Tag: environment

  • Appliance Shopping with The Dilettante

    “Hi. I need a new fridge. What’s the smallest one you’ve got that is Energy Star rated?” This has been my opening line for the last four months in every appliance store in Sydney. Nobody was able to answer it. Not one salesperson on any floor in this town was able to point me at…

  • On Debates and Being Right

    Margaret Wente has declared the debate on Anthropogenic Global Warming over. Her side has won. We have decided what we are going to do about climate change, and the answer is… nothing. Congratulations, climate change deniers. You played your hand well. Apparently our culture is unwilling to make any sacrifices to preserve an uncertain future…

  • Water, Water Everywhere

    This post was written to participate in 2010 Blog Action Day. Today the world is writing about Water.     Let me start with position. I live in a swamp (or possibly a marsh, according to one of my regular commenters). The photo in the header was taken in my back yard. My front yard…

  • Poem: Fenris Unbound

    Fenris Unbound It all begins with an innocent act. Original sin of the kingdom:                                               Eat. Read red nature,            Tooth and claw. Life flows across our lips, cruel wisdom. And we know, dread-full This too shall pass. Hope glimmers at the edge of his hearing And he comes to us in dreams,    Whispering…    (All…

  • Somebody’s Poisoned the Water Hole

    Do you remember BPA? The chemical that was in the baby bottles from which my children drank from the time they were a few weeks/months old? It was in the bottles that attached to my breast pump (and almost certainly the pump itself). I was recently reading “Slow Death by Rubber Duck“, and I came…

  • This Post is Solar Powered

    I am writing to you, finally, from the studio out back of my house. This studio is not connected to anything; it is, in fact, a shed, into which I have placed a desk, a bed, a rocking chair and a large pile of incomplete writing and textile projects. It is not a dingy shed,…

  • My Own Omnivore’s Dilemma: no acceptable solution

    Welcome to the July Carnival of Natural Parenting: Let’s Talk About Food This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about their struggles and successes with healthy eating. Please read to the end to find a…

  • Control that Lawn!

    My day today included a scythe, a push mower, and the digging of garden beds by hand. I also made a REAL pound cake: butter, sugar, eggs, flour, one pound of each. I added a pinch of salt to the flour and a splash of lemon juice. No baking powder – it wasn’t invented yet…

  • Review: No Impact Man

    Title: No Impact Man Author: Colin Beavan Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September 2009 This book surprised me. I have read a LOT of the “My Year Of…” category of books, and I arrived at this one from a not-particularly positive commentary on the New York Times. I found myself with book in hand only a…