Education Posts
Singing, Biking, Sharing in The Great Turning
I’ve just come down from the clouds—the lofty emotional highs—of a two-day workshop on The Work That Reconnects with Joanna Macy herself. And, yes, I rode my bike the two miles to Fort Worden Conference Center, along with a dozen or so of the 50 workshop participants. That’s a pretty good bicycling turn-out, but then again, this was a gathering of sustainability activists! I’m still processing, and will be for a while, what I learned from the 84-years-young Joanna Macy of Berkeley this past weekend, along with the...
read more“Find Your Own Port Townsend”: Advice from the 2013 Thriving Communities Conference
It’s a thrill to report on the second annual Thriving Communities Conference at the Whidbey Institute, where last week 100 attendees from around the Cascadia bioregion were exhorted to “find your own Port Townsend.” That is, take the pulse of your own community and listen for direction on how its uniqueness might be nurtured. Then find that path and set forth on the journey to realize your community’s best potential. This whimsical phrase—in the vein of “Follow your [own] bliss”—was spontaneously coined...
read moreTips for the Sustainability Tourist
I’m an advocate for promoting Port Townsend as a destination for sustainability-minded tourists. We can welcome people who want to test-drive a sustainable community, even if just for a few days. Maybe we can convince them to move to our scenic Victorian Seaport and join the cause! Well, one of these tourists contacted me for advice a few days before the Memorial Day weekend. He gave me permission to turn our e-mail exchange into a blog post. Hi Shelly, I found your blog about a year ago and have been following it since. I’m a...
read moreMy Hometown Joins Transition Movement
I’m sharing a column I wrote for our local newspaper that was published yesterday. Enjoy! This Earth Day, Local 20/20 is celebrating its official recognition as Washington state’s 11th Transition Initiative. “Transition?” you might wonder. “From what? To what?” Glad you asked. This is about making the transition from “the era of cheap oil,” to a future dependent on conservation, a thriving local economy, locally produced food and building materials, sustainable transportation choices and renewable energy...
read moreFluffy Line-Dried Towels Every Time
By popular demand, I’m sharing my super-energy-saving tip for fluffy line-dried towels. Now that the spring sun is finally here, give it a try! Speaking of spring, Earth Day is coming up next weekend. Join me next Saturday, April 21, for an Earth Day Celebration alongside the Port Townsend Saturday Farmers Market. Local 20/20 is hosting and I’m one of the main organizers. I’ll also be speaking at an hour-long presentation about our new Transition Initiative starting at 10:30 a.m. More info: www.L2020.org. Let’s face it:...
read moreBiomass 101 for Families Forum
The proposed biomass power plant at the Port Townsend Paper Mill site and its potential health impacts on our most vulnerable citizens—our children—is the subject of the first “Biomass 101 for Families” forum. The free educational event is scheduled for 10:30-11:30 a.m. Saturday, March 17 at the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (QUUF) in Port Townsend. To encourage attendance by parents and guardians of young children, “Biomass 101 for Families” is scheduled mid-morning on a Saturday and free childcare is provided. “I...
read moreAffordable Local Food…But How?
“How to eat better on a budget” is the title of the brochure Brwyn Griffin, the Port Townsend Food Co-op’s outreach/education manager, is holding here. She developed the brochure for the Making Local Food Affordable forum she presented at (and I attended) back in November. Ever since, I’ve been meaning to write up the tips I collected there. Prioritizing this post was one of the commitments I made to myself last weekend at the end of the first annual Thriving Communities conference at the Whidbey Institute (Feb. 2-4)....
read moreVIDEO: Transportation (Presentation to Chamber of Commerce, 11/14/11)
We’ve been snowed in the last couple of days, and the walkability of our 1880′s-era neighborhood has had a chance to shine. As Soren and I traveled on foot to the corner grocery, the post office, the coffee shop, and our friends’ houses, we encountered 10 times as many pedestrians as we normally do and 10 times fewer cars. It was so sociable, so cheery, so safe to pull Soren on his sled down the middle of the road. I almost wish the snow would stick around! Port Townsend’s historic core was built before automobiles were...
read moreVIDEO: Energy (Presentation to Chamber of Commerce, 11/14/11)
Do you know where your energy comes from? Proportionally, more Jefferson County residents can proudly say, “From the sun!” than can residents of any other county in the state. This 5-minute video excerpt on “Energy” references the sponsor of my Chamber talk (and, not entirely coincidentally, my husband’s employer), Power Trip Energy Corp. It describes Jefferson County’s leading role in creating energy from the sun. The Puget Sound Energy graph referenced in my talk can be seen below. Data provided by PSE, current as of Oct....
read moreRoundtable Wrap-Up
Yesterday’s “Sustainability Roundtables” provided a satisfying wrap-up to my involvement with Local 20/20‘s sustainability outreach to our local Chamber of Commerce. It was particularly gratifying to have a number of electeds and appointed officials in attendance: Mike Glenn, CEO of our hospital, sat in on the Healthcare discussion; Port Townsend Mayor Michelle Sandoval was at the Local Investing table; Public Utility District (PUD) Commissioner Barney Burke was at the Energy table. (The PUD will soon be Jefferson...
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