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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES
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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES
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Friday, March 15, 2024
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So many Great Egrets in this beautiful photograph by Bluedot contributor Yasmin Namini (you can see more of her work here). Hard to believe that just over a century ago, Great Egrets were close to extinction, due to the plumage trade — shorebirds were being killed so their feathers could be used to decorate women’s hats. Until, that is, two determined Boston socialites started a boycott that resulted in the passage of a law known as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (and in the formation of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, which led to the founding of the National
Audubon Society). The Migratory Bird Act effectively ended the plumage trade.
Birds are on our mind these days — the spring migrations have begun. If you’d like to see the activity that will ramp up over the next few weeks, check out the Birdcast Migration Dashboard, from Cornell’s Ornithology Lab, which lets you input your county or zip code and see how many birds flew overhead while you slept. Writing from South Carolina’s low country, where I regularly see hundreds of pairs of Great Egrets in a nearby rookery, I can see that 287,000 birds flew over last night — most of them heading north. – J.K
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DISPATCHES FROM ALL OVER
SUSTAINABLE LIVING ADVICE
ECO-FRIENDLY RECIPES
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DISPATCHES FROM ALL OVER · SUSTAINABLE LIVING ADVICE · ECO-FRIENDLY RECIPES
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"For me the door to the woods is the door to the temple.”
–Mary Oliver, from “Upstream,” her book of selected essays (available on Amazon)
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“Perhaps it’s been raining, and the forest smells fresh and scrubbed clean,” Bluedot editor Leslie Garrett writes in this essay. “The sun is now high in the sky, and as you venture deeper into the trees and the foliage above you thickens, you notice that the sun’s shafts slip through the canopy like glittering swords. You can picture it, can’t you? It feels holy.”
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Mary Oliver was another congregant who said that entering the woods was, for her, akin to entering a temple. A place of wonder, of reverence. And yet, accustomed as so many of us are to new, to shiny, to fast, a walk in the woods can sometimes feel terribly pedestrian, pardon the pun. But not if we come to it with humility.
Garrett was writing about the word “shivelight,” conceived, she tells us, “by poet Gerard Manley Hopkins in 1888 to describe those lances of light that pierce a tree’s canopy or foliage.” Writer C.S. Lewis called it “Godlight,” writing: “Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ‘patches of Godlight’ in the woods of our experience.”
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QUICK LINKS
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Skip scrolling! Here's what you'll find in this edition of the Bluedot Newsletter:
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FEATURED STORIES
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BIG IDEAS AND LOCAL CHANGEMAKERS
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Carbon dividends are, as Bluedot Institute’s Annabelle Brothers reports, not a perfect climate solution but “pretty close.” Read about what they are, what they do, and how to make them part of our policy. Bluedot contributor (and cat lover) Teresa Bergen brings us a story from the Maldives about a resort welcoming the island’s many stray felines. Alec Ross considers himself a cairn fan — in some cases, he writes, they are godsends and might even save your life. But with cairns creating something of a controversy, Ross addresses the critics.
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Composting is great. But first, try to use up scraps!
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For more Bluedot Climate Quick Tips, click here.
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THE BLUEDOT KITCHEN
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It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day, so we thought we’d include a couple of Irish-y favorites that are also planet-friendly. Catherine Walthers likes to cook with leeks — the whole leek; try this cozy Potato Leek Soup. No need to waste those tasty green ends. And Mollie Doyle makes this Irish Soda Bread in her favorite cast iron pan (so much better than nonstick options).
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Good Libations: Irish Whiskey Goes Green
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Just a wee bit longer until St. Patrick’s Day, so here’s where to study up on the Irish whiskey industry’s commitment to sustainable practices. The company that makes Jameson’s, for instance, plans to become Ireland’s first carbon-neutral distillery by 2026. Maybe mix up a Tipperary (recipe included) and offer some cheers to that!
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Dear Dot: Do Trees Reduce Pollution?
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– Illustration by Elissa Turnbull
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The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, as the adage goes. The second best time is today. With Arbor Day a little more than a month away, let’s remind ourselves just how hard trees work.
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Dear Dot,
The other day we were talking about how much oxygen a tree can produce from CO2 and we got to wondering — do trees remove particulate matter from the air too?
–Will, Seattle
Dear Will,
Trees sprout, they tower, they sway, they fall. They are “carbon sinks” and they are “the lungs of the planet.” Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard calls them “social creatures”, and her research has illuminated the remarkable ways in which trees communicate with each other — via an underground fungal network a lot like the neural network of our human brains. They are, in short (and in tall, ha!), remarkable.
Trees, as you note, absorb carbon and release oxygen back into the atmosphere via photosynthesis. I’m sure that somewhere, my high school biology teacher is still chanting 6CO2 + 6H2O → C6H12O6 + 6O2 like a Gregorian monk. (Cheers to you, Mr. S! And to the power of rote memorization.) Though this calculation essentially amounts to some scribbling on the back of a napkin — there are a lot of variables that make this quite a generalization — the US Department of Agriculture suggests that one large tree can provide a day’s supply of oxygen for up to four people.
The Arbor Day Foundation reports that, in one year, a mature tree will
absorb more than 48 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen in exchange.
But trees don’t just stop at giving us oxygen!
What else do they do? Read on.
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BUY LESS/BUY BETTER: Happy Houseplanting
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Living plants in the home grow and change, sparking wonder and appreciation for the natural world. And we could all use a little more of that, right? Here, a few finds for your indoor gardens.
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Houseplant Helpers
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Our marketplace editor purchased a few brass plant animals from AnotherStudio on Etsy and testifies that they’re as charming in person as they look on screen. They make great gifts and arrive in biodegradable packaging.
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Buy now or
read our
review.
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Marvelous Microgreens
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Microgreens pack tons of beauty, flavor, and nutrition in a tiny package, but buying them usually involves lots of money and plastic. True Leaf makes it easy to grow them yourself.
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Buy now or
read our review.
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The Social Hour
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Spring may be arriving early, but that just means more time to embrace sustainable living!
Shop in-season produce from local farmers with Thrive Market and follow this sustainable spring cleaning checklist for a fresh and green start to the spring season! 🌸💚
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FOLLOW US
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Calling All Young Climate Leaders
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We have some exciting news for all the climate-focused teens out there! We’re happy to announce that the Bluedot Institute is offering an incredible opportunity for high-school students to attend the first annual Climate Leadership Program. This week-long intensive runs July 11 to 17 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Two dozen students ages 16 to 19, who have demonstrated interest in environmental issues, will attend training on environmental
leadership and communications with EarthDNA’s Dava Newman, a space scientist and director of the MIT Media Lab, and Gui Trotti, her husband and a space architect, as well as Bluedot Institute faculty.
If you have or know of teenagers who might be interested, please share this program application with them. Please note that cost should not be an issue. Through the generosity of our donors, we are able to offer need-based scholarships.
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The Wearing of the Green
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In the wake of the American and French revolutions, Irish revolutionaries adopted the color green to signify their struggle for their country at the end of the 1700s. Here in the 21st century, the environmental movement has adopted the same color to represent our struggle to keep our whole planet habitable. On St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish and environmentalists can celebrate with pride.
Once the Irish started wearing the green, it took them more than a hundred years to achieve independence. To keep the Earth green, we don’t have that kind of time. But we at Bluedot Living keep our eyes forward, seeking out stories of the revolutionary and inspiring people and businesses that are fighting to make our world a greener place. If you haven’t already, consider giving some green and supporting our solutions-focused journalism at Bluedot.
Enjoy the weekend, and we’ll see you in two weeks.
– Jamie Kageleiry and Leslie Garrett
Editors
Write us at editor@bluedotliving.com
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Jamie Kageleiry, a longtime magazine and newspaper editor from Martha's Vineyard, says her favorite spot on earth is out on a kayak there, looking at birds.
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Leslie Garrett has been covering climate stories for close to two decades. She divides her time between London, Ontario, and Massachusetts. She’s still figuring out her favorite spot but it’s definitely near the
water.
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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES
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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES
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Read past issues of The Hub here.
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Bluedot Living® magazine and bluedotliving.com are published by Bluedot, Inc.
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