SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES

Dear Readers,

As Bluedot strives to tell more local stories in more places, we’ve decided to change our focus somewhat. This will impact the way our newsletters are delivered to you. After this edition, we will be sending you our national Bluedot Living newsletter (The Hub), but not a specific-to-San Diego newsletter. The Hub currently comes out every other week, but will be changing to weekly June 6. You’ll continue to find recipes for healthy eating, advice from Dear Dot, and stories highlighting innovators from across California and the country, along with Climate Quick Tips and BuyBetter Marketplace suggestions. You can of course unsubscribe to the Hub at any time.

We appreciate your support and readership and thank you for coming along for the ride.

Jamie Kageleiry

Publications Director, Bluedot Living

Quick Links

Skip scrolling! Here's what you'll find in today's Bluedot San Diego newsletter:

• Drilling Down on Geothermal  

• Dear Dot Wants Better Cookies

• Stop Wasting Food! Check Out Our Instagram 

• A Fruit Tart With a Unique Flour

• Climate Change Gets Dramatic

• Memorial Day Sales From Sustainable Brands

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Featured Stories

At our home in San Diego’s South Park, we hear coyotes howling from the canyon behind our house in the evenings, and often when they answer the sirens of emergency vehicles. We coexist peacefully, even with neighborhood chicken coops. Coexisting with nature and wildlife is a kind of prerequisite to leading a greener, better life. And we have a couple stories of animals in our midst for you. First, conservation photographer Ilene Klein highlights our easy-going neighbors, House Finches. Then one of our favorite documentaries, Grizzly 399: Queen of the Tetons, showcases the difficulties of being a wild bear around humans.

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Dear Dot: Do Girl Scout Cookies Use Sustainable Palm Oil?

– Illustration by Elissa Turnbull

Dear Dot,

Wondering if the Girl Scouts organization is now using sustainable palm oil?

– Sarah

Dear Sarah,

Dot would like to hope that the Girl Scouts had cleaned up their act, but the organization’s statement leaves us wondering whether they have, or whether they continue to use mixed sources. And though the organization directed me to the website for the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the information there with regards to the Girl Scouts hasn’t been updated since 2023, at which point, it appears from media reports, they were still using mixed sources.

I’m heartened that public scrutiny of the Girl Scouts’ and other companies’ sourcing and use of palm oil has led to the surprisingly good news in 2023 that demand had fallen for the fifth year in a row. However, palm oil production is ongoing and continues to contribute to child labor, deforestation, and the environmental degradation that results from deforestation. …

Read the rest of Dot’s answer.

Got a question for Dot? Write her at deardot@bluedotliving.com.

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The Shift: Knowing the Drill

Bluedot Living Kitchen

Seasonal Fruit Kernza Tart

While the seasonal fruit on the top of this tasty tart is the star, the flour used in the pastry is the unsung hero. “Kernza is a perennial grain — a rarity, since most grains are annuals — with roots that extend as much as 10 feet underground. Those long roots, combined with the fact that the plants grow back for multiple years, helps Kernza sequester carbon and create healthier, more climate-resilient soil,” writes sustainability-minded baker Caroline Saunders. “A cousin of wheat, Kernza has a whole-wheatiness that will be familiar, but with an almost Graham-crackery note that works well in this tart.”

We’re excited to announce that a new issue of Bluedot Living Kitchen magazine is out! Subscribe now and get six digital issues per year!

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A Conversation With Playwright

Madeleine George

As part of our “Works in Progress” series featuring artists grappling with environmental issues, Christopher Lysik chatted with playwright Madeleine George about her play Hurricane Diane. Of using laughs to spur climate conversations, she says, “If you're going to be taking on deep and harrowing questions of moral complicity, comedy is a really great vector because people can get on board — and not in a bait-and-switch way. It's the truth about being in a terrible unfolding crisis, you know what I mean? In those moments of rupture and displacement, there's the best of humanity.”

Signing Off But Staying On

A couple years ago when Bluedot Living approached us about writing and editing a San Diego newsletter, we were a little skeptical about working with a small startup. But the gig married our passion for the environment with our skills, so we jumped in. And it’s been inspiring learning about all the amazing things happening here in America’s Finest City.

Now, Bluedot is shifting our focus more to stories from everywhere, and this is our last SD-specific newsletter. We’ll still be here, writing and editing (and biking and hiking and hitting the mountains, beaches, and plant-based taco shops), just not focused as much on local stories. Among other things, Nicki is heavily involved with Bluedot Kitchen, and Jim is writing our Energy Bar series on the shift to cleaner energy. So the work goes on. Thanks for being part of it.

We’ll see you on the Hub!

– Nicki and Jim Miller

Editors, Bluedot Living San Diego

sdeditor@bluedotliving.com

We live in San Diego and love the opportunity to be on the water and in the mountains in one day. Nicki, a writer and editor, and Jim, a writer and environmental economist, are excited to combine skills as the editors of Bluedot Living San Diego. Since we’re avid cyclists, you may see us riding along the Silver Strand or hitting the trails in Cuyamaca (probably not on the same day). Thank you for joining us on this Bluedot ride!  

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