the santa cruz has a long way to go. urban rivers across the world are facing the same problem: trash. and a lot of it. trash impacts waterways, harbor disease, and pollutes water with invisible microplastics. something needs to be done, and at many scales, government policies to clean up or prevent trash pollution aren’t working. so, in a five-month endeavor to seek the truths about plastic pollution in my river, i came across an amazing untold story.  

reconciliation. restoring relations with the landscapes that sustain you. the idea of reconciliation with nature is not new. nor is it mine to profess. all my relations and interconnection is a central core of first nations, inuit, and metis worldviews and ways of knowing. some first nations sum this up with the phrase “all my relations”. this mindset reflects people who are aware that everything in the universe is connected. what is new, is the use of this mindset to insight into action and inspire change. on a local level in tucson, angelantonio breault is leading the charge to reconcile with the lands that sustain us. reconciliation as a climate solution is harnessing the power of empathy and has the ability to heal our planet, as well as ourselves.

in the face of breakneck innovation and rapid change, i propose a return to self. 

this story was featured in our series, slipping through our fingers: the future of water.

as i looked at my own hands, soft and pale, i realized that i would never understand her day-to-day life. i would never understand what it felt like to have the fate of your family sifting through your fingers. i knelt down next to her and let her show me the most efficient method to pulling weeds. images danced through  my mind as i remembered my childhood of gardening with my own mother. this was a different world and yet there i was, immersed in the livelihood of her people. this was their culture. agriculture to these women wasn’t a career, it was a way of life. it was the focus of their day, because without it, they wouldn’t know a tomorrow.

later that day i wandered through the markets, over stimulated by the aroma and clamor that i came to recognize as a mixture of sweat, curry, and chickens. women gossiped around me as they quite literally sold the fruit of their labor. my whole life i had witnessed separate sectors of agriculture, rarely did they overlap. here in india, they all blended together in an assembly of noise and color. the women grew, harvested, transported, and sold the food. as i walked on, i noticed that most of the food was sold in the open and a vast majority of it was already beginning to rot. wasted food meant wasted nutrients and yet there was nothing that could be done. they would sell and eat what they could before the hunger season set in.

to fight this scenario, we created kinosol. kinosol is a mobile solar dehydrator for fruits and vegetables. it has a mylar lined storage unit to lengthen shelf life and bicycle hitch and tires have been added to ensure markets could be easily accessible. kinosol’s main objective is to put power back into the hands of women living in the developing world.

our primary targets for kinosol are subsistence farmers. currently, women in developing countries perform 80% of the agriculture work, yet they control less than 2% of the land

today, in the peripheral countries, women are less likely than men to own land, use credit or other financial services, or receive education or extension advice. in some cases, women do not even control the use of their own time, yet evidence from africa, asia and latin america consistently shows that families benefit when women have greater status and power within the household.

these are facts we no longer choose to accept as an adequate future. as a woman in the united states, we hear of the disadvantaged life women lead around the world and we think how fortunate we are to possess our luxuries. my three-team members and myself realized that we have the resources to affect change and help empower these women rather than pitying them.

it is a less commonly known fact that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 percent. this would reduce our world hunger by 100-150 million people. when women have additional income, they take that money and reinvest it back into their household. this inevitably puts food on the table and money reinvested in education for the children.

one goal of the kinosol team is to break down the gender barriers in these regions, and empower local women to subsequently boost the overall economy and standard of living, while helping to decrease post harvest losses.  

we created the kinosol unit as a tool for women to reduce their waste and increase their family’s nutrient consumption. excess dehydrated produce can be sold at market, allowing women to make an income for her family, which has been shown to dramatically increase her power in the household. during times of low food supply, dehydrated food can be consumed as it has a shelf life of six months. this will reduce the malnutrition prevalence in households who own our product.

our primary goal is multifaceted as we wish to see a significant reduction in post harvest loss while also an increased income for the families. with kinosol we are confident we can tackle some of the most prevalent burdens of the developing world, one woman at a time.

energy workforce study

this study explores the labor market and workforce needs of the energy sector (such as renewable, electric, nuclear, oil, natural gas, and mining industries). eta will utilize the department of energy’s expertise in the energy sector to carry out the research. the study began in june 2008 and is expected to conclude in june 2010.

dear wayne gordon,

i want to very briefly outline my thought for a jobs training program that i am quite sure you have already thought of. therefore what i would like is to hear how the idea is progressing. this concept is obviously so well suited to all the challenges our country confronts today, i have no doubt it should be highly politically palatable to an administration seeking a remedy to otherwise seemingly intractable and yet urgent challenges.

the concept is for a program focused on converting old junker cars that are deemed to still be salvageable for the purpose of conversion into plug in electric vehicles. of course, given the current state of the art, the resultant electric car would be quite limited on a variety of parameters, most notably range.

i myself have been quite happy doing most of my driving around town in a zenn electric car despite the diminutive 26 mile range and 26 mph top speed. for most chores it is quite an adequate second car.

the point is, it is delightfully motivating to know i am making some contribution to breaking our addiction to foreign oil. to tell you the truth, i am very happy with a car that never needs maintenance and never requires visiting a service station.

my concept of the proposed federally subsidized project would basically go as follows:

• priority for training would go to workers who have been unemployed for an extended period of time and welcome the opportunity to attain the skills in question
• american citizens with a car they would like converted from fossil fuel to plug in electricity would be eligible candidates for the free conversion.

the project would basically look like the old high school auto shop setup. actually i expect the process would, in fact. be much simpler and cheaper.

simple, simple, simple. but, you must admit, urgently needed. need i elaborate on the importance of gaining our freedom from foreign oil. i think not.

please do have someone call or email and tell me how this idea is going. thank you for your kind attention.