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Community Newsletter

Resources for Sustainable Living

Tuesday October 22, 2024

What's In This Issue

Simply Living News

> Simply Living Presents: Common Ground, October 27th at Studio 35

> The Simply Living Blog

> October Tree of the Month

Sustainability News and Resources

Featured Creature

> What plant plays an important role in the grasslands of its native hemisphere, but alters soil moisture and fire regimes when introduced in North America? 

Bird of the Week

> This large, pale-colored wren is beautifully camouflaged to blend into its craggy habitat, with a black-speckled gray back and lighter underside, usually with buffy flanks.

Resilience

> Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate – Excerpt

> Water Protectors Use Novel Legal Tactic to Challenge the Dakota Access Pipeline

> Why FEMA’s disaster relief gets political − especially when hurricane season and election season collide

> Ask (Not) What You Can Do for Your Planet

> Archiving Ancestral Knowledge to Co-Create New Economic Paradigms

Ecowatch

> 42 Billion Euros Spent Annually by 5 Largest EU Countries to Subsidize Fossil Fuel Company Cars, Study Finds

> Chickpeas Could Become a Major Protein Source for Their Drought-Resistant Properties, Study Says

> World’s Biggest Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Developed in China

> World’s Water Resources Must Be Urgently Conserved to Avoid Collapse of Global Food Production, Report Finds

Earth 911

> Boosting Your Winter Mood Naturally

> Start Your Journey Toward Achieving Zero Food Waste

> Bioplastics, Biodegradable Plastics, and Compostable Plastics: What's the Difference?

> Best of Earth911 Podcast: Kidsy.com Takes A Step Toward Circular Children's Products

Community Events Posted every Friday

> We will be back with events on Friday's newsletter - See our Calendar anytime!

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Makerspaces Can Bring Diversity and Innovation to Transition Communities

by Chuck Lynd

I first heard the word “makerspace” when Alex Bandar made a presentation to the Columbus Metropolitan Club about The Idea Foundry.

Alex was passionate about the benefits of creating a space where makers, broadly defined, can have access to tools — from woodworking to welding, art media to communication technologies, to 3D printers and everything in between[...] 

October Tree of the Month:

Northern Catalpa,

Cigar Tree

By Mort Schmidt for Simply Living

Northern Catalpa (Catalpa speciosa herein, simply “Catalpa”), is one of our most distinctive trees. Catalpa has one of the largest simple leaves of any American tree, and its long cigar-like seed pods make it easily recognizable throughout the year. Native not to Ohio, but to the Mississippi Valley near the confluence with the Ohio River (depending on who you believe), Catalpa has been widely planted for its distinct leaves and attractive flowers. 

Featured Creature: What plant plays an important role in the grasslands of its native hemisphere, but alters soil moisture and fire regimes when introduced in North America?

Mature cheatgrass, Bromus tectorum; Michel Langeveld (CC via Wikimedia Commons)

Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum)!

Some call cheatgrass “downy brome”, which is a perfect term for it in the early spring when it hasn’t grown into its wretchedness. In early spring, when its long awns have not yet grown stiff and sharp, it is a soft and elegant plant. Its leaves fall in a gentle cascade from the long stem. The downy brome rolls over hillsides and whispers to its sisters in the breeze; as they dry in late summer, the wind knocks the heads of their seeds against one another, and they are scattered to the ground to start their cycle anew.

Although a Rock Wren pair hides its nest within a craggy crevice, that location is easily detected by the telltale pathway of small rocks, sticks, and pebbles that they build leading up to the site. This stony trail, which may help provide drainage to the site, extends into the nest crevice itself. The adult birds may also stack small rocks at the crevice entrance to reduce the size of its opening, probably providing extra protection from predators and nest parasites.

Editor's note: as we lead up to Simply Living's screening of Common Ground for the return of the SL Film Series, we are featuring a few older resilience articles about soil health.

Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate – Excerpt

By Laura Lengnick

My first big step into the world of climate action came in 2011. In April of that year, I was invited to join the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) leadership team responsible for producing the very first national report exploring adaptation to climate change in U.S. agriculture. As a member of the lead author team and the lead scientist on adaptation, I worked with more than 60 researchers all across the U.S. to gather, review, discuss, and report on the state of scientific knowledge about the effects of climate change on U.S. agriculture [...]

Water Protectors Use Novel Legal Tactic to Challenge the Dakota Access Pipeline

By Winona LaDuke

It’s eight years after the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance at the river. The Standing Rock tribe is still seeking to close down the pipeline, the Environmental Impact Statement is in draft form and oil still runs North Dakota. We might need more Water Protectors. You can’t drink oil.

Why FEMA’s disaster relief gets political − especially when hurricane season and election season collide

By Jennifer Selin

Rumors and lies about government responses to natural disasters are not new. Politics, misinformation and blame-shifting have long surrounded government response efforts.

Archiving Ancestral Knowledge to Co-Create New Economic Paradigms

by Alison R. Guzman

Reclaming archiving is not just about organizing the past but unlocking potential for new knowledge and endless possibilities beyond colonial modalities of control.

42 Billion Euros Spent Annually by 5 Largest EU Countries to Subsidize Fossil Fuel Company Cars, Study Finds

By Cristen Hemingway Jaynes

The five biggest countries in the European Union spend 42 billion euros each year on subsidizing fossil-fuel-powered company cars, a new study commissioned by Transport & Environment (T&E) says. The report by Environmental Resources Management (ERM), “Company car fossil fuel subsidies in Europe,” called for increased subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs). “This is completely illogical […]

Chickpeas Could Become a Major Protein Source for Their Drought-Resistant Properties, Study Says

By Paige Bennett

A new study is highlighting chickpeas as a protein source for a potentially drought-stricken future brought on by climate change.

The research, led by molecular biologist Wolfram Weckwerth from the University of Vienna, explored the benefits of 36 different chickpea genotypes as climate change impacts continue to threaten food security around the world.

World’s Biggest Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Developed in China

By Cristen Hemingway Jaynes

China’s CRRC Corporation Limited (CRRC) has developed the “most powerful” floating offshore wind turbine in the world, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The turbine was produced in Yancheng city in Jiangsu Province and has a 20-megawatt (MW) generating capacity.

The massive turbine has the ability to generate 62 million kilowatt hours of power annually, enough for roughly 37,000 households, the Spanish Wind Energy Association said. This will reduce carbon emissions by 62,000 tons and save 25,000 tons of coal.

World’s Water Resources Must Be Urgently Conserved to Avoid Collapse of Global Food Production, Report Finds

By Cristen Hemingway Jaynes

If there is one natural resource that all life on Earth depends on, it’s water.

In a new report, The Economics of Water: Valuing the Hydrological Cycle as a Global Common Good, the Global Commission on the Economics of Water warns that, unless water resources are urgently conserved and the destruction of ecosystems is stopped, more than half the world’s food production will be at risk of failing within the next quarter century.

Boosting Your Winter Mood Naturally

Gaining an extra hour of snooze time as we fall back an hour is certainly no reason to complain, but darker skies can affect our mood, and for some, even cause a bit of the winter blues. If you’ve begun craving more snuggle time under the covers and home-bound hibernation, here are seven simple ways to boost your inner bear’s mood and beat the blues, naturally. Remember, though, if you find this seasonal depression lingering, it’s best to seek professional help and perhaps consider light therapy, also known as phototherapy, as you may be experiencing seasonal affective disorder.

Start Your Journey Toward Achieving

Zero Food Waste

Food waste figures are alarming and while many of us only have control over what happens at the domestic consumption stage, it is important that everyone does their part to reduce food waste in their daily lives. Once food become refuse, they emit methane gas that accelerates climate change and as temperatures rise decreases the planet's capacity to absorb CO2.

Bioplastics, Biodegradable Plastics, and Compostable Plastics: What's the Difference?

Let's dig into the realities of biodegradable plastics. Despite high hopes for these alternatives to help build a circular economy and address the challenges of recycling plastics there seems to be a lot of confusion regarding how to dispose of them properly at their end of life. Do you know the difference between these bioplastics?

Best of Earth911 Podcast: Kidsy.com Takes A Step Toward Circular Children's Products

With the rise of recommerce, parents can find and buy top brands’ children’s products — from toys and clothing to furniture and car seats — at a deep discount. Our guest today is Shraysi Tandon, cofounder and CEO of Kidsy, a dealer of new and open-box children’s products that is growing fast.

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