At Home On Earth

SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES

While in Vero Beach, Florida, Yasmin Namini captured this wood stork for her latest At Home on Earth photo essay. A massive wading bird, the wood stork feeds by touch, sweeping its open bill through murky water. It’s the only stork species that breeds in North America and serves as a symbol of Florida’s wetland health: Wetlands, mangroves, upland forests, and beaches make Vero Beach one of Florida’s most vibrant avian sanctuaries. See more birds here. And see more of Yasmin’s photo essays (including videos of necking giraffes).

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“The Serviceberry (available on Amazon and Thriftbooks) calls us to reject the scarcity model that underlies our economy, in favor of a ‘Serviceberry Economy’ — one that promotes reciprocity, gratitude, and abundance, based on the natural lessons of the plant world. When the Serviceberry (also known as Shadbush, or Juneberry) fruits, it doesn’t hoard the abundance of sugar for itself, Kimmerer writes. ‘No, they invite the birds to a feast. ‘Come, my relatives, fill your bellies,’ say the Serviceberries.’ The birds return the favor by spreading seeds, far and wide.”

— Christopher Lysik’s review of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s The Serviceberry

Bluedot contributor Chris Lysik writes, “When Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer quietly crept on to the literary scene in 2013 with her now seminal Braiding Sweetgrass (on Amazon and Thriftbooks), she hid within the text an equally quiet, yet weighty, refrain: ‘All flourishing is mutual.’ It’s a concept initially given to her by the indigenous elders of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, of which she is an enrolled member.” Chris examines Kimmerer’s conviction, written about so persuasively in her book The Serviceberry, noting that “once we start recognizing that gifts like birdsong are as valuable as stocks, we are forced to acknowledge the harms we are committing to our planet (and one another) in the name of ‘wealth.’”

Kimmerer states it more simply: “When an economic system actively destroys what we love, isn’t it time for a different system?”

• At Home on Earth: The Birds of Vero Beach

• Favorite Read: The Serviceberry

• Hang (Your Dryer) Out to Dry

• How to Get an Exclusive Bluedot Canvas Tote

• Tailgating? Lunch to Go? Check Out the Ecozoi Collection

• Sign Up for Our New Canada Newsletter Here

• Recipe: Mushroom Ragu

• Environmental Beer Goggles

• Dear Dot: What’s Behind the (Low) Price of Cashmere?

• Bluedot’s Guide to Citizen Action

• Green Your Halloween

Be among the first to experience a Bluedot Living–curated travel experience, where you’ll connect with local environmental change-makers and enjoy carefully designed all-inclusive itineraries and farm-to-table dining, all in exquisite locales. With five trips scheduled for 2026, ranging from Hollywood, California, to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, there’s a destination to suit every traveler.

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Environmental Beer Goggles

Bluedot’s resident beer expert, Jim Miller, takes a deep dive into the environmental costs of beer. Turns out, “in our profligate, throwaway world, the humble steel beer keg is a paragon of sturdy reusability, recyclability, and thrift.” But we all know those iconic red solo cups are a recycling nightmare, so what should your guests drink out of instead? And what if a keg or half keg is simply too much beer? Is there a superior eco-vessel between bottles and cans? What is a green-leaning party-thrower to do?! Jim puts on his environmental beer goggles and navigates these questions, and more.

Dear Dot: What’s Behind the (Low) Price of Cashmere?

Dear Dot,

I wear a lot of cashmere. I've noticed that in recent years, I can buy it much more cheaply. But I got to wondering why, when everything else seems more expensive, cashmere has become less. I have some of my mom's treasured cashmere and am looking for the best way to take care of it — like her, I seem to stain the cuffs and get pills all over, and don’t want to keep running to the (blech!) dry cleaner.

–Jane

Dear Jane,

There is nothing snooty about cashmere, particularly that worn by a beloved mom who stains her cuffs.

But you are not the only one who has noticed that while the price of almost everything has gone through the roof, the cost of cashmere has become surprisingly affordable. On the one hand, yay! Even those of us without fat bank accounts can indulge our love of luxury. But, as is often the case with cheap fashion, is the price being borne by someone else? Or by the planet itself?

I took your cashmere query to Derek Guy, a fashion writer with Die, Workwear. Guy reminded me that everything we wear has an environmental cost, and he laid out the crazy environmental story around cashmere. It is basically this …

Keep reading for the wooly truth!

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No Kings protests are taking place around the U.S. Go here to find one near you. And check out Bluedot’s Guide to Citizen Action for other ways to get engaged in creating the future we want.

The Keep-This Handbook

Say “booooo” to Halloween decorations that create waste and harm wildlife. Bluedot editor Emily Cain shows you how with her Bluedot Guide to a Green Halloween — with tips on better costumes, safer (but still spooky) decorations, and more. 

Our Mothers, Ourselves

When I got to the age where kids are mortified by pretty much everything their parents do — maybe 11 or so — I was crossing my yard with a friend on our way back from school. “What’s that?” my friend Margaret asked, pointing at fluffs of somethings waving from our clothesline. Fluffs of … plastic bags, clipped to the ropes, airing out in the breeze. My mother drying plastic bags so she could use them again. 

Mortifying. 

A few decades later, and I’m in my kitchen, and my visiting brother points to my dish rack, hooting: “You’re Mom!” I had plastic bags drying on the ends of wooden spoons. (At least they weren’t out on the clothesline.) Yes, I had become my mother — mending my clothes, reusing the wax paper that wrapped the butter (good for buttering pans), saving leftover egg whites when I only needed yolks (the whites make excellent meringue cookies), and yes, using plastic bags over and over and over. 

For my mother, who would have turned 93 today, it was frugality and a culture of never wasting anything. But it ended up also being environmentally friendly, too, and still is. Avoid plastic, be mindful of what you use in your home. My mom also had a blue thing for wiping her countertops, what today we’d call a Swedish cloth, and rarely used paper towels because of it. 

We have Swedish cloths in our new membership kit, along with a whole lot more environmentally friendly things for your laundry and kitchen — clean detergents and soaps, dryer balls that help you save electricity. You can get them for free by becoming a member — there are a variety of kits for a variety of memberships. There’s even a reusable canvas bag! 

Have a great long weekend, and we’ll see you next week. 

–Jamie Kageleiry (and Emily Cain, Leslie Garrett, and Robin Jones)

Editors

Write us at editor@bluedotliving.com

Leslie Garrett has been covering climate stories for close to two decades.  She makes her home in Canada, west of Toronto. She’s still figuring out her favorite spot but it’s definitely near the water.

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.

Robin Jones is a Southern California native who served as an editor at Westways magazine for more than a decade. She lives in Long Beach and teaches journalism at Cal State Long Beach.

Emily Cain is a recent graduate of Cal State Long Beach, where she wrote and edited for the university’s award-winning magazine, DIG.

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