Newsletter: Earth Day 50th Anniversary Edition, April 2020
Denis Hayes, now President of the Bullitt Foundation in Seattle, is credited with organizing the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Photo: CWH/Associated Press
Fifty years ago, environmental abominations like the Cuyahoga River fires and runaway air pollution led to the creation of the Clean Water and Clean Air acts–and to the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.
Who would’ve thought we’d be experiencing the 50th anniversary of Earth Day from our homes, coping with the dangerous COVID-19 pandemic? Today, “Happy Earth Day” is overshadowed by the mantras “Stay Safe” and “Be Well,” and hundreds of environmental events have been cancelled. However, the challenges we’ve been facing sheltering in place are good reminders to never waste anything. Not food, not electricity and gas. Not water.
In my Spring 2020 newsletter, you can read the opinion-editorial I wrote for the Austin American-Statesman, Where To Celebrate Earth Day’s 50th? Right At Home.
The 50th anniversary of Earth Day lands on a Wednesday, so it’s a good time to commit to trying new ways to use less stuff every week.
For ideas, check out the cool, sharable gifs at WasteLessWednesday.org. See a great example below with the “Seas the Day” gif about single-use plastic bags. In this newsletter, you can also catch a sneak peek at my new book, Green-ish: How To Protect the Environment Without Hugging a Tree and check out From the Road, my report covering my favorite events of the past several months–before and after all the COVID-19 cancellations.
Stay safe, be well, and Happy Earth Day!
Where To Celebrate Earth Day’s 50th? Right At Home
By Valerie Salinas-Davis, Published by the Austin American Statesman April 21, 2020
One day before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, The New York Times posted a March 10 story, “Where to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day.”
The article highlighted “three big-ticket events perhaps worth traveling for”– the Food Is Life Festival in Napa, California, the Earth Optimism Summit in Washington, DC, and EarthX in Dallas.
Like South By Southwest (SXSW) and school classes, these events have either been cancelled, postponed, or gone digital. Locally, the Earth Day Austin festival has been postponed. It’s painful to think of the related financial implications, and my heart goes out to the organizers, especially those with EarthX, which last year drew 170,000 participants to Dallas Fair Park.
Though I’ve enjoyed speaking at and attending Earth Day conferences, I can’t help but ask: Do we really need “big ticket” expos and the associated footprint and travel to celebrate the environment?
As flat-out awful and worrisome as this pandemic has been, COVID-19 is forcing the business world and Earth’s inhabitants to rethink the way we do things, and there will be silver linings. The crisis can yield breakthroughs on policies for improved health care coverage, paid sick leave, and telecommuting. Our new heroes are those who previously we may have taken for granted–doctors, nurses, grocery store employees, garbage collectors, truckers, mail carriers, and telecommunications and utility workers.
Job loss, shuttered businesses, and sheltering in place have caused Austin’s once congested byways to become eerily vacant. As terrible a mountain as we have to climb, let the empty streets serve as a reminder that transportation is responsible for a quarter of our greenhouse gas emissions. Let the potential for escalating home utility bills due to being confined to our homes remind us of the importance of conserving energy and water. Let the empty grocery shelves remind us never to waste food. Let our threatened economic future remind us wasting stuff wastes money.
Let the unfortunate cancellations of Earth Day festivals (and the unnecessary chachka giveaways) remind us we don’t need big expos to learn how to protect the environment on the daily. Conferences of all kinds are going digital, and maybe that’s a good thing because we sidestep the environmental footprint and make information more accessible. EarthX has partnered with the National Geographic Society to provide virtual forums now through April 27 via EarthX.org. The Earth Optimism event planned for DC is now digital, streaming information from high-profile speakers April 22-26 online at EarthOptimism.si.edu. I’ll be tuning in and you can too.
The 50th anniversary of Earth Day lands on a Wednesday, so while we’re stuck at home, leverage the occasion to commit every Hump Day to trying new ways to consistently reduce your waste. Visit WasteLessWednesday.org for simple, sharable ideas like brewing your coffee with reusable instead of paper filters, and refusing condiments, disposable utensils, and paper napkins you don’t need in your takeout orders.
You may have seen recent reports that due to COVID-19 concerns, some states are lifting plastic bag bans and not allowing shoppers to bring reusable bags into their stores. HEB still allows reusable bags in their stores, but not at curbside pickup. Let this be a reminder to all of us that we should wash our reusable bags regularly (preferably after every trip to the store), and that sometimes disposables are necessary in this world. Just remember to recycle them, including your single-use plastic bags.
Like with the Great Depression, coping with COVID-19 is teaching us to never waste anything. (Who else is counting their toilet paper squares lately, by the way?) Let the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22 remind us conserving our natural resources is just good, common sense. And we can start at home. Because what choice do we have?
It was an honor to see Congressman Lloyd Doggett share my op-ed and #WasteLessWednesday on #EarthDay50!
A COVID-19 Quandary Solved: Single-Use Plastic Versus Reusable Grocery Bags?
See more sharable gifs like this and register to learn more at WasteLessWednesday.org.
You may have seen recent reports of some states and local governments putting single-use bag bans on hold to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. I talked to Texas grocer HEB, and they still allow reusable bags.
“At this time the CDC has not issued guidance that reusable bags are a vehicle for spreading COVID-19, or that switching to single-use plastic bags will slow the spread,” said HEB spokesperson Felicia Peña.
Let this be an excellent reminder, whether we’re dealing with a pandemic or not, to wash our reusable bags more regularly–preferably after every trip to the store. Sometimes we need to use disposables, like single-use plastic bags. Just remember to recycle them. Most curbside programs don’t collect plastic bags, but some 18,000 retailers like HEB take them back for recycling. I’m hoping these plastic bag bans will be reinstated once we get through the worst of the pandemic. Now is not the time to permanently relax environmental rules and protections.
Worried about how COVID-19 might get on your other stuff, like your clothes, newspapers, and shoes? Here’s a helpful and pragmatic Q&A from The New York Times. I love how so many newspapers have opened their paywalls so readers can access important COVID-19 news.
I’ve been writing my book Green-ish entirely outdoors, including from a beach in Akumal, Mexico, in February.
Green-ish: How To Protect the Environment Without Hugging A Tree
My writing mascot, Chapu.
Meet “Chapulín” (or Chapu for short) a grasshopper sculpted out of banana leaves–and my writing mascot for Green-ish.
As I began this book in Tulum, Mexico, in 2019, a cheerful Maya boy about 4 years old walked into the Aguachiles restaurant and sold this simple work of art to my wife for a few pesos.
The boy had a face I’ll never forget. Cute, for sure, but badly burned. At the time, I was just finishing my chapter on “The State of Air,” which includes a section on how, globally, solid fuels–including those used for cook stoves–are some of the most harmful sources of indoor air pollution for some 3 billion people. Burns happen, and carbon monoxide trapped indoors contaminates lungs, the bloodstream, and other organs. This seems hard to imagine, since nearly all of us in the United States cook on well-ventilated electric or gas ranges.
Tulum is in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, which today is still home to about 1 million indigenous Maya people, many of whom today still rely on solid fuels like wood, coal, or kerosene for their cook stoves. I could be wrong, but I believe Chapu’s highly effective young salesman was probably burned by one of these cook stoves.
Chapulín means grasshopper in Spanish, so that’s what my wife and I named our banana-leaf sculpture and Green-ish mascot. Every day, I place Chapu on the table as I write the book–entirely outdoors, not just in Tulum, but also in Akumal (Yucatán), Big Bend National Park, and on my own screened-in porch at our “enviro-hacienda” south of Austin, Texas.
Today, Chapulín’s no longer a verdant green–but rather, Green-ish–and forever a poignant reminder of how much we need to understand and protect the environment. But we don’t have to hug a tree. We can Go Green-ish.
My book has hundreds of tips for the “everyday environmentalist,” organized by Home & Garden, Getting Around, Going Out, Fashion & Beauty, and Travel. Here’s a sneak peek from the Basics of Going Green-ish section:
Top 10 Ways to Go Green-ish
Try not to buy more produce and perishable food than you can consume in a week.
Choose products with less packaging.
Refuse bags, napkins, straws, and condiments when you don’t need or want them. And when we’re free to move about the country and not working so hard to support our local restaurants during COVID-19, try not to order so much takeout. Eat at the restaurant.
Turn off the water indoors and outdoors unless you really need it, and fix leaks.
Recycle what you can when you can, but don’t junk up the process by throwing the wrong stuff in the bin. If in doubt, throw it out.
Next time you’re car shopping, chose something that consumes less gas. Drive less, and give someone else a ride. Walk, bike, take transit, and telecommute if and when you can. (Thanks to sheltering in place, we’ve become pros at telecommuting already.)
Lower your AC or heat.
Ask yourself before you buy: Do I really need that? Buy fewer things.
Got some stuff you don’t want anymore? Sell it, or better yet, donate it to charity. My favorite is Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which takes nearly everything you might want to chunk, as long as it’s in pretty good shape. And while you’re donating at ReStore, go inside and buy something you can reuse. During COVID-19, the Austin area ReStores are open Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday, noon-6 p.m. You can play it safe by shopping the ReStore online here.
The only “don’t” on this list: Don’t judge. Do what you can, come up with some solutions of your own (the lists are endless), share ideas, and move on with the rest of your busy lives.
Note To Readers: If you’ve got some favorite environmental tips, send them on to me for possible inclusion in Green-ish. I’m working on the last 75 percent of the manuscript and still have time to include ideas from you I may not have considered. If included, I’ll give you credit.
From The Road
Since my October 2019 newsletter, I’ve enjoyed experiencing some rewarding events and travel–from the Texas Book Festival to a week of writing at Big Bend National Park. I’ve also shared the disappointments of cancellations due to COVID-19, including South By Southwest. I was set to judge the SXSW Innovations Awards, and participate with fellow board members and businesses in the Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce all-day Official SXSW event. Here’s a look at the twists and turns From The Road.
It was a packed house at the W Hotel in Austin for the Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce’s Winter Gala in December. Thanks to my friends at Texas Diabetes & Endocrinology for sponsoring a table!
Participants as young as age 12 got to act out a Mock City Council Meeting at Austin City Hall in January. This was the first of the Advocacy Committee events planned for 2020 by the Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce. Thanks City Council Member Jimmy Flannigan for helping to make this happen, and for Chamber Executive Director Tina Cannon for moderating. Look for a webinar or live event on the pending Supreme Court decision related to incorporating LGBTQ+ protections (Title VII) into the Civil Rights Act, and what it means to your business or employer. The Supreme Court is hearing Spring cases virtually, so we expect to hear something between now and July. And some predict sooner rather than later. We’ll be ready!
The Book Fair at the annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference is usually packed. Held March 4-7 at the enormous Henry B. González Convention Center in San Antonio, the AWP Conference was one of the last big events to happen before all the COVID-19 cancellations. Attendees had the option of not attending and applying their registration fees to next year’s conference, but since I’m just up the road from San Antonio I armed myself with plenty of hand sanitizer and attended. As you can see, a lot of exhibitors, attendees, and panelists chose to opt out. There was still plenty to see and learn. My favorite session was, “Not Your Parents’ Nature Walk,” which helped me think about refreshing, new angles on environmental writing. Of course I got to enjoy some great San Antonio food before all the restaurants closed. My favorites are Zinc and La Fonda on Main. I attended my first AWP conference in Portland, Oregon, last year, and have found it to be very helpful in learning how the book publishing world operates.
Speaking of the book world, I enjoyed serving as a first-time volunteer at the Texas Book Festival in October 2019. It was a beautiful fall day at the Capitol Grounds in Austin, and I got to help out in the Kirkus Reviews tent during the session, “Writing The Civil Rights Movement.” That’s the daughter of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, Sharon Robinson (in sun glasses), author of “Child Of The Dream.”
The biennial statewide conference of the League of Women Voters of Texas was supposed to happen last weekend at the Crowne Plaza in Austin. Instead, due to COVID-19, some 200 delegates from 35 Texas leagues convened for six hours via a successful Zoom conference on Saturday, April 18. I got the privilege of serving as one of 22 Austin delegates, and loved learning about and helping to shape the Texas LWV’s advocacy platform, addressing issues such as immigration, mail-in voting, redistricting, and climate change. By the way the Texas LWV recently declared a victory: Judge Rules COVID-19 As a ‘Disability’ Reason For Needing a Mail-In Ballot. We’ll see what happens next in the courts when it comes to mail-in ballots in 2020. I’m glad to be an advocate during these roller coaster times.
Going Green-ish in Big Bend National Park
This was my office with a view for about a week when I got to work on Green-ish outdoors and hike in Big Bend National Park.
Hiking Big Bend with my wife Millie, dog Sancha, and longtime friend Andie Berry from Boulder, Colorado.
Shelter-In-Place Diversions
During the six-hour League of Women Voters virtual convention, I cast some 25 votes—while finishing this puzzle and making this eggplant lasagna from scratch. Puzzles and cooking aside, my favorite show during quarantine? Better Call Saul. Books I’ve listened to on Audible while on lock-down: Sula (Toni Morrison), Burn the Place (Iliana Regan), Walden (Henry David Thoreau), A Woman Like Her: The Story Behind the Honor Killing of a Social Media Star (Sanam Maher), My Oxford Year (Julia Whelan), and The Sympathizer (Viet Thanh Nguyen). My favorite of the bunch: Burn the Place, a riveting memoir by the chef behind the Michelin-star-rated Chicago restaurant Elizabeth, named for her late sister. I thought the Pulitzer-winning Sympathizer was a little hard to get through but loved the writing more than the storyline. Be sure to check out Nguyen’s soliloquy to the foot in Chapter 20. I’ve just started the memoir, Miss Aluminum, by Susanna Moore.
You may recall My One Year Bender … On Audible blog with my reviews of some 40 books. Other titles I’ve since read (besides my quarantine reads above): Uncanny Valley (Anna Wiener), The Giver of Stars (Jojo Moyes), Me Before You (Jojo Moyes), Find Me (André Aciman), The Things We Cannot Say (Kelly Rimmer), Like A Love Story (Abdi Nazemian), Ordinary Grace (William Kent Krueger), Chelsea Girls (Eileen Myles), Heavy (Kiese Laymon), The Dutch House (Ann Patchett), Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret & Me (Adrienne Brodeur), The Book of Eating: Adventures in Professional Gluttony (Adam Platt), All This Could Be Yours (Jami Attenberg), and Red, White & Royal Blue (Casey McQuiston). I’ve gotta say the memoirs Heavy and Wild Game were super compelling, and I adored the fictional gay fluff that’s Red, White & Royal Blue.
Spring Not Cancelled
Here in Central Texas, COVID-19 didn’t stop the bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush from providing a dazzling distraction. I’m still waiting for the Indian blankets though. Here’ s my dog Sancha, on our walk through the Texas Hill Country on her fourth birthday, March 27.
No matter where you are, enjoy your Spring and don’t forget to take in the beauty our world offers.
