Mid-December I wrote a blog for the new year titled The Year of Living Fully, a reflection of my optimism for the year ahead. Disturbing news events made me pause for a more appropriate moment to publish it. I waited for the news to settle, but then another troubling event happened. This went on for two months.
The last round of staggering news began when a dramatic spike in temperatures above the North Pole caused a polar vortex to descend upon a large portion of the United States. It affected Texas most dramatically, but here in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, we experienced our share of problems.
A combination of rain, snow, and plummeting temperatures, cloaked everything with a thick layer of ice. When the temperatures rose, the ice crackled and popped in strange atonal music as it shattered and fell to the ground. It was other-worldly beautiful, but it was a terrible beauty.
The weight of the ice on trees caused branches and limbs to fall; some trees split in half. It was unnerving, hearing them fall to the ground around my house, around the neighborhood, downing power lines.
The streets were littered with branches, limbs, and tree trunks. I was impressed with the organization and team effort that it took to restore power. First, PGE workers walked every street noting downed lines. Early the next morning, crews were out with chainsaws and chippers to clear the streets. Once the streets were cleared, the linesmen went to work.
My neighborhood was without electricity for four days. Some surrounding areas were without for ten days. My heartfelt gratitude to all of the hardworking people, some coming from other states, who restored power as quickly and efficiently as possible under arduous conditions.
This is the second natural disaster I’ve witnessed in five months. The first was last September when there were numerous fires all along the west coast. Fires swept through Oregon on fierce winds. They reached Clackamas County, within seventeen miles of my home, and the air was so noxious that I didn’t leave the house for ten days.
While I was inconvenienced, I am grateful that I did not experience loss. I am deeply saddened for the lives lost, for those who lost their homes, for the wildlife that perished, and for all the trees and vegetation lost in both the fire and ice storms, and I’m profoundly concerned for the condition of our Mother, Earth.
After all the intense weather that we’ve experienced in recent years, floods spawned by the increased volume of rain from hurricanes and other intense storms, or out of control wildfires caused by extreme drought, and periods of abnormally high and low temperatures, it blows my mind that there are people who still do not believe that what is happening is not normal, and not a cyclical thing that Nature does, but is caused by how we live on this planet and use Earth’s resources. These climatic events are growing in magnitude and occurrence, and will continue to do so unless we take bold action.
Bold, as in being audacious, daring, unflinching, and forward thinking. It means letting go of doing things the way we’ve always done them. We are too comfortable with the familiar. Worse, we are indoctrinated by the companies we work for, or that service us, telling us that if we dare to try something different, we will lose our jobs, our security, our comfort. I can tell you that living in the midst of a wildfire is not comfortable or secure, nor is living in freezing temperatures without electricity to warm our homes and cook our food.
We are living in startling times, but we can look at it as a time to use our creativity for the highest good, to find new opportunities to live not the same lives, but better quality lives, giving up our dependence on what is killing is.
After both the fire and the ice storms, I was struck by the resilience of Nature. She came back in all of her glory. If we don’t change, we will die, but Nature will continue.
What can we do? We must give up our dependence on fossil fuels. The next vehicle you buy, make it an electric vehicle. I am grateful to have a Tesla Model 3 that I call Freedom. During the ice storm, I spent hours in Freedom to keep warm. I was able to safely drive through ice and snow banks to an EV charging station to charge her, my phone, and computer.
Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, plans to increase EV charging stations all across the U. S. to facilitate the growth in use of electric vehicles. This will upgrade our infrastructure as well as create jobs.
We need to support the Green New Deal and use of sustainable energy. There have been significant advances in solar technology. If all new homes, and homes needing to re-roof, used solar tiles to generate household energy, and send excess energy to the grid, we could avoid devastating situations created by the recent ice storm, while decreasing our carbon output.
We need to stop using chemicals in our homes, gardens, and farms. They are making us ill, and killing the bees, insects, and birds that pollinate the food we eat. Chemicals are killing our rivers, oceans, coral reefs, and marine life. They are killing our eco-system. Permaculture is the answer.
We need to support businesses that create a circular economy, that drastically reduce waste by continually using and re-using already existing materials and resources. There is a new business here in the Northwest called Ridwell. Every two weeks they pick up your discarded items: clothing, plastics, batteries, and light bulbs. Clothing that is still usable is donated to charities. Items that are not useable become rugs, or home insulation. They recycle Amazon’s plastic shipping bags. Batteries are recycled so that harmful chemicals do not go into landfills and leach into our ground water. The same with lightbulbs.
If you are concerned about the batteries for electric vehicles, advances are being made to recycle and reuse the components that make them, and to make them longer lasting.
We need to reforest over-logged lands. Trees are the lungs of the world. They absorb carbon and create oxygen. Let’s start planting sustainable hemp farms for paper and clothing.
There is so much we can do to make the world a better place for everyone, to create jobs and a healthy economy, and to heal Mother Earth, our home. Do you have a good idea? Do it!
When I started this blog, I looked forward to 2021 with enthusiastic anticipation. I am still optimistic that things will get better this year, just not as quickly as I’d hoped. We all need to participate in making positive changes. Let’s get vaccinated and keep wearing a mask until Covid19 is vanquished, do whatever we can in our daily lives to live gently on the earth, and support businesses that work towards creating a healthy planet.
Let’s make this the year of Living Fully and Boldly!
The Write Mind of a Lefthander 