It occurred to me the other day that humans are solar-powered. The sun helps us to make Vitamin D and it helps us sleep by regulating melatonin levels in our brains. My mood is better on sunny days; we even talk about being in a “bright, sunny mood.”
We are intimately connected with nature. We are a part of our environment. We need to keep it healthy in order to keep ourselves healthy. It’s the least we solar-powered humans can do for Mother Earth.
Filed under Environment
I’m sitting at the dining room table, looking out the huge window like a contented kitty, and I’ve noticed a difference between our yard and our neighbors across the street. Our yard has lots of cheerful, bright yellow dandelions. Theirs doesn’t. That’s probably by design; they may have sprayed herbicide to kill dandelions. I never understood that. Why would anyone want to kill them? They’re beautiful. They’re like little happy faces in the yard. Why kill them?
Dandelions aren’t only beautiful. They’re useful, too. You can make dandelion wine with them, and you can use the leaves early in the season as salad greens or you can cook them. I remember collecting dandelion greens once for my grandmother. Why poison the yard to kill them and the other useful weeds? Who wants a uniformly green, boring lawn? How dull! We have a smorgasbord in nature. Even though I don’t take advantage of it, I still like knowing it’s there. In case of dire emergency, I could harvest dandelion greens, plantain, and chicory roots. I’m not a survivalist or prepper per se, but I do like the idea of being able to live off the land if I had to. It must be the farmer’s daughter in me. I have happy memories of chewing on wild red clover for its sweetness, smelling the wild spearmint that grew by the big tree in our yard, and going to Michigan one year to hunt wild mushrooms. I grew up with the idea of wild plants (aka “weeds”) as useful and fun.
So, here’s my advice: Let the dandelions live. Let the other weeds live, too. You’ll have a more beautiful and colorful yard, you’ll save yourself a lot of work, and you’ll spare the environment toxins that are bad not only for plants, but also for us and for all animals. Why do you think they put up those little flags warning you not to walk on grass that’s been recently sprayed with herbicides? A former neighbor of mine sprayed his yard and his dog was poisoned and died.
In fact, we’ve gotten too good at killing weeds. Part of the reason that the monarch butterfly is threatened is that we’ve killed so much milkweed, the only food that monarch butterfly caterpillars can eat, that their numbers have decreased dramatically. They were very common, ubiquitous even, when I was a child. I didn’t even like monarch butterflies that much when I was a kid because they were so common that seeing one was nothing special. I’d get excited to see the other, less common and differently colored butterflies. Now I’m thrilled to see a monarch butterfly. I probably saw no more than 15 or 20 all last year. Now I’m ashamed that I didn’t appreciate them when I was younger.
We humans need to learn that when we pull at one thread in the web of life that it affects everything connected to that thread, and the threads connected to that thread, and down the line. Let’s stop trying to control everything. Let’s appreciate all of nature’s diverse beauty and the wonderful things we can do if we learn to work with nature. If you’re interested in learning about edible weeds, check out Edible Wild Food and The Balance. Now, get out there and explore your yard or the nearest park. What do you see that is edible? What do you see that is beautiful? Let’s work together to preserve it. Enjoy!
Filed under Dandelions, Edible Weeds, Environment, Herbicides, Monarch Butterflies
Come on, you know you do it. We’ve all done it. We don’t think twice about it. But now it’s time to think, and to stop watering the landfills.
“What are you babbling on about now?,” you ask. I’m pointing out that every time you throw away a half-full water bottle, a cup of ice, or an unfinished can of Coke, you’re taking that water out of the water cycle. It ends up in landfills, huge lined trash graveyards where the liquids can’t escape into the ground or evaporate into the air. They are removed from the water cycle that has sustained our planet and all the living things on it since life began here. For a simplified illustration of the water cycle, please visit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/flash/flash_watercycle.html.
Think about how many times you yourself have thrown away a bottle with water or pop still left in inside. Take a look in a public trashcan and notice how many bottles, cans, and disposable cups are there with fluids still inside. It all adds up.
What can you do to help? Simple: Put liquids back in the water cycle. Empty bottles, cups, and cans into the sink or outside so the fluids go back into the water cycle. The liquids you pour into the sink will go into the municipal water treatment system; those you pour onto the ground will get absorbed into the soil (and eventually into the groundwater) or it will be evaporated into the sky and eventually come down as rain.
The drought in California and the recent problems with water contamination in West Virginia and in Toledo, Ohio serve to remind us how much we rely on water. It is essential to our very lives. It is time to start treating water as the precious commodity it is and to stop watering the landfills. Instead, water the world by putting water back into the water cycle so we can use it again and again.
Filed under Environment
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