One Habit at a Time – Celebrate Spring


Were you inspired by all of the Earth Day events these past weeks?  May is a great month for renewing resolutions to live more sustainably. The longer and warmer days make it practical to save lots of energy.

* Turn off your heating system and reprogram lights on automatic timers to reflect the shorter night times. Take advantage of the sunny days to hang out clothes to dry. With the money you save on gas and electricity, you can sign up for PaloAltoGreen, where you pay 1.5 cents more per kWh to purchase 100% solar and wind energy, or PGE’s ClimateSmart, which funds new greenhouse gas emission reduction projects in California. 

Find out more at www.pge.com/climatesmart or attend PaloAltoGreen Greenstock, Saturday, May 17th, hosted by the City of Palo Alto Utilities Department to celebrate the PaloAltoGreen program and its recent achievement of 20% participation. Held at the Mitchell Park Bowl, the event features solar energy workshops from 11-1 and music from 1-3, and promises food and fun!

* Since the mornings aren’t so chilly and the sun stays up longer, this is a great time of year to walk or ride your bike to work, church or errands.  To help you with this, check out: 

Thursday, May 15th  Ride Your Bike to Work Day, a community event that encourages local residents to try bicycling as their mode of transportation. “Energizer Stations” throughout Silicon Valley provide free refreshments, maps, info and encouragement. See www.svbcbikes.org/btwd

Saturday, May 31st  Bike Safety and Maintenance Class, held at First Pres, given by our own Margaret and Don, bike commuters extraordinaire. Learn practical information, such as how to change a tire, and also laws and tips about how to safely share the road with drivers.

* Local seasonal produce is becoming widely available. On Saturday, May 10th  Downtown Palo Alto Farmer’s Market reopens for the season.  It is open Saturdays from May-Dec from 8am-noon, and is located behind the Hamilton Avenue post office. The market is an excellent source of local, seasonal produce, as well as bread, fish, flowers and some prepared foods. www.pafarmersmarket.org includes seasonality charts for fruits and vegetables.

* May is the perfect month to plant a vegetable garden.  As Michael Pollan writes in his article “Why Bother?” www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede-t.html?ref=world 

“The idea is to find one thing to do in your life that doesn’t involve spending or voting, that may or may not virally rock the world but is real and particular (as well as symbolic) and that, come what may, will offer its own rewards.  Maybe you decide to give up meat, an act that would reduce your carbon footprint by as much as a quarter. Or you could try this: determine to observe the Sabbath. For one day a week, abstain completely from economic activity: no shopping, no driving, no electronics. 

But the act I want to talk about is growing some – even just a little – of your own food. … Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden is pretty benign, I know, but in fact it’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do – to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the energy-cheap mind….

The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world.”
 

First Presbyterian Church
www.fprespa.org/coolplanet
May, 2008