Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

By Jim Hale

Longtime member of Orchard Ridge UCC, Jim Hale, has been a lifelong naturalist and writer. We will periodically feature stories from his writing for The Friends of the Arboretum.

Original printing was in 2000

A great outdoor experience in late October and November is to suddenly hear the mellow calls of a migrating flock of tundra swans. Pushed by a north wind high in the sky, sometimes above the clouds, a long string of these great birds conversing in their musical “woo hoo oo” notes is a sight and sound to cherish. Continue Reading »

by Anthony Doerr
Reprinted from July/August 2007 issue of Orion magazine

We live on Earth. Earth is a clump of iron and magnesium and nickel, smeared with a thin layer of organic matter, and sleeved in vapor. It whirls along in a nearly circular orbit around a minor star we call the sun.

I know, the sun doesn’t seem minor. The sun puts the energy in our salads, milkshakes, hamburgers, gas tanks, and oceans. It literally makes the world go round. And it’s huge: The Earth is a chickpea and the sun is a beach ball. The sun comprises 99.9 percent of all the mass in the solar system. Which means Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, etc., all fit into that little 0.1 percent.

But, truly, our sun is exceedingly minor. Almost incomprehensibly minor. Continue Reading »

Think Globally: Pass the Pasta Please!

Food production has a pervasive impact on the environment. About 60% of our country’s land is used for crops or livestock grazing. Water quality is affected by erosion, fertilizers, pesticides, and animal waste. And air pollution is caused by energy use. All of these factors combine to make food second only perhaps to transportation as a source of environmental problems. The Union of Concerned Scientists (http://www.ucsusa.org/) has tons of information on this topic as well as many others.

Act Locally: Consider Some Changes in Your Eating Habits

Eat less meat and more grains. Compared with pasta, red meat requires 20 times the land use (because of cattle grazing), 17 times the water pollution (because of animal waste), and three times the greenhouse gas emissions (from greater energy use). It also adds more toxins to water from chemicals used for feed grain for cattle.

Think Globally: Dry, The Beloved Country
(from the Daily Grist at www.gristmagazine.com, 09/26/01)

Global warming could cause big changes in South Africa in the next 50 years, including the loss of many plant species, less rainfall, and an increase in wildfires, according to a report released by the South African branch of the World Wildlife Fund. One of the report’s authors, William Bond of the University of Cape Town, said he had been skeptical about global warming predictions, but now felt they were accurately “alarming and scary.” So scary, he said, that he decided to make it available to the general public, rather than publishing the results in a scientific journal. (As an added note, I was just taking with some friends who had recently returned from visiting their daughter and family in the Cape Town area and remarked that the water shortage in South Africa is very serious. One result is that farmers will have to grow different crops that are not so water dependent.)

Act Locally: Speak Out On the Urgent Need to Address Global Warming

Individuals and special interest groups use several tactics to argue against the Kyoto Treaty and tougher environmental laws that address global warming. They try to discredit the message by emphasizing select findings out of context, and the messenger by name calling (alarmist, environmental extremist). (As another added note, I actually think people might be getting the message now, but really, do we want to change our behavior, I think not)

Think Globally: “Every great architect is-necessarily-a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age. (Frank Lloyd Wright)

Act Locally: Consider energy use. “The ongoing energy use of a building is probably the single greatest environmental impact of a building, so designing buildings for low energy use should be (a) number one priority. Decisions made during the design and construction of a building will go on affecting the environmental performance of that building for decades to come- perhaps even centuries – through energy consumption. An integrated design approach can often take advantage of energy savings that become feasible when the interaction between separate building elements, such as windows, lighting, and mechanical systems, are considered. There are cost implications. Likely to increase first cost, but significant sayings in operating cost can often be achieved. Reduced heating and cooling loads may reduce first cost of HVAC equipment, helping justify the expense.”
(from Environmental Building News Volume 4, No.5, 1995)