We’ve been using Ridwell to recycle hard-to-recycle items like plastic bags and multilayer plastic (chip bags), plus batteries, light bulbs, plastic caps, Styrofoam, textiles, and more.

Even if you don’t have Ridwell in your area, they offer a mail-in service. You can really compress plastic and multi-layer bags: https://express.ridwell.com/get-started

Scrap metal recycling for the win! 

Tip for anyone with metal jar lids and aluminum pie plates or casserole pans: check with your local scrap metal recycling. Ours took both, along with a lot of rusted metal things left behind by the former owners of our house. We keep finding random stuff in the yard.

Photo by everdrop GmbH on Unsplash

Arizona-based artist Ann Morton has coordinated thousands of 10×10 inch double-sided fiber art flags from all 50 states and beyond for an installation at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Toward 2050 will be on display February-June 2025.

You can see some of the flags on the Toward2050AZ Instagram page. They are amazing and all so different.

I submitted a flag for the installation; you might see it if you go.

I hope the installation will get people thinking and talking about climate change and our individual and collective roles in it. It feels daunting, especially at a personal level, but there is so much that we can do. But time is of the essence. The climate is like a big ship, we can’t turn on a dime. We need to start now.

Photo by USGS on Unsplash

For the last couple of years, we have spread the gift-giving over 25 days, either using a curated Advent gift box or DIY versions. It takes the pressure off and makes every day fun. Some gifts are small, some are handmade, and most are practical. It also lets us reuse gift wrap throughout the month!

This year, we learned about reverse Advent, where you put something in a giveaway box every day during Advent. We found we could easily give up many things that can now enjoy a great second life with someone else.

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

Every year, I add to our reusable gift wrap stash by making gift wrap and gift bags with fabric that I have on hand. This year, I made bags featuring ornaments, cardinals, nutcrackers, and snowmen. 

Most of the latest bags use this pattern by HollyAnne Knight at String and Story. I love the size and the handle detail. I quilted a few bags with flannel plus cotton lining (three layers total), but for most of the bags, I just used a flannel lining, which worked great and gave the bag some structure. The bag can be made from two fat quarters or a half yard of fabric. It’s nice to mix and match fabrics for contrasting casings and handles. The only thing I changed after the first four bags was switching a square cut-out for the boxed corners. The rectangle cut-out looked good, but it was a pain in the patootie, especially when sewing with a quilted outer layer.

I also love and recommend this lined drawstring bag pattern from Melissa Mortenson at Polka Dot Chair ($4.50 for a downloadable pattern.)

I love this pattern because Melissa offers many size options and detailed cutting instructions. This year, inspired by HollyAnne, I used a taller casing and added a handle to the design.

For the last few years, we have been reusing gift wrap. I am confident with an iron so I press it when needed. (If you decide to try this, be cautious and start with low heat and maybe a pressing sheet.) We also started saving favorite gift tags more than 10 years ago. Turns out that a hang tag that says, “To Robert from Jake” can be used over and over again. Ditto with ribbon and package tie-ons. It’s a good challenge to creatively reuse wrapping materials and it’s fun to revisit old memories.

Inspired by the many watercolorists online, this year we added several hand-painted watercolor tags to our collection. I love these so much.

Final step: Changing our ways

This final step can be hard because changing our throwaway mindset can be hard. Start small and reuse what you can. Go for good-ish! If you make reusable bags or wraps, ask your family and friends to reuse or return them for a future gift.

Photo by Nathan Lemon on Unsplash

We blew past 1.5° C. That has been the goal. To keep warming down to this level. We failed. But close is good-ish and it’s still possible. In a recent Heated post, scientists shared that every fraction of a degree makes a difference. 2° C is still possible.

But we have to lay down our arms and use our heads. I read the All We Can Save anthology a few years ago and one of the editors has a new book titled What if We Get it Right?

What if we get it right? What would that look like? One of the most moving stories is one of Bren Smith, a commercial fisherman who realized that he had to stop fishing.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, on episode 7 of the What If We Get it Right? podcast explains: “He [Bren Smith] said, ‘speaking from the culture I grew up in, we’re going to have to say goodbye to some things we hold close to our heart. For me, that’s chasing fish, being on the high seas. That search and the hunt is hard for me to say goodbye to, but it is what I have to give up to make a better world for my kid. I suspect everybody on the planet is going to have their own version of something like that. It’s cultural things we’re going to have to give up. And those are the most painful.’”

She goes on to repeat Bren’s provocation: “What is it that we need to give up that we love and we don’t want to give up. But when we see the big picture, we understand the necessity of it.”

It’s hard to stop doing things. Our brains are addictive and we hate change. If you have ever tried to quit smoking, lose weight, or maintain an exercise program, you know what I’m talking about. Changing how we live to aid a distressed climate requires difficult changes and difficult conversations.

What will you stop doing? What will you give up that you love?

In his book Possible: How we Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict, William Ury writes: “Transforming conflict is some of the hardest work we humans do. It calls on us to engage when we feel tempted to attack or to avoid. It requires us to take responsibility for conflicts around us when we might prefer to remain bystanders. It requires courage, patience, and persistence.”

It’s our moment to engage. It’s our responsibility to engage. 

Learn more:

• https://www.allwecansave.earth
• 8 Dynamics — The All We Can Save Project

Books

• All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson
• What if We Get it Right: Visions of Climate Futures edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a series of essays, interviews, data, poetry, and art that could lead us to positive climate futures.
• Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard by Douglas W. Tallamy
• Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth
• The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle | Simon & Schuster
• Before It’s Gone: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change in Small-Town America  by Jonathan Vigliotti | Simon & Schuster

On Substack 

• Heated by Emily Atkin

Podcasts

• Tipping Point: The True Story of “The Limits to Growth”

This podcast traces the development of Limits to Growth research and subsequent book: this amazing three-episode series tells the story of (Dana) Donella Meadows and her fellow researchers. She knew in the late 1960s that the climate and capitalism—specifically unchecked growth—were on a collision course.

• A Matter of Degrees Podcast hosted by Dr. Leah Stokes and Dr. Katharine Wilkinson
• HEATED Podcast | Emily Atkin
• WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? Podcast hosted by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Science Fiction

• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a cautionary tale of the unintended—and potentially catastrophic—consequences of species loss.
• The Wayfarers Series by Becky Chambers is set in a universe where the Earth has been destroyed by environmental collapse.

Ah, air conditioning. I love it just as much as the next person. But it has downsides especially as the planet gets hotter. In Washington state, air conditioning used to be unusual in homes.

There are houses on our street without A/C and our upper level had no A/C until two years ago. The heat dome event in June 2021 convinced us we needed to do something after my office reached a very toasty 95 degrees. We added a mini-split heat pump for cooling and heating. As of 2023, the estimated A/C adoption in Washington State was 85% while the national average was 94% In 2000, the adoption rate in Washington was about 44%.

A recent post from Jay Inslee, Washington’s governor, shared three key stats related to energy consumption. Compared to about 1970 data:

• Washington is warming with heat waves lasting 2.1 days longer
• Washington is growing: the population is 171% larger
• A/C use is increasing: demand is 152% higher

Heat events are getting bigger and more extreme. And there’s also evidence that humans can’t handle as much heat as previously believed (sciencenews.org). More hotter days and longer heat events result in an uptick in A/C usage creating an enormous impact on the energy grid.

So what should we do? 

In the most recent heat event, we decided to try an experiment: no A/C. It was a fairly low-risk experiment because the lows were low enough to cool the house overnight and into the morning hours. We waited for the temperature outside to go below the indoor temp and then opened the windows and deployed fans. In the morning, we wait for the outside temps to approach the inside temps and close everything up.

It was a small thing to go without A/C for a few days, but small individual changes add up when reducing the load on the energy grid.

Some caveats. We have the following things in place:

• Our many windows have some type of window covering; some have more than one (e.g., wood blinds plus insulated curtains).
• Three of the four skylights in the house have retractable shades.
• Many fans, including three that fit in the windows.
• Multiple temperature gauges that make it easy to see the inside vs. outside temp
• Property with a lot of huge shade trees.
• Heat pumps which are more energy efficient (energy.gov).

Adjusting our internal thermostat? If you have ever been a transplant to Arizona, you know that it’s possible to tolerate what seem like impossible temperatures. And there’s some science behind that. This process of acclimatization has been used by athletes and in the military. Check out this article, How Our Bodies Can Adapt to Heat – The New York Times by Katharine Gammon.

Photo by Nicolas Houdayer on Unsplash

I loved seeing this recent NPR story: For more eco-friendly holiday wrapping, some turn to the Japanese art of furoshiki. I love wrapping presents and I’m trying to do it more mindfully. For the past few years, I’ve made reusable fabric gift wraps and bags. I reuse tags and have sturdy versions that hold up year after year. Those plus a collection of Amazon gift bags have made gift wrapping much more sustainable.

I made a few furoshiki-style wraps and those are incredibly versatile. I plan to add a few more to the mix.

Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash

We love these beautiful black and orange birds. The Oriole of the West! And they love peanuts. They are super shy but not so shy that they don’t ask for peanuts with their plaintive cry. I’ve started carrying peanuts in my pockets for them, and we check their hangouts in the shrubs. Almost every day, they come by to ask for peanuts. They hop across the porch and even look through the back door. They know we have the goods.

Like their much larger cousins, the Stellar’s Jays, peanuts seem to be the Towhees’ preferred food, and they are happy to dodge the squirrels to scoop up treats.

Photo by Lance Reis on Unsplash

Climate change has impacted gardeners everywhere and has changed how home gardeners approach their activities and maintain their landscapes. Rising temperatures, unpredictable weather patterns, and increasing droughts and wildfires are some climate change impacts that have affected gardening where I live in the Pacific Northwest United States.

This got me thinking about carbon sinks. A carbon sink is a natural or human-made system that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it, helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Peat bogs are a natural carbon sink, and that’s part of the reason that many gardeners are moving away from a dependence on peat moss as a soil amendment. A carbon sink is an ecosystem or process that reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by sequestering it in organic matter, such as plants and soil. The cool thing is that this can be done on a small scale!

You can create a carbon sink in your yard by:

1. Planting native trees and shrubs that are well adapted to the region and can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

2. Composting yard waste and food scraps to produce nutrient-rich soil that can sequester carbon dioxide.

3. Using cover crops to keep the soil healthy and protect it from erosion.

4. Reducing lawn size to a usable size and replacing it with native plants and vegetables.

5. Using low-carbon gardening techniques, such as drip irrigation, hand watering and organic fertilizers, to minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

The carbon offset for a gardener like me varies depending on the size of the garden, the types of plants and practices used, and the location. But a well-managed garden of one acre or less can potentially sequester several tons of carbon dioxide per year, helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Want to learn more? Check out these articles: 

• How to turn your garden into a carbon sink – BBC Future

• Five Steps to Making Your Garden a Carbon Sink – JSTOR Daily

• The Hidden Carbon Trap in Your Garden? It’s All About the Soil | Audubon

Photo by Xavier von Erlach on Unsplash

For most years of my adult life, I cleaned up every stray leaf in my yard. Then I learned that’s not such a great idea. Leaves build soil and provide protection for a host of beneficial insects. After leaving the leaves three years ago, we had hundreds of Western Star Flowers, a native wildflower with a small star-shaped flower hovering over its green leaves. We always had some, but skipping the aggressive clean-up led to a much larger show.

Leaves are amazing! They:

• Support pollinators and other invertebrates by providing winter cover
• Create natural mulch
• Feed microorganisms in your soil
• Provide food, shelter and nesting material for wildlife

This year, all the leaves from the driveways and pathways were relocated to garden beds. You can shred your leaves using a lawn mower, but I don’t.

Learn more from the Xerces Society,  https://xerces.org/blog/leave-the-leaves; USDA, https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2022/10/17/fall-leave-leaves; and National Wildlife Federation, https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2015/OctNov/Gardening/Leave-the-Leaves.

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash