Simple things are important...

A few days ago, I woke up and thought I should order some things from "The Grove". When I opened the app on my phone, it first showed me the graphic below. I was so pleasantly surprised!

First I didn't realize that I'd been shopping with The Grove since 2020, and had no idea my choices made such a difference. 873 bottles?! 26.5 lbs. of plastic?! Just from my choices there. Small choices but it obviously adds up. It made me even more motivated to do my part with all those little things like choosing more wisely and watching my other climate affecting habits.

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, says my doctor in giving me diet and exercise advice. Just take simple steps and make them a habit. The origin of this folk wisdom is generally attributed to Voltaire, so even in the 1700s this wisdom was apparent. With this in mind, when ordering for St. Columba's Retreat House I keep taking steps to improve our usage. For example, although "compostable" trash bags are not compostable in our county, and they are more than twice the cost, I order them anyway thinking that they will at least decompose faster in the county trash site than the plastic equivalent.

I think that if we all keep making incremental changes in the right direction, it will improve our environment and mitigate climate change. I know the task is enormous, but chunking it out and creating small habits towards our goals leads to large improvements when we aren't watching.

Anna's Bio

Fall Eco- Retreat

Resilience: Living and farming in a time of Climate Change

with Arron Wilder of Table Top Farm, Point Reyes Station

an in-person retreat with field trip.

Thursday October 3, 4pm- Saturday Oct 5, 4pm

Registration and program information to follow in August.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

Featured guest speaker Arron S. Wilder is the owner and operator of Table Top Farm, a patchwork of certified organic mixed vegetable farms totaling 7 acres in Point Reyes Station, Marin County . He also is Ranch Manager of 1,900 acres on Hicks Mountain, where he employs regenerative grazing and land stewardship practices to restore vitality to the network of natural systems there.

Arron’s educational background with degrees in soil science and range-land management, along with his career as a soil scientist for over 12 years and teacher of organic farming at the College of Marin for 7 years, will allow him to address such topics as: carbon sequestration, soil health, organic and dry farming, fire mitigation, adaptation to climate changes, and our food security.

As part of the retreat Arron will lead a hands-on field trip to examine the organic farming practices used on his vegetable farms.

Plan to bring suitable shoes or boots.

JOIN US FOR AN ONLINE FILM DISCUSSION

Into the Ice

August 21 , 4-5pm PT

Discussion is free. Registration required for participation in the discussion (Zoom link sent to registrants). Facilitated by Sylvia Timbers CED.

Read excerpts of the review from the New Scientist : April 6,2022

A MAJESTIC aerial shot of the Arctic landscape opens Lars Henrik Ostenfeld’s epic documentary Into the Ice. Then his narration hits us with the hard truth: “The Greenland inland ice harbours a secret. You can see our future in it.” As if to illustrate what that future might look like, the camera then pans to deep rivers of meltwater.

The message of Ostenfeld’s film is familiar, yet what sets it apart is its focus on the fieldwork of three of the world’s leading glaciologists: Alun Hubbard, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen and Jason Box. Ostenfeld travels with them, on three separate trips, to the Arctic as they monitor how fast the Greenland ice sheet is melting.

Ostenfeld provides intimate portraits of the researchers, highlighting their distinct personalities and the motivations behind their work..

During his time with the researchers, Ostenfeld becomes fully immersed in their work and their mission. His presence is well balanced and respectful, and his feelings of concern, fear and admiration emerge beautifully through his intimate voice-over commentary.

Throughout, we learn how the study of ice and its history are essential to uncovering the scope and consequences of climate change, and the importance of collecting and analysing data that will help us update our predictions of global sea level rise...

The initial light-hearted tone and good humour of the scientists gradually give way to a more serious feel as the realities of life and work in the Arctic become clear. We see the scientists face a lashing storm that forces them to hide in their tents for two days. And we feel their fear and excitement as they take on the elements to gather data.

The dangers of fieldwork become only too apparent as Box learns of the death of his mentor, climate scientist Konrad Steffen, who fell into an ice crevasse elsewhere in Greenland, on a separate research trip.

Towards the end of the film, Box and Hubbard head back into the deep crevasse to resume their work, only to discover an uncomfortable truth: the meltwater under the ice has progressed to a level never seen before. The glaciers are melting at a faster pace than we thought and our predictions of sea level rise are probably too cautious....

This film doesn’t try to soften the blow or to end on a hopeful note. Instead, it is a touching wake-up call, rich in sincerity and brutal home truths.

Davide Abbatescianni

Finding the Mother Tree

by Suzanne Simard

Book Study continues with Penny Washbourn July 24, August 14, 4-5:30pm PT.

Register at the button below to receive the Zoom link. All sessions are recorded for participants.

Suzanne Simard. Ph.D, is Professor of Forest Ecology and Leader of The Mother Tree Project at the University of British Columbia. She was described by New York magazine as “a pathbreaking ecologist on interspecies collaboration, tree sentience and nature resilience”. May 6,2021.

Her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide.

Finding the Mother Tree, Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest is a personal and professional memoir of a young woman’s journey from her origins in the forests of British Columbia combined with a scientific detective story. As a 20 year old in her first seasonal job for a logging company, Suzanne had one question, what was killing the spruce seedlings planted in the clear-cut forests? This puzzle led her to confront the company male hierarchy and scientific establishment’s view of forest management and ecology, and to her growing understanding of the complexity of trees as interdependent circles of life, connected through the Mother Tree centered in underground networks. Her decades -long work is revolutionary and inspiring. Her vivid and accurate description of fungi, mosses, mushrooms and the forest’s underworld not only gives the reader a crash course in botany, but an appreciation for how scientific inquiry can help us understand who we are and our place in the world.

Highly recommended. PW.