Happy Earth Day!

[happystuff]

Have to admit that, if it wasn't for the reminder on the google page, I would have probably missed it. :|(

[dado potato]

When I go walking by the river I have been trashing discarded beverage cans and all sorts of single-use plastic containers. By trashing I mean I put other people's litter in trash barrels along the walking path, which city employees will collect for the landfill.

Since the pandemic forced many restaurants to go to pick-up (curb service) there has been an increase in the polystyrene foam go-boxes on the ground.

Consumers may not think about the warm polystyrene in contact with food they are about to eat. I understand the heating polystyrene releases styrene, a likely carcinogen. (Do you want styrene with your fries?)

Polystyrene foam does not decompose, but slowly leaches styrene into the surface water.

[razz]

Didn't know that. Dado. Interesting.

Happy Earth Day! Regardless of all the 'stuff' going on right now, I am still grateful to be able to enjoy our beautiful world.

[Rogar]

Weather here was a little beyond my comfort level to celebrate outdoors, but I did watch the three hour PBS feature on Greta Thunberg. She is certainly an impassioned young woman. And probably speaks the facts better than most politicians. PBS is pretty generous about streaming recent programs if anyone might be interested.

[catherine]

I posted this on Facebook in honor of Earth Day. I'm a huge Wendell Berry fan, and this is so appropriate.

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.


Then I watched the documentary that was based on the Derrick Jensen book I've been talking about, Bright Green Lies.

It was great, and unsettling. One of the biggest takeaways for me is this: we take as a 100% ironclad belief that we NEED all the goodies that industry has provided us with over the past 150 years, whereas before that, we had NONE of it and we did fine for millions of years.

And now the assumption that we need to have this stuff--stuff that we think are necessities but are really luxuries--is going to kill the planet. As they say in the movie, in terms of environmentalism, we are asking the wrong questions.

[happystuff]

Thanks, catherine. What a great piece to read, not just for Earth Day.

[Rogar]

Then I watched the documentary that was based on the Derrick Jensen book I've been talking about, Bright Green Lies.

It was great, and unsettling. One of the biggest takeaways for me is this: we take as a 100% ironclad belief that we NEED all the goodies that industry has provided us with over the past 150 years, whereas before that, we had NONE of it and we did fine for millions of years.

And now the assumption that we need to have this stuff--stuff that we think are necessities but are really luxuries--is going to kill the planet. As they say in the movie, in terms of environmentalism, we are asking the wrong questions.

Generally speaking, I think Thunberg has the same message. Science and technology might help us but we need to make changes to the way we live, and the luxuries we think are necessities often do not enhance our quality of living. She has a different approach to her presentations.

[catherine]

Generally speaking, I think Thunberg has the same message. Science and technology might help us but we need to make changes to the way we live, and the luxuries we think are necessities often do not enhance our quality of living. She has a different approach to her presentations.

Yeah, I'd like to watch the Greta movie.

[iris lilies]

Dont forget to compost in Ira’s memory. He died a year ago and was the
founder of earth Day. The man took composting seriously!
3743


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/us/ira-einhorn-dead.html

[iris lilies]

I posted this on Facebook in honor of Earth Day. I'm a huge Wendell Berry fan, and this is so appropriate.

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.


Then I watched the documentary that was based on the Derrick Jensen book I've been talking about, Bright Green Lies.

It was great, and unsettling. One of the biggest takeaways for me is this: we take as a 100% ironclad belief that we NEED all the goodies that industry has provided us with over the past 150 years, whereas before that, we had NONE of it and we did fine for millions of years.

And now the assumption that we need to have this stuff--stuff that we think are necessities but are really luxuries--is going to kill the planet. As they say in the movie, in terms of environmentalism, we are asking the wrong questions.
“We” do not.

[Rogar]

Dont forget to compost in Ira’s memory. He died a year ago and was the
founder of earth Day. The man took composting seriously!
3743


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/us/ira-einhorn-dead.html

Funny, I just took kitchen scraps out to the compost pile as we speak.

And not to forget the famous Walt Kelly first Earthday Pogo cartoon.

3744

[pinkytoe]

Something said in the Greta T special last night got to me. She said that like the Covid virus...things can change very quickly. In a year's time, the whole world changed. Our politicians keep talking about 10-20-30 year goals, but things could unfold much sooner. I recall being in high school and going to the first ever Earth Day. That was 50 years ago and we completely went in the opposite direction as a society/culture. It makes me very sad to see vast areas of prairie here scraped and filled in with beige boxes, wooden privacy fences and green lawns. That is going on all over the country. So...I walked to the park just now and picked up cigarette butts:(

[ApatheticNoMore]

It makes me very sad to see vast areas of prairie here scraped and filled in with beige boxes, wooden privacy fences and green lawns.

how else to deal with a growing population though?* What really is the alternative?

Density? Ah well, yes so they say. It hasn't really caught on though has it? A lot of people would still prefer a single family home to a condo, condos are obviously more dense. I mean I've seen it done well even in apartments ... but it hasn't been done well in apartments since the 1960s IMO with apartments that had some space for gardens etc., that was livable density, but renters have long since ceased to be a demographic anyone thinks is worthy of nice things, so in the rare case that a new apartment gets built, it's not designed to be pleasant.

* the problem is of course a growing population

[iris lilies]

how else to deal with a growing population though?* What really is the alternative? ...

* the problem is of course a growing population

This is entirely theoretical of course, but the answer to much of this is to respect and renovate existing residential structures. Stop the wasteful consumption of new building materials.


I can’t take many of the “small footprint” people seriously because they always insist on building a brand new never before seen on earth abode. Every study shows adapting an existing building versus new build is far more earth friendly.


This of course feeds my primary value which is take care of old buildings. OP, you live in a land where real estate is super Duper expensive much like Europe. That high cost keeps properties renovated as in Europe.

Here in cheap flyover land we have acres of abandoned Victorian houses. White flight created that Because it’s cheaper to just leave a place and go out to the hinterlands and build new.

I am one of the tiny percentage of people who don’t really care that lumber has doubled in price and Wood products are sky high. That keeps cheap new places from being built. Yes it certainly affects my bottom line in my own cottage renovation, but no matter I can afford it.

[catherine]

This is entirely theoretical of course, but the answer to much of this is to respect and renovate existing residential structures. Stop the wasteful consumption of new building materials.


I can’t take many of the “small footprint” people seriously because they always insist on building a brand new never before seen on earth abode. Every study shows adapting an existing building versus new build is far more earth friendly.


This of course feeds my primary value which is take care of old buildings. OP, you live in a land where real estate is super Duper expensive much like Europe. That high cost keeps properties renovated as in Europe.

Here in cheap flyover land we have acres of abandoned Victorian houses. White flight created that Because it’s cheaper to just leave a place and go out to the hinterlands and build new.

I am one of the tiny percentage of people who don’t really care that lumber has doubled in price and Wood products are sky high. That keeps cheap new places from being built. Yes it certainly affects my bottom line in my own cottage renovation, but no matter I can afford it.

I agree completely, IL. Add me to the tiny %age whereof you speak. I'm a small footprint person who I think walks the walk when it comes to the issue of new construction. HGTV has filled many a landfill I'm sure with lumber that used to be walls separating rooms and Year 2000 kitchens that were "horribly outdated."

Speaking of salvaging old buildings, 4 years ago, when I was researching the Island real estate, I noticed they were selling off parcels of land from what used to be a golf course here, right on the lake. Well, we've been looking for a reasonable rental for my son who is coming up in August for a week or two and he we don't have room for him in our house. So we found a place in our local online forum and we rushed down to check it out.

Turns out the couple that owns it purchased the parcel that had the pro shop on it--tiny house, but a small scale pro shop nonetheless. They wanted to build a new house, and the wife told her husband that the pro-shop on the property was a tear-down. The husband said, no it isn't! So they actually moved the cottage back about 100 feet so they could build their house on the lake, but they turned the pro shop into an airBnB. It hasn't been touched--definitely shades of the 40s and 50s with knotty pine all over and an old drainboard farm sink. It was so cool that at least the husband had the presence of mind to keep it and restore it.

The icing on the cake with this story is that my son who will be staying there was a PGA teaching golf pro, so he's psyched to be part of this interesting history

[KayLR]

Cool how that worked out, Catherine.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Yea it's true that knocking down old houses and building entirely new ones doesn't happen that much here. When it does it's mostly one of 3 cases: 1) house in utter disrepair falling apart 2) single family house zoned for multiple family (even this often doesn't happen unless house in utter disrepair) 3) rich people vanity projects. Some rich people have incredibly bad taste and knock down nice old housing to build monstrosities, I don't know what to do about these rich people who have FAR more money than the general population (this usually happens in houses that went for a couple million minimum), and far more money than taste. Rich people with good taste keep it quaint. Conspicuous consumption is just tacky.

A lot of building material is used,not in new construction, but in flipping. Flipping is a wasteful endeavor, redoing everything just to change the look, for whatever superficial people that matters to so much, who seemingly have no ability to see that they could just make whatever changes they wanted to the house themselves anyway, or not, probably far cheaper than some flipping premium they are now paying. If a place isn't flipped up to perfection that hardly means it's not a good house. And all so new owners can move in and decide to remodel it all to their taste anyway probably. Massive waste. Of course the remodeling is in most cases wasteful too.

[Rogar]

It seems to me like "small footprint" quality new housing and rehabing older homes both have their place. It's the sprawling in betweens that might be at issue. There has to be new homes as long as the population is growing. I would think that the average American home has some limit on it's useful lifespan due to some form of obsolescence or general decline. Some of the higher quality buildings like big old Victorians might be exempt in places where people can afford to maintain them.

[pinkytoe]

The neighborhood we left was full of smaller homes built in the 50s-60s. The last time we went back I didn't even recognize it as so many had been torn down and replaced with 3000 sf and much larger houses. I get the appeal of a larger home if you have umpteen children but these are primarily bought and renovated by professional couples with 0-2 children who wanted the status and locale of that particular neighborhood. We are still house looking back "home" and it is tough indeed to find a used home under 2000 sf.

[iris lilies]

Catherine it’s good that your island neighbors recognized the charm of their cabin. What is a cabin without knotty pine? Ha ha.We are pulling out the knotty pine in our Hermann house. That is too bad because it’s cute and nostalgic, but it’s only in the old “breezeway” which is now a bedroom and will be an area of the kitchen. The rest of the paneling in the house is perfectly awful 70s and 80s stuff.

I will be dead and gone, but I will be looking down from heaven and smiling at all of the youngsters who will be pulling out the perfectly horrible Joanna Gaines shiplap in the year 2082. I will be applauding them, my spiritual great great great great grandchildren.