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The Earth Needs Your Vote!

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Up until now, I’ve avoiding injecting politics into my posts about the Climate Crisis.   However, getting involved in politics could be the most important thing an individual can do about the climate crisis.   Now, I’ll be the first to admit that politics has increasingly become an unpleasant activity involving a number of unpleasant and divisive people.   I don’t blame you for wanting to steer clear of the mess and limit yourself to passively watching the nasty business unfold on the nightly news.                                 Source:  huffingtonpost.com But here’s the catch:   we have a big election coming up in a year and the Climate Crisis is going to be a central issue in the campaign.   Purveyors of disinformation in the press, the political arena, and social media will attempt to discredit candidates who accept the consensus of mainstream scientists regarding the human causes of the crisis and who want to take strong but reasonable actions to address it.   These misguided in
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Fighting Climate Disinformation in the Classroom

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Denver, Colorado Last night, our neighborhood association held a forum featuring the two candidates for southeast Denver for the school board.   Since I’m the association president (I was “drafted” – no one else wanted the job), I had to go to the meeting anyway.   My partner, Judy, didn’t want to go.   “I don’t have kids, so why should I care who is on the school board?” she reasoned.   I understand that line of thinking and until recently I figured that school boards were an issue for parents and grandparents of school age children to worry about but not me. Lately, I’ve changed my mind after learning that people with extremist political, social, and religious views have been getting elected to school boards around the country.   They and their supporters’ objective is to control what is being taught in schools making sure that it conforms to their ideologies.   They hope to shape the thinking of school kids on a variety of issues with troubling implications for rational thinking
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What about Gasoline-Powered Lawn Equipment?

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In my last post, I took on the unquestioned acceptance of green-grass lawns as the ideal for urban and suburban America.   I advocated replacing lawns with native plants and pointed out the latter’s advantages for fighting climate change and promoting biodiversity.   But what if you’re not quite ready to tear out your traditional lawn?  There are some things you can do to reduce the associated hydrocarbon emissions associated with lawn maintenance.  Specifically, you can get rid of your power equipment that uses two-stroke engines which run on a mixture of gasoline and oil.  These include lawn mowers, leaf blowers, chain saws, and hedge trimmers.  Electric alternatives are now available which have power equal to that of the old two-stroke engines.  John Deere has even introduced an electric riding mower. My electric chain saw and hedge trimmer have power cords which require me to drag around a 50-foot extension cord to run them.  You can now get battery-operated models which elimin
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An alternative to green lawns that helps both climate and critters

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Denver, Colorado Why do we have green lawns?   Habit, I suppose as well as perceived peer pressure from neighbors.   And yet, some 20 years ago when my partner, Judy, tore out part of our front lawn replacing it with xeriscape (drought-tolerant) plants, a local garden club gave her an award.   Instead of criticism, some neighbors have been inspired to take their lawns in several different directions, replacing grass with native plants, shrubs, trees, flower beds, and rock gardens. Thanks to Judy’s efforts, our front yard in southeast Denver is dominated by drought-tolerant plants and trees.  Fortunately, there are no neighborhood covenants that stopped us from tearing out our mostly crab-grass lawn more than 20 years ago.   Photo by Judy Greenfield In relatively dry Denver, the recommended approach 20 years ago was xeriscaping.  But rather than drought-tolerant plants in general, plants native to a local area are now preferred for natural landscaping, whether one lives in toasty Tucs
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Why not sustainable housing?

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Denver, Colorado In my blog post last week, I railed against real estate developers who build unnecessarily large homes and the people who buy them.   One anonymous reader submitted a comment asking about developments to accommodate people who need more modest housing?   He/she wondered if I see a place for real estate development at all, and if so, how can it be done sustainably?   I am forced to admit that as long as the population keeps growing especially in metropolitan areas which are perceived to be highly desirable places to live with a healthy job market, new real estate developments will be necessary.  But why can’t we have new developments that provide homes the middle class can afford; meet their needs in terms of size, proximity to work, and basic amenities; and also be “climate-friendly”?   They don’t built them like they used to:  A 1950s “starter home” in southeast Denver.  It’s probably only 800-1000 square feet in size which is plenty for most single adults or ma
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New Homes – The Bigger the Better?

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The elderly father of one of my good friends once said to me, “People should buy as much house as they can afford.”   In other words, the bigger, the better up to the maximum you can afford in monthly payments.   I suppose this thinking makes sense from an economic perspective because a home is good place to put one’s savings.  It’s a stable investment and comes with a mortgage interest deduction on income tax assuming you have a loan on the property.  Real estate developers, agents, and lenders are pleased that many people embrace this positive outlook as it means more dollars in their pockets. But from an environmental perspective and especially with regard to the climate crisis, it’s a rotten idea.  People need a place to live but do they really need the largest house they can afford?  Consider the following contrasts between a “McMansion” and a modestly-sized home: - It takes more energy to heat and cool it and often that energy comes from greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels
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Beef is Bad for Our Climate but Giving It up Is Tough

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Denver, Colorado So, maybe you know that meat and dairy production has a negative impact on the earth’s climate but you love the taste of charcoal-grilled hamburgers and filet mignon.   You might be aware that producing a pound of beef creates more than 25 times the greenhouse gas emissions than producing an equivalent weight of wheat.   This fact bothers your conscience but, hey, you can’t live on bread alone and need your protein, right?   You may have heard that the methane produced by cows burping and their manure traps 28 times the outgoing planet-warming radiation than the equivalent volume of carbon dioxide.   But how are you supposed to suddenly given up the central part of the diet that has sustained you all your life? My answer to you is this – don’t suddenly give up meat.   Because you are going to feel really deprived and you will soon give up on a vegetarian or vegan diet just like my ex-wife, Genie, many years ago when she tried to lose weight on a diet of hard-boiled e
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