Author: jennynazak

A fellow eco activist (who is known for her deep scientific expertise as well as her public service in our county and bioregion) shared this article on her page. (She shared it on her personal page, and it was only shared with friends, so I’m just posting the gist of her comment.)

The article, by Dinah Pulver in USA today, reports that we are seeing record highs in carbon dioxide emissions. “For the first time, the May average exceeded 430 parts per million, reported scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Mauna Loa Observatory and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.”

And in response to this news, my friend posted, in a nutshell: How do we deal with the reality of increasingly extreme weather? Rather than finger-pointing, how do our communities adapt; and also, what state & local policy changes do we need?

In addition to being a matter for policy change, and for community adaptation, it will also need to be a matter of behavioral economics. And emotional processing; emotional regulation.

How do we go about de de-normalizing, de-popularizing the robber-baron lifestyle that is trashing and overheating the planet? And I’m not talking about billionaires here. I’m talking about the basic, mainstream, “comfortably off” middle-class USA lifestyle.

We may be beyond the ability to reverse things, if we ever were able. But recent years have shown that things can at the very least be slowed down more radically than expected. I’m talking about the environmental improvements we saw during the Covid shutdowns, when transportation (especially air travel + private automobile driving) and manufacturing were radically curtailed.

The middle-class lifestyle as we currently practice it is not sustainable, plainly put.

But social norms of what is “desirable” and “respectable” and “admirable” are very deeply rooted, so changing them involves a bit of effort. Madison Avenue + corporations have been able to make rapacious consumerism very very attractive, much against people & planet’s interest.

So how do we make non-consumerism, and the concept of “enough,” more attractive to a wider segment of the population?

We are going up against so many unprocessed emotions. It’s not hopeless though.

That’s one of what I consider my main self-appointed tasks as a sustainability educator. To get people to see the joy in backing down from the frenetic consumerist rush rush lifestyle. Even fellow environmentalists get caught up in this toxic lifestyle.

One of the things we have to show people is that we can live an extremely comfortable life at a much lower footprint then we are doing now. That’s what I’ve been trying to do for a while, and many others are out there showing it as well.

BTW the above-cited article’s author, Dinah Pulver, used to be the environmental writer for our local paper but is now an environment/climate researcher and writer on the national level.

PS. No, carbon dioxide is not the only index of planetary health. The other main greenhouse gases are nitrous oxide and methane. But it does serve as a fairly practical serviceable yardstick.

In recent times I have unlocked a whole new level of lazy. I always say if something is both lazy and good for the planet, you’ve got a DEEP GREEN win!

What sparked this post: Recently going for my morning dips in the ocean and never having to change out of my swim clothes because I stay outdoors and have coffee on my little garden bench and then do landscaping tasks and then before I know it suddenly my shorts + top that I went swimming in are dry and don’t have to be changed!

#ofrabjousday #slacktivistlife

PS. Later: A friend posted on her personal page about her yard being a workout.

That can be a good thing, wholesome exercise and being outdoors and meeting one’s neighbors and having fun gardening.

But if it ever becomes tiresome drudge instead of a good thing, one can take it as a sign to choose to back off and let nature manage a bigger part of the yard.

And If the immediate thing that comes to your mind is, “but then I’ll get in trouble with code enforcement or my HOA,” then you’ve got your logical next front for activity.

A logical next front for activity in this case would be trying to influence the HOA and your local government, as opposed to wearing yourself out trying to beat back vegetation.

Or, perhaps one of the other members of your household might be willing to help with the yard. Or, perhaps a neighbor might be willing. Trading skills and labor.

Got any “green + lazy” wins? If so, please share them rampantly, on your pages and on my public page. Every share helps shift the norms in a more slackerly joyful direction. I like to think that Mother Earth is cheering us on!

I made this Facebook post about a company called City Bonfires for multiple reasons!

— One, great example of being economically resilient as the old-economy livelihoods vanish. (They started this company after losing their jobs during the pandemic shutdowns.) “When we lost our jobs during the COVID pandemic, we spent a lot of time at home outside with our kids. We realized that we were spending more time keeping our kids away from the fire pit, instead of enjoying it. So, we invented City Bonfires, the world’s first mini portable fire pits that are safer and easy to light and extinguish!”

(Special note for my fellow elders, please stop steering your kids & grandkids into old-economy livelihoods that are supposedly “safe” — and instead start supporting them in their pursuit of meaningful, resilient, transformative livelihoods. Which are probably their best chance not only of happiness and fulfillment, but of mere survival on this planet as we have made things worse and worse for them.)

— Two, great example of promoting outdoor time, family time, community bonding. Every moment we spend outdoors is an opportunity for quality family time, community-building time. This has a safety and security component as well as the enjoyment aspect.

— Three, modeling cozy contentment and simple pleasures.

— Four, I want to remember this page because some of my geographically distant loved ones might need some cute gifts from me

I’ve been mentioning on my blog for a while the concept of a candle as a portable mini urban campfire. Totally love this!

Here is their website. https://citybonfires.com/pages/about-city-bonfires

Upcycled a surplus koozie into a new sleeve for my coffee jar. (The large glass mason jar gets hot to the touch when filled with coffee. I make my coffee by pouring hot water from the kettle through a reusable filter basket placed on top of the big glass mason jar.) (Photos here on my Deep Green Facebook page.)

The final photo shows a previous koozie upcycle project: the custom sleeve that I made awhile back for my enameled metal coffee mug. I made that one from a surplus/landfill diversion koozie as well.

The bottom of the coffee mug’s sleeve, which you can’t see in the photo, is a circle cut out from the material of the original koozie. I then crocheted a few rows of double crochet to attach the circle to the main body.

BTW this morning my coffee water was not quite hot enough for my tastes. I don’t boil it all the way; I stop just short of boiling.

Both the electric kettle and the stovetop kettle have certain distinctive sounds they make as water is on the way to boiling, and with both methods, I can hear when the water has reached just the right degree for my taste. (It doesn’t take very long to learn this. Maybe you have had a similar experience.)

But, with the little outdoor butane campstove I’ve been using lately, I hadn’t yet learned to determine either with my eyes or ears when the water is exactly hot enough for me. This morning’s ended up stopping a little bit short. The coffee was still rich and tasty but it didn’t stay hot as long as I like it to.

I got curious and searched for an article about the stages of boiling water. This is a really cool, detailed description. And written in a very entertaining style. It’s from a blog called Serious Eats.

Based on this article, I will be able to tell when the water is just hot enough.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know (Plus More!) About Boiling Water https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-boil-water-faster-simmer-temperatures
How often have you wondered about the hidden complexities of what happens when a pot of water comes to a boil? Here’s the answer. BY J. KENJI LÓPEZ-ALT

By the way, speaking of cooking and fuel, I learned back in 2006 during my intensive studies about solar cooking and renewable energy that cooking fuel can constitute a huge percentage of a household’s budget, or labor typically women’s labor, or both. There is a surprisingly large differential of fuel between water that’s about 180° and water that’s boiling.

Some people really have to have literally boiling coffee or tea, but a lot of us don’t feel we need it. So learning how to identify when our preferred temp has been reached can be a useful way to save fuel when fuel becomes scarce. For now, of course, I have the luxury of being able to do this as an experiment. I’ve been practicing this for years and it’s very satisfying.

If you are interested in this aspect of home economics, you might enjoy checking out the highly informative website of the Kerr-Cole Sustainable Living Center in Snowflake, Arizona. https://solarcooking.fandom.com/wiki/Kerr-Cole_Sustainable_Living_Center

I see they also have a Facebook page. By the same name.

I read or heard somewhere that a couple who lived there had made a small propane tank last like a year and a half by adding solar cooking and haybox cooking method to their cooking repertoire.

Haybox cooking is extremely easy, it’s a useful tool to add to your sustainable cooking toolkit, and I have written about it on my blog elsewhere.

Another fantastic resource for detailed learning about solar cooking, haybox cooking, twig-fired Rocket stoves etc is Aprovecho Research Center.

https://aprovecho.org

Aprovecho’s “Capturing Heat” publications teach how to build five simple appliances for solar and biomass cooking and heating.

“We’re Witnessing the Fall of Public Health… and Your Best Tool is a Mask” (Excellent article from Disabled Ginger)

“Measles in Texas, bird flu in Louisiana, tuberculosis in Kansas and Covid everywhere. Public health has been dying a slow death for years, we can’t count on it anymore. What can we count on? A mask!”

It can be hard to afford masks on an ongoing basis. Also, some of us worry about the planetary impacts of all those disposable masks. Good news on both counts: It turns out that masks are reusable to an extent. Pointers include keeping six or seven N95s in rotation.

I mostly am able to avoid confined indoor spaces but sometimes can’t avoid.

It’s a bit surreal seeing a room full of my fellow “senior liberals” not feeling the need to mask up in an indoor confined space. And being the only person masked up, and having some people walk up to me and ask if I’m sick. Really??? No, I’m not self-important enough to go out when I’m sick. <eye roll>

I wonder if people are just tired of thinking about it. That’s what one friend of mine said. That she was “tired of thinking about it.”

Maybe sort of like people are tired of thinking about climate change.

And with Covid, maybe the people who have good healthcare access feel like that will protect them. It has protected (some) people for a long time.

And of course some people feel protected by the vaccine. Some people have had five or more boosters. But the vaccine isn’t free to everybody, as it was during the height of the shutdowns. Last time I checked it was almost $200 for people without insurance.

My favorite tips are, as always: Avoid indoor settings except when absolutely necessary; wear a mask inside a confined indoor setting. And I do believe in the power of vitamin D from sunshine and other sources to boost the immune system.

But the best tip is to simply care about other people who are more vulnerable than ourselves. And prioritize our activities accordingly.

The two items on the left-hand side in the first photo are oil lamps. The third item, the beautiful little turquoise-blue thick-walled glass vessel, I’m not sure what it started out its life to be. A new neighbor gave it to me.

Regardless of how the blue glass vessel originally started out its life, I decided right away that it would make a gorgeous little oil lamp.

The clear oil lamp in the photo is made of plastic and I believe is not meant to be refillable. It had a label on it that said emergency oil lamp. Inherited it from a friend who was downsizing for a move.

The wick in the clear oil lamp needed to be pulled up in order to make a better flame, but despite all of my efforts with tweezers and so on, I could not pull it up. I realized that I would need to remove the metal wick-holder from the body of the lamp. The metal was crimped over the plastic vessel, so the removal involved needle-nose plyers and a tiny cut with wire-cutters.

After separating the wick holder from the plastic vessel, I was able to push the wick up from below so that it was a more appropriate height.

I’ve been poured the lamp oil from the plastic vessel into the blue glass vessel. And put the metal with holder on top of the glass vessel.

There is still some lamp oil remaining in the plastic vessel. For now, I plugged with a cork wrapped in fabric to keep the oil from evaporating, but I’m going to be pouring that remaining oil into another oil lamp.

The plastic vessel can still be used as an oil lamp if needed. But I am very fortunate to have several fancy glass oil lamps. Some were left behind by people who were moving. There may have been one or two from garage sales as well.

The little ceramic oil lamp with the two reindeer is one that I purchased as a Christmas gift for my parents some decades ago. If I recall correctly, it’s from Finland. I purchased it at some shop in Tokyo. Where I was living at the time.

And then, after Mom and Dad had passed, the lamp came back to me among many beloved items from their house. I cherish this lamp.

Fun fact: it’s pretty easy to make an oil lamp out of many different kinds of vessels. Some shapes work better than others. Although large oil lamps are pretty, they can be cumbersome, and it’s easier to conserve fuel with a smaller squatter shape. I do enjoy them all though.

Another fun fact is that many different kinds of oil can be used in an oil lamp. You can even use old culinary oil that’s no longer good for cooking. Some types of oil smoke worse than others, so some lamps are best used outdoors depending on what kind of oil is in them.

The lamp oil they sell at the shops is refined and makes little or no smoke. It can be used indoors but I would still only do so in a well-ventilated setting. Our house has the windows open most of the time, and I really enjoy the beauty of an oil lamp. Even when not actually in use, they make beautiful decor.

During power outages, oil lamps and candles are not only practical but also lend a touch of warmth and fun to an inconvenient or scary time. I guess it’s almost like a mini campfire.

Lamps and candles are also a great way to share beauty, warmth, and magic with the neighborhood, if placed strategically near a window. Or outdoors in a spot that’s sheltered from the wind. Passers-by can be warmed by the sight.

Another thing I find incredibly handy and fun (and cannot do without, for reasons mentioned below) is a little outdoor kitchen setup.

For years — almost 20 years now actually, come to think of it! — I have cooked with a solar oven as my main oven. It’s like a crockpot that uses no electricity.

But other than that, I haven’t cooked outdoors much on a regular basis till recently. I’m not great at barbecue grilling, and current housemates are not all that into it, so we don’t do it much.

One housemate recently took off for a long term interstate walking trip. He equipped himself with the lightest possible gear, and he left me some items such as a butane camp-stove that are really good but didn’t quite make his “gram-shaving” cut.

The last time I had a camp stove was some years back. I had was one of those Dragonfly stoves that ran on an MSR bottle. Easy to use (and I like the fact that the bottles are refillable) but there is no denying the convenience of this butane baby!

Doesn’t have to be primed or anything. Don’t even need a match or lighter, as it comes with its own built-in ignition switch so all you do is turn the fuel on and hit the built in switch, and presto! Such a breeze, I started getting very spoiled from the very first day of use.

My current plan is to use up a couple of canisters left to me by housemate, and then get myself back used to cooking on the twig stove. It’s been some years since I was really smooth with the twig stove. It takes a little practicing but the fuel is available everywhere, (like everywhere if you have a forest yard!).

At one point when I was living in Santa Fe for six months (permaculture / eco school including practicum component on my chosen area of focus, solar cooking & renewable energy), I got so casual with the twig stove that I could have a friend over for dinner, be chatting with them over drinks while cooking the meal. Just casually with a drink in my hand and feeding twigs to the little stove.

As most of you probably know, outdoor kitchens can be quite large, spectacular, and high-end. With full-size ovens and stoves and everything. I’ve been to some friends’ houses where I can’t understand why they would ever bother with the indoor kitchen, because the outdoor one is so lavish.

But even a little simple setup like mine is really fun and convenient.

I do a lot of food prep outdoors for the solar oven, and over the past couple years have minimized food prep in the indoor kitchen, especially during the summer season. In an open-air house (no A/C, so windows mostly stay open except on our few cold nights), even if the screens and such are good, it just seems like bugs find their way into the kitchen when there are too many food smells.

Interestingly, I came across something the other day where people in some tropical country (the Philippines maybe?) were saying they use an outdoor kitchen because if they cook indoors it gets overrun with ants. I’m OK with ants, but palmetto bugs I would really rather they stay outside lol!

Another advantage of an outdoor kitchen is that it can be good for building community. Same as doing yardwork, or taking one’s coffee outside, or any other thing that brings a person outdoors for extended times. There are a lot of neighbors who I only know, and who only know me, just because I tend to be outside working or sitting in the yard a lot. This street gets a lot of foot traffic, and it makes a real difference in people’s pleasure and sense of safety if someone happens to be out on their porch.

Because of the urban corner lot that I live on, which being a 1/10 acre makes the house very close to the sidewalk on two sides, I sometimes refer to my place as an “Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm” — except that the “ant” on view is ME. This configuration serendipitously furthers my eco educational mission because I am never far from the sidewalk when I’m doing my various everyday activities.

Before I started using the little camp stove my housemate left me, I had started cooking outdoors by bringing the toaster oven and stove burner out there. I would plug it into an extension cord and run that to the wall outlet inside the porch room. However, that doesn’t allow the door to be closed all the way, and so it lets in too many mosquitoes.

Plus I really like the “wireless” setup! Just find it very appealing.

Yesterday I cooked greens and sausage on the butane stove-ette. This morning so far I have made coffee. It seemed to me like the water got hot almost as fast as my electric kettle does!

Today I might also use the stove to boil up some greens.

I will also be using my solar oven to cook some fish fillets. Extremely high-quality frozen whiting fillets that a neighbor got via the food distribution system but didn’t want. It’s a package of eight. I am thawing out three of them in the fridge and will cook them up with sliced potatoes, onions, carrot, butter, seasonings.

See photos here, for as long as the will of Zuck shall allow! You know the drill!