Elizabeth Sawin’s Posts

• All Together Now

  Community and sustainability go hand in hand 0

  Posted 6 years, 6 months ago

  Some years ago, I was part of a group that set out to create a community where we could work toward living with less impact on the environment. One of the first steps we took was to write down a list of principles to guide us as we worked to turn our vision into reality. At the top of the list were "community" and "sustainability." (The others, if you're curious, were "unity," "beauty," and "equity.")

  

  The village people: Cobb Hill community members.

  Photo: Cobb Hill Cohousing.

  As I was one of… Read More

• Burden of Proof

  What we don't know about the toxic chemicals in our bodies 0

  Posted 6 years, 8 months ago

  Scientists call the accumulation of chemical contaminants (such as PCBs, mercury, and pesticides) within a person's body the "body burden." Body burden is just a number, a concentration in parts per billion or micrograms per liter. But the term calls forth an image, too, of a body bent over and struggling beneath a heavy load. When scientists start taking about body burden, I think about real bodies -- my own and my children's.

  

  Thanks to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we have a better sense than ever… Read More

• The Best Defense

  On staying sane in a mad world 0

  Posted 6 years, 11 months ago

  A Czech friend of mine sent me an email during the recent NATO summit in Prague as American fighter jets stood by and riot police filled the streets. "Sometimes," she wrote, "I feel as though the world has gone mad." Her words spoke my own thoughts so clearly it was as though I were reading a message I'd sent to myself.

  

  Quiet riot police.

  Do you sense it too -- the recklessness of this moment?

  How can people talk this way -- as though deep Earth penetrating nuclear weapons, unmanned drones, and… Read More

• Rules of the Game

  It's time to end the race to the bottom 0

  Posted 7 years ago

  Here's a simple game that makes a not-so-simple point.

  Stand in a line, with several friends. Each of you hold your right index finger out in front of your body. Now place a long stick across all of your fingers, balanced upon them. Your collective goal is to lower the stick to the ground. There is only one rule. Each finger must remain in contact with the stick at all times. If anyone's finger loses contact with the stick, you must raise the stick back to the starting level and begin again.

  According to Dennis Meadows and Linda Booth Sweeney,… Read More

• Old MacDonald Had an Idea

  Altering the market to promote sustainable farming 0

  Posted 7 years, 1 month ago

  The Aug. 16 issue of Science magazine features an ominous headline: "Dead Zone Grows." To the right of the headline is a map of the Gulf of Mexico with an irregular green stripe hugging the shoreline. This is the Dead Zone, an area of the gulf where oxygen levels are so low that most marine organisms -- including crab and shrimp -- cannot survive. A primary cause of the problem is fertilizer runoff from farms in the Mississippi River watershed. The runoff stimulates algae blooms. When the algae die, they sink to the bottom and decompose, using up oxygen in… Read More

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