Sunday, April 25, 2010

Earth Week

A whirlwind Earth Week in Washington and Oregon included three talks, three class visits, and four bookstore events, with some breakfast and lunch meetings sandwiched between. I kicked off Bellevue College's week of events at 9:30 Monday to a room full of wide awake people, mostly students, with excellent questions. At Olympic College in Bremerton later that day, while I awaited the onset of a talk in the rotunda of the student center and cafeteria, two students stopped and asked "What's going on here?" I told them. They said they had to get to a class but stood a moment to respond to my queries about what comes next for each: both had high ambitions---transfers to Cal Poly, University of Washington, or Seattle Pacific after finishing their two years at Olympic. Their ambitions were much on my mind as I gave my standard rap meant to engage and pump up students. After the talk, Charm Mello at the OC bookstore welcomed us and provided a lovely venue for book signings.

The next day, after my talk at Pierce College, Misty, a mom of twins, who works as a surgical tech and seeks an environmental degree, noted that her generation seems to be interested mainly in shallow things like watching football games on television rather than admitting the huge challenges they will face, like peak oil and global warming. She asked: How can we pull her detached generation into the fray? My quick response was to invite them to join you as you yourself help your community prepare to face these challenges. To become engaged in a community tackling sustainability is to put aside lassitude and denial, feel empowerment, and take one's energies and engagement to a wider circle of friends. Misty seemed intrigued.

Wednesday and Thursday were intense and highly rewarding days at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, long at the forefront of curricular innovation toward preparing engaged citizens. Here I was convinced that the checked-out syndrome of Misty's experience does not seem to apply to most of her Evergreen counterparts (though one Evergreen student in a class in organic agriculture said this: "What are we doing spending hours each day shitting-out 140 character tweets? Surely we've got better things to do with our time.") Evergreen classes I met were without exception sharply attentive and well informed. One young woman from Pennsylvania asked how it might be possible to convince conservative religious folk, especially those who see the end of times in different terms, that environmental challenges are urgent. I had no crisp response. But I did reflect on Fran Korten's story at our lunch with folk at YES! Magazine that the local food system can be an effective nexus to bring polarized and doubting people to bear on a common problem. Donna's response was: "How about telling these folk to practice the golden rule in their interactions with the natural world?"

What has so far made this tour uncommonly enriching and hopeful so far are dozens of personal stories of people, just like those in Hope and Hard Times, working on sustainability at ground zero in education, community, and business. Among these, Rob Viens at Bellevue College, K.C. McNamara at Olympic College, and Pete Kaslic at Pierce College. At Evergreen, I thank Jean MacGregor and Rob Coles for hosting us and organizing very wonderful meetings and classes. Thanks too to Nancy Parke, Stephen Bramwell, and Martha Rosemeyer for allowing me time with their students. Finally, let me share an example of an entrepreneur walking the talk in Bend, Oregon. Hayley Wright, proprietor of Between the Covers Books, a neighborhood bookseller, is valiantly bucking e-book and big box pressures by building her business to serve her neighbors with fast ordering, books her neighbors love to read, a bit of used book trade, and a slew of author events to keep folks like me on the road and to draw in readers in her domain. Hayley and her mate Troy were most gracious hosts as well! Surely a crucial part of a deep and sustainable economy are entrepreneurs like Hayley who see their role in the community as service and, in the process, win customers and build a successful business. So when you're in Bend, find Hayley!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Bellingham, Washington

A circuitous route south of the Canadian border along the Washington coast took us through Semiahmoo State Park, a lovely little spit into Semiahmoo Bay with restoration of salt grasses, protected seabird habitat (loons and egrets along the shore), and a view of Blaine WA to the north. Farther south, as we headed toward Bellingham, a huge oil refinery loomed. Partially hidden by rows of deciduous trees planted by BP to screen the reality of an industry known to be polluting air and water, there was no way to hide the stacks, including two sending orange dragon-breath bursts into the atmosphere. This is the price we pay to tool around Washington. Across the highway, BP guys and their vehicles were up to something in the wetlands, obviously mitigating the presence of this massive facility. Maybe they were helping create a wetland equal in size to the one they'd killed.

At Western Washington University, in a class visit, I was asked whether stories in the book that rank lower on the sustainability scale were so because they still had serious equity gaps. Excellent question. What I can say is that unless the gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged are narrowed, the journey toward sustainability will be forestalled. This is a problem on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and in Chattanooga where significant proportions of African Americans continue to fall behind. People were also curious about how to lessen the carbon footprint of a book tour like this. The concept of carbon offsets seemed fresh to some, as was the provider of such credits---Native Energy. I had no time, or perhaps did not have the wits, to say: "Hey folks, don't do what I do. Better you not leave a big footprint than to have to mitigate it. But if you must, never leave home without those carbon credits. Our hosts at Western, Professors Grace Wang and Bill Dietrich, were ever so generous to allow their students to beta-test the Earth Week lecture. (It still needs work.) Thanks too to Duane Jager and Christine Gibb, transplanted Ohioans, who generously accommodated us in Bellingham and showed us their progressive city. Their work here on behalf of Bellingham's civic culture and poverty alleviation is heartening. Smart, dedicated, inspiring people are at work everywhere we roam. Maybe we're witnessing Paul Hawken's "blessed unrest," a movement of ordinary folk who are finding ways toward a soft landing in these post-peak times.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Why We Love New Society


When most authors visit their publishers, it means a tedious trip to a big city, taxi fares, smoggy air, high rise buildings and high prices for everything. A trip to my publisher requires none of this. Instead, one heads deep into temperate rainforests, crosses a couple of straits (ok, requiring ferries rather than taxis), and weaves along country roads until you find a fir tree with a crook. At the end of the narrow forest road is a lovely set of cedar-sided, energy efficient buildings, including the home of publishers Chris and Judith Plant, gardens, outlying cottages, chickens, and sundry pets. Utopia? Our hosts seem to think so. Here work some dozen staff, at least half of whom I've come to know via phone and email. Without exception, they have been wonderful colleagues. In person, they are even better---dedicated to their mission of publishing books that contribute to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and, while working in ecotopia, getting along famously and productively. Beyond this, their operation on Gabriola Island BC and their products are meant to have the least possible impact on the environment. How could an author writing about sustainable communities not love these guys? Further, if you want a model of humane "human resource management" (an absolutely unsustainable and disgusting term), go to their website, www.newsociety.com/ . No matter where you work, I'd guess their terms of service are better than yours. (Sorry, no positions open now or in the future. Folks like working here too much).
On our way back to the mainland, a stop at The Commons (with thanks to EJ Hurst), made us fully aware that community-based, environmentally-focused education, arts programming, architecture, gardens and orchards, and a good tract of wild land are also part of living sanely in this lovely corner of North America. When I asked how they managed to do so much on this 26 acre commons, their response: a unique set of bylaws protecting the commons (in the old sense of the word) non-hierarchical organization, consensus decisions, and care to take on only what than they can handle. The Commons surely enriches community here. On the ferry to Nanaimo, we looked back at Gabriola Island thinking it would be a very cool place to live and work. The crystalline air, sparkling waters of the Straits of Georgia, snow-capped peaks off on eastern horizons, and the prevalence of locally owned enterprises made us envious. I realized again why I am right at home with New Society.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Tour Begins

Travelling through airports, getting crammed into "chrome cocoons," to use Fred Small's line, behaving unsustainably and implanting a huge carbon footprint, all make me blue. What matters thirty years of preaching the gospel of simple, low impact life if you cannot walk the walk? I wonder. Down every concourse on every journey like this one faces unsustainable options. At Starbucks: a few "environmentally friendly" blends at the bag o' beans shelves (actually only 20 percent seem to be organic and/or fair traded), but none at the counter. You'd think from their advertising that Starbucks could do better than this. And sitting here awaiting a connecting flight, banging away on a computer made in China, juiced by Ohio coal stored in a toxic batter, er, battery, is unspeakably irresponsible. Then there's lunch. Without the packed lunch I should have prepared in a reuseable container, I'm forced to buy a sandwich in a plastic box, not reusable, not recyclable. Woe. Whoa!

On the other hand, we're travelling to meet with folks who are (or will soon be) sustainability leaders and collaborators, especially students from seven campuses in Washington, Oregon, and California. Not to mention hanging out with good folks in BC, Washington, Oregon, and California working on sustainability every day, at New Society Publishers (a big shout-out to them), at Yes! Magazine, and in the Mattole Valley, as well as meeting new friends at six events at booksellers and gatherings in Bend, Bellingham, Bremerton, Lakewood, Olympia, and Arcata. Put that way, the trip is surely less indulgent than, say, a ski vacation to Whistler. Some consolation there. Further, to salve our guilty consciences (mine and Donna's), we've bought carbon credits for this trip from Native Energy, which is using them to install renewable energy capacity on Native America lands. In Minneapolis-St. Paul airport (MSP), I imagine a blackout. The whole operation, in my day dream, slams shut in a heartbeat, as would most of the indoor space we inhabit, in this project called civilization. Makes me think MSP ought to invest in Native Energy, right quick.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

SPRING BOOK TOUR

If you're in the Pacific Northwest, join us!

If not, follow us here.


April 12 New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island BC 10:30 am

April 14 Author event, Village Books, Bellingham WA (7 pm) Nan Macy (360-671-2626)
Preceded by reception hosted by Duane Jager (360-657-3323) (venue and time?)

April 15 Class visits, Western Washington University, (noon) Grace Wang (360-650-3278) Arntzen Hall 212; (4-5) Bill Dietrich, (360-650-3284) Communications Facility 316. Meet with Derek Long, Community Connections (time and venue?)

April 16 Lunch with editor, publisher, YES Magazine, Bainbridge Island (12:45) Rebecca Nymadie (206-842-0216)

April 19 Earth Week Lecture, Bellevue College (9:30) Rob Viens, BC Cafeteria, C130 (425-564-3158)

•Earth Week Lecture, Olympic College, Bremerton WA, followed by author event at OC Bookstore, (1-4:30 pm) Charm Mello, K.C. McNamara (360-440-5659)

April 20 •Earth Week Lecture, Pierce College, Lakewood WA, followed by author event (1-3:30 pm) Pete Kaslik (253-964-6635)

•Author event, Orca Books, Olympia WA (6 pm) Jon Quittner (360-352-0123)

April 21 Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA, class visit (9 am -12 noon) Stephen Bramwell (360-867-6702)

April 22 Evergreen State College Olympia, WA, class visit (6:15-7:45 pm) Nancy Parkes (360-867-6737)

April 23 Author event, Between the Covers Books, Bend OR (7 pm) Hayley Wright (541-385-4766)

April 24 Earth Day, Bend

April 26 Lecture, Humboldt State University, Arcata CA (5-6:30 pm) Sabra Steinberg or Krista Carroll (707-826-4291) 166 Behavioral & Social Science Bldg.

April 27 Talk and book signing, Mattole Valley at MRC, Petrolia CA (Noon) Flora Brain (707-629-3514)

  • Author event, Northtown Books, Arcata CA ( 5 -7 pm) Dante (707-822-2834)

April 29 Southern Oregon University, Ashland/Medford, class visits (10, 2, 5:15), Pat Acklin (541-522-6786)


Contacts:

Ted Bernard

bernard@ohio.edu 740-590-6018

EJ Hurst, New Society Publishers

EJ@newsociety.com

250-247-9737/121