Our own "checklist manifesto" for climate change

Northern Minnesota's Iron Range, late October

Photo by J. Harrington

October 12, even in Minnesota, should not require the phrase "wind chill." Today it does. The temperature's in the mid-30s but a stiff breeze makes it feel like the upper 20s. We even got flurried on! Okay, it was only three or five flakes, and we still remember the several feet of snow that came with the last millennium's "Halloween Blizzard," but, still, .... So, we're extremely grateful to have a warm, relatively windproof, house to come back into after walking our dogs.

scarlet maple with whitetail

Photo by J. Harrington

Some of the maple trees in the neighborhood are 100% peak color, bright orange/yellow/scarlet. Others, like the youngish maples in front of the house, are just beginning to show color. The wet, cool to cold weather we've had this Autumn has not been helpful in bringing out leaf colors. Plus, the wind the past few days has stripped even a number of oak leaves from the trees. If we don't get an extended Indian Summer, or early Spring, it's going to be a long Winter. The folks West of here, in eastern North Dakota, are reported to have about 17" of snow on the ground. More crazy weather. Due to climate change?

We're now about one-fourth of the way through the report Climate Change Needs Behavior Change. We were please to see that much of the content derives from the work of Project Drawdown. Thirty of Drawdown's solutions, in four sectors, were identified as being particularly reliant to changes in people's behavior. We've decided to turn those solutions into a sort of checklist and report on where we personally have, or could, change our behavior. (Some of our approach goes back to having read The Checklist Manifest several years ago.)

Today we'll list the four solutions in the food sector. Then we'll go through another sector a day in upcoming posts. You could create your own checklist and see how your climate footprint looks.

FOOD

Numbers are Optimum Scenario Ranking

1 . Reduced food waste — Minimizing food loss and wastage throughout the food supply chain from harvest to consumption

We need to work on this. Our most noteworthy failure comes under the "Compost" heading below. Perhaps waste minimization could enhance the success of composting.

2 . Plant-rich diets — Eating more plant-based foods and fewer animal proteins and products (e .g ., meat, dairy)

The Better Half, the Daughter Person and the Son-In-Law have been moving in this direction with greater alacrity than yr. obs. svt. Old Mr. "Meat and Potatoes" will start exploring Meatless Monday recipes and see if he can get with the program.

13 . Clean cookstoves — Using cookstoves that burn fuel more efficiently

We're not sure this is at all relevant but admit we need to read a more detailed description.

25 . Composting — Converting biodegradable waste into a useful soil fertilizer instead of sending it to the landfill

We started composting a few years ago. The bins were/are located several (unshoveled) Winter snow drifts from the house and we failed to adequately turn the bins in the Summer. The next effort was a "tumblr" bin which was even further from the house to minimize visits from the local ursine population. The entire exercise did sensitize some of us to just how much food we waste. Also, we lacked an adequate plan on what to do with any "finished compost." This action requires additional infrastructure, organization and planning.

Women Whose Lives are Food, Men Whose Lives are Money

By Joyce Carol Oates

Mid-morning Monday she is staring

peaceful as the rain in that shallow back yard

she wears flannel bedroom slippers

she is sipping coffee

she is thinking—

                            —gazing at the weedy bumpy yard

at the faces beginning to take shape

in the wavy mud

in the linoleum

where floorboards assert themselves

Women whose lives are food

breaking eggs with care

scraping garbage from the plates

unpacking groceries hand over hand

Wednesday evening: he takes the cans out front

tough plastic with detachable lids

Thursday morning: the garbage truck whining at 7

Friday the shopping mall open till 9

bags of groceries unpacked

hand over certain hand

Men whose lives are money

time-and-a-half Saturdays

the lunchbag folded with care and brought back home

unfolded Monday morning

Women whose lives are food

because they are not punch-carded

because they are unclocked

sighing glad to be alone

staring into the yard, mid-morning

mid-week

by mid-afternoon everything is forgotten

There are long evenings

panel discussions on abortions, fashions, meaningful work

there are love scenes where people mouth passions

sprightly, handsome, silly, manic

in close-ups revealed ageless

the women whose lives are food

the men whose lives are money

fidget as these strangers embrace and weep and mis-

            understand and forgive and die and weep and embrace

and the viewers stare and fidget and sigh and

begin yawning around 10:30

never made it past midnight, even on Saturdays,

watching their braven selves perform

Where are the promised revelations?

Why have they been shown so many times?

Long-limbed children a thousand miles to the west

hitch-hiking in spring, burnt bronze in summer

thumbs nagging

eyes pleading

Give us a ride, huh? Give us a ride?

and when they return nothing is changed

the linoleum looks older

the Hawaiian Chicken is new

the girls wash their hair more often

the boys skip over the puddles

in the GM parking lot

no one eyes them with envy

their mothers stoop

the oven doors settle with a thump

the dishes are rinsed and stacked and

by mid-morning the house is quiet

it is raining out back

or not raining

the relief of emptiness rains

simple, terrible, routine

at peace 

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