More Neighbors = Less Theft

October 17, 2008

Breaking down fences makes good neighbors
Towns encourage residents to get to know one another
By Lisa Black |Chicago Tribune reporter

Connie Peyer barely knew the family who lived across the street, so she was shocked when her neighbor came over, upset, saying her home had been burglarized in broad daylight and no one bothered to call police.

Neighbors had watched as men loaded a truck with a television and appliances.
"Everyone thought, 'Oh, they're moving out,' " Peyer said.

The burglary taught Peyer a lesson about community isolation. So she was quick to volunteer when she learned that Skokie, where she had since moved, was sponsoring a program to help residents do what used to come naturally: get to know the Joneses next door.

28 years ago, I lived in central Cambridge, MA, when I heard that there was an attempted rape down the street. The woman cried out for help, and neighbors streamed out on the street of two and three story rowhouses. Afterwards, the neighbors held a block party to celbrate the power of community.

But when I moved onto that portion of the street a few months later, that all seemed a distant memory. So my housemates and I held a Neighborhood CrimeWatch meeting, and a police officer came by to talk about safety, and tagging possessions with ID numbers that would make them harder to pawn.

A few months later, our house got a call from the house across the street (we exchanged phone numbers). Did someone just steal one of our bikes?

Indeed they had. Even though we had hardly ever talked socially, the neighbor had a vague sense of who lived and visited our 7 person house.and thought it strange for someone to be removing a bike in the snowy dead of winter. It wasn't my first bike theft, nor my last; and the warning didn't come in time; but it did show the power of neighborhood.

(So I'm glad my neighborhood formed an association last Sunday night.)
Click Here to Read More..

Bio-Intensive Workshop in Virginia

As far as I can decipher, this workshop would cost $400, not including lodging and most meals .

John Jeavons is famous for dropping out of his corporate systems analyst work after Earth Day 1970 to apply the insights to farming, so as to get the most calories out of a patch of land. (Activist Bill Moyer followed a similar path with the American peace movement, and helped to transform it).

If anyone goes to this, I'd be interested in hearing what they learn.
-- Jim Barton
smithmillcreek.blogspot.com
**********************************************


Food and Our Future:
Hope and Solutions through Biointensive Farming
A Workshop with John Jeavons
October 23 through 25, 2008
8:00-5:00 in Dayton, Virginia:
Woodment of the World Hall
3045 John Wayland Hwy
http://www.johnjeavons.info/workshop-locations.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/13/HO126062.DTL

http://www.johnjeavons.info/register.html



All of life on Earth…depends on six-inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains!
The soil is a living organism that must be fed and nurtured to keep it feeding us. This
basic understanding is not a major focus of most current forms of conventional
agriculture. In this workshop John will share eight essential aspects of GROW
BIOINTENSIVE including: Deep Soil Preparation, Raised Beds, Composting, Intensive
Planting, Companion Planting, Carbon Farming, Calorie Farming, The Use of Open-
Pollinated Seeds, and A Whole-System Farming Method. John will also provide time for
questions and answers concerning northwest small-scale farming, long-term sustainable
soil fertility, and specific crops.

John Jeavons has directed Ecology Action’s Mini-Farming program since 1972.
He is the author of How to Grow More Vegetables, Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains
and Other Crops…, the textbook of the GROW BIOINTENSIVE (GB) Sustainable
Mini-Farming system, as well as being author, co-author and/or editor of over 30
other Ecology Action publications.

His major responsibilities include directing field
and library research and education in GB food raising. He advises biologically-
intensive projects in Mexico, Kenya, Ecuador, Russia, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan
as well as all corners of the U.S. Jeavons holds a B.A. in Political Science from
Yale University. Before coming to Ecology Action in 1971, he worked as a systems
analyst in business, government and university settings. He has received the Boise
Peace Quilt, Santa Fe Living Treasure, Giraffe, and Steward of Sustainable
Agriculture awards for public service. Click Here to Read More..

Stream Monitoring Training

SMIE* is looking for new Stream Monitoring volunteers!

Sunday, October 26th
9am-5pm
UNC-Asheville, Forks of Ivy
$15 suggested donation
($ collected at training, please don't send in advance)

The morning will be spent at UNC-Asheville, learning background information and bug ID skills, using scopes and other equipment. There will be a lunch break from 12:30-1:30pm, and the afternoon will be spent applying the new protocol in the field (doing several types of biological sampling, bug ID, and data collecting). Attendees can earn 7 hours towards Criteria III for NC Enviro. Education Certification Program.

Volunteer expectations:
· Attend the training (lunch provided, carpooling encouraged).
· Sample a minimum of 2 sites (it only takes 2-3 hours for a group to sample one site), 2 times per year.

All volunteer groups will have a group leader, who has additional training in bug identification, and a paid technician will provide oversight for quality assurance purposes. This valuable training opportunity is open to anyone interested (ages 17 and up), so please help spread the word, and take advantage of this excellent opportunity!

To RSVP, or for more information, please contact Gracia O’Neill at Clean Water for NC (828) 251-1291, or gracia@cwfnc.org

We hope to hear from you soon!

~Gracia O'Neill



*SMIE is a collaboration of several area non-profits and government agencies, coordinated by CWFNC, which has been working to develop a new volunteer stream monitoring protocol. This method is more advanced than common biological citizen monitoring methods (such as Izaak Walton League), but is still easy to follow for volunteers with no prior experience in stream monitoring. All of the data collected by volunteer groups will be shared with NC DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) to be used as a "red flag" for identifying waterways in need of additional protection. Volunteer monitoring groups will be a focal point or community interaction, promote a sense of stewardship of local waterways and empower residents to protect the quality of our mountain rivers and streams! Donations larger than the requested $15 will be gratefully accepted.


---------------------
Gracia O'Neill
Assistant Director
Clean Water for North Carolina
29 1/2 Page Ave.
Asheville, NC 28801
(828) 251-1291
www.cwfnc.org
><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º> Click Here to Read More..

22 years later

While unpacking, I found some outlet insulation. It turned out that all these years, the outlets on the outside walls hadn't been insulated.

Here's the during picture:










And a close-up of the insulation outlet thingie:

And after:











This all seems pretty simple, but it reminds me that I spent the summer of 1986 doing this in Santa Cruz. Funded by Pacific Gas and Electric, a team of 20 students and recent graduates earned $12/hour visiting EVERY house in the City of Santa Cruz that had an electric or gas meter. If the resident (homeowner or renter) wanted, we did a quick energy audit, installed some outlet covers, covered their hot water heater, gave tips, left materials, and let them know how they could get further work done.

(and according to
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
that's $24 in 2008

(We did this for about four months, which means the labor cost would have been
40 hours*12 $/hour*20 people * 13 weeks = $125,000 in 1986 dollars for paid labor,
and a quarter million dollars in today's money (figure one to two million dollars total for admin support, materials & labor).

I wish I could tell you what the cost per watt saved ($/negawatt) was, but I've called the city of Santa Cruz and PGE and the report seems to have been lost. More than one person has said that getting info out of PGE is like pulling teeth.

And what does this have to do with the coming wave of unemployment, high heating bills, and the need to retrofit US housing stock to work towards reduced carbon emissions so that we can get our atmosphere to 350 parts per million of carbon?

I'll let you make that connection.
But here's a link or two to look at in the meantime.
***************************

If you want to buy some of these, they cost 33 cents each.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=96193-1410-OS6H&lpage=none

They might also have them at
http://www.ashevillehardware.com/householdhardware.html Click Here to Read More..

What Happens to a Common Life Destroyed?

Does it fester, or just shrivel up like a raisin in the sun?
********************

In response to a blog entry on the credit/financial meltdown by David Houlihan at
http://www.evolutionshift.com/blog/2008/10/15/the-collapse-of-the-third-economic-wave
I wrote this response:

Great column! In all the many words I’ve read the last two weeks, I haven’t heard anyone talk about how this affects the three different generations you mentioned.

I’m noticing that young people seem to like Derrick Jensen’s eco-doomsterism. One thing I was thinking about yesterday was how our failure to confront global warming affects our collective mood.

During the 80’s I could sense people shrinking into their cocoons as talk of nuclear winter increased. Christopher Lasch pointed out that a downside of anti-nuclear organizing was a psychic numbing in the general populace as we collectively said no (in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America) to omnicide.

There was a brief opportunity to breathe easier in 1988 as the cold war rapidly and unexpectedly wound down. Then the announcement of global warming we started a twenty year game that was a combination of Chicken and “Who Wants to Bell the Cat?”.

I can’t help but think that this common evasion of a problem is affecting our global family. It isn’t the case that a family ignoring an alcholic parent doesn’t know about it– to the contrary, a tremendous amount of energy is spent in the labor of Active Denial.

What happens when all the tens of millions of people in the industrial world who DID mobilize to reduce the risk of nuclear war pretend that global warming isn’t a problem, even thought they were concerned and civic enough to create a successful anti-nuclear movement?

I think there might be some interplay between your excellent post and my comments. I’d love to hear thoughts on this

Click Here to Read More..

Global Green Jobs

From the website:

Green Jobs: Toward Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World

In partnership with the Worldwatch Institute, the Cornell Global Labor Institute co-authored a groundbreaking study on green jobs. Commissioned by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) under the joint 'Green Jobs Initiative' with the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Trade Union Confereration (ITUC) and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE), the report is the first comprehensive report to analyze the current level and projected growth of green jobs on a global scale.

The report highlights the positive connections between stabilizing the climate and job growth. While a transition to cleaner, most sustainable forms of energy will cause a reduction in employment for carbon intensive industries, overall this transition will likely result in a net gain of employment. Moreover, the cost of not acting or being slow to act will have even greater negative consequences on the economy and jobs.

Some key findings of the report are:

• Renewable energy jobs- now at over 2.3 million- are rapidly expanding
• By 2030, wind and solar could reach upwards of 8 million jobs by 2030
• During the next two decades, public and private investment for retrofitting or weatherizing buildings could add 3.5 million jobs in the European Union and United States.
  
• "Clean tech" investment reached $148 billion in 2007, up 60 percent from 2006

The report emphasizes that green jobs will need to be scaled up dramatically in order to address the two most pressing issues facing humanity- climate change and the employment crisis- and highlights policies across the globe that have stimulated investment in the green economy and created new jobs.For the full report, click Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World.

Click Here to Read More..

Two more economic indicators

Cancelled classes and seasonal hiring

A friend tells me that a class she's teaching that always fills up only has one student signed up, and will likely be cancelled.

A clerk at Barnes and Noble tells me that they aren't interviewing or hiring for the Christmas season. "We have a stack of applications this thick", she gestures with her fingers an inch apart.

This is going to be a cold winter. Click Here to Read More..

A short talk and film on nuclear power, 1977

Hi-
I'll be talking at this event about how this event shaped my life and jumpstarted the antinuclear movements against power plants AND weapons.
******************************

NO NUKES, NO COAL, NO KIDDING!

CALLING ALL CLAMS -- and anyone interested in non-violent direct
action...and energy issues... this 90 minute film is original footage,
remastered for the 30th anniversary -- of 1414 people taking over a
nuclear power plant construction site -- in 1977, in New Hampshire. They
did not cooperate with arrest -- and did not give their names, doing
massive "jail solidarity" for more than a week, while held in armories
and other large warehouse type settings. This is an amazing story -- and
now that that the nuclear industry is BACK and asking our region to take
the new nukes (15 new reactors are already in some phase of licensing in
the Southeast)...

"CLAMS" -- or those who were part of the Clamshell Alliance that did
this mobilization -- are coming to share their stories -- if you are a
Clam, come too!
Likely NIRS will screen this film again later in the season, since
several Clams that live locally already have sent "regrets" !

WHAT: Seabrook 1977 film -- "remastered"
WHERE: Firestorm Cafe and Books -- on Commerce St --just around the
corner from the light at Patton and Coxe -- diagonally across the street
(towards Patton) from the Coxe Post Office
WHEN: Monday October 13 at 7:30 pm -- discussion after
WHY: In part to support FIRESTORM -- nice menu of vegan wraps,
sandwiches and salads... coffee bar, baked goodies -- this is a worker
(activist) owned business -- come eat dinner!
*...and to revive the previous generations of anti-nuclear activists
while welcoming and CELEBRATING the 4th generation as they rise!

*More info:

Mary Olson
NIRS Southeast Regional Coordinator
Nuclear Information & Resource Service
PO Box 7586 Asheville, NC 28802
nirs@main.nc.us www.nirs.org
828-675-1792
new cell -- 828-242-5621 (no signal at my office)


Nuclear Information & Resource Service
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340,
Takoma Park, MD 20912
tel: 301-270-NIRS (301-270-6477);
fax: 301-270-4291
e-mail nirsnet@nirs.org Click Here to Read More..

Building a Sustainable Local Food Economy in North Carolina

This came across my email:
************************************
Building a Sustainable Local Food Economy in North Carolina:
From Farm-to-Fork
March 2 and 3, 2009 Statewide Summit

We are pleased to announce that over the next year, the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (www.cefs.ncsu.edu) has been funded to reach out across the state and together with our partners ask: What will it take to build a sustainable local food economy in North Carolina?

From the mountains to the coast, various organizations are promoting and implementing exciting initiatives to support our state and communities through sustainable local agriculture. Examples include new farmer’s markets, local food policy councils, comprehensive county- or region-based food initiatives, farm incubator programs, farm and/or garden youth education programs, health and nutrition projects focused on local sustainable foods, procurement initiatives by large retail and institutional buyers and schools, and much more.

If each North Carolinian spent 25 cents/day on local food (just 2.5 percent of the $3600.00 that we spend on average on food consumption per year), it would mean $792 million for the state’s economy. That money circulates here in the state so has a multiplier effect, rather than going to a corporate headquarters in another state.

Other benefits of a sustainable local food economy in North Carolina include economic development, job creation within farming and food sectors, preservation of open space, decreased use of fossil fuel and associated carbon emissions, preservation and protection of the natural environment, increased consumer access to fresh and nutritious foods, and greater food security for all North Carolinians.

Over the next year, CEFS and its partners will be gathering information from across food system sectors: conducting regional meetings, targeted issues discussions, interviews, and hosting a statewide summit on March 2 and 3, 2009. Our desired result is a Statewide Action Plan for Building the Local Food Economy with specific steps (short- and long-term) that policy makers, Universities, government agencies, environmental organizations, businesses, funding agencies, social activists, NGOs and citizens can take to make this happen.

The first three regional meetings have been set and are to be held in:

Raleigh, North Carolina: October 14, 8:30-11:30 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at 3313 Wade Avenue.

Burgaw, North Carolina: October 21, 1:30-4:30, Pender County Cooperative Extension office, 801 South Walker Street

Ashville, North Carolina: November 12, 1:30-4:30 at the NC Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way.

The purpose of the regional meetings is to bring together those engaged in all aspects of the food system, to collect information and ideas that will be the building blocks of discussion at the summit and eventually the core components of the State Action Plan. We want to identify specific regional and local sustainable food systems models that are working and also regional challenges that can be addressed through policies, programs, and funding. We seek to engage the broad group of those involved with the food system including farmers, suppliers, processors, economic development organizations, distributors, farm and food industry workers, extension and other educators, marketers, financial institutions, Universities and community colleges, elected officials, government agencies, county and city planners, farm organizations, anti-poverty organizers, social justice workers, consumers and consumer groups, granting agencies, health and wellness organizations, environmental groups, food banks, and more. These regional meetings will be facilitated listening sessions and provide important input into this process, so we are encouraging broad participation.

The end product–the State Action Plan–will articulate a shared vision and set of common goals for building a local, sustainable food system and economy in North Carolina. It will:

1) describe key elements of our current food system and define key terms;
2) identify the diversity of people, businesses, and organizations involved in and impacted by North Carolina’s food system;
3) highlight specific efforts and partnerships underway across our state and within different sectors of the food system to achieve greater “localness” in our food system; and
4) identify opportunities for action, and propose priorities, both in the short and long term, that will enable us to make progress toward shared goals.

Finally, another key goal of this process is the formation of an ongoing working committee or task force, with broad representation across food system sectors that will focus on facilitating and carrying out action items, provide ongoing networking opportunities, and revise the action plan as needs and priorities change.

A “Road to the State Action Plan” listserv has been established, please respond to: nancy_creamer@ncsu.edu to be added to the listserv and receive more information about the project, regional meeting dates, policy forums, summit, etc. If you or your organization is engaged in a food systems project, please take a minute to fill out the attached contact information sheet describing the nature of the work you or your organization does and email to nancy_creamer@ncsu.edu. This information will be included in a data base for all participants, and may also result in further interviews by the project team.

Please feel free to share this information with others who may be interested in becoming involved with this project. Please RSVP to nancy_creamer@ncsu.edu if possible if you are attending a regional meeting as it will help us in our planning, and check the CEFS website (www.cefs.ncsu.edu) for updates. Click Here to Read More..

Inheriting the Future

Over at her column in Mountain Xpress,
Edgy Mama has a good column on parenting in nervous times,
which echoes what I feel as an uncle:
http://www.mountainx.com/ae/2008/edgy_mama_inheriting_the_future

These are crazy times—renowned financial firms are going belly-up,
real-estate values are plunging, a conservative woman from nowhere is
poised to become vice president, and here in Asheville, we’re in the
middle of the great gas panic of 2008.

I realize that panic creates panic, and I’m not buying into the
gasoline panic. Yet. But I have found myself feeling generally unnerved
and upset by all this crazy stuff going on in the world. And I’m
worried, mostly for my kids.

Keep reading

Click Here to Read More..