Moving Strongly Forward

Gratitude for All you Do

I have so much gratitude for all that you do to fight Climate Change.

I have so much gratitude for all who help people recover when Climate Change brings its devastation. 

Climate Change and Hurricane Helene hit hard this weekend in the Southeast and it became personal for me. Colson came down the mountain from Asheville to perform in the International Bluegrass Music Festival (IBMA) as part of the UNC Asheville Bluegrass Ensemble. It was his and some of his bandmates final performance. He was lucky and left Asheville early (Wednesday) at my urging. Three of his bandmates came down Thursday, thank goodness. The band was still missing some who just couldn't get out of Asheville by peformance time Saturday night. The four who made it persevered, grabbed some other musician friends from other locations and performed on Saturday night. The band did great, but you could feel the loss and the heaviness in the air. They missed their professor, Wayne Erbsen, who is the kindest of legends. Four of the seven students are from the North Carolina Mountains. They hadn't heard from their parents, and they weren't sure how to get home. Their towns are inaccessible due to flooding, washed out roads, downed power lines and trees and no internet service. 

UNCA has canceled classes until October 9 due to the conditions in Asheville. Parents are trying to figure out how to get their kids home. All roads in and out of Asheville, excpet south into South Carolina are closed. The parents from out of state are especially frustrated, but the UNCA parents page is doing its magic, and kids from all over the country are finding new temporary homes with classmates they may or may not know. For the kids who still haven't gotten off of campus (a lot of them), UNCA is providing food and water. It is crazy that there is no running water. 

My mentor from the state of Florida's manatee protection program (an amazing person) taught me back in 1990 that humans are the greatest threat, but we are also the greatest hope. All of you who have touched my life during this Climate Change battle give me hope. We fight for our kids (biological and self-chosen families) and the generations who follow. We fight for all of the people who don't believe in Climate Change because we know that when all do better our kids have a better future. 

I hesitated to try to have a child back in 2002/2003, but we went for it, and I am the proud parent of an amazing 21-year old man. I am an environmental planner by education and practice. Back when I was 8 and became an activist, I was fighting for clean air and water. I never dreamed I would be fighting to prevent humans from cooking the planet. Through the 1990s until about 2021, I fretted and fretted and fought and fought with amazing colleagues. I thought that Colson's cohort's life would be hard when they were about 50, not today. And thanks to geography, the hardness that they face is minimal compared to many on this planet. But now I can watch in detachment as the planet does its thing in response to humans.

Am I still fighting? Yes, right along side of you. Am I still fretting? Not so much. Working on recovering the endangered Florida manatee taught me to compartmentalize, and I have now with Climate Change and I look on with fascination. 

Do we have a chance to make a difference? Absolutely! We are the greatest hope. We can minimize the future harms if we act now. And each action matters. Each little step, whether it is composting your waste, rejecting the plastic water bottle or cup, bringing your own food to go container to a restaurant, to fighting the big battles in the state and federal legislatures. It all matters. Look at these great cups provided at IBMAs - all compostable! Great for those who didn't bring stainless steel water bottles (I loathe plastic).

And most importantly, VOTE. Please vote for candidtates who take Climate Change seriously. They pull the levers for the big actions, the big steps. I have worked extensively with the Inflation Reduction Act to help companies and nonprofits take their own big steps to climate resilience. That legislation is transformative and a second pulse of money is critical, as round 1 was just the first step. The needs are great, especially for those in Frontline Communities. These rural folks, most often in Black and Brown communities that have been marginalized in ways that White people can't understand.

Do you know that there are people in North Carolina with no electricity or running water because the services haven't been provided? Energy Justice, Environmental Justice and Climate Justice are 10,000% needed. I have been working to bring renewables and battery storage to these communities for 4.5 years, and from a solar installation company perspective, I believe that I was largely the only one in North Carolina. I am grateful to my first solar employer, Eagle Solar & Light, for realizing that I had important work to do and for supporting it. Because of Duke Energy's rate restructure, the work I was doing became phenomenally hard, and I have now left the solar industry for a position at ProScore, a company that is creating AI based solutions to help folks best take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act. The incentives to act and prevent Climate Change are incredible, but because it is such a transformative piece of legislation, it is difficult to navigate. I now get to help companies better navigate it. I will continue to seek solutions for Frontline Communities because without the technical expertise and a trusted technical partner, which are few and far between, it is immensely hard for these communities to protect themselves and create a better future. 

Each little step... it makes a difference, whether it is forward to a great big good place, or backward to a harmful place. My former solar clients, my current climate change battling friends, you are the best of us. Thank you for your inspiration (I have stunning stories to share), for your hard work and your continual efforts for a better, safer future for everyone. 

Now back to the UNCA Bluegrass Ensemble at last night's IBMAs - I am the proud mom of the guy in the middle, and I am mighty proud of all of these young adults! 

 

 

Be Awed Part 2 – The Mockingbird and the Moon

The Mockingbird

Walking through my non-forested neighborhood, Ryan and I came across this Mockingbird who blew us away. We stood under her and I recorded her using Merlin, Cornell bird app. She is a symphony and it was unbelievable to hear her call to other birds in their language, and then she would switch to other bird languages even when they weren’t calling. Look! She speaks at least 14 bird languages!

The Moon

Perhaps you have read to your kids Happy Birthday Moon and Goodnight Moon. My kid is about to turn 21, and I think back to these books all the time because I look up at the moon all the time. I have more pictures of the moon than anyone I know – my little point and shoot does a great job. This last week was an amazing cloud/moon week. Just look! I took over 100 pictures and I kind of felt like the Hubble Telescope.

Be Awed Part 1 (Reflections on an Amazing Environmental Week)

Goodness, what an amazing week!

As I continue to work on my effort to bring community gardens to low-wealth communities (more on that soon), I saw the Slight Edge used to maximum affect yesterday when attending the Interfaith Creation Care of the Triangle’s Action Traction Convention. At lease ninety Faith leaders from many walks – Buddhist to Jewish to many forms of Christian – tackling Climate Change from different ways, including:

• Getting out the Environmental Vote (they were writing post cards on the spot) and helping with voter registration via the North Carolina You Can Vote project
• Convening youth leaders to fight for their futures
• Growing the Interfaith Creation Care movement
• Discussing Rooftop Solar – That was my topic!
• Explaining energy audits, weatherization, energy efficiency – the best kilowatt is the one that is not used, as a friend of mine from the NC Interfaith Power & Light (NCIPL) group says. Speaking of NCIPL, their tagline is “A Hope-Filled Response to Climate Change.”
• Reducing food waste and growing gardens (back to my community garden idea!)

All these dedicated people working to battle Climate Change from multiple fronts and bringing others into the effort. As a solar salesperson, I have worked in some Faith communities not represented, such as Hindu and Muslim, and I am going to reach out to my contacts to see if they are interested in joining these groups.

By the way, ICC’s tagline is “We are guided by faith, informed by science, and focused on environmental justice.”

The amazing thing about Interfaith efforts (I have been involved with three different groups) is the acceptance of everyone of Faith and acceptance of people not of faith. Honestly, these folks are the most amazing people I work with in the solar industry, and meeting with NCIPL every month is the highlight of my month. Those meetings are another Slight Edge on my journey – refreshing me through collaboration and excitement by their efforts.

The Slight Edge takeaways for those suffering from Climate Fear or Depression

1. Get together with people taking action. They will inspire and propel you every time.
2. Take action yourself. Each small step will grow hope and beat back the threat of Climate Change.
3. Reflect on the work of those taking action. Each individual effort may not seem like much, but together they add up to a great, big bunch of inspiring good!
4. Remember that while humans are the greatest threat, they are also the greatest hope. So much hope and so much goodness is in us if we take action and share.
5. Vote for the environment!

With that, off to another week of small steps to great places.

Slight Edging Community Gardens in Low-Income Communities

My goodness, I thought I would be further along on my community garden/composting idea, but I sell solar energy and 2024 has been bonkers busy. The good news is that I know amazing people who have helped me move forward the Slight Edge way.

Here are my three steps forward thanks to my friends:

1. The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle has a Gardens for Everyone program. With a minimum contribution of $25 they will created a raised bed garden box and provide seeds and seedlings (a $200 cost, and requests for more donations if possible). I was a raised bed gardener before moving into my townhome, I know they produce tremendous food  and I know they aren’t cheap. This is a great deal!
2. The Raleigh-Durham area is served by a business called Compost Now. Their slogan is “Create a future without food waste, one scrap at a time.” And, look at all the methane (a villainous greenshouse gas) avoided! Perfect! Compost Now has a “Garden Partners” program that assists low-income communities! This is crazy exciting!

3. I have a new potential low-income housing partner, and we will be meeting soon. Unfortunately, because of the crazy solar world I have had to cancel twice, but I am energized to make this happen! How wonderful to create food and beauty!

Next Slight Edge Steps?

1. Call Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and Compost Now.
2. Donate! I donate a portion of my solar sales commissions. Recently I have been focused on Urban Tree Planting to offset urban heat islands in low-income communities. Because they often lack trees, temperatures can be 10 – 15 degrees hotter, and these folks are living in poorly insulated homes with crazy high electric bills. Fortunately, there is relief coming for some residents via President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. I will likely switch to donating to the Gardens for Everyone program.
3. Contact my two target locations for community gardens.
4. Remain buoyed and motivated by the work of others. There are amazing synergies in collaboration.

Who Does This to Kids? My New Volunteer Effort Revealed Before its Time

How can they? How much harm can they do without seeming to care? How can they live with these decisions? 15 Republican Governors are rejecting summer food money for kids because:

• One thinks “childhood obesity has become an epidemic.”
• One doesn’t “believe in welfare.”

These are kids whose family’s incomes are below the poverty level. Hunger is rising in the United States, with 17.3% of households food insecure. These seemingly dimwitted governors worried about obesity and welfare need to know that obesity is a problem because kids are eating unhealthy, diabetes-causing, cheap junk food because that is all their families can afford. I used to be a health blogger (read in almost 50 countries – I know a thing or two!), and this is not advanced thinking.

I grew up poor. I wasn’t food insecure because my grandmother cared for me when my mother couldn’t. I can fully see how these kids are in this dire situation caused by generational poverty and not having a grandma who can step in. But even if these governors haven’t had real-life experience, it doesn’t take much imagination to understand.

If we can meet people’s basic needs, then our whole country does better, with people living in a kinder environment with the capacity to move to the next levels of Maslow’s hierarchy when they aren’t trying to just stay fed, housed and clothed.

The Slight Edge

This is where The Slight Edge and my still-forming plan/program come in. We have a serious climate change problem and food waste contributes to climate change via Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the landfill. In Spain and Italy, the major cities have food composting programs and people take them seriously. I just spent five weeks there and participated. Every flat has a composting container and just about every corner has collection site. Pics below.

What if we get a prototype program going such that folks who experience abundance compost their waste and contribute it to community gardening in food desert communities? I have an outline, a selected site and am reaching out to partners for feedback. I am a documentation/justification gal, and that will come later, but you would be surprised at how food waste contributes to climate change. Right now I am just so snorked by these people who are OK WITH STARVING KIDS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA that I am writing about my plans publicly to further hold myself accountable. Thank you for reading.

Leaf Blower v. Ford Raptor Truck, or Sweep and Rake!

I have had the tremendous fortune to be in Europe these last five weeks, noticing the little things that are done differently. For example, they don’t use leaf blowers. They sweep everything. Sweepers are full-time workers, they are everywhere, and the streets are mighty nice!

What if… you put the leaf blower down this grass cutting season and you sweep instead? It will only take a few minutes, it will prevent that awful sound/noise pollution and it will cut climate killing emissions. AND it will send a message to your kids or grandkids that you are taking those important little Slight Edge steps to help secure their futures on this planet. In fact, what if they swept the grass clippings? Or actually raked the leaves?

When Colson was a competitive fencer traveling to Junior Olympics, he raised his tournament costs by raking leaves. We helped him, of course, because he was only 13 when he started qualifying and he needed to raise money fast. On average, we made $50 an hour and in three weeks he had his tournament and travel money, and he knows that he can work hard. His clients would offer their leaf blowers, and we would always turn them down, to their amazement, which was followed by a warm and knowing smile because of the lessons our kid was learning. Eventually he developed fencing fans in his repeat customers (he raked for four years until Covid), growing relationships he never would have had the opportunity to experience. 

If you are wondering about the average leaf blower pollutant releases, check out this stunning article and this one mind blowing paragraph cited by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy (a must read post by the Center):

In 2011, engineers at the car company Edmunds estimated that driving a Ford F-150 Raptor truck from Texas to Alaska would emit the same amount of air pollution as a mere half-hour of yard work with a two-stroke, gas-powered leaf blower. Indeed, Edmunds estimated that some gas leaf- blowers generate 23 times the carbon dioxide of the Raptor and 300 times more non-methane hydrocarbons. 

“What to do? What to do?” As my calc prof used to say. Sweep and rake! It will help your kids, it will help theirs and your health and it will help save the planet.

As always, thank you for reading!

PS And if you can avoid raking until the Spring, that would be best. The critters rely on the leaf cover during the cold season.

PPS - Shout out to this guy working nights!

 

That Cold Shower – Hormesis and The Flinch

I didn’t think I would be writing about Hormesis literally the next day after my last blog post, but the hot water heater in our Airbnb went out and I took an ice-cold shower, I am awake and energized like I haven’t been since my family went through its hormesis phase, led by our son about 11 to 12 years ago. Gritting my teeth, taking deep breaths, then almost not breathing to not make noise as my husband and son still slept, I got through that shower, and exited mighty energized!  

So what is Hormesis? Psychologically (there is a physical aspect too), it is the act of pushing through barriers, and the physical aspect, like the cold shower, can help get you through the mental blocks. A helpful idea for our kids and grandkids who are weighed down by the Covid psychology funk and planetary grief.

Enter The Flinch by Julian Smith. I link to a free version from 2011, and I see on Amazon that he has an updated 2023 version. My family found The Flinch and combined it with The Slight Edge in 2011, and these concepts have been helpful when we faltered in the 2020s due to the Covid hangover. Hopefully they can be helpful to your kids and grandkids too. Jump in and play with them – you may surprise yourself, and collaboration breeds stronger growth!

Here are some hormesis/Slight Edge snippets from my old blog back in 2011/2012 when our son was 8-9, and they will hopefully inspire you.

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My intro to The Flinch

It is a face your fears type of book written from a fresh perspective with crisp writing, and it is worth your time. In addition to being totally turned on by what I am reading, I am cracking up about the homework that is sprinkled in. Assignment #1 is to take a cold shower. Ha, ha, ha…I am on day four of that one and have it mastered (see Cold Shower Hormesis the Colson Way). I read it to Colson and he laughed too.

Assignment #2 is to break a kitchen mug. I have always tried to avoid that kind of thing, but what were Colson and I to do but break mugs? We each got one, held it out, Colson counted to 3 and we didn’t drop them. We Flinched. Then he counted again and we both let go, facing The Flinch (insert scary monster sounds) to the sound of crashing pottery. We laughed the whole time.

Here are our mugs:

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Lots of Flinch/Hormesis achievements for me yesterday. I played my first ever “soccer” game with adults and had a blast! That is a really big hormesis/fighting through the Flinch moment for me.

The Flinch and hormesis – those two ideas have carried me far in the last two weeks. I have:

• Taken cold showers every day
• Broken a coffee mug
• Squashed a cockroach

Now for the new stuff:

Soccer. This needs extra mention. Conquering the Flinch a few times has made me a terror on the soccer field. I am pretty darn good, even though I am up to 20 years older than some of the players. I outperformed them both athletically and with the Flinch. Normally I would veer off over a challenge for an object, but not yesterday. I never Flinched, they always did and I controlled the ball every time.

Ticks. I have a Great Big Fear of ticks. See Tick and Poison Ivy Season if you are curious how big. After soccer there was a tick on my leg. Rather than let out the Tick scream, I reached down and pulled the damn thing out. Ha!

Spiders. I have gotten better with spiders over the years, but I still freak about their webs. This morning Nelly and I hit a patch of webs along the sidewalk. Usually I would head into the street and avoid them, but not today. Hormesis and the Flinch kicked in and I continued on my path, another first for me!

What’s up next? I am considering replacing the power steering pump in our car. I asked the guy at Auto Zone about it and you should have seen the look on his face. I told him that this is the summer of Laura and I am doing all kinds of things that I am normally afraid of. He laughed, encouraged me, and said to be sure to buy the pump from him because he wants in on the Flinch I might be facing. We shall see.

Climate Change and The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson

Climate Change and The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson

As Dr. King said, we don’t need to see the whole staircase, we just need to see the next step. He was of course much more eloquent. And this is where Jeff Olson comes in with his Slight Edge narrative. I am presenting this book as a paradigm to help our teens and twenty-somethings and their parents who are weighed down by climate change to find hope. Further, many of our young people are still carrying their Covid hangover and struggling to move on, and this book helps with that as well. It presents a way to take little steps to lead to great big, good outcomes, whether personally or in relation to Climate Change, your career, or whatever your goal.

I am not a Climate grief expert, but I know it is real, I suffer from it, and I tuck it away. As I talk to those teens and twenty-somethings, I know that they are suffering, but they don’t have the years of environmental protection work, the years of battling and standing up against self-absorbed bullies, behind them to keep habitually moving forward with hope. But as I said in my last post, Nature just needs a chance and if given a chance Nature will take it.

If you are unfamiliar with Climate Grief or Eco Grief, just Google it. I don’t want to recommend any one article.

What to do? Take a small step. Any small step. And document those small steps because they will either add up to great big, good things (or bad things if you take destructive steps, but I focus on the good). Do this with your kids or with your parents because, let’s face it, sometimes the parents are the big problem. But let’s do it collaboratively because collaboration creates great momentum.

So what climate steps could you take? Here are a few ideas to get started:

• Don’t purchase candy or cookies that use Palm Oil, even if it says it is sustainably produced. You will help protect forests and endangered species.
• Don’t buy that plastic item that you don’t need. You will reduce natural gas and oil consumption because natural gas and oil are used to make plastic and fossil fuels are needed to turn them into plastic, creating more planet-killing emissions.
• Plant a pot of flowers for pollinators. I moved to a townhouse (eek – I miss my garden and trees!), and I planted two pots of
   wildflowers in a barren, scraped world of performative, sad, newly planted, tiny trees. The pollinators flock to the flowers. I was shocked. This spring I am getting a bunch more pots and will have a bunch more bees and butterflies. Boy are they fun to watch! This is Harriet, who appeared after the flowers.
• Shorten your shower just a little bit – maybe a minute or two. This saves energy needed to heat the water and it saves water. With many parts of the country and the world facing drought, the less we use the better. Can you imagine how much energy and water would be saved if everyone did this, even once a week? Slight Edge the Jeff Olson way.
• If the store is close by, walk when you can. That is one thing my family is doing more often, and I am going to log the miles to appreciate my Slight Edge efforts.
• Take a walk in the woods to remind yourself of what is possible.

Just a small step will combat Climate Anxiety and each small step will lead to more small steps – they are contagious! Next up I will talk about Hormesis to push through the resistance, if any, to the small steps.

 

If Given a Chance...

I began working to protect the planet when I was eight years old, worried about clean air, clean water and species survival. I worried about all species, not just humans, because the critters needed more people to speak for them. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would actually cook ourselves with Climate Change!

Eventually I earned a graduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning/Environmental Planning. My first planning gig was to help recover the endangered Florida manatee, and I was unbelievably fortunate to be hired into a newly forming team that had amazing leadership and vision, followed by great success with dramatically improved manatee populations.

Unfortunately, MAGA politics was a thing back in 1991 (although it wasn’t called MAGA, and I was accused of leading a UN takeover of Florida), the Florida electorate began to change and in 1998 environmental and planning laws began to reverse, and by 2021 the endangered Florida manatee and the entire state of Florida were fully crashing environmentally. My colleagues continue the battle, thankfully.

What has this experience taught me? The Florida manatee and ecosystems are resilient. We brought them back once and we can do it again. They just need a chance. All species need a chance. And if given the chance, they will take it and soar.

As long as there is a chance, there is a reason to try. Each little effort adds up and we can all try. There are many amazing people doing tremendous work in Clean Energy, Climate Justice, Energy Justice and more. Creating a more JUST world benefits everyone, and the more people who benefit, the healthier and more sustainable my son’s future and the future of all the kids who follow will be.

What do our kids in the U.S. need? Hope. It blows me away that they are now faced with the same fears I had almost 50 years ago, and for them these fears are here and now. Too many of our kids are paralyzed by our environmentally crashing planet. How can you help? Take a little action and bring them on your journey. Positivity grows positivity grows action grows a rebounding planet and a rebounding generation of young people.

Stay tuned for ideas on how you can help. Not great big actions, just little ones. And stay tuned for something I have been mulling over and am ready to act on. It is a bit bigger in scope, but I am an environmental planner, in the game for almost 33 years, so it better be.

Moving Strongly Forward in Climate Change and Justice

I have been in Europe for almost three weeks (I am aware of my privilige) and it is time to dust off my Moving Strongly Forward blog and move into Climate Change and Justice. 

Working in solar and now being in Europe, seeing how much farther along Italy and Spain are with clean energy and more, has inspired me to get writing again. We just took the train through Seville and multi-family, single family (whole blocks!), warehouse, you name it - all have solar. A little bit and a bunch! Oh... and the gas station with solar - how I would love to accomplish that in North Carolina!

A lot has changed since I began blogging. Our attention spans are shorter and I can hardly stand to write a lengthy post, so I will be brief. Thank you for reading and here we go!