The utilities have done a great job pushing for a yes vote on Amendment 1. Why do you suppose? Most of what the amendment proposes, we already have. The big difference, obscured by confusing language, will be to prevent individuals who have solar panels from selling excess to your neighbors, tenants, or others. This amendment is cleverly composed.
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Posted in Energy, Envionment, Solar Power, stewardship
Tagged Solar, Vote NO on Amendment 1
As much as I would have liked to go to Paris, I couldn’t attend the United Nations COP21 climate conference where nations agreed to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Parties attending the conference agreed to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than two degrees Centigrade compared to pre-industrial levels. They will pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees which will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050.
Does this seem as overwhelming to you as it does to me? Could I possibly make any difference? What impact is my existence having? I decided to find out. It’s actually not that hard. There are numerous sites online to help you determine your own carbon footprint. There’s even one for kids at PBSKids. Most of the calculators have simple questionnaires. There are four major areas covered.
1 Home and energy source: How many people live under how many square feet? Your electric bill will help you here, so have it handy. Also be prepared to be shocked by how great an effect lowering the heat or raising the a/c one degree can have!
2 Food: What you eat and where it comes from. You’ll be asked what foods you eat, including beef, pork, fish, poultry, eggs and dairy, and asked how frequently you eat them. Some calculators will ask where your hamburger was raised, were your tomatoes were grown. Were they purchased at Publix? Lower carbon emissions result if your food is not trucked over long distances.
3 Transportation: What kind of a car do you drive? What is the mileage? Do you carpool? Bike? Take the bus? Carpooling daily to work is great, but even once a week to church or to a meeting once a month can add up.
4 Do you recycle? Reuse? Reduce? This one surprised me. I thought I was doing a good job filling the recycle bin every week and carrying my cloth bags to shopping venues. A calculator challenged me. Do I shop for pleasure, for therapy, or just to replace as needed?
If I were ever convinced that I am not contributing to the release of excess CO2, this checklist helped put me in my place. As someone who wants to contribute to solving, not contributing to the problems of the world, I need to be aware of how I shop, dress, drive and live and I must consider every act an ethical choice. The slow leak in my irrigation system rightly weighed on my mind, not because I have a water bill (I don’t, since I’m on a well), but because I was wasting our most valuable resource. The personal decision to pay $310 to locate, much less correct the leak, was part of my commitment to change the world by tweaking the way I live.
I urge you, my friends, to check out your own carbon footprint and see where you can tweak your life to make a small, but effective difference for the sake of this beautiful world we’ve been given. One of several good calculators can be accessed at www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator.
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Posted in Carbon Footprint, climate change, Envionment, Environment, stewardship
Tagged Carbon Footprint, Environment
‘Tis the season for the dreaded stinging nettle. My azaleas occasion a riot of color under clouds of dogwood. Pink phlox carpet roadsides, meshing blooming seasons as never before in my memory. Nettles, too, have reared their sweet heads.
“Sweet?” you ask. Back in my novice camping days, I thought so, until I naively tried to pick some for the picnic table. Ouch! Walking through the yard this morning, dodging the prickly pest, I decided to find out what purpose, other than beauty, these 500 some species serve. I theorized: a food source for some butterfly or moth (correct), or maybe a tortoise or small mammal (wrong).
How about large mammals, say, humans? I was stunned to learn that teas, soups and juices made from the fuzzy single-stemmed perennial are not only consumed by humans, but are used in healing! Apparently, the leaves contain antihistamines or hydrocortisone. Healers as far back as 2,000 years used the plant to stop internal and external bleeding.
Nettle teas cure mucus congestion, water retention and diarrhea. Gargling the tea helps mouth and throat infections and application to skin clears up acne and eczema. External application also promotes healing of burns. Teas help stimulate digestive glands and help new moms produce more milk. No surprise there, as it is used as fodder for cows, to stimulate milk production.
Juices made from the stinging nettle purportedly ease the rash caused from its own leaves! Really? Of course, some preparation is required. Soaking in hot water removes stinging chemicals, allowing the leaves to be handled and eaten without harm.
I’ll take the word of the experts. But if you’d like to know how to serve this ubiquitous little pest as a veggie, get the recipe or directions for soups, teas, and juices, check out Mother Earth News. For me, a close encounter with the little terror is best remedied with an immediate scrubbing of Lava Soap from the workshop.
Such encounters, too, remind me of the scriptural admonition that even the least of these creations have value. Please let me know if you do try any of these folk remedies so I can reevaluate my opinion of you. Of course, I’ll be upgrading you to brave.
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Posted in Envionment
Tagged natural remedies, stinging nettles, The Dreaded Stinging Nettle
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