Environment

The Clinton Foundation News and Notes

Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation is still innovating solutions- and you can join.

The Clinton Foundation umbrellas president Bill Clinton’s many charitable organizations centered around both global and domestic causes. The Clinton Global Initiative –CGI- is one of Clinton’s first efforts at innovating solutions to fundamental problems faced by developing nations, and is by all accounts a colossal success.

By incorporating “Commitments” into the organization’s process, CGI has matched human and capital resources to causes, identified underlying problems and challenges, and implemented working solutions to many systemic crises faced by communities around the world.

CGI’s impact has been so successful that it has spun-off other organizations modeled after it under the Clinton Foundation:

Tiny house living

In the Chinese countryside, one can often see single railroad cars converted into what appear to be single family homes. They look almost identical to the original railroad cars, save windows in the front and a billow of smoke from the pipe on the roof. Usually, you’ll see several cars parked in front and a conglomeration of a number of the cars in a makeshift neighborhood.

Rural Chinese folks remodel their used things into eco-friendly housing because it’s cheap, not because they care about their carbon footprints. Unfortunately in the west, we think of eco-friendly options as the expensive alternatives, luxuries for the rich and necessities for nobody.

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HA! Take that hippies.

Dinos were WAY worse than us.

I know there are a great many things I could mock a hippy for...which I'm not actually doing ( directly). You may be wondering what it is I'm going to be teasing them about? The environment - what else? It's no secret that we are not the most loving tenants Gaia has had living on her, but at least we're not the worst! Dinos were far tougher on the atmosphere than anything alive to day. You ask, "How did they manage that?" With their butt parts. They did it with their butt parts.

May Garden Update

What's growing in your bed?

Spring is here, and summer looks to be hot on her heels! My beds are all turned and most of them are planted. I even have some sprouts coming up, making my mouth water for the succulent vegetables to come in just a few short months.

A few weeks ago I set out my onion starts and planted carrots. The carrot foliage is breaking through the soil and I expect to harvest a few green onions from my bulbs here and there beginning next week. You can harvest green onions while still allowing the bulb to grow to full size, just don't cut back the foliage all the way!

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Getting rid of summer spiders

Aside from the heat, these creatures are the bane of my existence.

I love the garden spiders that get rid of pests, but when your home is prone to brown recluses—as most homes in my area are, especially when they’re as old and in need of repair as mine—you know how it feels to want to get rid of spiders ASAP. I’ve been killing them daily and it’s time to do something. It seems that we push off our spider care every year until we absolutely have to do it, but here’s what we do to minimize the poisonous pests.

Using nature to help find the past

The discovery and preservation of the past is a subject hotly debated by those seeking to unearth the remains of history. One camp prefers to leave things beneath the earth until technologies are improved to a point where preservation can be done properly. Others prefer to dig up these remains and begin preservation now with whatever methods are currently available. This has led to some sites being protected by law to the point where archaeologists are not allowed to touch them. But these investigators are not content to just sit and wait, so they’ve gotten a bit creative. The latest out-of-the-box method? They’re using moles to do the excavations for them.

Sasquatch Sightings: The Hermit Factor

If you happen to spot a Sasquatch in Montana's Rocky Mountains, ask him if he answers to "Noah."

I have a pet theory about Sasquatch. My personal hunch is that most (maybe all) Sasquatch sightings are actually encounters with men who, for whatever reason, have taken to the woods. You live in the great outdoors for a year or two, things happen. You stop shaving your face or cutting your hair. Your Polar Fleece jacket finally disintegrates, so you don a makeshift poncho made from a bear skin. Your boots fall apart, so you go barefoot.

Sound unlikely? The truth is, there are many documented cases throughout history of people who have abandoned society to live in the woods. And guess what? The sort of person who moves to the forest to live alone among the animals is also not the sort of person who will react kindly to encountering other humans.

UNESCO America – Waterton Glacier International Peace Park, Alberta, Canada & Montana, USA

The Waterton Glacier International Peace Park is composed of two separate parks along the United States-Canadian border that were merged in 1932. Waterton Lakes National Park is located in Alberta, Canada, while Glacier National Park is in U.S. state of Montana. Together, these parks contain some of the most amazing scenery in the world and a wide variety of plants and animals that are suited to the many environments which the landscapes of the parks provide. The park was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1995.

Oodles of Herbs

Planting an herb bed

All my garden beds are filled with fresh soil and covered with a protective layer of straw to keep the moisture in and the weeds out. It's the first week of May and I am rearing to start planting. Other than a few cool-season crops though, most of my summer planting has to wait a few more weeks. Our northwest weather makes it difficult this time of year. One day we are 70 degrees and sunny, the next day it's in the 30s and raining.

To satisfy my urge to get outside and in the dirt on those nicer days, I decided to dedicate an entire bed to herbs this year. Previously I just grew a few favorites in pots. This usually gave me enough herbs for the summer and fall, but I had to fall back on indoor plants or, gasp!, store-bought herbs in winter. This year I plan to grow enough to dry or freeze for year-round use. Plus I have dreams of plenty of pesto in the freezer, which means I need a lot of basil!

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All about Anthruriums

Anthuriums are sometimes confused with Calla Lilies due to their similar appearance, but while Calla Lilies are native to the hot, dry plains of Africa. Anthuriums come from the lush Read more about All about Anthruriums

Environment

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