jbetzzall’s Recent Comments

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  Our household has washed and reused plastic produce bags for over ten years--we dry them on a wooden pole-rack (dowels held in a cone shape by two wooden disks). They last on average 3-4 uses before developing holes or otherwise needing to be recycled. For produce we're moving to use nylon fine-mesh bags that are more or less infinitely reusable and for bulk items (like flour, nuts, etc) we use large peanut butter jars (take a tare weight first) that then can store the items in our pantry without repackaging. A little extra preparation effort makes a substantial difference for the earth.

  On Just say no to disposable bags -- here are alternatives posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago 6 Responses

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  Heather Trim of the Green Bag campaign was quoted several days before the election predicting this result; it's exceedingly difficult to overcome such one-sided money imbalances. What's even more interesting is the pseudo-populist tactics used by the big-oil lobbyists. Their mailers and website both listed a large number of "ordinary people" identified by name and occupation as a way of humanizing themselves. Many were listed as "housewife" or "retired". Perhaps the next campaign should learn from this tactic and turn it against the big-money bullies. Surely we are better at generating real grass-roots support; let's think of a more effective way of demonstrating it.

  On Seattle voters toss disposable bag fee posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago 8 Responses

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  Sustainable Ballard demonstrated today

  This morning about 150 people gathered in a public square at the heart of Ballard, one of Seattle's better-known neighborhoods, to kick off "Get Carbon Neutral", to "empower Ballard to become the first Carbon-Neutral community in the nation". Speakers included several municipal, county, state and national politicians, as well as a dozen businesspeople who were recognized for making progress toward carbon-neutrality. For more info, go here: http://achievenetgreen.com/SpecialEvents.php
  Cheerio!  Jonathan Betz-Zall, Seattle WAOn Bill McKibben sends dispatches from a global-warming march posted 3 years, 2 months ago 2 Responses

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  a more permanent approach

  I'm sure the students also appreciated not shelling out big bucks for the textbook. My approach, which I learned in the Environment and Community program at Antioch University Seattle, is to use a selection of trade books; they have the permanence of paper and relatively low cost, and can easily be supplemented with web resources. Permanence is desirable after the course is over, in case students want to go back and reflect more on what they may have just skimmed in the course. As you mentioned, web sites can be ephemeral, though the Wayback Machine can help recover some of them. Cheerio!  JonathanOn My year of teaching environmental science without a textbook posted 3 years, 6 months ago 11 Responses

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  Children's music

  The album you remember is called "Philadelphia Chickens".
  As a former children's librarian who currently collects "green" songs for children I'd be very interested to hear other people's recommendations. My current favorites are Sarah Pirtle http://www.gentlewind.com/perform.htm and a duo called "Magpie", which performs a very catchy number  titled "Shut off the water, [Don't let it run]" on their "Circle of Life" album http://www.magpiemusic.com/mag_rec.htm
  Cheerio!  JonathanOn Curious George and Jack Johnson posted 3 years, 6 months ago 8 Responses