A big welcome to a new eco-blog, Flowscapes: Everday Adventures for Ecological Resource Solutions. It’s not your average eco-blog. There are thoughtful posts considering ecological issues you’ve never even considered, like why the World Toilet Organitzation’s “Big Squat Day” might not be a good idea. There are posts offering different perspectives on topics you’ve probably been thinking about, like whether wind turbines are too loud or not. There are posts on bigger issues, like the importance of “followership.” And there’s fun random stuff, like a photograph of an art car. Did I mention this new blog is written by my sweetheart, Carol Steinfeld? So what are you waiting for? Go check it out.
Category Archives: Eco-stuff
June 21 is the day to “peecycle”
In case you’ve forgotten, Pee-On-Earth Day (in the northern hemisphere) is tomorrow, June 21, the date of the summer solstice. According to my partner, Carol, describes it: “Pee-On-Earth Day is a day to bring your urine outside to nourish plants and avoid using water to flush your toilet! Fertilize plants with your urine’s nitrogen and phosphorus. PEECYCLE either directly or by depositing your contribution in a container you take outside….”
Carol’s favorite way to peecycle at our house by pouring the pee into our compost pile — it doesn’t smell, and we wind up with nitrogen-rich compost. Look for the Pee-On-Earth Day fact sheet on Carol’s Web site for more ideas on how to peecycle.
And yes, Pee-On-Earth Day is my favorite summer holiday, mostly because I get to make lots of pee jokes.
Three useful acronyms
LULU (loo’ loo) — acronym for “Locally Unwanted Land Uses”; a LULU is something that a developer or land owner wants to build in, but abutters and other neighbors don’t want. LULUs can include prisons, toxic waste dumps, wind turbine farms, high-speed rail lines, halfway houses, churches, etc.
NIMBY (nim’ bee) — acronym for “Not In My Back Yard”.” Both developers and environmentalists use the acronym pejoratively to describe persons who fight to keep a project out of their neighborhood. Environmentalists may call opponents of the Cape Wind projects NIMBYs; developers call environmentalists NIMBYs on a regular basis.
PIBBY (pib’ bee) — acronym for “Put It in the Blacks’ Back Yard” or “Put It in the Browns’ Back Yard.” Used to explain the high incidence of LULUs in communities of color, based on lack of political access for those communities, blindness of mainstream environmentalism, job or economic blackmail, etc. Example: “NIMBYism leads to the PIBBY syndrome.”
Recycled garden beds
We completed two garden beds today, both made out of recycled wood, and filled in large part with compost (made by the city) from yard waste. Because we live in a hundred-year-old house, it’s probable that there’s lead in the ground from lead paint, which is why we decided to use raised beds with soil brought in from somewhere else. In the photo below, the nearest garden bed is made from a pallet that we got for free from a store across the street; the further garden bed is made from recycled wood that Carol got at Urban Ore when she was over in Berkeley last month.
Earth Hour
“Hey,” said Carol. “Did you know it’s Earth Hour?”
I was sitting at my laptop. She was sitting at the television. The lights were on. Earth Hour is supposed to be a time when you turn off all electricity for an hour.
“You mean now?” I said.
“Well, it’s pretty much over by now.”
I sighed. I had meant to participate. Maybe next year.
Pee-on-Earth Day
Don’t forget that tomorrow is Pee-on-Earth Day! Have fun, and be ecologically conscious at the same time — go outside to pee tomorrow!
Carol gets press coverage…
Carol, my sweetheart and life partner, got some good coverage in an article in yesterday’s Christian Science Monitor titled “Waterless urinals: Cheap. Green. But many think ‘gross’”. She got even more extensive coverage in a March 9 article in the Lowell Sun “Making the Most of Human Waste” (I was sitting there while she was doing the phone interview, and it’s interesting to see what made it innto the article and what didn’t).
Thank you for indulging me while I brag about Carol.
Month without plastics
Carol and I are on a “plastics diet,” trying to minimize our plastics intake. But a blogger at the BBC is going us one better — she’s trying to go a whole month without buying any kind of plastics at all. It’s harder than you think….
“EcoAdventures” — Day five
We spent the session working on the projects the participants started three days ago. Both groups finished their projects, which are now posted on this blog.
The writing group did a blog post exclusivity at Ferry Beach Conference Center in Saco, Maine: read their post here.
The video group made an online video on the ecological problem unfolding at Ferry Beach: read their post here.
Your comments on their projects are welcomed at those blog posts.