like a pretty big drop, well…it is. There’s a group of folks who are committing to make that reduction within a year. They’re calling it the Riot4Austerity, and I take my hat off to them for their bold undertaking, and I hope to reduce my carbon to at least 75% below American average in the next 2 years.

But for me, right now, it’s just too much to change all at once. Anyone else out there feel the same way?

I wanted to come up with a more manageable “chunk” to whittle away at, and I wanted to know the relative merits of various actions. Take the bus for 45 minutes or drive 5 miles? Eat 100% local or go vegetarian? Give up the hair dryer or turn off the A/C? Give up my car, or airplane flights? If I can do one thing to reduce my footprint today, which thing should it be? If I can’t give up my car, how else can I make up the difference?

onestoneAnd so, I bring you the One Stone Carbon Challenge. The basic premise is simple: I’ve created a list of activities which produce, on average, one stone (14 lb) of carbon emissions. You choose activities that prevent 14 pounds of carbon equivalent from entering the atmosphere, and you mark one stone off this chart (200Kb PNG). When you’ve crossed off the 157 stones on the chart, you’ve prevented one tonne of carbon pollution.

I’m putting the detailed calculations on a static page, here, to prevent any further clogging of people’s feed readers.

So, let’s make this a formal Challenge, in best blogging fashion. The One Stone Carbon Challenge runs from now until May 1, 2009. Comment below and tell us:

  1. That you’re participating
  2. Your goal – how many stones will you reduce by May 1?
  3. If you like, tell us your current carbon footprint, and at the end, recalculate your footprint and tell us the difference. Feel free to skip this if it sounds too much like a Weight Watchers weigh-in. ;)

Feel free to snag the icon above to post on your blog, for thems what like badges.

I’ll check back in on May 1!

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Depressing climate news and call to action

March 3, 2009 at 8:11 pm (Changing habits, Energy, green living)

desertDid you see this article in New Scientist magazine? And the map that goes with it? They give a prediction of what the world may look like in the next 50-100 years. We’re talking in my lifetime, the Lower 48 could be so arid they’d only be able to support wind farms, and the entire remaining population of the world would have to move to the Arctic or Antarctic.

It’s a given that the average world temp will rise 2*C before it can possibly start heading back down. The big question is, how much will it rise? Four degrees (the rise this model is predicated upon) is a pretty conservative estimate. I’m not sure how conservative or drastic the interpretation of “what would happen if the temp rises 4*” is; I’ll admit, this looks pretty severe. But just because it’s severe doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this yesterday. I went around in circles from despair to denial to hopelessness to furious determination and back. And where I’ve landed at the moment is this:

  1. I’m praying the predictions are wrong
  2. I am going to take as much action as I can to reduce my carbon emissions. My personal goal is to reduce my household’s carbon output from 12.7 tons per year to 6 tons per year by June, 2010, with additional steps after that.
  3. I’m asking every person in this blog to commit to reducing their own emissions by 10-20% in the coming year. I will be posting my One Stone Carbon Reduction Challenge within one week. This will give you a roadmap to reducing your carbon footprint in a very meaningful way that will let you see results right away. Think of it as Weight Watchers “points” for carbon emissions.

Every single one of us needs to take the strongest actions possible to reduce our personal carbon emissions impacts, starting right now. I’ve been writing this blog for over a year and have consciously taken the editorial stance of Cheerleader. But I’m afraid my inner Drill Sergeant is going to come out now. We do not have ten years to get started. We do not have time for happy, hand-held baby steps.

Yes, we should have started years ago. Yes, we need government regulation. Yes, China and India need to make changes, too. But dammit, we are the richest, most wasteful country in the world and we need to clean up our own personal acts right now.

Here’s your homework for tonight: go figure out your carbon footprint. Try one or more of the following:

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Meat as a condiment

February 17, 2009 at 2:29 pm (Changing habits, Cooking, recipes)

steak mealSomething I read quite often these days is “We really just eat meat as a condiment.” I know, in theory, that this means meat is not the center of every meal, but what I want to know is, what does that look like? If you perceive yourself as “not eating a lot of meat,” how many ounces are we talking about? Four ounces per serving? Two ounces in a six-serving casserole? Six ounces instead of ten, and lots of vegetables on the side? A shaving of prosciutto sprinkled on like parsley?

Tell me – or better yet, show me – what you consider to be “not very much meat.” Actual weights and number of servings would be much appreciated. What kinds of meat work best for this manner of omnivory?

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Project help?

January 28, 2009 at 11:45 am (Changing habits, Energy, carbon budget, green living)

Hey, folks-

I’m hatching my next project – sort of a carbon-reduction challenge for those of us not yet ready to go for the 90% reduction levels of the Riot 4 Austerity. I could use a few more pairs of eyes to check my math and help me figure out a few calculations.

If you’re interested in helping out with a couple hours of research and middle-complexity math calculations, drop me a comment. The final product will be available here for free, and your contribution will of course be cited. :

Emily

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Great gifts from Oxfam

December 9, 2008 at 4:21 pm (Changing habits, Musings, You must try this, green living)

I’m sure many of you know about Heifer International, which provides livestock and training to folks around the world (including the US). You can “give a gift of a flock of chickens” to a friend; your friend receives a card, and a family somewhere in the world gets the chickens.

Oxfam has a similar type of system, though their gifts include a wider range of items: not just livestock, but mosquito nets, school books, water pumps, and the like.

With both of these programs, you’re actually giving a cash donation to the organization to be distributed as need dictates. So, you’re not actually giving a hive of bees; you’re giving a cash donation roughly equivalent to the price of setting someone up with a hive of bees. In fact, your money might be used to buy five flocks of ducklings instead of a hive of bees.

I’m fine with this arrangement. The “gift” pretense makes it much more fun to personalize the gift to the recipient, and also gives the organization the latitude it needs to do its work. I trust that they will do good things with my donation; Charity Navigator gives Heifer 3 stars and Oxfam 4 stars.

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Fireplace upadate

November 20, 2008 at 10:13 am (Changing habits, Energy, green living)
Tags:

fireplaceWe’ve been using the fireplace a lot so far this fall. I’d guess we’ve used it as our primary heat source every weekend day we’ve been home, and 50-75% of the weeknights we’re home for more than 2-3 hours. We let the furnace come on during the night and first thing in the morning.

So how’s it going? First of all, we are keeping the thermostat about 4 degrees cooler than we’ve ever done before and it doesn’t feel any colder in the house. I attribute this change to the insert’s design: it seals the chimney flue completely, whether there’s a fire going or not. We’re simply not losing as much heat up the chimney. So now we keep our “at home and awake” temp at 63 or 64 degrees and we feel as warm as last year’s 66-67 degree setting. Overnight temp is 57 degrees instead of 61; morning temp is 59 degrees instead of 62-63 (and we might actually take that down a notch).

It’s taking some adjustment to the way wood heats: unevenly. (Read on…) Read the rest of this entry »

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Carbon budget Sept. 08

October 3, 2008 at 6:47 pm (Changing habits, Energy, carbon budget)

Wow, we are just not doing that well on this. I never would have guessed that we’d drive an average of 3000 miles every month! And most of that is not stuff we’re willing to give up…too many friends live out-of-state. However, my husband’s taken his last regularly scheduled quarterly trip out of state (or is there one more?), so that will save about 1300 miles every 3 months.

Prius miles this month: 3275 (+1550)
Truck miles: 145 (+5)
Gas this month: 74 gallons (+32)
Air miles this month: 0 (0)
Elec (household): 283kwh (+85)
Elec (hot water):163kwh (+170)
Propane this month: 143 (+143)
Wood this month: 0 (+0)

Total carbon to date: 8336lb

Goal for June ‘08-May ‘09: 18500lb

So…1/3 of the year is gone, but we’ve used almost 1/2 of our carbon budget…and we haven’t used the heater at all yet.

Note: Wood and propane are listed as quantities bought, not quantities used. I don’t have a good way of knowing how many gallons of propane we’ve used, so I’m just listing it as a lump sum. All I can think of for the electricity spike this month is canning.

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