The English Department’s resident Reading professor recently trekked around Yosemite with some friends and took these two pictures of Vernal Falls. She said of the park, “It was simply gorgeous, and on the way home, it even snowed!” That wasn’t the only thing that happened on the way home. A bag had been left on the step of the car and fallen off. Retracing their cotton footprint, they discovered her jeans on the median with a few stylish tire marks on them but missing were her ski jacket and TC sweatshirt. I guess that just goes to show you that even when we don’t mean to, we sometimes do leave a footprint, our own trail in the wilderness, or maybe even a long string of designer clothes between where we’ve been and where we’re going. Chances are Ms. Carlson’s ski jacket has found a new habitat.
Filed under: What WE can do
15 Things You Can Do
15. Use a push mower to cut your lawn instead of a power mower.
CO2 reduction = 80 lbs/year
14. Buy food and other products with less packaging, or reusable /recyclab le packaging instead of those in non-recyclable packaging.
CO2 reduction = 230 lbs/year
13. Replace your current washing machine with a low-energy, low-water-use machine.
CO2 reduction = 440 lbs/year Wash clothes in cold water, not hot.
CO2 reduction (for two loads a week) = 500 lbs/year
12. Turn down your water heater thermostat; 120 degrees is usually hot enough.
CO2 reduction (for each 10-degree adjustment) = 500 lbs/year
11. Buy energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs for your most-used lights.
CO2 reduction (by replacing one frequently used bulb) = 500 lbs/year
10. Install a solar water heater system to help provide your hot water.
CO2 reduction = 720 lbs/year
9. Recycle all of your home’s waste newsprint, cardboard, glass, and metal.
CO2 reduction = 850 lbs/year
8. Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket.
CO2 reduction = up to 1000 lbs/year
7. Caulk and weather-strip around doors and windows to plug air leaks.
CO2 reduction = up to 1000 lbs/year
6. Leave your car at home two days a week (walk, bike or take public transportation to work instead)
CO2 reduction = 1,590 lbs/year
5. Ask your utility company for a home energy audit to find out where your home is poorly insulated or energy-inefficient.
CO2 reduction = potentially 1000’s of lbs/year
4. Insulate your home, tune up your furnace, and install energy-efficient shower heads
CO2 reduction = 2,480 lbs/year
3. Drive a fuel-efficient car (rated up to 32 mpg or more).
CO2 reduction (fuel-efficient car)= 5,600 lbs/year
or buy a new hybrid gasoline electric vehicle which gets 50 to 70 mpgIf your family did all of the items above, you could cut CO2 emissions by more than 15,000 lbs/year! (Visit the Bonneville Environmental Foundation and consider investing in green energy to help offset your C02 footprint).
2. Tell your representatives climate protection is important to you. Your elected officials make critical decisions in your name that either hurt or help the fight against global warming. In the US Congress and in the statehouse, your representatives need to hear that you want action! To find your state senator and state representatives contact information, go to: http://dfind.leg.wa.gov/dfinder.cfmTo find out how to contact your federal Representative go to: http://www.house.gov
To find out how to contact your federal Senators, go to http://www.senate.gov/
1. Learn more and tell your friends, family and colleagues. Sign up for the monthly on-line e-bulletin to stay informed about climate protection in the Northwest. Subscribe to the NW Climate Connection.Support Climate Solutions. If you appreciate in-depth research, most up-to-date policy reviews and cutting edge solutions, please join today! Joining Climate Solutions gives you the political strength to make the positive changes we need to stop global warming.
Filed under: Environmental Literature
Potpourri of Fallen leaves
Still soft with the life departed
Gather them up into nature’s pillow.
Smell the earth and dew
For there is beauty in this dying.
We pause and feel the love
Of the life in final blossom.
William M. Devine 10-13-99
You wish this was your aquarium
Jeff Ross, Coordinator of Student Support Services, took this pic at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Click on the title to view.
Filed under: Environmental Literature
We did not inherit the land from our fathers. We are borrowing it from our children.
Filed under: Environmental Literature
Nature’s vast frame, the web of human things,
Birth and the grave, that are not as they were.
(Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Alastor,” 1816)
The following website explains how people were exploring human versus non-human Nature long before Darwin published the Origin of Species. http://users.dickinson.edu/~nicholsa/Romnat/whyromnat.htm
Filed under: Environmental Literature
The site below is an excellent resource for those students hoping to find meaningful application of their committment to the environment and their skills as a writer.
Taft College faculty have banded together to share information in honor of Earth Day, hoping to contribute to the betterment of the earth. We hope everyone will explore the site and learn with us how to improve the condition of our world.
