SOS Tompkins Weekly

Eat Local Year-Round When You Know How to Preserve

Tompkins Weekly 06/10/2013

By Carole Fisher

The New York growing season is here, so dig out the gardening tools and canning supplies!  If you don’t have a garden, you can join a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture), shop at your local farmer’s market, Read the rest of this entry »

Secondhand Shopping is First Rate

Tompkins Weekly 06/03/2013

By Kelly Moreland

I was a teenager in the early 1980s, when most of us were choosing between adopting a “preppy” style or a “grunge” style of dressing. That was an easy decision for me because if I chose “grunge,” then I could buy my entire wardrobe at yard sales. Read the rest of this entry »

Steps to Sustainability Part 15 of a Series: The Limits to Growth Study

Tompkins Weekly 05/27/2013

By Richard W. Franke

Ten years after Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, and two years after the first Earth Day, The Limits to Growth: A Report to the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind appeared in 1972. This slim book Read the rest of this entry »

Hydrilla Treatments Continue in 2013

Tompkins Weekly 05/20/2013

By James A. Balyszak

With the onset of spring and the arrival of warmer weather, residents of Ithaca and the Finger Lakes Region look to the outdoors for recreation and relaxation. This exodus to the outdoors marks a wonderful respite from the clutches of winter, and the beginning of a new season. At the same time, this transition also marks the beginning of a different type of season…Hydrilla Eradication Season! Read the rest of this entry »

The New Ithaca Health Fund: Still Grassroots Community Health Care!

Tompkins Weekly 05/13/2013

By Abbe Lyons

Have you made decisions on whether to get married or stay married based on access to health insurance? Have you applied for, stayed in or left a job or career path because of how it would affect your health insurance? Have you ever come close to losing a job with health insurance benefits? Read the rest of this entry »

Bike Not: Waste Energy, Money, and Have No Fun

Tompkins Weekly 05/06/2013

By Karim Beers

You’ve seen the yellow Streets Alive! signs on Cayuga and Court streets. You know that Bike to Work/School day is fast approaching. A voice within you is asking if it might be time to dust off that bike that has been in storage since the 20th century. Here are some great arguments you can use to resist that siren Read the rest of this entry »

Ithaca Children’s Garden integrates permaculture education into programs and site

Tompkins Weekly 04/29/13

By Erin Marteal

Permaculture is a word becoming more commonly heard in mainstream conversations these days, particularly around our fair city of Ithaca.  Recent visiting speakers on the subject including Peter Bane and Ben Falk have spoken to packed rooms with standing room only, and people who are just beginning to understand Read the rest of this entry »

Local Permaculture Organizations Team Up to Provide Scholarships

Tompkins Weekly 04/22/2013

By Michael Burns

Since 2005, the founding members of the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute (FLPCI, pronounced flip-see) articulated a goal to improve access to its intensive Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) course held each summer. Eight years and eleven permaculture design courses later, FLPCI has a growing alumni network that is helping this goal become a reality. Read the rest of this entry »

Earth Day Focus on Being Climate Smart and Climate Ready

Tompkins Weekly 04/15/2013

By Joey Diana Gates

Global warming, climate change, greenhouse gases and superstorms. These are all words that have become part of the vernacular for this generation.  As international groups work to find consensus on the issues, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change-related incidents have continued to rise. Read the rest of this entry »

You, Too, Can Be a Master Composter

Tompkins Weekly 04/08/2013

By Braeden Cohen

What do decay, fungi, worms, nematodes and bacteria all have in common? They are all things that can help you save tremendous money and energy on waste disposal and produce a powerful, free soil amendment for your garden.

Each week I watch my two housemates take two full barrels of trash to the curb Read the rest of this entry »