Books: The Worst Hard Time

 

This week I received an e-mail announcing the KU Common Book for the next academic year. Even though I'm rarely on campus, I still like to use the Common Book as a motivator to get me to read something new and different, or something that I otherwise would not have known about. Last year the book was The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. This book was a gut wrenching retelling of the horrors of the Dust Bowl years, and really drove home the importance of environmental stewardship. Yesterday, on a 70 degree January day (record-breaking), I couldn't help but think about the extreme environmental damage that we are doing to our planet, and to think of the terror that people experienced during the Dust Bowl. Reading the book also made me so very grateful for all that I have in my life today- any small hardships that I have experienced can't compare in any way to what people went through on the High Plains in the 1930s. The experiences chronicled in The Worst Hard Time are so recent, and so memorable, yet we as a nation continue to stand by and do nothing in the face of climate change. The book detailed how the changes of the Dust Bowl happened so quickly, and we fully know how quickly climate change is happening today, so why are we so passive, especially when small changes in habits, such as using bar soap, not using K-Cup coffees, eating less meat, or composting food trash can make a significant change in one's carbon footprint? We can only hope that more people will become aware of the small changes they can make and that we as a nation can start to reverse some of our environmental damage in the coming years before something monumental occurs again.

Drought

It's nasty out there, folks.

Today I had to drive between Kansas City and Lawrence, viewing the dried out landscape, remnants of grass fires, and crispy vegetation. I stopped for a coffee on my way back at Z's East, a local Lawrence shop. I always enjoy reading the daily almanac postings that they have, and today's was poignant for that dried out landscape- the decreased bug population means less food for birds. The almanac suggested putting out suet or seed, so while making a stop on my way home I picked up a suet block and holder. It was only $4.50 for the combo, and I'm hoping that in addition to helping out the bird population I can provide some entertainment for my cats (through the window). The interesting thing is that I noticed this morning that my sunflowers were nearly picked clean of their seeds, something I've never seen before during mid-summer, and which doesn't usually happen until late fall. I also put a small bowl of water out near the sidewalk in front of our house for dogs on a walk, or any other creature that might need it.

Keep an eye out for each other, guys, it's one hell of a summer.

Devilish Heat

It's still hot. Welcome to the new normal.

I'm so tired of hearing people celebrate the warm low-snow winter and then complain about the heat all summer long. It's climate change, folks. We caused it, we need to work to solve it. Or at least slow it. Do you like to eat food? Breathe oxygen? Then let's work on curbing that CO2 addiction, k? And, some of us actually *enjoy* the winter, the snow, and things like snowshoeing and skiing, hot chocolate and sledding. So please stop ruining my environment with your Hummer.

I was mystified to read this headline today: "What's Causing the Heat Wave?" Um, really? Have you not heard the news in the past, oh, twenty years? Perhaps not, as only 83% of Americans "believe" the climate is warming. No, my fellow citizens, this is not Santa Claus. Much like evolution, there is nothing to "believe" about climate change. Step out your door. It's happening. Actually, it already happened.

So, what can we do? Little things. Easy things. Hang your clothes out to dry instead of using the dryer- it'll save four whopping pounds of carbon emissions for each load you don't dry, and it'll make your clothes last longer. Use bar soap- it takes less energy to ship a condensed bar instead of all the water in body wash. Don't use a hair dryer- think about the silliness of blowing hot air on your head while you run the a/c. Or, if you are like me and like to use the dryer to straighten your hair, wait until it's almost dry and then run the dryer for only two minutes instead of ten. Eat vegetarian for a few meals a week- it takes an astounding amount of water to raise animals, not to mention the strain on petroleum resources and if you're eating beef the mass of methane that cows produce. Turn up your a/c a degree or two. Eat local. Turn off the lights and t.v.

If we all take small steps today we won't have a massive crisis tomorrow.

Recipe for the summer smoothie that I drank while reading about Yoshitomo Nara (pictured above): toss one peach, one apricot, and a handful of blueberries into the blender with two handfuls of ice. Blend. Drink. Be devilish.

Air Conditioning and Afternoon Coffee

It's hot.
Really hot.
Like, 95 degrees hot with a forecast of 100 for the next two days.
I do not like heat.

I am, however, completely terrified of climate change, so I refuse to jack up the air conditioning. That, and my distaste for heat is over-ridden by a distaste for a high electric bill. The use of air conditioning is a huge global environmental crisis (see here for more on why a/c gasses are even worse than co2) and one that we should all be considering in our daily lives. One step we took last year was to participate in a program offered by our utility company, wherein we received a free programmable thermostat (with free installation) for the trade off that during the peak energy consumption hours of summer our a/c would cycle off in 15 minute increments, still allowing the fan to run. We haven't noticed the difference, but it is making an impact on our over-extended power grid.

My main struggle is not "to use or not to use" the a/c. I generally keep the thermostat at 84 during the day, but since I'm working from home this summer I've been guilty of turning it down to 82. This isn't an issue of comfort, in fact I prefer to keep the interior temperature warm in summer and cool in winter, so as to prevent illness and allow myself to acclimate to the outdoor weather, but rather the issue is one of afternoon drowsiness. So, my solution is to make iced coffee.

I make a full pot of coffee on the weekend, allowing it to cool, and then store it in a re-used glass bottle that I keep in the fridge. When that 3 p.m. feeling hits me, I pour up some coffee, mix in a bit of soy milk and some sugar, toss in a few ice cubes, and I'm good to go. Yum.

Hot

July 11, 5 p.m., 104 temperature. Ugh. The best part about this photo is that no matter what I try, blogger refuses to post it right-side-up. Posting retrospectively after three weeks of crazy heat wave and going into our 11th day of temperatures over 100, I get it. Everything is too hot to function, trees are wilting, bushes are crisping up, so it makes sense that the temperature just flip on its head for a bit. Seems to be representative of the awful climate change induced weather we've experienced this year.

Weather

Crazy weather on a Tuesday afternoon.

The Day After Earth Day

On Saturday I was waiting in the car as Joe ran into the Brookside Cosentino's to pick up cheesecloth, watching the multitude of shoppers enter and exit the store. As I observed, I became increasingly disheartened to see that less than a third of the people leaving the store had re-usable shopping bags. Come ON, people. It's the day after Earth Day. Re-usable bags are sold everywhere for as little as $1. You know you are going to the grocery store, so bring some bags! I only wish they would start charging people for using plastic or paper bags. Sure, we get them every once in a while so we have them for cleaning up after the dog on walks, or for use as liners in the bathroom trash can, but when I see people exiting the store with 20 plastic bags I just think about the level of environmental and social irresponsibility that comes with being so careless and thoughtless about our shared surroundings. Bring a bag, be a good citizen.

Destruction and Rejuvination

Friday began with a flurry of messages about the earthquake in Japan. As the day unfolded we received messages of "I'm ok" from friends in Japan and messages of "Thinking of you and your friends" from people in the U.S. As of Saturday morning we've heard from almost everyone, and feel relatively confident about our friends in Yokohama that we are still waiting to hear from, as the major destruction seems to be in Tohoku. On such a sad day I was cheered to see the first crocus blooming in our yard, a sign of hope amidst so much devastation.

Diapers

It occurred to me on Saturday that we haven't bought diapers in 2011. Thanks to my friend Abby and her business Itsy Bitsy Bums we have been using cloth diapers for the last few weeks. We wanted to use cloth before the baby was born, but due to the crazy moving around the world that we did in the first few months of little man's life, we didn't feel that it was possible for us. Since December though, we've been using cloth, and it is so fantastic that I can't imagine returning to disposables. Cloth feels cleaner for our household (no nasty trash), for the environment, and for the baby's health. Even though we used chlorine free Seventh Generation disposables, studies show that disposable diapers can harm the fertility of baby boys in the long term, and while I trust Seventh Generation for household cleaners and laundry detergents, there is no way to create a disposable diaper without using some chemicals. Laundering the diapers is far easier than I imagined, and with the designs of cloth diapers now they are just as convenient as disposables- no pins or folding, just a snap and some velcro. Plus the diapers adjust to grow with baby, so the set of three daytime shells, nine daytime inserts and two sets of overnights can be used until we start toilet training, which saves us tons of money and saves piles of diapers from sitting in a landfill. We are complete converts to cloth, and I hope that more people will try it out, it is one of the greatest switches that we've made!

Plastic

Two things on Saturday had me thinking about plastic.

First off, we bought new bowls for the baby. The selection was gendered- blue and green dinosaurs and cars or pink and purple butterflies and flowers. Joe joked about the connection between the dinosaur and the car, that the dino is what makes the fossil-fuel consuming car possible. Ugh. Sadly, the bowls are also part of this unsustainable chain, but hopefully they will be used and re-used enough to make their non-breakable nature worth the environmental impact.

The other incident was at the grocery store where a young girl was helping her dad select some carrots. She went to put the veggies in their cart and he loudly told her she needed to use a plastic bag, making eye contact with me, rolling his eyes and laughing. I told her, no you don't need a bag and smiled at the girls good environmental instincts. The dad then laughed again saying he would use one anyway, which disgusted me enough that I looked him in the eye and sharply stated, no need to waste is there?

Come ON people. It's bad enough that I see more than half the shoppers at the store without reuseable shopping bags. Why do you need a plastic bag for your carrots?!? First off, any germs that the carrot will encounter in your cart, at checkout, or in your grocery bag are miniscule compared to those that they encountered in the dirt, during the harvesting process, in shipping, and sitting in the produce section. Second, you will (or should) wash your vegetables upon use and with the carrot you will likely peel it. Do you really need to use up some non-renewable fossil fuels for this process? No, you don't. Please put a second of thought into your choices. I understand the use of veggie bags for greens as they are wet and easily tear in the cart, but there is no reason to waste a bag on other fruits or veggies. I was pleased to see though that his other daughter placed their cucumber in the cart sans bag. Perhaps there is some hope for the future.

For the love of homemade

Today was one of those in and out busy days- appointments, errands, meetings and we didn't get home until about 8 p.m. I did have about an hour of free time this afternoon though, so I decided to make some homemade Parmesan-Rosemary Crackers to go with our quick weeknight meal of Squash and Sage Cream Sauce Pasta with a light salad. The pasta consisted of frozen squash (that we prepped back in September, but store bought would work too) that we heated in olive oil and simmered with garlic, dried sage and cream as we waited for the pasta to boil. Simple, organic, whole foods, but admittedly not our most healthful meal. The crackers, which are my new favorite homemade bread product, took all of half an hour to make, thanks to the Kitchen Aid and my Martha Stewart Baking book (shout out to my family for gifting me these things through the years!). This ties in to the NY Times recipes and article that I was perusing in the doctors office this morning about sustainable food and cooking at home. Most people claim that they don't have time to cook, but I was pleased that the article called people out and mentioned t.v. habits. I was astonished to read that the *average* American watches 35 hours of t.v. a week and that cooking at home is *decreasing*. First off, if I watch zero hours of t.v. a week, who is watching 70 to balance that out?!? Second, I hear so many people say that they don't have time to cook- um, how about you quit that full time job of t.v. watching? I know that many say that it's on in the background, or that they don't really watch that much, but the statistic just sits there. Thirty-five hours. Five hours a day. You could do a lot of cooking in 5 hours a day. I don't want to be preachy or judgmental (even though I kind of am), but just turning off that t.v. for an hour would do a world of good, and you could have cooked the meal that we had tonight. Plus, cooking at home is better for your health, for the environment,and for your pocketbook, not to mention your taste buds. Cracker, anyone?

Really...

Laundry Detergent 洗濯石けん

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April 22 is Earth Day, and as the day approaches I've been thinking about little changes I can make to lessen my environmental impact. One thing I like about life in Japan is that certain environmentally friendly behaviors are built into daily life. For example, when we purchase new detergent or soap we buy these thin plastic pouches and use them to refill a thick plastic bottle. At the store you can choose between the regular bottle (pictured on the pouch) and the slightly cheaper refill. Why isn't this simple switch made in the U.S.? By using a thin plastic pouch a significant amount of weight is saved in both plastic consumption and in the Co2 used to ship the detergent. As a bonus, it is easier to carry home a plastic pouch than a heavy bottle. Also, it is required of us to recycle just about everything (we can receive a fine if we don't recycle properly), and the thin plastic pouch goes into the recycling with all other mailable plastics (think potato chip bags, etc.), so the environmental impact is lesser still.
Also on the topic of laundry, it is generally rare to have a dryer here, so all of our laundry is hung out on our balcony to dry. When we first moved here I had a hard time adjusting to this, but after almost two years of clothespin drying, I intend to continue this habit when we move back to the U.S. First off, you use 4 pounds of carbon each time you use a clothes dryer!! Second, I think that using a dryer is hard on your clothing, and I dislike the way my clothes shrink and expand with drying and wearing cycles. Hanging laundry to dry is a really easy change that I would encourage everyone to make, especially as in a typical U.S.-sized home there is plenty of room to dry clothing indoors. I'm sure that not using a clothes dryer would make a dent in the average gas or electric bill as well.
For other ideas to help save the Earth, and to see what your carbon footprint is check out the US EPA Emissions Calculator. I hope everyone can make at least one change in their habits this year! :)

Fall 秋

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It's been almost a month since I've posted anything, how the time flies... Things have been pretty busy, during the week about all I do is go to class and do homework, with small breaks for eating, sleeping (though never enough), checking email, and showering. On the weekends we usually take Friday evening to relax, spend Saturday afternoon studying at a coffee shop, chat with family on Skype, and the rest of the time is studying for me, for Joe studying or working on music. Not too exciting of a routine...
Outside of the usual activities, last month I attended a series of lectures given at the Meiji Art Society meeting at Tokyo University on a Saturday afternoon (in Japanese of course). It was a nice change of pace and a strong reminder of why I'm spending so much time memorizing vocabulary. The lecture I was most interested in addressed ukiyoe (Japanese prints) at the 1910 London International Exhibition, other lectures discussed line in Meiji period Japanese-style painting and a newly discovered painting from WWII. On Halloween we went trick-or-treating with some of Joe's students at the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, one of the few places in Japan where kids can participate in the American tradition of Halloween. It was facinating to see groups of Japanese kids wandering around the military base collecting candy from military families. I had the first week of November off of school (but with plenty of homework), and took the time to see the Treasures of the Imperial Collections special exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum and the Great Port Opening 150th anniversary special exhibition at the Yokohama Art Museum. Joe and I also took a day trip to Hakone, which I'll post more about soon.
The weather has remained pretty warm in Yokohama, with temperatures in the 60s and 70s throughout October. While we're still waiting for fall color, seasonal autumn foods have arrived at the grocery store, including persimmons (above) and nabe (below). Like most grocery stores, ours stocks a variety of nabe (Japanese stew) broths, which we have been methodically trying. We purchased our nabe pot in Kamakura a few weeks back, and have been making the dish once a week. So far we have tried regular, kimchi and creamy tofu sesame flavors, of which regular is my favorite. Veggie nabe is pretty healthy and inexpensive to make; although this recipe includes chicken (an environmental and health hazard) it's easy enough to substitute tofu or wheat gluten. If you aren't aware of the atrocities of eating chicken, click here for a good PBS Frontline video on how farm run-off is killing our waterways and adding to reproductive disorders, cancer, and hormonal problems in children.
Back to studying....
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