Trees with ribbons and bows
I've been enjoying my Heifer International gift catalogs. I want everything! Water buffalo, llamas, guinea pigs, rabbits, chicks, ducklings, bees! I almost decided on the chicks this year, mainly because I fell in love with this picture of Walter Cronkite holding a chick (and also because chickens can help the very poorest people). But I became aware this year that Wangari Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.
She's the only environmentalist ever to do so. Her big thing has been the Green Belt Movement, which for years has been hiring local women to raise tree seedlings and facilitate their planting on school and public land in Kenya. It empowers the women by giving them income and a cause that benefits the whole community. (Maathai is a women's rights activist as well. In Africa, it's not traditionally accepted for a woman to speak her mind, so it's been an uphill fight.) In addition to helping women's status, obviously the Green Belt Project fights the severe deforestation in Kenya, which has been linked to poverty and malnutrition. Trees hold the soil in place, preventing erosion and the depletion of soil nutrients. Trees provide fodder for livestock. Fruit trees provide food. Trees provide homes for native birds and animals and shade for people. Trees can even keep the soil cooler and help it hold moisture. Trees can improve agriculture, which improves poor people's lives. When there are more resources, there is less fighting over them. And that is how trees=peace!
(If you want to hear more, there's a great Living on Earth radio feature, "Wangari Maathai: A Watering Can, Some Seedlings, and the Greening of a Nation".)
So, since Wangari Maathai is totally my hero, and Heifer Project has a special place in my heart, this year I want to do trees. Heifer International promotes agroecology in their projects. Sustainable agriculture is so cool, y'all, and it makes every bit of sense in the world. It's just that small farmers need to be taught how to do it: planting native or less water-dependent crops, reducing the need for irrigation; using as heating and cooking fuel a gas made from readily available animal waste; raising bees to pollinate crops and produce honey; and planting trees and grass on terraces to stop hillside erosion. Less land can produce more food, which is good for people, and with a much smaller impact on the environment, which obviously makes the earth happy.
[Please read this part!] I've been a truly lousy LiveJournal community member lately, but I do read y'all, think about you, and appreciate you. So I want to do something for the holidays again and although I know this isn't a very traditional way to keep the holidays, and I'm a little embarrassed, it also makes me happy and really seems in the spirit of good things to celebrate - friends, sharing, the beauty of the earth, you know. All that sappy stuff. (Get it? Sappy?) So if y'all don't mind, I'd like to give seedlings in your honor. (If you're reading this and you're not opposed to the idea, you can assume I mean you.)
I'd love to send you a card as a token. If you'd like a card, please give me your address here. If you aren't able to fill out the poll, you're welcome to email me your address at rustydog @ livejournal.com. P.S. I love sending international mail.
Poll
She's the only environmentalist ever to do so. Her big thing has been the Green Belt Movement, which for years has been hiring local women to raise tree seedlings and facilitate their planting on school and public land in Kenya. It empowers the women by giving them income and a cause that benefits the whole community. (Maathai is a women's rights activist as well. In Africa, it's not traditionally accepted for a woman to speak her mind, so it's been an uphill fight.) In addition to helping women's status, obviously the Green Belt Project fights the severe deforestation in Kenya, which has been linked to poverty and malnutrition. Trees hold the soil in place, preventing erosion and the depletion of soil nutrients. Trees provide fodder for livestock. Fruit trees provide food. Trees provide homes for native birds and animals and shade for people. Trees can even keep the soil cooler and help it hold moisture. Trees can improve agriculture, which improves poor people's lives. When there are more resources, there is less fighting over them. And that is how trees=peace!
(If you want to hear more, there's a great Living on Earth radio feature, "Wangari Maathai: A Watering Can, Some Seedlings, and the Greening of a Nation".)
So, since Wangari Maathai is totally my hero, and Heifer Project has a special place in my heart, this year I want to do trees. Heifer International promotes agroecology in their projects. Sustainable agriculture is so cool, y'all, and it makes every bit of sense in the world. It's just that small farmers need to be taught how to do it: planting native or less water-dependent crops, reducing the need for irrigation; using as heating and cooking fuel a gas made from readily available animal waste; raising bees to pollinate crops and produce honey; and planting trees and grass on terraces to stop hillside erosion. Less land can produce more food, which is good for people, and with a much smaller impact on the environment, which obviously makes the earth happy.
[Please read this part!] I've been a truly lousy LiveJournal community member lately, but I do read y'all, think about you, and appreciate you. So I want to do something for the holidays again and although I know this isn't a very traditional way to keep the holidays, and I'm a little embarrassed, it also makes me happy and really seems in the spirit of good things to celebrate - friends, sharing, the beauty of the earth, you know. All that sappy stuff. (Get it? Sappy?) So if y'all don't mind, I'd like to give seedlings in your honor. (If you're reading this and you're not opposed to the idea, you can assume I mean you.)
I'd love to send you a card as a token. If you'd like a card, please give me your address here. If you aren't able to fill out the poll, you're welcome to email me your address at rustydog @ livejournal.com. P.S. I love sending international mail.
Poll