It is my belief that we do not have a fundamental right to pilfer and plunder our natural world, and that what we do have is a fundamental responsibility to do what we can to protect our planet's waters, soils, air, and the diverse wildlife that we share these resources with. The former does not ensure economic prosperity for all; the latter does. When one learns that certain actions have consequences--say, that morning coffee ritual from a business that heavily uses styrofoam cups, a product that simply and effectively trashes the earth--is there not only one ethical and moral thing to do? To start buying coffee from a business that does more for the environment? Change is necessary if we care about all the generations behind us--human and wildlife alike. But change is a complicated thing.

Therein lies the conundrum.

My pledge: to embrace change, and to find solutions to the conundrum.


Sunday, March 28, 2010

Clothesline Heaven

Here in New Hampshire we awoke this morning to really chilly temps (it was 28 overnight, but soon into the 30's by morning).  BUT, the sun was shining and the air was dry, so all I could think of was getting my laundry on the line!


Upon seeing me head for the door with my laundry basket in hand, my husband too quickly murmured something about "it's too cold out; they'll freeze."  Well, not true.  Remember learning about the process of diffusion in high school biology class?  No?  Diffusion is simply the movement, er, distribution, of a gas or liquid (among other types) from one place where it is in abundance to another place where it is not.  Think 'concentration'.  Now, that's a pretty basic explanation, but you catch my point, I'm sure.

The moisture in the sheets is more abundant than the moisture in the air.  So automatic wicking of the moisture in the sheets, outward to the air, will occur.  Doesn't matter if it's cold out.  Even if it were freezing cold out, laundry will dry provided there's less moisture in the surrounding air.  Yes, your sheets will be stiff, and it might be a little more difficult to ascertain whether they are truly dry or not, but they will dry if left long enough.  'Nuff said?

:~)
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Friday, March 12, 2010

Book I Can't Stop Looking At

Here's one guy who knows how to deliver. Look closely; you won't believe your eyes.

From his website:

"Exploring around our country’s shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view like eroded layers in the Grand Canyon, I find evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress. I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity.

The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits.

As an American consumer myself, I am in no position to finger wag; but I do know that when we reflect on a difficult question in the absence of an answer, our attention can turn inward, and in that space may exist the possibility of some evolution of thought or action. So my hope is that these photographs can serve as portals to a kind of cultural self-inquiry. It may not be the most comfortable terrain, but I have heard it said that in risking self-awareness, at least we know that we are awake."

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