Pam Neild

Whew - good riddance junk mail! It took awhile, but I finally got all of the envelopes labeled and sent this morning. It can take 3 - 6 months before the mail stops coming, but I am so glad I did this. I hate all of the wasted paper and ink in my mailbox.  

These comments just in from Cory Bertsch at PBOT: 

I thought you might consider including not eating animal products (meat/dairy) under the water tab because of how much water it can save:

 

 

“By skipping 26 showers for every 4 oz hamburger you eat, you can offset the water used to produce it.”

 

 

“And finally we must grapple with the 900 gallons of water needed for every single gallon of milk produced by each of the state’s nearly 2 million dairy cows. We save 850 gallons of water when we buy a gallon of soy milk instead of cow’s milk.”

 

He makes a great point about water use and the underlying energy and resulting carbon emissions produced when choosing different types of foods. There are some really good actions in the Food section that get us thinking about where our food comes from and the associated opportunity costs of what we consume.  If you are interested in climate change and what we buy, have a look at the consumption-based inventory starting on page 36 of The Climate Action Plan. https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/531984
Thank you Cory for sending in this feedback. I'd like to hear more! 

I love Helena's idea to give out fruit leather at Halloween instead of candy. I'm going to try it this year. 

Metro has a great web page for reducing junk mail. Has anyone had success with decreasing annoying junk mail?  http://www.oregonmetro.gov/tools-living/garbage-and-recycling/reduce-waste-home/stop-junk-mail

My eight year old is really into cooking. I want her to understand that what we eat is connected to human and animal well-being and to climate change. I'm excited to get these food challenges done before the rain comes!