Signs of Sustainability

Tompkins Weekly May 14, 2012

by Alex Colket

Cities have so much potential. Consider for a moment the tremendous diversity of experiences you could have, people you could meet, products you could buy/trade/share, services you could contract, and the skills you could learn just within downtown Ithaca. The dense format of city living offers so many possibilities, yet our access to these opportunities is quite limited. It may be relatively easy to connect to the resources offered by local businesses, but we have poor knowledge of all the amazing things that others in our community have to offer. So much potential is wasted because we are not connected enough with the people around us. Read the rest of this entry »

Tompkins Weekly May 7, 2012

By Richard W. Franke

On January 18, 909 C.E. (Common Era, or A.D.) a master carver put the last known date on a stone monument in Central America, then a part of the large Mayan civilization (Wright 2004:99). Thus ended the famous “Long Count” calendar of the Maya, a calendar recently revived by some mystics (and some commercial interests?) who have extrapolated its calculations to predict massive disasters on earth in December of 2012.

To see what will happen in December of this year we shall have to wait a few months, but we do know that Maya civilization collapsed in the ninth or tenth century, well ahead of both 2012 and the Spanish colonial conquest. One expert has estimated that during a 75-year period around that time the total population of the Maya dropped from 3 million to 450 thousand. Read the rest of this entry »

Tompkins Weekly  April 30, 2012

By Richard W. Franke

On September 4, in the Christian calendar year A. D. 476, the Roman Empire collapsed when a Germanic soldier named Odoacer deposed the last Emperor, Romulus Augustulus. Following this event, Europe fell into 1,300 years of food shortages, trade breakdown, epidemics, invasions, and general public insecurity. The collapse of one of the two or three largest empires in history has fascinated scholars and pundits for hundreds of years. Theories about the collapse of Rome abound. Was it moral degeneration, overextended supply lines, lead poisoning, malaria, peasant revolts, Germanic tribes? Does the fall of Rome teach us anything about sustainability? Read the rest of this entry »

Tompkins Weekly April 23, 2012
By Adam Michaelides

Ways to compost abound. Whatever your circumstances – renter, student, busy, group or previously unsuccessful – there is probably a way for you to compost. Even if you are already composting, there may be ways to improve.

On Sunday, April 29 from 11am to 4pm, Cooperative Extension is hosting the annual Compost Fair in conjunction with the 4-H Duck Race. Besides watching 3600 little rubber duckies “race” down Cascadilla Creek and catching numerous acts including “Rot-n-Roll” play on the Solar Stage, we hope you will tour our compost demonstration site, put together your own worm bin and enter the “critter tent.” Teams of Master Composters and many Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rebuy partners in the County will be there to help and to inspire. Read the rest of this entry »

Tompkins Weekly April 16, 2012
by Joey Diana Gates

Spring is here, bringing with it many familiar traditions: maple sugar festivals, daylight savings time, the opening of farmers’ markets and Earth Day. The 2012 lthaca Earth Day event will be held at the Ithaca Farmers Market Pavilion at Steamboat Landing on Sunday, April 22nd, from Noon to 5:00 PM. Sponsored by Sustainable Tompkins, our theme is We All Stand Together on the Same Earth, in honor of the environmental justice movement.

The national Earth Day, now in its 42nd year, is fueled by the sustainability movement which seeks to integrate environmental stewardship with economic and equity issues. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, environmental justice advocates work towards “the fair treatment and meaningful Read the rest of this entry »

Tompkins Weekly April 9, 2012

By Nina Piccoli

Every spring in the Ithaca area, thousands of students graduate, move out of their apartments and set off for new lives and locales. The truckloads of reusable materials that are left behind in dumpsters or on porches, curbs and front yards often end up in a truck headed for a distant landfill. Meanwhile, there are people in our communities who could benefit from the durable goods left behind.

At the same time, construction season is warming up, and whole or partial buildings are demolished or renovated. The materials are trucked to a construction and demolition (C&D) transfer station, where materials are sorted by type. Then they are trucked again—some to be recycled, but most to be buried in landfills. Read the rest of this entry »

Tompkins Weekly – March 26, 2012
by Rachel Firak

When you envision a food system that works for everyone, what do you see?

What kind of food do you see? Who produces that food? What kind of lives do those producers have? How and where is the food produced? How are the animals and plants that produce our food cared for? What about the people, animals and plants who live near where the food is produced? Who does the food nourish? What kind of lives do those consumers have? What kind of relationship do consumers have with producers?

An ideal food system would nourish consumers and producers equally, sustaining their bodies and minds to support healthy, safe, and fulfilling lives for themselves and their families. All community members would have access to wholesome, affordable, and culturally appropriate foods, and all who desired to produce food would be able to secure the tools, education and resources do so. Our natural gifts of clean air, water, land, and natural resources would be cherished, protected and shared equitably. Read the rest of this entry »

Tompkins Weekly–March 13, 2012
by Audrey Baker and Lance Ebel

We all share the land. It may be parceled and purchased and taxed, but your yard is shaded by your neighbor’s trees, and your water runs from elsewhere. When people spray with chemicals or reuse organic matter for fertility, on two acres or five hundred, they impact whole ecosystems.

As conventional fertility—a convention of only the past century—becomes more costly to manufacturers, growers and ecosystems, the wisdom in good old organic methods is regaining popularity worldwide. Acre by yard, farmers, homesteaders, community groups and schools are plopping down compost piles, recycling their plant waste to grow healthy food for themselves. They are rediscovering cover crops, crop rotation, and mulches. Manure is in demand. A growing movement of people, like an organism in itself, is buzzing around, taking responsibility for our food system’s future. We are sharing knowledge, resources, ideas and, in effect, the land. Read the rest of this entry »