Green Team

This last week brought into sharp focus what extremes of weather can do to all God’s creatures.  

Remember a Green Team note from a couple of weeks ago about feeding birds in winter?  If you did, I bet you did what you could to help the very cold and hungry birds who were so compromised by temperatures in the teens for several days in a row.

News reports told about snow and freezing temperatures as far south as Houston, TX. Occasionally there would be comments about the impact on livestock or wildlife. Didn’t your heart go out to those animals?  Surely there’s something we can do to help mitigate the dire situation.

How many people are living in drafty homes or with insufficient heat sources?  Where have water pipes burst from freezing and then flooded homes and businesses?  During the cold spell, ice on many roads on Whidbey made driving hazardous. Even walking presented safety problems – to keep from falling.

These growing climate extremes are surely nature’s call-to-action. What changes are we making to our lifestyle to care for this, our common home? What are we doing out of love of God and gratitude for this beautiful world we were given to care for?

Local newspapers recently have featured articles wonderfully relevant to appreciating and caring for creation, as we were charged to do in Genesis[1]. Just for fun, take a few minutes and look at these articles.

Forest bathing helps connect your senses to nature – and it doesn’t even involve water.  From the Seattle Times, here’s a wonderful explanation about the practice of walking in a forest, enjoying the sight, sounds, smells, and even touch of the trees. Turns out that it has physical health benefit as well as emotional, psychological, and even spiritual benefits. While the article focuses on places in Seattle where there are organized groups, you can walk in the Trillium Community Forest (north of Freeland), the Putney Woods (Lone Lake Road), the Saratoga Woods (Saratoga Road), and Ebey’s Landing (Coupeville). On a dry afternoon, give yourself the gift of Shinrin-yoku, a forest bath.

https://www.seattletimes.com/life/outdoors/what-is-forest-bathing-how-to-get-started-and-where-to-go-in-seattle/

From the Whidbey News Times, an opportunity for us to learn from credible science that is now informing Island County’s comprehensive planning efforts.  See what you think about what is going on.

Let us love this beautiful Earth that sustains us.  Let us care for it as something we really love.

[1] Genesis 1:28-29

Do You Know that Americans produce 5 pounds of trash each day per person?
“Cut down your household waste with these five creative solutions”
From Life Kit for NPR.org (Nov 6, 2023)

1. Do a trash audit.
   Write a list of the trash you produce. Organize the list by the room in your house, or by activity.
   This will help you grasp the extent of your trash and identify ways to reduce it. For example,
   replace paper towels with reusable cloth wipes.
2. Reuse your containers.
   For example, Fill reusable silicon bags or a set of glass jars in the bulk section of your grocery.
3. Salvage what you can.
   Cut up old t-shirts into rags.
4. Rely less on prepackaged food.
   Avoid using prepackaged produce if possible. Try sourcing your food from local farmers or
   growing your own garden.
5. Look for ways to cut waste outside the home.
   Bring your own reusable utensils to a restaurant that uses single use plastic utensils or use your
   own mug/insulated water bottle instead of a paper cup from your barista.

https://www.npr.org/2023/11/06/1199885874/low-waste-practices

Interesting tidbit of information from a Green Team member, Marietta Cole.

As we prepare to make resolutions for the new year, and resolutions often include changes in our eating patterns, perhaps we can include some thoughts about our food choices and their environmental costs.  Little changes by lots of people can make a lot of difference.

It comes from Gary Olson, a member of our Green Team.

A recent study published in Nature argues that “if all consumers who ate high-carbon foods instead consumed a lower-carbon substitute,” we could reduce the US dietary carbon footprint by more than 35%” * Researchers also argue that by making “small changes” in our dietary plan, consumers would see a 4-10% improvement in their overall dietary quality. The study reports that these benefits would be seen across all groups, regardless of age, race, gender, and ethnicity. The researchers based their projections on the “USDA Dietary Guidelines,” which encourage people to eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in place of highly saturated, high fat and high salt foods.

Referring to these small changes as “food swaps,” the study authors found that making numerous food substitutions would result in major reductions in overall carbon production.  For example, replacing beef with lower carbon options such as chicken or plant-based alternatives could result in more than a 50% reduction in a person’s individual carbon footprint. Thus, instead of a beef cheeseburger, people would swap it for a turkey cheeseburger; instead of a beef burrito, choosing a chicken or bean burrito would reduce carbon pollution. Making these small changes every week or more often is the key to achieving these reductions.

There is pushback to these recommendations from the beef and dairy industries: the former argues that nutrient-rich beef has been instrumental in combating hunger and malnutrition, while the Sustainability for Dairy Management organization touts the significant environmental improvements made by the farmers.

The study authors conclude that the results made them hopeful: “These small changes can add up to be meaningful, even if you’re only doing it once a day or once a week.” *

Submitted by Gary Olson, member of the St. Hubert Green Team

* nature.com, “Simple dietary substitutions…” published 26 October 2023.

“USDA Dietary Guidelines” can be found at dietaryguidelines.gov

As we head into the Christmas season, the Green Team offers two messages of hope. 

The first comes from Al Reyes, a member of the Green Team, who shares this story: 

We often flew to Burbank, California, to visit family.  While in flight, I would always look out the window at the St Gabriel mountains located just East of the airport.  However, back in 2016, I noticed the smog in the air was so thick I couldn’t see the mountains!  I began to realize how my family and I were breathing this stuff every day and didn’t even notice it till that moment.  We literally couldn’t see the mountains from the polluted air.

California created a CLEAN AIR ACT in an effort to remediate the smog problem.  This law requires Gasoline-powered vehicles, hybrid, and alternative fuel vehicles, model year 1976 and newer, to perform a State’s Smog test.  The mandatory smog test is part of the registration process and has to be completed every two years for as long as you own your vehicle.  The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) registration renewal will indicate if the smog check is required and must be completed prior to registration of the vehicle.

There are State Smog test facilities located throughout the State of California to facilitate this testing. If the test fails, the mechanics performing the test will repair and retest the vehicle at owner’s expense.  If after the repairs, the vehicle still fails the test, DMV will not issue a registration renewal.

As of January 2023, California placed Road Emissions Monitoring Devices (REMD) at different locations around the State.  As vehicles pass by the REMD devices, the REMD checks the passing vehicles emissions to determine if it is a high emitter.  If the REMD test shows the vehicle is a high emitter, the owner of the vehicle will be notified to submit to a smog test.

The great news, as a result of these efforts, is now when I arrive at Burbank Airport any time of the year, I can clearly see the mountains!  In fact, the air is totally clean with no traces of smog!  California has created a way to eliminate pulmonary issues with a true Clean Air Act.  This is something that the rest of the States can and should follow.

The second message of hope is a book suggestion offered by LeAnn Byrum, a Master Gardener and member of the Green Team.  Consider reading this book as a gift to yourself in 2024. The title is beautifully self-explanatory:

Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Backyard
By: Douglas Tallamy

From all of us on the Green Team, thank YOU for caring for this beautiful, created world. The Common Home given us by God who only asks us to take care of it…and each other.

A perennial favorite in the gift category is a good book.  If you, as a giver, or any people on your list are interested in the heart and soul connection with the natural world, here are some great suggestions from Jean Knackstedt, a member of the Green Team:

• Braiding Sweetgrass.  Robin Wall Kimmerer – a beautiful collection of essays weaving science and love of the created world. 
• Gathering Moss.  Robin Wall Kimmerer — This one is more scientific but really makes you appreciate and think differently about moss.
• The Shepherd’s Life.  James Rebanks
• Pastoral Song: A Farmer’s Journey James Rebanks
  • Lovely, well written books about his life and farm in England.  The author revitalized a changed farm back to how his Grandfather cared for it two generations earlier. 
• To Speak for the Trees: My Life’s Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest.  Diana Beresford Kroeber – a rich look into Celtic background and current issues.
• We are the Ark.  Mary Reynolds – the author is a professional landscaper from Ireland who has changed her ways and believes in bringing the land back to a wild, natural state even if you only do a tiny patch using native plants.  She really encourages people to let half your land go back to native plants.  She makes a good case for the urgency of doing so.
• The Hidden Life of Trees.  Peter Wohlleben – for the scientists among us, drawing from new insights about much that was not known about trees.  Interesting even for non scientists.
• Wilding: The Return of Nature To a British Farm.  Isabella Tree – a personal story about a working dairy farm and the decision to let the land heal itself. 

Meet two more members of the Green Team
Both from Coupeville.

Matt Lowder is a member of St.  Mary’s community.  He is pleased to be part of the Green Team of St.  Hubert.  His reason for being part of the team? I want to get others’ perspectives on the Divine and spread it.

Marietta Cole is also a member of the St.  Mary’s community.  She joined the Green Team at St.  Hubert (and is our representative to the Greening Congregations Collaborative of Whidbey Island).  Marietta’s motivation? “I’m part of this team because I wanted to be a part of a Christian driven climate activism.  This group is active and effective in educating, inspiring and generating climate solutions.”

Happy Advent!

There’s something about birds….

They defy gravity with flight. Their aerial antics and songs catch our attention and fill us with joy. With flashes of sunlight or iridescent multi-colors or dramatic red, birds invite us to look beyond our tasks and appreciate the abundant beauty of this created world.

I saw a Little Bunting on my deck this morning. Instead of the seed bird feeder, he nosed around the dried marigold flowers to extract seeds. Hardly visible over the green plants already coming up after the frost, he was determined to get those nutritious and fresh seeds. Such fun to watch. I was grateful that I’d left the plants for winter cover.

If you’d like to see some of our feathered friends, consider these suggestions from Guardians of Rescue to help feed birds during this cold weather.

1. Uncooked oats
2. Cereal
3. Cooked rice (ideally brown)
4. Soaked dog kibble
5. Fresh coconut in the shell
6. Baked potatoes
7. Suet blocks/bird cakes
8. Raw peanuts or walnuts or sunflower seeds
9. Wild birdseed

Who’s on the Green Team? 

Who are people that are bringing greater awareness of the urgent need for us to be good stewards of this amazing, created world?  We are seven people who each bring a concern and area of interest to this work, along with our faith that calls us to act.  Meet three this week:

Al Reyes.  “The reason I’m involved is because I visited some Caribbean islands and I observed residents of every age, and background walking the beaches to collect anything that didn’t belong there. This was observed everyday. I know that we can do the same here.”

Gary Olson. “I am new to the St Hubert community, and I’m on the Green Team because I am becoming increasingly worried about our planet’s vanishing resources.”

Elizabeth Guss. “God has given us this beautiful home and told us to take care of it.  We need to do that. Now that we know better, we need to do better. As we are caring for our Earth, we can also care for the poor among us, helping level the playing field for the most vulnerable.

A celebration of harvest, of good food, and of warm and welcoming times with people we love. It’s also a great time to think about other ways you can care for Earth.  Here are a couple of things to think about.

1. Our table and front door decorations have featured pumpkins for the last month or so.  What to do with them as they are being replaced by evergreen branches and dried flowers?  Turns out that goats and other animals love pumpkins (and probably squash of any kind).

Consider taking them to the Ballydidean Farm Sanctuary on French Rd. in Clinton. Founded by a young family, this wonderful, farm venture welcomes the kinds of produce that we often don’t know what to do with.  Their name has a lovely meaning in Irish. Check them out! Here’s the website to see what they love and do. https://www.ballydidean.farm/

Might be best to call first before you go. (360) 930-9388.  If they know you’re coming, maybe you can even have a tour of the place and celebrate another way to care for Earth.

• For those who’d like a little volunteer work, consider reaching out to rePurpose Whidbey, that new nonprofit mentioned a few weeks ago in the bulletin.  www.repurposeWhidbey.org  Lots of good opportunities to recycle and repurpose some of the hard-to-recycle items. And there’s more.

If you volunteer, the website talks about how your effort can waive the membership fee for you.  It’s kind of a two-fer! 

So, check them out and see if this might be a way for you to deepen your commitment to care for this, our common home.

Look at our common home with love

Tip #5 – a movie for all ages.

Now that weather has cooled and the darkness of night comes earlier, the Green Team suggests you schedule a movie night in the quiet and warmth of your home. This movie is quite remarkable and can help us see our planetary home — more clearly — through others’ perspectives. So, this week’s tip is to watch an amazing film.

Behold the Earth.  A beautiful visual poem of Earth, our common home, rich with reverence for this gift from God. It’s a documentary, released in 2017, inspired by love of creation and Scripture. Fostering a sense of wonder at the amazing reality, it is an invitation to Christians to turn their faith into the healing of our lands and communities. Among the commentaries about it are these two.
“This beautiful, and beautifully produced film reminds Christians that the very stones preach sermons of God’s presence in creation and choirs of the creatures sing his praises.”   Mark Stoll, author of Inherit the Holy Mountain, Religion and the Rise of American Environmentalism.

“A delight to both the yes and the ears, Behold the Earth captures the growing movement among churches to BE better stewards of earth and HOLD up the wonderment of Gods’ creation, now and for generations yet to come.” Matthew and Nancy Sleeth Blessed Earth

Behold is a great word. It is a way of looking with love, with tenderness, with appreciation. If we love earth, we will care for it. We will do what God called us to do in Genesis, to steward this magnificent creation.

Give yourself a beautiful gift. Go to www.beholdthearth.com and watch the three minute trailer. Get a sense of the film. If you like it, then look at the various ways you can watch the whole movie. If you want, the Green Team can schedule an event to watch it and discuss it.  

Let us know if you’d like us to do that.

One of the hidden environmental costs of our lives is the distance that many products travel. For example, produce is grown in South America and shipped to us.  That’s how we have tomatoes and blueberries and raspberries in winter. Butter and cheese are made in Europe and shipped to us. Clothing and home goods are made in Asia and sent across the ocean to us. While there may be contracts and financial arrangements that cover the actual dollars of these long-distance products for us, the environmental cost affects us all.

This week’s tip is one that takes a little effort on our parts.  Buy local.

Yes, that means the Farmers’ Market and purchasing from grocery stores on Whidbey.  But it also means looking at labels – of clothing of home goods of foods.  How far have they traveled since they were grown or made?  

A common definition of buying local is to purchase items grown or made within 100 miles of your home.  What would that mean for you? What would your kitchen or your closet look like if you limited what you bought to items grown, made, and sold within a 100-mile radius of where you live?

Let’s think about pollinators.

It turns out that food and flowers all need the help of other species, those that spread pollen from one plant to another.  That clever God, coming up with a system of cooperation among very different creatures.  As our environment has become less healthy, we have seen that many pollinators (usually insects and some birds) are fewer and less able to do the work that God gave them to do. If we can learn about them and appreciate them, we can help them thrive.  So, as a first step, let’s learn about the native Mason Bee.

Here are ten fun facts and one thing you might want to do.

10 Fun facts about Mason Bees

1. Every female Mason Bee is a queen, and she locates her own nest, lays her own eggs, and even protects them, unlike the honeybee.
2. Mason Bees are solitary bees, meaning they work alone and do not rely on a colony.
3. Mason Bees do not make honey.
4. Unlike the honey bee, Mason Bees make their nests about 300 feet from the best selection of   flowers.
5. There are 130 species of Mason Bees throughout North America.
6. Mason Bees very rarely use their stingers, and their stings are less painful than the Honeybee because they do not have venom.
7. Mason Bees do not destroy to create their homes–they only nest in holes that are found in nature or are created by humans.
8. Sometimes a Mason Bee can be confused with the average house fly, since their bodies are black/blue. But if you listen closely, you’ll hear that a Mason Bee has a distinct buzzing, not a humming sound.
9. Six Mason Bees can pollinate one fruit tree, compared to 10,000 Honeybees.
10. Female Mason Bees determine the sex of the eggs that they lay.

Look around and see if there are Mason Bee houses in your neighborhood.  Here’s a photo of one to help you know what you’re looking for.

And for the really adventurous gardener who wants to be sure that flowers and produce plants get a good Spring start… Mason Bees are some of the very earliest pollinators in springtime. If you are interested in making a mason bee box, check out YouTube. Search “how to make a solitary bee house”. Or call (206)954-2175/email info@rentmasonbees.com to rent a mason bee box full of them!

Remember the recycle symbol. Focus on reusing items as well as recycling.  Then, we can also participate with a new organization/business here on Whidbey that has a focus on reuse. They call themselves rePurpose Whidbey.  For the monthly membership fee, they supply a large container for our recyclables and items that they have found markets for.  Look at their website www.repurposewhidbey.org.   The folks at rePurpose Whidbey update their list of what they accept as they find new markets. It’s a dynamic business process; as they learn more, they can do more. Becoming part of this effort is a community gathering around a next level of reducing what needs to be thrown away. They are helping us to become part of the transition to zero waste here on Whidbey.

This was the most common question heard after Jeff Renner spoke on Climate and Faith on October 1.  Well, today begins a series of five specific answers to that question.  We begin with Recycling 2.0.

Think for a moment about the recycling symbol. Whether it’s a circle or a triangle, it’s clear that there are three arrows going around and connecting in a sequence—kind of a perpetual motion. Each of the three arrows stands for one thing: recycle; reuse; reduce.  We begin with recycling. We move on to reusing and then reducing how much stuff we actually use in our lives.

Most of us are aware of recycling and probably participate. We may sort paper and  glass and metal and plastic and head out to deposit our trash at the recycling center in either Bayview or Freeland. The recycling centers themselves are community gathering places. We’ve all experienced the frustration of so few items being recyclable here on Whidbey. Most of us know that our friends and family over on the other side can send lots more things to the recycling center. Why not us? But maybe that’s not as simple as it seems.

We now know that much of what is put into recycling can’t be reused for many reasons. What Whidbey accepts is what there is a market for.  Turns out not too much. And, if there isn’t a market for items in the recycling container, the trash ends up in the landfill. That’s not what we want. We want to make less waste. Period.

So, we go back to our original question. What can we do? Maybe we go toward the next step – reuse what can’t be recycled.  Reusing is finding way in our home to put containers to good use after we empty them of their original contents.  Some examples are:

1. Using plastic containers to plant seeds and let them germinate before putting them into the ground or in containers.
2. Storing small items like rubber bands or pencil erasers. Those little plastic containers fit well into drawers.
3. Of course, storing leftovers in those little containers.
4. Take your plastic produce bags back to the store and refill them with more produce when you next shop.

Well, you get the idea!

Reusing can become a fun and creative search.  It’s the next step in the recycling circle.  Thanks for caring for this, our beautiful common home in your daily practices.  Stay tuned for next week’s tip.

Thanks to the many people who participated in the activities for the Season of Creation.  We prayed in the wonder of the forest on September 1, the World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation.  We read and discussed the groundbreaking encyclical Laudato Si’.  We listened to and learned from Jeff Renner on how the climate crisis is also a crisis of faith.  More than 90 people took time to consider the bountiful gift of this, our common home.

Many have asked what you can DO.  Thank you.  It is clear that people of goodwill want to make a positive difference on earth and for the poor.  Like the theme of this year’s Season of Creation, we can tap into a ‘mighty river’ where ‘justice and peace’ will flow.  We can do it one action at a time, one conversation at a time.

For the next five weeks, we will have one suggestion of action and prayer or conversation topic each week in this bulletin space.  Watch for them.  Take them to heart.  Let us know how the conversations have gone.  Tell us what the response to your prayer has been.

Together, we can heal this, our common home – for our good and for the good of all the church