Green Page

October 24 –  Cool Climate Cafe

By Maribeth Crandell

It’s that time of year when we all start thinking about scary stuff.  Spiders, bats, glowing pumpkins that look possessed.  I’ve come across some scary stuff in my time, grizzlies, rattlesnakes, my mom when she’s upset…  But I’ve learned how to handle these threats.  The one big fear that persists is climate change.  I am haunted by dreadful images of polar bears on melting ice; sea level rise overtaking major cities; our local glaciers (our drinking water reservoirs) dwindling.

One thing that helps alleviate fear is a better understanding.  Last year I took an excellent class offered through the WSU-Skagit and Island County Extension called Climate Stewards. Expert scientists from the region made presentations and offered clear explanations.  The news can be overwhelming but my fellow classmates, and I,  community educators and concerned citizens, have since been offering workshops at the local libraries, creating community gardens, installing solar panels and publishing a Living Green resource guide. For more information visit: www.skagitbeattheheat.org   But wait, there’s more! 

The group has joined with others to launch a Cool Community Campaign.  On Oct. 24, the International Day of Climate Action, they will hold a Cool Climate Café.  There will be a morning Café at the Skagit PUD in Mt. Vernon from 9:30 to 11:30 and an afternoon Café in Anacortes at the Fidalgo Senior Center from 1:00 to 3:00.  They’ll offer short presentations and then ask folks to join a Cool Community Team to take the Low Carbon Diet. 

The Low Carbon Diet, is an easy to follow workbook written by David Gershon.  It offers tips on how to loose 5,000 pounds in 30 days.  Now that’s a heck of a diet.  The group has a goal to get at least 100 households involved in cutting 5,000 pounds of carbon emissions each.  That’s half million pounds, a significant reduction. 

Some groups are already forming teams from Deception Pass State Park, the City of Anacortes, Skagit County, Soroptimists International, Anacortes Ace Hardware, American Association of University Women, Northwest Clean Air Agency, the Samish Tribe, the Anacortes American and others.  A grant paid for the first 100 copies of the workbook.

Our planning team is working through the Low Carbon Diet now so we can speak from experience when we host the Cool Climate Café.  I thought I was pretty green already but I found I could do more.  In the first chapter on reducing waste, I pledged to try harder to “Precycle”, shopping with more attention to reducing packaging.  To reduce the amount of junk mail I get I contacted DirectMail.com to get off their mailing lists.  The Low Carbon Diet workbook along with the new Living Green guide gives us lots of ways to cut carbons.  The cool thing about this effort is that even if all the world’s best scientists got it wrong (which seems unlikely) these carbon cutting changes are still a good idea.  It will save us money, make us healthier and reduce pollution.  So don’t just stand there!  Do something!

Meet us at the Cool Climate Café on Oct. 24 for refreshments and presentations.  Get together with friends and neighbors and form a Cool Community Team.  And if you cannot make it on Saturday, but are interested in joining a team, contact Susan Wood: swood@padillabay.gov 

NEWSFLASH:  There will also be an event on South Whidbey at Bayview Corner at 3:00pm.  Bring an umbrella for a photo shoot to be sent to 350.org.  Photos will be taken of groups in 179 countries on Oct.24 and sent to our political leaders before the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change in December.  For more about their global efforts to curb climate change visit: www.350.org