Hands on Practical Experience

A friend and workshop graduate sent me a news article that described and linked to primary research published last month in a journal called Communications Sustainability within the family of Nature journals. The journal article: The undervalued quality-of-life benefits of demand-side energy and climate strategies. The news article in plain language: Cutting energy use may improve quality of life more than cleaner technology. The news article described the main result of the journal article. It compared how people felt about acting on different strategies to reduce polluting and depleting. Some strategies reduced behaviors that polluted and depleted or otherwise used less (demand-side strategies). Others relied on new technologies, like heat pumps and electric vehicles (supply side strategies). When different strategies achieved similar environmental results, how did…

Nearly everyone I tell that I don't use a fridge responds, "You must shop every day," or asks how often I shop, implying that they think it must be frequently. I've been answering by pointing out that apples and eggplants don't need refrigeration, nor do most whole fruits and vegetables. Most of the produce in this picture will stay edible for weeks without refrigeration. Several will keep months or longer if fermented. Meanwhile, look at the second picture below. Nearly all the produce in the picture below will start decomposing as soon as they aren't refrigerated. They're worse in nearly every way: less fresh, more polluting, more fragile, more depleting, etc. Notice that you can't directly see or touch produce or anything living. In the…