ECODIGEST

I'm working on my climate activism, and the more I learn, the more I realize that to really combat climate change in a meaningful way, we need to change our behavior. To change behavior in a big way, you need to change social norms. While I'm working on changing my own behavior, I wondered how to help change norms in my own community. So, I've landed on this - an "eco-digest" for the people around me to share what I'm learning about my impact and how to do things differently. 

 

So what the heck is an eco-digest? No more than once a week (probably more like once a month), I'll send an e-mail with some of the ways I'm connecting to my environment and making choices that fall in line with a decarbonized future. Sometimes, I might include some articles I've read that I think are an important part of the story. Much of this will be US-centric, but I hope it can be useful elsewhere too.

 

If you like this, no need to do anything, I'll keep sending. If this isn't your cup of tea, no worries I won't be offended, just reply 'unsubscribe' and I won't include you next time. Please feel free to send me email addresses of anyone who you think might be interested, I'll add them to the list. Also please feel free to send me anything you're doing/reading and I can add it to the digest. 

 

Below is an example digest

 

Happy end of February!

 

Here are 3 ideas of things you can do right now to help mitigate climate change:

1) Delete your amazon account

2) Buy nothing for the next week

3) Plan your next vacation in your home state/province

 

Food systems is my theme right now, here's a great explainer on why current food systems are so bad for the climate

 

Azure Standard is my favorite climate friendly find lately - an amazing bulk and sustainable food retailer. You place an order and pick it up at a specific location on a specific day. I'm away for the March pickup in my area, but will be doing this in April. If you are a friend from Cape Cod, I am happy to work with you to pick up your order and you can grab it from my house that week. Message me to coordinate!

 

In the US, the agricultural sector represents 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, and transportation (the largest emitter) represents 28% of greenhouse gas emissions. Within transportation, 60% is in the form of truck transport - so... the industrial agriculture sector is a massive source of carbon to the atmosphere and contributor to global climate change.

 

If you are a middle-income household (75K/yr) or higher, you can definitely afford to help mitigate the climate crisis by making conscious food choices. That doesn't mean buying things with 'eco' or 'organic' on the label - it means buying in bulk and buying locally. Often that is not more expensive, and once it is part of your norm, it is not much more work. 

 

Use bulk retailers near you, or try the online one I found here. There are others like it, just google 'online bulk food store'. I think it's great for the following types of foods

> Rice, dried beans, frozen veg, sustainable frozen meat, flour, spices, condiments, oil/vinegar, snacks, baking goods

 

Growing your own food is obviously a great choice, and ITS SEED SEASON BABY here are my fave retailers

https://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/

https://www.rareseeds.com/

www.johnnyseeds.com

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These are some articles I read this week that I think are important:

China is changing its climate story

Is the decline of oil in sight

Betrayed by green capitalism

What are the impacts of a 4C temp rise?

Changing culture by changing norms

 

Keep it shrimple folks

Episode 2 of Eco-digest coming at you! If you're newly added to the list, scroll to the bottom of this message to see what it's all about. Happy March 8th!!

 

Here are 3 ideas of things you can do NOW to mitigate climate change

1) Join your local library

It's such a fun activity, and underutilized resource. Love cookbooks? Library! Have a trip coming up? Get a travel book from the library! Have kids? It's an activity, and you don't have to read the same story every week!

 

2) Choose one food item to buy in bulk this week

Last week, I wrote a bit about the merits of buying in bulk. They are HUGE! If you're new to it, try one ingredient at a time - rice is a great one to start with because it keeps so well. I get a 25 lb bag, and keep it in a pantry. You may need to think about where you could store in bulk - adding overhead shelving, converting a closet to a pantry, etc. You'll also want 1-2 smaller containers per item. For rice, I keep my bag sealed by rolling the top down and sealing with tape, and I have a 4 gallon tub that I keep my weekly rice rations in. I also write on the lid of the tub the water to rice ratio so I can remember how to make it!

 

3) Use powdered laundry detergent

Do you know how much you pay for water when you buy liquid soaps? It's a lot! When you buy liquid detergents (dishwasher, laundry), you are mostly buying water and paying for the container and shipping. It's a massive waste. Last month I transitioned to a powder laundry detergent. This tub will last me 2+ years, and I can use the bucket for my gardening when I run out (Nellies is sometimes at Costco!). 

 

The theme this digest is divorcing yourself from Amazon. I deleted my Amazon account officially last week, and feel liberated about it. 

 

I don't want to downplay the convenience of Amazon, and yes there will be some discomfort to deleting it. That said, combating climate change for real means changing consumption, which will mean some discomfort. The ethos surrounding purchasing needs to change from how much can I get with this much money to how can I make sure my purchasing reflects my values. It might cost you 10% more, and it may take you a little more time, but it matters. Do you really need that thing, let alone delivered to your doorstep in 24 hours?

 

Here are two really good articles on how to shift away from Amazon:

How to quit shopping on Amazon, and what it will ask of you

How to officially break up with Amazon

 

Some summary stats on why Amazon sucks balls - great dinner party ammo:

• Jeff Bezos is a disgusting billionaire: "Count to ten. In those ten seconds, Jeff Bezos, the owner and founder of Amazon, just made more money than the median employee of Amazon makes in an entire year. An entire year." -Bernie Sanders

• Amazon is one of the most dangerous places to work in the US: Amazon is 35% of warehouse workers in the US, and comprises 53% of the nations workplace injuries

• Amazon costs jobs and businesses: a September 2016 report from economic analysis firm Civic Economics says that Amazon online sales — in 2015 alone — accounted for a loss of more than $1.2 billion of revenue to state and local governments. The report also estimates that in just one year Amazon sales displaced the equivalent of 39,000 retail storefronts and 220,000 retail jobs.

• This volume of individual delivery has massive emissions repercussions: Amazon continued expanding emissions from its U.S. imports and domestic deliveries at an average annual growth rate of 18%, from 3.33 million metric tons carbon dioxide in 2019 to 5.84 million metric tons carbon dioxide in 2023. Key contributors to this increased pollution include Amazon’s growing dependence on air freight shipping (+67% CO2 emissions) and expansion of fossil fuel-powered delivery vans (+195% CO2 emissions).

• Amazon's tremendous amount of packaging is problematic: 23.5 million pounds of Amazon’s plastic packaging waste entered and polluted the world’s waterways and oceans in 2020, the equivalent of dumping a delivery van payload of plastic into the oceans every 67 minutes.

Here are a few good articles to read this week about climate change:

How Plastic Production Drives Climate Change

Environmental footprint of AI

Talking points used by fossil fuel industry to distract from climate change

 

I hope you have a good week, and the chance to go outside

I hope everyone is feeling extra green after St. Patrick's Day!

 

Here are 3 things you can do NOW to mitigate climate change. This week is specifically grocery shopping oriented; grocery stores are where a lot of problematic behaviors arise. More on that in the section below! 

 

1) Stop bagging produce

Most produce doesn't need to be bagged, especially if it's a one-item product like ginger, cabbage, head of lettuce, herb bundle, eggplant, squash. It's wasteful to use those bags, and the veg is getting washed or peeled at home anyways. If you want to use bags, consider saving the next batch you get from the store, or investing in some small mesh or canvas bags to reuse.

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2) Shop the perimeter of the grocery store

Fresh foods are on the perimeter of the grocery store, and are things that have likely traveled the least distance to get to you. They are also less processed, usually less packaged, and often much healthier for you! Try to find ways to reduce your need for packaged foods - do you need a granola bar, or can you be satisfied with some peanuts and an apple? Accepting less variety in your food choices is a meaningful way to decarbonize.

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3) Stop paying for water

If you're buying an item that is mostly water, you are using unnecessary packaging, increasing transport waste, and wasting your money. Here are some items that are mostly water, and substitutes that are a cheaper and help to decarbonize the way we shop:

-Soda water: yes it's fun to have cans, but it's also fun to have a liveable planet for our children. Consider getting a soda-stream! If you wanna go big, here's a hack to reduce canisters

-Detergents: switch to powdered laundry and dish detergent.

-Canned beans: dried beans are economical, taste better and save on packaging and water weight. Soaking them overnight is easy, using a pressure cooker is fast and easy, or if you work from home, nothing beats the smell of a nice pot of beans on the stove! I boil mine with bay leaves, salt, and a little baking soda (helps with keeping the skins on).

 

Continuing on our theme of Greening Up Your Groceries....

My goal is to separate myself from my reliance on grocery stores altogether by the end of 2025. I'll be sharing, in this digest, how I am working towards that. To get there, I'm being mindful about how much carbon goes into my grocery store footprint. 

 

Remember that the only meaningful way to combat climate change is to divorce ourselves from reliance on fossil fuels, and that means changing behavior to reduce consumption, particularly in areas that are carbon-inefficient. So let's talk about how grocery stores are massive users of fossil fuels, and a place where we tend to overconsume. Two big things to keep in mind when decarbonizing your grocery habits:

 

1) The more processed something is, the more fossil fuels were used to make it.  You can tell something is processed if it has a lot of ingredients, it's highly packaged, it's shelf-stable and/or it isn't made from primary ingredients (ie. it's made from ingredients that themselves are processed, like preservatives, or dyes, or things like 'milk solids'). You can think about how much transport and manufacturing was used to get an ingredient on a shelf as a metric. I recently figured out that for M&M's to make it to my home, ingredients had to come from over 30 countries and 6 of 7 continents (all but Antarctica). That's a ridiculous use of fossil fuels, and reflects the highly corrupt and subsidized industry that it took to get those M&M's to me. 

 

2) Plastics are made from fossil fuels. That's a big one to really absorb - PLASTICS ARE FOSSIL FUELS! 99% of plastics are made from fossil fuels, and the ever-increasing demand for plastics has fueled the environmentally disastrous shale industry in the US, and strengthens the strangle-hold big oil has on our economy. This explainer has excellent articles explaining the oil-plastics industry and how terrible it is for the environment. As much as possible, try to avoid purchasing packaged foods, and bring reusable bags.

 

A few more reasons grocery stores are awful:

• They generate grotesque amounts of food waste. In 2023, 4.5M tonnes of food waste were generated from grocery stores in the US, while 45 million people in the US don't have access to food, including 1 in 5 children. Also note that 9/10 of the largest grocery retailers in the US have been found not to report or to underreport their food waste.

• They are all huge corporations. 1/3 of US grocery stores are owned by 3 companies (Walmart, Kroeger, Aldi Sud), and generate billions of dollars in revenue for their billionaire owners.

• They discourage local businesses and producers

• They don't reflect the seasonality of ingredients, and support unsustainable agricultural systems

• They don't discern where their animal products come from

• Most price increases reflect corporate greed, and not real trends in food cost (see egg-gate)

Here are a few good articles to read this week to stay informed about climate change:

The impact of your grocery store choices

A brief history of consumer culture

The hidden cost of the American food system

If you are new to this list, please scroll to the bottom to see what this is about!

Reader tips from last week - laundry strips are even more space/shipping saving than powdered laundry! If using powdered laundry in a "liquid detergent only" machine, just put the powder straight into the barrel.Try bamboo floss in a reusable container!

 

This week's theme is food waste at home. Did you know that food waste is the largest component of landfills at 24%? Ahead of even plastics (18%)!

 

i. Changing behavior now

Here are 3 behavior modifications you can make right now to help mitigate climate change! Remember, the only way to mitigate climate change is to divorce ourselves from reliance on fossil fuels. That means changing behavior to reduce reliance on carbon, and to reduce wasteful consumption.

1. Use your peels

DID YOU KNOW? The peels for most foods are where the most nutrients are. Why? Plants use skin as their first line of defense, and so important nutrients contained in antioxidants and phytochemicals are concentrated there.
I use my peels in 3 ways at home, instead of discarding them:
(1) Eat 'em! Potatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and yams don't need to be peeled. Once you get used to a little texture, they taste wonderful, and are extra nutritious! Just invest in a veggie scrubber and nom nom away.
(2) Make a quick plant fertilizer! Potatoes, alliums, all citrus and bananas have peels that are rich in vitamins and potassium. I put them in a jar, and fill with boiling water, and then leave it overnight. The next day, I use it to water my house plants, and then put the used peels in my compost! Citrus is also an anti-microbial and bug deterrent. WIN WIN WIN!
(3) Add them to your stock! See #2

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2. Make stock
Stock is liquid gold in the kitchen. And you can make it for free at home! Soup? Risotto? Stew? Sauces? Congee? You name it! It's also expensive and uses packaging at the grocery store.
At our house, we have 3 large ziplocks that we reuse as "stock bags" in the freezer. Things that would normally go to waste are frozen until the bags are full. One full ziplock goes into a stock pot with 8 cups of water, 3 bay leaves and salt, and is simmered for 2-4 hours. Then, we strain it and store it in tubs (I use old yogurt tubs) in the fridge and freezer. It lasts 1 week in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer. Items that go into the bag are:
Veggies: Peels and trimmings from meal prep from carrots, celery, onion, garlic, ginger, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, herbs, apples, squash, potatoes, yams, beans, peas, mushrooms
Meats: all bones, skin, trimmings from all meat (raw or cooked); shrimp shells, lobster shells, crab shells
Other: parmesan rinds

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3. Compost
Why buy the milk when you can get the cow for free? Fertilizers are often bad for the environment (they cause nutrient pollution in our waterways which leads to algae/bacterial blooms and hurts marine life), expensive, and made from ingredients all across the country which means, making fertilizers generates emissions. If you garden, or have neighbors who do, making your own fertilizer (compost) is an amazing way to reduce your waste and decarbonize.
We have a small (and stylish!) countertop compost bin that is emptied every two days into a larger outdoor composter. To make garden compost, you want 3:1 brown (leaves, sticks, grass) to green (household compost), so add leaves and grass trimmings once in a while to get close to that balance. If you do not garden and/or do not have space for an outdoor composter, most areas have organizations that accept compost and some programs will pick up your waste regularly upon arrangement. One bougie option that could also work for some is an at-home compost machine, which generates compost you could use for house plants, or donate to a local community garden/neighbor.

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ii. Explainer

Adding food waste to regular trash is very very bad. Not only does that food waste add volume to already expansive landfills, but food waste - organic matter - decomposes in landfill. There's two problems with that: (1) Food decomposes much slower in landfills because bacteria are suffocated by trash, and (2) food in landfills generates methane - a potent greenhouse gas - because of the low oxygen systems in landfills. Aka, because food is buried by trash, it has no contact with the atmosphere and therefore no oxygen, so different bacteria have to break it down, and these bad boys (methanogens) generate methane gas.

 

Some fast facts for the dinner table:

-92 billion lbs of food are discarded a year in the US; an underestimate because most big chain grocery stores don't report all their food waste

-Americans over consume and over purchase, consuming more than any other country (2.5x as much as someone from China, for instance) and throwing away 40% of their food

-Food waste is the largest component of landfills, taking up 24 % of landfill space - more than plastics (18%).

-The US generates more than 300 million tons of waste per year, of which 75 million tons is food waste. That's like burying  the volume of 30 million African Elephants every year in food waste.

-The US has 3,000 open and 10,000 closed landfills, each landfill taking up 600 acres in surface area alone (so just 2-dimensional).  That's the surface area of the state of Maryland in landfill space in the US alone.

-8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are from food that is not consumed

-If food waste were a country, it would have the 3rd highest greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, after China and the US

 

iii. Reading

The climate impact of the food in the back of your fridge

The scandal of food waste and how we can stop it

If everybody hates wasting food, why do we do it and how do we stop?

 

**New this digest*** 

iV. Current Projects

1. De-Grocerfying 2025 Updates  

• Converting half our laundry room to a pantry:
  Added large metal shelf
  Ordered large plastic tubs for bulk items
  Made space in chest freezer

• Placed first order with Azure Standard [a conscious online purveyor of bulk foods that uses a pickup location to drop bulk shipments near you once a month]. CAPE CODDERS: I have 10 sq feet of room left in my truck, and will pick up your order up to that amount of space! Email me if you want to claim space!

• Saying farewell to the following products that I like, but I don't need: granola bars, canned chickpeas, instant noodles, sandwich meat

• Counting my trash bags for the month of April - stay tuned

In the spirit of spring, and because my botanist father is in town, this week's theme is: the power of plants. Don't worry, if your home has limited space for plants, I have tips for you too.

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i. Changing behavior now

Here are 3 behavior modifications you can make right now to help mitigate climate change! Remember, the only way to mitigate climate change is to divorce ourselves from reliance on fossil fuels. That means changing behavior to reduce reliance on carbon, and to reduce wasteful consumption.

 

1. Have a relationship with plants

DID YOU KNOW? Today, children can identify an average of 1000 logos, but cannot name 10 species of plants. One important aspect of changing our behavior as it pertains to the climate is to reacquaint ourselves with nature. An appreciation and understanding of our habitat goes a long way towards empathy for the species with whom we cohabitate. Here are a few suggestions of how to forge a relationship with the plants around you

• When you go for a walk, learn one new plant species. You can do this with most phones [iphone instructions, plantnet app, inaturalist app]. Try to remember them the next time you go by! Maybe you'll find a favorite sycamore, and learn to love watching it as it changes with the seasons. The easiest time to learn plants is once they have leaves and/or flowers.

• Keep potted plants at home. Potted plants are a great way to observe and interact with plant life every day. When you care for a plant, you might appreciate the things it takes to keep them going. Plants at home also help purify your air! Easy plants to start with are pothos, spider plants and jade plants - all of these are also very easy to propagate.

• Visit a local garden, arboretum or botanical garden. The diversity of plants is underappreciated, and places like these are great for providing perspective on how many magnificent plants have evolved to create our ecosystems. For those in the Boston/Cape area, I recommend checking out the Native Plant Trust's Garden in the Woods.

• Pick a neighborhood tree and photograph it every month. It's fun to get to know one plant, and to observe the intricacies of its life cycle. Getting to know your neighborhood plants is getting to know your community.
   

2. Grow your own food:

DID YOU KNOW? Crops grown for human consumption account for 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions! By growing your own crops you help mitigate climate change by: reducing transportation, reducing packaging, creating pollinator havens, reducing lawn/concrete surface area, increasing biodiversity and decreasing food waste. The other benefits to you are: saving money, avoiding consuming poisonous pesticides, more nutritious food, tastier and fresher produce, connecting with the life cycle of the plants you consume and exercise outside. Even if you grow just a few crops, you will be contributing to your health and the mitigation of climate change. Here are some ideas for getting started/expanding your home growing depending on your starting position:

• I have no outdoor space: Try growing herbs indoors! Herbs are expensive, spoil quickly in the fridge, but are crucial for great tasting food. They also happen to grow quickly and easily indoors! Here is a great guide to get started. I love to grow basil, cilantro, rosemary, thyme and chives indoors. The more you trim them, the better they grow, and indoor plants are relatively easy to remember to water!

• I have a small outdoor space: Try vertical gardening. This website has great ideas for how to maximize your space using wall hung containers, trellises, stacked pots and more. Vining plants like peas, beans, cucumbers, squashes, some tomatoes and melons are excellent contenders for vertically growing.

• My outdoor space is all shaded: First, find out just how shady your yard is by timing the amount of direct sunlight your spot receives. Then, this guide will walk you through which plants do well in the shade! Some easy shade lovers are lettuces, arugula, kale, carrots and radishes.

• I have no time to garden: That's OK too! But I urge you to consider it. Growing food is an incredible way to connect to our food system. Understanding the energy it takes to grow food is crucial for understanding the steps that need to be taken to break down the extremely polluting and anti-humanitarian industrial agricultural food system that we are all shackled to. A small garden takes a couple hours to set up, and can take as little as 15 minutes of effort a day. Alternate between watering, weeding and maintenance (pruning, feeding) for 15 minutes each day, and you'll be amazed at how much you can achieve. If you don't enjoy it or really can't, try connecting to small farms/community gardens near you to support their efforts for locally produced goods. Again, if your household makes more than 75K/year, you can afford to choose local produce.

• I'd like tips on expanding my current operations: Reach out to me with questions any time, but my main tips are:
  -Add variety to your crops - using heirlooms is great for this, because it enhances genetic diversity as well. Diversity is helpful for pollinator diversity and to strengthen the resilience of your garden against pests.
  -Plant what you eat! I use a ton of onions, carrots, celery, lettuce and tomatoes - so varieties of those are my top priority.
  -Use companion planting: instead of one species per area, plant 2-3 complementary species to maximize space and reap interspecies rewards. For example: basil, tomato and marigolds- basil enhances tomato flavor, tomatoes repel basil pests, and marigolds attract pollinators.
  -Use trellises! They add space vertically, and are great for vining plants like squashes and melons. Being trellised increases airflow for those plants, and beneath the trellis is a perfect environment for more delicate plants like lettuces.
   

3. Incorporate native plants:

DID YOU KNOW? 40 million acres of the US is a boring monoculture carpet of lawn. Can I just say, lawns are ugly and dated, let's get over them. They also detract tremendously from the functionality of an outdoor space because they do not provide food for pollinators nor do lawns provide shelter for animals and insects. Most lawn owners use fertilizers and water in excess, which makes lawns not only useless, but detrimental to the environment. In fact, lawn-owners use on average four times as much fertilizer as commercial farms, and 90 million lbs of fertilizers are used on US lawns annually. Fertilizers are quite bad for the environment, as most fertilizers used on lawns wind up in drinking water/natural waterways, which results in eutrophication (suffocating the organisms in the water) and the growth of poisonous algae. Also, watering lawns uses 30% of all residential water use in the US... 30%, FOR LAWNS!!! Insanity.

 

While adding nice garden plants is better than a lawn, adding non-native plants is problematic. Non-native plants (aka plants that don't occur in an area naturally) do not typically benefit native pollinators, who require specific plant hosts. Non-native plants often take over habitat for native plants, and non-native plants usually aren't as well adapted to an environment, meaning they need more care (aka water and fertilizers, bad bad.).

 

The best way to add plants to your landscape (and get rid of that unsightly lawn) is to use native plants. These are the most beneficial to native pollinators like birds and insects. These are also very low maintenance once established (no watering! no fertilizing! no pruning!) because they were made for this space! Here is a great explainer on the value of native plant gardening. Some of the native plants I'm trying to add to my Cape Cod landscape: beach plum, yarrow, lupine, asters, goldenrods, bee balm and columbines.

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ii. Explainer

I did lots of explaining above so I'll keep it short and sweet this time. Plants aren't a resource to be exploited, they are part of our community and we are here to be responsible stewards of these amazing organisms. Plants are the foundation of all life on Earth, and they shape every landscape we inhabit. Plant diversity is crucial to mitigating climate change because the more diversity there is (aka the more types of plants), the more resilient the system is to change. When a system undergoes a large change in temperature, precipitation, sunlight, season length ....*COUGH COUGH* CLIMATE CHANGE... many plants can't tolerate it and die/become extinct. If a system has many kinds of plants, it's more likely that some of those plant species will be able to survive the traumas of climate change. We need these plants to survive because plants are the main sink for carbon dioxide - aka we need plants to absorb the grotesque amount of carbon dioxide we are emitting to the atmosphere or we are even more royally screwed.

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iii. Reading

For wildlife and humans, native plants are a key to climate resilience

Revealed: The true extent of America's food monopolies and who pays the price

The staggering environmental implications of computation and the cloud

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iv. Current projects

-The pantry project continues! This week is repainting the room before shelving goes up, in time for the first bulk order arriving next week. 

-Last week we produced 3 bags of garbage. One of them was all diapers... the next biggest culprit was food packaging. I'll be mindful about buying anything that comes in a package this week to see if I can take that number of bags down by one next week!

-The garden is starting! I've planted my cool weather spring crops in the last 2 weeks - peas, lettuce, kale, broccoli, onions, chard and pak choi.

This week's theme is: What is sustainability? We see and use the buzzword all the time, but no current mainstream system is actually sustainable. For something to be sustainable, it doesn't take away anything from the system and/or it replenishes the system as it is consumed. More on this in the explainer (Part ii).

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i. Changing behavior now 

Here are 3 examples of sustainable/nearly sustainable behaviors that you can incorporate today (or via supporting organizations that do these things) to decarbonize your lifestyle. I have to admit that I was very hard pressed to think of even 3 things that people do in the rich world that are sustainable. Truly. It held me up from even writing this e-mail. If any of you can think of more, send them my way! Interestingly, I could not think of any sustainable behaviors that didn't pertain to growing plants or raising animals. It highlights how behaviors directly connected to the ecosystem are the simplest to make sustainable.

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1. Plant one for me and one for the planet:

I plant a lot of flowers, and I love to use them for cut flower arrangements. But, harvesting flowers for a cut garden typically means harvesting them before they are pollinated (they last longer in the vase that way). So, by harvesting the flowers early, I'm taking away their ecosystem function (aka their availability to pollinators for pollen, or seeds for birds, or shelter for rodents, etc.). Thus, to make growing flowers sustainable, I only harvest every second flower. The others I leave for the ecosystem. That means my garden provides habitat, food, and shelter... while serving the purpose of beautifying my landscape and home. When I'm done with my flowers, I compost them, so the organic matter will ultimately get returned to the soil. To really close the loop and make it sustainable, start by seed and save seeds year after year. You can add to your community by sharing seeds, or rogue spreading them (seed bombing) in open lots (only do this with native flowers, bonus points for growing native flowers!).

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2. Use the power of poultry

I'm guessing few of you keep poultry (chickens, duck, geese) or have ambitions to, but keeping poultry was the most sustainable human behavior I could think of. Surprising, no? Even if you can't keep your own birds, this is a push to try and buy those eggs/poultry from farmers markets or local farms. Keeping and eating your own birds can replenish your home ecosystem at the same rate as your consumption. Plus, poultry add many other benefits to your home ecosystem, while detracting nearly nothing (just the food they consume). A few benefits of home birds:

(1) They are natural pest control. For example, ticks run Cape Cod. Seriously they are everywhere and everyone hates them and they spread disease and are pretty gross. But, spraying for ticks is extremely bad for the environment, poisoning lawns, waterways and ultimately those who roam in them; pets and children are most vulnerable. Ducks, geese and chickens eat ticks in droves. Estimates suggest that most poultry eat tens of thousands of ticks per year, and up to 200 per day. They are more (yes MORE) effective than spraying, because spraying wears off and doesn't get every bug. Pest control by poultry is so effective that it is the primary pest control method of many rice paddies in Asia and some European vineyards.

(2) They make fertilizer. Poultry poop is incredible fertilizer, and by keeping them, you can feed your landscape plants for free!

(3) They are animal trash compactors. Poultry eat almost anything, and are a great way of reducing food waste

(4) They provide food via meat and eggs. Fast reproducing poultry are a sustainable way to grow your own animal protein. They reproduce quickly enough that you can keep a brood, harvest eggs, and butcher your birds at a rate equal to their replenishment.

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3. Eat oysters

This one is for my mom, who loves oysters more than anyone I know. If the above two behavior changes are out of reach for you, this one is easy! Support oyster farms. Oyster faming adds to the ecosystem by filtering water of pollutants (one oyster can filter 50 gallons a day), creating habitat for other marine organisms and buffering shorelines from storm surges. Most seafood is woefully unsustainable, but oysters farming adds to the ecosystem at the rate we consumer them. So, go get your slurp on.

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ii. Explainer

When something is sustainable, it is something that neither adds nor detracts from its long-term viability. Using a "compostable cup" is not sustainable, because using one does not make up for the impact of creating it. We hear the word sustainable thrown around everywhere, but a behavior that is truly sustainable is one that can be continued indefinitely.

 

Very very few (if any) of our day-to-day behaviors are sustainable. I do not believe that the onus to repair this problem belongs to us as individuals; we are all operating at the mercy of systems created without sustainability in mind. That said I think it's important to consider that as we consume, and are not replenishing, we are removing many things that will never come back. Our rampant consumption takes away from future generations' access to what we have now. Consuming less, and making choices about consumption that are in line with your values wont fix the system, but it could assuage guilt and slowly influence the behaviors of those around you.

 

Remember, 70% of the US' gross domestic product (GDP) is consumer spending - we are encouraged to spend as much as possible in every way possible all day. The average American sees between 5000-10,000 advertisements a day. It's understandable that changing consumption habits is difficult and none of us are immune to the tremendous power of advertising. This digest, and thinking about sustainability in its true sense, can hopefully break up that noise with a little squawk that says - hey do you need that, and do you need it right now? 

 

If you are changing behaviors to fall in line with a decarbonized future in any way, I am so proud of you, and grateful. I hope you talk about it with others, because that's how behavior is changed - when it becomes normal within our own social groups. You are my social group and that's the whole point of this digest. Earth Day has me feeling emotional, I digress.

 

The only viable way to combat climate change is to dramatically change our behavior, and for our values to center less around accumulation of wealth and material goods, and more on stewardship of our ecosystem and community.

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iii. Reading

We Need to Talk About the Carbon Footprint of the Rich

Anatomy of an Extinction

16 Kids Books that make Science and Nature Sizzle

‘Spiral of silence’: climate action is very popular, so why don’t people realize it?

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iv. Current Projects

(1) HUGE NEWS!!! I picked up our Azure Standard bulk order today! It was our first one, and so inspiring. Recall that Azure Standard is a US-based company that sources all of its bulk products in an ecologically conscious way. Once a month, at a drop off location in your area (mine is 1hr away), you meet their truck for a drop off. You and your fellow bulk-shoppers unload and sort the goods, then help each other load your cars. It's the best way I could find to reduce my impact within today's food system. About my order:

-I spent $1000 on this one. I expect to do $1000 about twice a year, and every other month, closer to $200-300. Between this, buying half/whole animals from local farms, and growing food in my own garden, I expect to stop using the grocery store by the end of 2025. Note that the average American makes two grocery trips a week, and spends an average $175 at the grocery store each trip. Bulk purchasing may seem like more work and time up front but it is much much more cost and time effective long term.

- I got 25lbs of each 3 types of dried beans, 2 types of rice, 2 types of flour. I got 10 lbs of frozen meat, and 30 lbs of frozen veg/fruit. I got enough vegetables and fruit for 2-3 weeks (we shall see). I got enough nuts, popcorn, corn chips and crackers for 3 months. I got mustard, tahini, spices, red wine vinegar and olives which should last me 6 months. I got dish soap and dishwater soap for 6 months, plus toilet paper for 1 month (we shall see.....).

-I put it all on 1 normal sized vertical shelf, and 4 large 25L tubs, and the frozen food took up 1/5 of my half sized chest freezer.

(2) My trash count is still high. I had 4 kitchen sized bags last week, up 1 bag from last time. I hosted family and friends multiple times, and repainted the pantry... both of which added some extra volume. I'm hoping that the bulk order takes us down to 2 bags (1 diaper and 1 regular) next week.

(3) Pre-frost plants are all planted, and squash seeds are going in this week (for my fellow Cape Gardeners)

All week, I've been battling with a mouse, who is eating seedlings in my greenhouse. So, the theme for this digest is Pest Control! I think this is a great topic to reframe our relationship with our environment, in the context of changing behavior to decarbonize.

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i. Changing behavior now

Here are 3 things you can do now to help mitigate global climate change. Changing behavior to decarbonize starts with re-evaluating our values, and making our relationship with the ecosystem part of our core values. Enter: Pest Control, or maybe... Pest Acceptance?

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1. Do not use poison

Can't emphasize how bad pesticides are for the environment. When pesticides [herbicides, insecticides, rodenticides] are applied, the entire system is poisoned - pets and people too. In fact, pets and kids interact with the lawn/ground more than anyone, so they are the most exposed. Indeed, rodenticides got a bit more regulated when, in 2010, over 10,000 children were poisoned in the US. You poison an ant colony? The birds that eat those ants are poisoned too. You poison your lawn? The water you and your community drinks is poisoned too. Rat poison? Cat Poison. You get the idea.

Pesticides are problematic because they are complex molecules that don't degrade quickly, so they accumulate in the environment. The two most significant ways pesticides (POISON) accumulate when you apply them (in ANY way) are via water and bioaccumulation/magnification. 

1. Through water: pesticides applied to the garden, lawn, or to organisms directly, will make contact with water and be transported readily to the nearest water system. Water systems are connected, so you can guarantee those poisons are making their way to our drinking water. In fact, a recent study of US streams found that 95% of streams were contaminated with pesticides or their degradation products. Pesticides affect neurological, endocrine and reproductive systems in particular, and are most dangerous to children. 

2. Via bioaccumulation and biomagnification: basically, in this pathway, pesticides accumulate either over time in an organism who is continually exposed (like a fish in water) or up the food chain (like poisoned ants poisoning the birds that eat them). For example, one study showed that 80% of US bald eagles contained rodenticides, which they accumulate via their diet of rodents. Another one found that 82% of squirrels in DC contained rodenticides. Rats, mice, squirrels, birds are all crucial parts of our food webs and our ecosystems can't thrive without them.

 

Poison is a LAZY WEAPON. If an organism is in your house and affecting you, trapping it, securing entry points, and securing food sources is the most effective strategy to pest removal. Outside your house? Putting poison outside of your home is particularly environmentally harmful, and you will never poison every "pest" outside your home... it is a waste of time, money and is bad for the environment. 

 

The pesticide industry is a big one at $19.3 billion in 2023, and capitalizes on fear to sell its products. This figure doesn't even include agrichemicals, which are a $33 billion industry in the US. Again, none of us are immune to advertising. We've all been sold a lie that organisms in our homes are BAD and DISGUSTING and DANGEROUS, when that's really not the case. Rather, pesticides are the real danger.

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2. Work smarter not harder

We share our world with other organisms, and accepting that should probably have been step 1. But anyways, if you do have an organism who is in your home and you want them out, there are ways aside from poison. Here is a short list of tips for some common "pests":

• ANTS: The first ants you see in your home are likely messenger ants, they are scouting your digs for eats. When they find food, they go back to the colony to round up the troops and go to town. So, go ahead and smush all those first ants, and know that they are giving you a clue! Secure your food! Once you see an ant or two, it's time to make sure you have no food or crumbs out. Keep food in the fridge/containers, wipe up often, and be mindful of sweet foods in particular. A week or so of diligence, and your ant friends will scout elsewhere.

• PLANTS: If you're trying to poison weeds, I'm not going to sugar coat this one, that's not going to work. Please don't. Weed by hand, hoe, or use a tarp to cover areas and kill weeds sequentially. 

• FLIES/BUGS: Use a dish with vinegar and dish soap. The vinegar attracts the flies, the soap breaks down their organs and they die. 

• MICE/RATS: Hard to get a real number, but some studies suggest about 40% of homes have mice in them (some sources say as high as 85%). We all live with mice, and we always will. In fact, deer mice are most likely the most common mammal in North America, so trying to poison all the mice is totally pointless. And largely, mice are harmless, living in attics, basements and walls. My advice is if you have mice in these areas of the home (plot twist, you probably do), just live with them. They will leave you alone if they don't have a massive food source available. Mice are more scared of you than you are of them! Bear in mind that only about 5% of mice in North America carry disease, so our fear of them in our spaces is already outsized. If, however, they are in your living spaces (which you will know if you find droppings or see one), then it's time for a little action. Snap traps are the most humane and safe way to dispose of them. Bait them and check them often, moving them around and changing the type of bait you use (we use slim jims and peanut butter), and dispose of the dead mice. Mice don't like people, so it helps if you are making noise and playing music in the space and turning lights on - they'll probably leave if they don't have food available. Keep your food secured until you see no more signs of mice.

• GARDEN BUGS: Garden pests are definitely something every gardener encounters. Best practices are hand picking/smushing bugs as you see them, using "soft" pesticides [dish soap, cinnamon, cayenne, neem oil, Bt (a bacteria that doesn't target pollinators)], working in raised beds, and companion planting [using trap crops, bug repellent plants like marigolds/basil/cilantro/onions]. Bonus points - use integrated pest management like bird boxes around the garden, the birds will eat the bugs; or here's another plug for getting ducks/chickens to eat your pests!
   

3. Reacquaint yourself with the organisms around you

Organisms living among us have a hard enough time as it is, between plastic pollution, habitat fragmentation by roads and homes, habitat destruction in favor of lawns/other ecosystem deserts like parking lots, and myriad other environmental violations that our presence imposes upon our wildlife communities. I personally think it's shocking to additionally poison animals, insects or plants that infringe on our cultural obsession with sterile human spaces. 

 

Modern day human-animal relationships are riddled with irrationality, especially our relationships with insects and rodents. Part of this is the way insects and rodents are portrayed in the media; they are often shown as disgusting, disease-ridden and scary. For the most part, these organisms are none of these things. In fact, for most of human history, and in many places outside of the 'Western World' today, animal-human relationships have functioned symbiotically.

 

This week I urge you to challenge your view of at least one "pest" species. Learn about that species and their function in the ecosystem, and maybe do some exposure therapy. I recommend googling that species + the word "cute" and looking at some images. I used to be terrified of bees, and would run from them or urge someone around me to get rid of them. Now knowing how important they are, and upon closer inspection, I find them to be really cute, and when I saw the first bees this spring I cheered in excitement. 

 

A very very important step in mitigating global climate change is rethinking our relationship with our ecosystem, and showing our community (friends, family and children) the beauty of all creatures. Think about it deeply, and you'll probably realize that we are the pests here.

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ii. Explainer - I did a lot already, so I'll be brief.

To begin to address global climate change, we need to treat our environment as our community - not as our resource. The behavior modification here is acting as stewards, not overlords. A steward protects things of value, rather than exploiting them. I think that to be a steward of our environment, we need to understand that our place here is no more important than that of the organisms in our community. We need to live among the "pests".

 

So my greenhouse mouse is eating all my seedlings - how can I be the mouse's steward, while protecting my crops? I'll work smarter, by creating barriers between the mouse and my crops, sprinkling cayenne onto my seedlings and if all else fails, I'll move the mouse's favorite crops (sunflowers and pumpkins) into my house until they are big enough to avoid being mouse food. I'm aware that where we live, there are more mice than I could trap in a lifetime, and they are a valuable source of food for the birds of prey, foxes and coyotes who come to our yard. 

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iii. Reading

A Biologist, a Blog, and a Mosquito Control Dispute

City Life is Hard for Raptors. Can Removing Rat Poison Make it Easier?

Rat Poison's Long Reach

Plan for Less Pests with Integrated Pest Management

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iv. Current Projects

• Loving the bulk food life. Haven't been to the grocery store since my bulk pickup ten days ago. This week, to supplement the few things I needed, I spent $40 on local eggs, mushrooms, lettuce and fiddleheads from a farm stand nearby. Not a bad grocery budget considering the average US household spends over $270/week on groceries. My favorite purchases include our beans, which are delicious and I think will last us a full year; and the flour, which is SUCH great quality, my husband's bread has never tasted better.

• My trash bag count has not gone down, which tells me my main source of trash isn't my grocery store purchases. Instead, I think a lot of it comes from the packaging of things I order to the house, and projects I am constantly doing at home and in the yard. So, that tells me that part of my decarbonization process needs to include slowing down and working on projects that require little/no purchasing. I am going to try and pace myself, and to strike some balance, I will be ordering NOTHING online for the month of May. Stay tuned for how I fare here, and feel free to take on this challenge too! It could help us to make more with less, and to support local businesses when we do need something... and really, to evaluate our "needs" more closely.

• The garden is growing, and this week I planted corn a little early because I think we're totally done with frost. Stay tuned. I am trying Bt (bacillus thuringiensis) as a soft pest control method this year, and did my first spray earlier this week on my brassica crops.