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“Daytona Labor Shortage Grows as Eateries Open,” reports my local paper today. Maybe this is happening in your area too, as things reopen.

The article was no news to me, as my neighbors who work in the restaurants and hotels have been experiencing overwork in under-staffed establishments for months now. Especially with many people still collecting unemployment, motivating people to go back to work at jobs that are hard labor for hard pay even in the best of times is a tough sell.

I’m probably being overly optimistic, but I’m hoping we are seeing a new age of worker autonomy and occupational freedom. Some wages are rising, and that’s part of the equation. Also, I hope that more employers will be forced to confront the fact that they are not offering reasonable working conditions even at the best of times. No, it’s not spoiled or self-indulgent for workers to want plenty of time off and a healthy work-home-life balance. It’s healthy. Time is something a person can’t stockpile for “retirement.” We spend it now doing things that matter to us, or we lose it forever.

But I’m also seeing people start their own little cottage businesses instead of rushing back to work for someone else.

I’m also hoping that more employers have the self-discipline and integrity to do what one currently under-staffed restaurant mentioned in the article has done: temporarily removed some of its tables until it is able to hire more workers, rather than force its existing staff to work themselves threadbare. Customers are willing to wait in line for good service, the restaurant owner points out.

This is healthy for workers, for customers, and even ultimately for the owners. After all, an under-staffed place has an unpleasant atmosphere, and its reputation will suffer.

I like the approach taken by traditional European family-run businesses (at least the ones I’ve read about). A bakery or brewery or restaurant has been in business since 1553 or whatever, but they still only open like 2-3 days a week, during which their goods promptly sell out to their longstanding loyal customers. Sure they aren’t really accommodating to new demand, but they’re like, “So what? We have enough.” From a person who finds the mainstream USAmerican zeitgeist exhaustingly hectic, this attitude is so refreshing.

And I’m cheering on all my friends who are pursuing that type of model. There are plenty of people in my circles who are out there right now marketing their goods and services on social media, to their own exclusive hyperlocal fan-base.

Maybe you can be one of those micro-businesses, if you’re not already. If you want some encouragement give me a shout; I have lots of good examples and ideas to share.

Postscript, mid-April: One of my dear favorite restaurants ended up working its employees threadbare, by refusing to cut the restaurant hours even though they were greatly understaffed. As a result, they just lost probably their best server, leaving them now even more understaffed. The last couple of times I ate there (I eat on their open-air patio, either alone or social-distance with a couple of friends), although the food was exquisite as always, the experience was hard to enjoy because the poor employees were so obviously exhausted.

Meanwhile, another popular restaurant has made the hard choice of cutting its hours. Smart choice and kind choice, not only for its employees but also for its customers.

I fear that my longtime favorite place may not survive.

Postscript 4/16: In the papers and on social media, there’s been a lot of vitriol directed at people who have the gall to choose to stay home instead of rushing out and going back to work at their incredibly grueling, often tip-dependent jobs. Since when did it become a crime for overworked people to reassess their life priorities and decide they’d rather spend more time at home, with family, etc., even if it means earning less? I’m cheering the “work rebels” on.

On the Gulf side of Florida, a vast pond built to store waste from a phosphate mine is leaking. It is horrifying; hard to even grasp the size and enormity of what this giant elevated pond thingee is unless you see it in a photo. Until the other day, I had only seen an aerial-view photo. When I first saw a photo that shows how high the thing is, with the toxic liquid storage pond so high up, I was shocked anew at what we humans have done and considered “business as usual.” Now people in three counties are being evacuated. (Update, I just heard the evacuation is over, as officials say risk of catastrophe has lowered.)

From a fellow permaculture designer/educator, astute words:

“I believe that Piney Point is the manifestation of a system based on consumption and not a balanced relationship with nature. As long as we continue to trade the health of our ecosystem for financial wealth we will continue to create Piney points.”

And my take: So as permaculturists or eco-activists or earth guardians or however we each choose to identify ourselves, maybe part of our task is to help society find the ways to be able to have both prosperity/comfort AND ecosystem health. I actually think this might be our life-calling as eco guardian folk on this planet right now.

Further Reading:

Background on Piney Point (via Glenn Compton from ManaSota-88):

YOU SEE THE NEWS … YOU SEE THE DISASTER … HERE IS THE REST OF THE STORY AT PINEY POINT … PHOSPHOGYPSUM

One of the most serious problems associated with the phosphate industry is the gypsum waste produced at phosphoric acid plants. At the present time there are no federal, state or local regulations requiring the industry to make final disposition of phosphogypsum wastes in an environmentally acceptable manner.

The phosphate industry has dumped in excess of 900 million tons of radioactive wastes in Florida and is producing over 20 million tons of phosphogypsum waste annually, and the industry continues to expand their dumping operations.

Phosphogypsum has no economic value because of its impure content. It is dumped at various locations throughout Florida in gyp stacks. Piney Point in Manatee County is one example of a gyp stack.

Phosphogypsum that exceeds 10 picocuries per gram (pCi/g) of radioactivity has been banned from all uses by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 1992. This decision reflected the EPA’s concern that the radium bearing waste, if spread throughout the country, would present a public health threat that would continue for generations, given radium’s 1,630-year radioactive decay half-life.

To date, there have been no published scientific studies confirming that there is a “safe” industrial process to convert phosphogypsum for uses such as landfill cover. Exposure to 20 pCi/g of radiation is not justified by any health study. EPA should be developing a program geared toward protecting the public’s health and the environment from the radioactive components of phosphogypsum.

Allowing phosphogypsum to be used for landfill cover could open the regulatory door for the use of phosphogypsum in construction or agricultural applications. This will put the general public at an unacceptable risk as the phosphogypsum will become widespread in its distribution. The radioactive decay of this material will likely emit particles that can cause increased cancer risks and unacceptable radiation levels in areas normally not having such problems.

More stringent environmental regulation is needed to control the adverse impacts of phosphogypsum. Phosphate rock for central Florida has some of the highest levels of radiation in the United States. Allowing for the widespread distribution of phosphogypsum will lead to less oversight of a dangerous waste product.

EPA lacks the ability to protect the public and the environment from hazards associated with the widespread dispersal of phosphogypsum. The distribution of phosphogypsum will unnecessarily expose workers, the environment, and the general public to otherwise avoidable radon and gamma radiation exposure.

Phosphate companies have had over 50 years to figure out a way to dispose of the radioactive gypsum wastes in an acceptable manner, they have yet to do so. EPA should not permit phosphate wastes to be used in Florida landfills, or in construction or agricultural applications.

Every possible effort to minimize radiation exposure to the public should be done. The EPA is mandated to protect the health of the environment and the people of this nation. However, in this case, EPA is serving the phosphate industry and needlessly opening the door to future distributions of radioactive phosphogypsum wastes.” …

And in closing, I add: You have some version of this in your bioregion. Be it fracking, oil pipelines, mountaintop removal, vast floating plastic garbage patch, or what have you. Human insanity writ large. Humans caused the problems, so we can just as well solve them. Must solve them. Who gets a planet with majestic mountains, clear blue springs, mighty oceans, cathedral forests … and turns it into this degraded mess we’ve turned it into, and then dies or leaves without fixing it? Nope, not us — I refuse to believe we will do that.

The good news is, Nature repairs herself remarkably quickly if we humans can stem the tide of our destructive outputs. We saw this during the pandemic shutdown; the effect on ecosystems was striking and in some cases almost immediate.

By the way, I have realized that when I post grim news, I’m generally not doing it to boost your awareness; you are already aware. Or to increase your sense of urgency — you already have that. Rather, I’m doing it to give you (and myself) the emotional support we need in order to keep up our upstream-swimming mission of shifting our civilization from a hyperconsumerist to a regenerative one, by popularizing low-footprint living. Grim news keeps up our courage; refuels our “why” when the going gets rough; reaffirms that we are making the right choice by choosing to serve as earth guardians.

(And of course, grim news is only the “stick” end of the equation; I believe in providing you and myself with plenty of carrots as well. We need our carrots! But a stick here and there is a remarkable clarifying tonic and motivating force.)

Synchronicity just now: This morning I heard from the service leader of a congregation I’m going to be giving a talk for* later this month. She told me she’d picked a Greta Thunberg quote for my intro. It’s my favorite quote of hers, so I was thrilled!

The quote: ” (oops, internet brownout right now – I’ll grab it for you once the pipeline gets wider again. During the brownouts (which mainly seem to happen when a lot of tourists are in town, which is all the time lately), I can mostly still post to this blog but I have a hard time accessing websites and Facebook. It’s the quote about how we have to act like our house is on fire, because it is.)

OK, I just walked down the street and got a better connection – here’s the quote: “Adults keep saying, ‘We owe it to young people to give them hope.’ But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day, and then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.”

* (The talk is by Zoom, so I’m pretty sure anyone can attend — message me if you want the Zoom coordinates. I’ll be speaking for about 25 minutes, followed by a Q&A session. The title of my talk is “Little Things Make a Big Difference.”)

Further Further Reading:

• Greta Thunberg: We Don’t Want Your Hope (real-leaders.com)

O irony of ironies, my email address seems to have been discovered by a chemical-lawn company. And they have spammed me multiple times now!*

“Make your neighbors jealous of your green lawn!” scream the ads.

I have a MUCH better plan …

It’s called the “Make your neighbors jealous of your fruit trees, native wildflowers, front-door salad bar, outdoor homeschool classroom, hardcore organic fitness gym, instant community-building space, stormwater sponge, droughtproofing buffer, heat mitigation sphere, certified wildlife habitat, family entertainment zone, instant Zombie Apocalypse watch party, mental-wellness bootcamp spa, and old-age security” plan.

Whaddya think?

PS. The “jealousy” phase would last only like 3 nanoseconds, because after that, our neighbors would be signing up for the same plan!!

P.P.S. My longterm vision is that, as the popular aesthetic is starting to shift toward a kinder, softer yard, at least some of the “mow & blow bro’s” may retool themselves as regenerative landscapers. A landscaping version of “beating our swords into plowshares, and learning war no more.”

😂😂😂
🌏🌏🌏
💚💚💚

#BigBangForYourBuck #GrowSomethingUseful #GrascistSpamBlitzMystery #TransformativeLandscapingSquad #PagingNurseLogWantedInSurgery

*Getting spammed by a “mow, blow, spray, and go” outfit gives me a slight taste of how it might feel, for example, to my lesbian friends (and others whose sex life does not involve penises) when they get ads for V:@gr@.

Just my take on some recent stuff in the news, and some random stuff that has recently popped up in my feed. Will be adding to this today-ish as time permits.

• Weeds: “Wildflower or weed?” a fellow plant-lover asked, in regard to the gorgeous purple Florida native wildflowers growing in his yard. My response: “Wildflower. Florida native wildflowers. And even if they were not native: I refuse any longer to even recognize the word ‘weed’ at all. It is a limited, damaging, human-originated concept that does not exist in nature.”

• A fellow eco-activist called for people to attend a meeting in person to express support for a land-preservation initiative. My response: “Sorry, not comfortable asking people to risk their health & public safety to attend indoor in-person meetings.
Also not willing to promote non-essential car travel. I am doing my part tho; have donated to the cause, have shared numerous posts on social media, have emailed officials, and have put a sign in my prominent street-corner yard. Also: Thanks <fellow activist> for adding that we can share our thoughts by email. Along those lines, I want to express gratitude to <local eco-organization> for trying to get the County to expand options for nonmotorist participation, and Covid-safe participation.”

• Passenger vehicle traffic is rebounding to pre-pandemic levels. Ugh! Not only is the news itself bad, but the article is presenting it like it’s a good thing! The number of daily passenger vehicle trips has hit a major milestone, reaching pre-pandemic levels for the first time in a year, … with Americans driving more often and farther than at any time since pandemic lockdowns were invoked. The rise in vehicle travel comes amid other encouraging health and economic indicators. “Encouraging,” is it? Meh! One location even reported traffic surging to 150% of pre-pandemic levels! Double meh!

• I have decided not to organize an Earth Day festival. Main 2 factors in a nutshell: 1) Professional/personal circumstances — I woke up and realized that event planning is SO not in my lane; I literally cannot do it even for a great cause — I need to leave it to others who are good at it, and focus on my thing which is writing and teaching. And 2) Public-health circumstances — we are still in a pandemic, and there have been new developments in recent days (increases in cases of variants, etc.) I feel it’s imperative for us eco folk to set a responsible example. Soon I’ll be making a post about alternative ways to observe Earth Day.

• The population of Florida black bears is growing. Yay!! As a bonus, “bears are an umbrella species, that protecting their habitat also helps other species, some of which are listed as threatened or endangered.” Some communities are making themselves “bear-wise communities,” where people take steps to minimize encounters between humans and bears by, for example, using bear-proof trash cans. Bald eagle numbers are soaring also. The comeback of species that had been endangered is great news in more ways than one. Bears and eagles have a huge place in our hearts. Taking care of “charismatic” species is a “gateway drug” to a more widespread awareness of the need to take care of their habitat, and the species they depend on for food.

• Florida should just take Medicaid funding, says this editorial. I agree. As the writer points out, other states as red as Florida are accepting the fed med money. What gives with my state? Is our governor seeing it as tantamount to admitting that our system is broken? Or does he see accepting that money as going Communist? Who knows. It would benefit the state in many ways: reducing ER visits; lowering premature death rate among middle-aged folks; and providing lower-cost care to pregnant women and other vulnerable populations. For me — someone who’s basically an anarchist — to advocate for this feels a bit foreign. But, as I see it, the government and insurance companies broke our medical system in the first place, so government and insurance are going to have to be part of the solution. On a personal note, I am thinking this may be the year I become able to meet the minimum income requirement to qualify for health insurance under ACA. I don’t like the whole sickcare racket, including insurance companies, but circumstances being what they are, it’s better for me and the people around me, as well as society as a whole, if I am covered. Everyone else too.

• Derek Chauvin is on trial, not George Floyd. “With the beginning of the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on charges of killing George Floyd, remember that Chauvin is the man on trial, not Floyd. Remember that the only reason police approached Floyd in the first place was that they suspected him of a minor, nonviolent offense. Remember Floyd’s desperate pleas that he couldn’t breathe, that ‘they’re going to kill me,’ that he was dying. Remember – as if anyone could forget – that the U.S. criminal justice system is on trial as well.”

• Chauvin trial has Black teenagers bracing for return of trauma. “Mental health experts say Chauvin’s trial could retraumatize teenagers who are still learning what it means to be Black in America and developing an understanding of the legal system, policing and justice.” I’m constantly talking about the importance of “getting outdoors” and “connecting with nature.” It’s non-optional, both for our physical and mental health; and for the health of our planetary ecosystems. And yet, for so many people — most notably the young people who are most at risk — it’s not even safe to go outside in their own neighborhoods. This is not right. We have to change this.

• Stop Jim Crow 2: Find out about voter-suppression laws being pushed in Georgia, Florida, and a number of other states. Typical provisions include making it harder to vote by mail or drop-box; and making it unlawful to hand out drinks of water to people who are standing in line, sometimes for hours, waiting to vote. Read up on this; share on social media; contact your public officials. (This link is from the excellent Anti-Racism Daily email newsletter.)

“There is much to be said about permaculture in the 40 years since its creation, but there don’t seem to be many fully established systems promoting themselves. There appears to be limited peer-reviewed data to back up the claims of permaculture as a successful means of offsetting our current crisis.” (Quote from this article.)

My response: The very concept of a “fully established system” is a widespread popular fallacy that is an artifact of our limited (Western industrial-white-colonialist) human minds. Nature is always dynamic and in flux; and humans living in right relationship with Mother Earth are constantly co-evolving and co-creating with Her.

In my opinion as a bioregionalist, community activist, microbusiness advocate, and permaculture designer/educator:
“Fully established system” is a money-centric, human-centric, colonialist utilitarian term that is part of the problem, and perpetuates modern human disconnect from the rest of nature.

Even the three permaculture sites cited by the article’s author as examples of “successful sites,” are dynamic not static. And will only continue to be successful inasmuch as they are constantly evolving in collaboration with their local residents (including all species, and the surrounding ecosystems, not just the human residents and other human beneficiaries of the sites).

And a great comment from my fellow permie educator/landscaper Mike Hoag of Transformative Adventures:

“I think there are too many! Ha! I know of literally hundreds of fully established sites promoting themselves. Lillie House is the first keystone project site associated with TransformativeAdventures.org and it has had thousands of visitors. As to peer reviewed data, this is not possible or even scientific to do. It misunderstands what permaculture is, thinking it is a technique, which it clearly is not. You will not find a single study claiming to prove that “engineering” works either. If engineering is done well, it uses research based methods to achieve goals, so it is successful, it works. Then the proof is in the pudding. Same with permaculture. Saying ”there is no peer reviewed data” is a misunderstanding of scientific methods.”

My comment just now on a fellow eco activist’s Facebook post asking folks to show up at a county council meeting. The post mentioned virtual attendance as an option. (Even before the pandemic, this is how I felt. We eco/climate activists need to walk our walk by using appropriate lower-footprint technology to minimize our need for in-person appearances that gratuitously burn petroleum or jet fuel. Now, with the pandemic — and any future pandemics coming down the pike — my opinion has extra justification.)

Hey fellow local earth guardians!! <three green hearts>

As your friendly neighborhood “carbon footprint conscience” eco activist, I strongly encourage virtual attendance rather than in-person.

Too much in-person running around is contributing to the road-traffic that is a big part of what is leading to sprawl development, road congestion, and other damage that is precipitating the need for the very “land preservation” we are advocating for.

My two cents: Unless you live in walking or cycling distance of this meeting (or any other meetings), I strongly encourage you to attend virtually, or else just give your comments by email or direct phone call to your officials.

As a bonus, you will save yourself hours of time & energy between having to get dressed up for an outside-of-your-neighborhood event, sitting in traffic, finding parking, sitting inside a closed-in environment with no outside fresh air circulation, etc.

* And — Special Eco Karma Hearts and Stars: Thank you so much <name of grassroots local eco warrior leader who wrote the original post> for keeping us informed, and for all you are doing to lead us in preserving our precious bioregional treasures. <numerous star, green heart, & butterfly emoticons>

Response later from the activist who made the announcement: “I’m sorry Jenny, but in person is IMPORTANT with this situation. It makes a HUGE difference.”

My response to them just now:

That’s what people often say, for every meeting. But — Reflect on the success you have created here — mostly via emails, online petitions, Facebook posts, and other things that don’t involve people needlessly getting in cars.

I am 100% supportive of this [land preservation] effort, as you well know <heart>. [Side note for my readers here: I donated $1,000 of my economic-stimulus money to the online crowd-fund for the preservation effort led by their group. Before that, behind the scenes, I encouraged them to do said crowd-funding campaign in the first place. I have also spent many hours publicizing their posts, often taking additional care to custom-write an intro for specific audiences. Not trying to brag; just pointing out the power of online, as I did all of this without getting in a car.]

I’m just calling on the folks who are willing to contribute from home, and/or are unable to be there in person, and/or prefer to model use of alternative modes. Think of my call as an EXPANSION of the field of participants.
Some people are inevitably gonna keep driving to these things no matter what; I have little or no influence over that. But, both for this immediate meeting and for the long term, I am trying to support expansion of participation, via alternative, low-footprint modes.

We cannot afford to keep modeling car-dependence, least of all in our eco activism.

And (in response to a subsequent comment where they told me they’d been enduring a lot of criticism):

Shame on any armchair critics who have the gall to malign you and your awesome efforts. It makes me sick to hear of a fellow activist getting attacked.

BTW please do not take my plea to minimize driving as criticism; it is directed at all efforts by all fellow eco activists. I’m trying to help us conserve our human energy, as well as model a commitment to minimizing the car travel that is a huge root of the problems we are now tasked with trying to solve. You know I totally support this cause.

And yet another comment I added later, regarding the topic of activists getting criticized for one thing or other:

BTW re criticism: As a person who first began thinking of herself as an eco activist about 30 years ago, and actively participating in actions accordingly, I have all that time been hearing criticism from non-environmentalists, regarding the fact that people call themselves environmentalists yet they needlessly drive or fly to environmental protests.

Frankly, I had no good response to their criticism because I feel, and have always felt, they are right. Instead, I have sought to practice and promote non-car-dependent, non-airplane-flying style of activism.

In that vein, over the past year I have attended probably two dozen conferences/meetings, action planning, etc, with a total of possibly 10,000 activist-type people or maybe even more. Online.

Postscript:

(By the way, I suspect that the compulsive need felt by some of us activists to appear in person at meetings may sometimes be ego-driven. Often, however, I suspect it stems from everyday citizens’ legitimate fear of not being seen and heard by officials. But continuing to burn fossil fuels needlessly isn’t the answer; building person-to-person relationships with officials is. And quite honestly, these days that is simpler than ever, thanks to social media and multiple other online channels in addition to the good old standard mail and telephone — which are still very effective, by the way. If you want/need tips for building/strengthening such ties (other than what you’ve read in this blog and my book), contact me and I will be happy to help you/your organization. We need to set a good example and break the knee-jerk reflex of jumping in our cars needlessly.

Also: A major advantage of online channels, which is often overlooked by the “adamantly in-person-is-a-must” crowd, is the greatly multiplied broadcast potential. Virally compelling tweets; Facebook Lives reaching across both distance and time to reach thousands of hearts; etc. In essence, we each have our own free TV channels, radio channels, advertising agencies, and publishing companies! Think 20 or 50 or more people showing up to a meeting in person with signs or matching t-shirts is powerful? It can be, for sure — but a creatively designed broadcast version of this has the potential to increase the power many-thousand-fold.

Just one little example (you can come up with any number of variants that might be much better ideas): Ask your 20 or 50 cohorts to snap selfies with the sign or t-shirt. Gather the snapshots into a big digital collage, post it on your City or County government page, plus pages of individual officials, plus Twitter, NextDoor etc. And takes a tiny fraction of the time and footprint of 20 or 50 people getting in cars, sitting in traffic, looking for parking etc.

For extra boost, do your selfies where your neighbors, who are by definition “naturally in person,” can see them.

In my talks and writings, I emphasize the power of grassroots efforts. Here is one prime example. Local eco activists in my area have helped bring about awareness of a manatee die-off crisis, leading to a federal investigation.

(Yes, ironically, sometimes grassroots action needs to entail bringing in higher levels of government. This can happen when citizens living on the frontlines observe that they are not being listened to by their local powers-that-be, and/or that the response from their local and regional governments to a bioregional-level crisis is inadequate.)

I posted the following to local eco activist groups on Facebook this morning. (Special tech note for social-media activist geeks: The text “Manatee Deaths Prompt Fed Investig” after the article link is to preserve the link, which Facebook otherwise swallows up.)

With deep respect and gratitude to <names of two key local eco activists> and all the other local eco-guardians whose efforts have contributed to bringing about this crucial investigation. A big step in the right direction. <green heart emoticon>

#EarthWarriors #GrassrootsGreenMobilization #BioregionalConsciousness

Here’s the link to the article – thank you Daytona Beach News-Journal for covering this story: http://daytonanewsjournal.fl.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=10a7d50a4

Manatee Deaths Prompt Fed Investig

Quote from the article: “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday the recent spate of manatee deaths in the Indian River Lagoon would be declared an unusual mortality event, channeling muchneeded federal resources into an investigation of what’s causing the die-off. … More than 60% of the 2021 deaths — 4.5 deaths per day— have occurred in counties on the Indian River Lagoon, the 156-mile-long estuary that stretches from Ponce de Leon Inlet in Volusia County to Jupiter Inlet in Palm Beach County. … executive director of Save the Manatee Club, said as of Monday, the non-profit had documented 539 deaths and 80 rescues statewide in 2021.”

Further Exploration:

• Save the Manatee Club is an example of how the efforts of a local/bioregional-level volunteer organization formed around the love of one charismatic animal or plant can help raise awareness that (ideally) will ultimately lead to the restoration of entire ecosystems. I think it’d be great if every bioregion had clubs like this for different species.