My daughter, Sarah Ives, contributed to the recent issue of Sierra Magazine and I wanted to share some of her work. Perhaps this is a bit off topic for this blog but when your daughter is the writer then anything is on topic. I also believe in the work of the Sierra Club and happy to highlight some of what they write about.
Sarah contributed several short pieces to the March/April Lay of the Land section including one on Prince Charles of the UK. As she wrote, “The heir to the throne will have his Jaguar and Range Rover converted to biodiesel, power his three homes with greener energy sources, and take commercial flights instead of gas-guzzling private jets. (No word yet on whether he will fly coach.) Charles hopes that his efforts will influence business leaders to investigate and address their own personal environmental impacts.”
Now, I do not have a Jaguar, Range Rover, or private jet to convert but the last car I bought was a hybrid Prius. I think the Prius runs on less energy than a biodiesel Jag. And I do fly coach.
Sarah also wrote some pieces in the March/April Sierra Club Bulletin: News for Members. I want to highlight the efforts near my hometown, New Orleans. I am in the middle of a visit there right now, the subject of another post, and they still need all the help they can get. It seems that Katrina cut short a meeting with Sierra Club and a coalition of Louisiana environmental groups to oppose the clearcutting of cypress swamps. These swamps are the very buffer that New Orleans needs to reduce damage from future hurricanes. The groups are taking up their efforts again.
As Sarah wrote, “Scientists warn that the logged (cypress) forests may not regenerate due to changes in the area's hydrology. The coalition (saveourcypress.org) is calling on Wal-Mart and other retailers to stop selling cypress mulch in favor of sustainable alternatives like pine bark.” I will be sure to avoid cypress mulch.
Sarah used to write for the National Geographic online. I wrote a few posts on her work such as the water skiing squirrels. The two brief ones on Most Water Skiing Squirrels Take Early Retirement and Water Skiing Squirrels on Tour generated a lot of traffic through Google searches as the squirrels made a US tour.
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