Newsletter #9

Hope can take on a life of its own~ Michelle Obama

Hello Friends,

May is here at last, promising an abundance of flowers!

My introduction to each newsletter is deliberately brief, so you can get to the stories quicker! In this issue, you will learn about a system of agriculture invented centuries ago that not only is still working but could be replicated in other parts of the world; what to do with alkaline batteries; how does Sweden have so little trash; how to deal with eco anxiety; a wonderful read about the discipline of happiness and then, something for your pleasure.

#1- Chinampa

-an agricultural method from the past that could inspire communities now and in the future-

Chinampa is a technique invented by the Aztec civilization in the valley of Mexico City.

They are artificial islands that are built on wetlands of a lake or freshwater swamp for agricultural purposes, and their proportions ensure optimal moisture retention. To make a chinampa, you have to interweave reeds with stakes beneath the lake’s surface, to create underwater fences until the top layer of soil is visible on the water’s surface. Trees such as willow are planted at the corners to secure the chinampas. The long raised beds, separated by channels, are wide enough for a canoe to pass, and give plants continuous access to water, making crops grow independent of rainfall.

Between the regular rich, black muck top dressing and the climate, the farmers were able to grow a succession of 5-6 crops a year. Their practice of reclaiming nutrient run-off and wildlife deposits from the canal floors offered a perpetually renewable, local fertilizer source. To which the chinampas added plant waste and manure to continually build the soil.

In 1987, UNESCO made the Xochimilco chinampas a U.N. World Heritage Site. Even though a handful of farmers still cultivated chinampa plots, the once impressive agricultural system was a mess, overrun by development and urban sprawl.

Things eventually turned around and by 2016, migrating birds returned to their overwintering grounds and the almost extinct Axolotl salamander, found only in the waters of Xochimilco, is bouncing back, and with the urban farming side of the chinampas located in the canals of Cuemanco, is once again a place for growing food in the metropolis of Mexico City.

Axolotl salamander

The Cuemanco chinampas grow food crops using only organic fertilization practices. Like their ancestors, they too rely on the nutrient-rich canal soil and composted crop debris to support the plants they grow. Both organic food and locally grown food is very new to modern-day Mexico City. Until very recently, only a couple elite restaurants in the city sourced local produce for the menu. Now, however, there are several. Organic produce is showing up in grocery stores, and as we’ve seen in other large cities, along with urban farms come new jobs and a fresh economy.

While researching Chinampas, I couldn’t help think how useful this agricultural method could be in communities that are experiencing flooding, where flooded fields make growing food next to impossible.

Watch video about Chinampas:

Sources: Wikipedia and here

#2- How to Dispose of Alkaline Batteries Safely

my used battery box at home

There has been debate about recycling single-use batteries and whether or not it's actually cost effective. There are many different types of household batteries and they contain varying amounts of chemicals and heavy metals. Some have precious metals in them that can be recovered and reused, reducing the emissions and environmental impact of mining more. All batteries contain chemicals that can be damaging, some more than others. None of these are good for the environment. And even though mercury has been removed from most batteries, they are still a fire hazard.

I don’t usually have this many batteries but I unpacked old flashlights and found useless batteries to add to the box of shame

Since batteries cannot be added to the recycling bin, nor dropped off at anytime at a waste disposal location, I asked my local hardware, big box and office supply stores whether they take batteries to be recycled- all the places I would have bought batteries from– and no one does.

So I ordered a GoRecycle Kit, which is a complete battery and electronics recycling kit for household or business customers. As soon as it’s filled up, I seal the box and mail it to them.

I found out a few days ago, that my county (Columbia) in the Hudson Valley is offering a Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day (May 7th 8am-12 noon- 178 rte. 23B, Greenport). They accept alkaline batteries!

Find out when your local Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day is by checking in at Earth911.org

If you don’t need to dispose of hazardous waste, then I recommend getting a battery recycling kit or invest in a rechargeable device, which I’m planning on doing because I want to reduce battery waste. In the long run, using rechargeable batteries for your household is a lot less costly for you and the environment. In addition, big box stores accept them.

Source and Earth911

#3- Did you know…

That Sweden only sends 1% of its trash to landfills? The country incinerates nearly half its garbage to create the energy that powers its homes and buildings.

As the world seeks out ways to shrink its open mountains of garbage, Sweden offers an alternate path. Much of Sweden’s success in reducing landfill waste can be credited to its high recycling rates: between recycled solid waste and composted organic matter, Sweden recycles nearly half of what it throws away.

What it does with the other half is what sets Sweden apart from much of the world. Nearly all of Sweden’s non-recycled waste is burned to generate electricity and heat. It’s a method that, while emitting CO2, is far better for the climate than sending garbage to landfills, according to the Swedish government and proponents of waste-to-energy technology.

Sweden was an early adopter of waste-to-energy and its first plant started operating amid a post-war home-building boom in the late 1940s. Today, Sweden has 34 waste-to-energy plants supplying 1,445,000 households with heat and 780,000 households with electricity — impressive figures for a country with a population of only 10 million.  

Waste-to-energy plants provide a relatively small proportion of Sweden’s power, over 80 percent of which comes from a combination of hydro and nuclear energy. Their main benefit is keeping trash out of landfills. In many countries, such as the U.S., landfills are one of the largest sources of methane, a greenhouse gas that is far more toxic to the climate than carbon dioxide. Over a 20-year period, methane is at least 84 times more potent than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Sweden follows the European Union’s prioritization of waste prevention, reuse and recycling with advanced waste separation, a dedicated tax on single-use products and repair services at waste centers. The country has brought its share of recycled municipal waste to 37 percent. And by 2025, food and residual waste is expected to be just one quarter of what it was in 2015.

In fact, Sweden has already run short on trash to fill its own waste-to-energy plants, so other European countries now pay Sweden to take their garbage and burn it — 1.9 million tons per year, which Sweden uses to keep its houses warm and brightly lit, while raking in $100 million a year for the privilege.

Excerpted from a longer piece

Post #4- Eco Anxiety

Last week, I participated in the webinar “The Power of Service: Moving From Anxiety To Action For The Planet,” organized by my friends Dianna Cohen, Co-Founder and CEO of Plastic Pollution Coalition and moderated by Heather White, author of One Green Thing: Discover Your Hidden Power to Help Save the Planet .

 

The topic of discussion was Eco Anxiety, which many of us are feeling.

What can we do about it?

We can reinvest our emotions into meaningful action- revisit my Newsletter #5 about Climate Action Now

We need to believe that our actions can make a difference

Practice a form of radical hope, where each of us find ways to do something wonderful that will benefit the future (for example, planting trees), without expecting to experience its fruition.

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. - Nelson Henderson

You can also read an article from TIME magazine: 7 Resources to Help Cope with Climate Anxiety

#5- A Good Read

I loved this and I hope you do too-

The Discipline of Happiness by Marian Seldes

~"I work at being happy. Anyone can train a mind to be happier”~

“I used to be a dancer, when I was very young. I loved it. I didn’t have the strength or the talent to become a dancer, but I learned so much from it, and my study of dance informs everything I do.

“I like rituals. While I don’t think there is a God, or a heaven, or angels, I love the rituals of churches, which I find to be forms of meditation; study of examples we hope to follow. Tennessee [Williams] was clearly the same way, giving you that rosary and naming the beads for women he loved, and having you take a journey with him and them.

“I would go to my dance classes, and I would work hard, and I would disappear into the movements, the voice of the teacher, the sounds of feet sliding across the wooden floor, the feel of my hand on the barre. I would then go home and write down all of the steps I had learned, and all of the words of my teacher, and then I would wash out my dance things by hand. Ritual. When I was very young, I would go to the top of our house on Henderson Place and dance in my nightgown—a spectral sight. A tall, thin, dark-haired girl in a long, white nightgown, dancing on a roof in the night.

“We eat certain things to feel certain ways and to become certain sizes. I do exercises to remain limber—as limber as I can. My back was destroyed from misuse and time, and so every day I do these exercises to heal myself. And they work. I’m better.

“We read certain things to learn, to be entertained, to be enlightened. It’s all discipline, and we know that what we put into our bodies and our minds has an effect. I feel this way about happiness. People ask if I’m happy, and I truthfully say that I am, but sometimes I’m not fully happy until someone asks me the question, I answer it affirmatively, and then I’m even happier. I have flipped a switch to happiness.

“I think only babies and very young children are naturally happy—when they’re fed or held or entertained. As we grow older and begin to look around and think and wish to get from here to there, we get frustrated or ambitious or angry. I don’t know why, but I decided very early on to not let my mind jump around and be whatever the circumstances or the news or the gossip might want it to be. I trained myself to be sensitive to the world, to be empathetic, but to always be grateful, which led me right into happiness. I work at being happy. Anyone can train a mind to be happier. It’s a ritual, like the dance class, the notes, the cleaning of the leotard. It’s like prayer or a diet or the meditation and yoga that so many do. I think all of us have around and within us things for which she should be grateful. The present is full of riches and hope. I tried to impart to my students that there would be work, but there would also be love and friendship, and so much beauty in the world to study that you can be frustrated that there isn’t time to experience it all. Julie Harris and I were talking once, and we were catching each other up on things we had seen and loved, and she said that it frustrated her that even if she lived to be one hundred years old, healthy and clear of mind, she could never read all the books that needed to be read; see all the art that is out there waiting to inspire us; could never hear the new music that could elate her, much less listen again to music she already loved. There is just not enough time for all the friendships, so I don’t understand the time wasted on grudges or rivalries or negativity. I give to charities and I try to help every friend that I can, but the weight of the world for me is not the tragedies, but the huge weight of beautiful things that are waiting for our witness.

“Try to be happy. Allow into each day those things that remind you how grateful you can be for all that is in the world.”

Shared from James Grissom @Substack

#6-For Your Pleasure

-animated by wind, Theo Jansen’s ‘Strandbeest’ sculptures have evolved into flying creatures-

Each spring, a fledgling creature waddles, wriggles, or slithers across a Dutch beach. The sculptural animals are known as Strandbeests and are part of a growing menagerie by artist Theo Jansen, who’s been constructing large-scale, kinetic beings powered entirely by the wind since 1990. Jansen unleashes the skeletal works—which weigh around 180 kilograms and use 2,000 to 3,000 meters of PVC pipe—in the early part of the year and uses the summer months to tweak their function so that they better withstand the sand, water, and other elements. By fall, the creatures have fully developed and scurry across the beach with quick, sometimes undulating motion.

Jansen recently compiled a collection of his works in the video above, which chronicles the Strandbeest evolution during the past few years. The montage encapsulates earlier forms carrying massive sails, caterpillar-like critters, and now, winged creatures that fly feet above the ground and is evidence of the artist’s decades-long dedication to developing the lifelike works.

Source: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2022/04/theo-jansen-flying-strandbeest

Here is the complete quote I excerpted for the title of this newsletter:

“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.” – Michelle Obama

Wishing you and yours all the best,

See you in 2 weeks!

Priscilla

P.S. I took the photo of my new dry stone wall this afternoon. It was made with stones found in the field and near my garden below. Dry stone walls are beneficial to wildlife, as is the organic pesticide free garden you get a peak at below. The tiny greenhouse is bursting with sprouting seeds almost ready to be planted in the first bed, which is dedicated to pollinators. The trees in the woodland in the distance, are still bare but not for long. The woodland is teaming with ramps, fiddlehead ferns, blood root, red trilliums, blue violets, toothwort, trout lily, straw lily and wild garlic. So beautiful!