“we tend to undervalue our public spaces until we really need them,” bejjani said.

public spaces are becoming symbolic images of the crisis as the nation stays indoors. while many businesses have shut their doors, public green spaces are now the go-to place for many seeking refuge from their indoor routines.

“utilizing green spaces during times of crises and empathizing with others attempting to cope, even at a distance, could provide a feeling of community and comfort,” explained christina baum, a masters of public health student from the university of arizona who works with the pima county planning division.

“i do hope that as people become more desperate for the outdoors and physical activity, the value of green spaces for all community members will be recognized,” baum said. “many people seem to be hesitant about getting outdoors and exercising in public spaces because it’s unfamiliar to them, but this pandemic has been pushing people to engage in new activities.”

in parts of the country like tucson, arizona, people are starting to take advantage of clear skies and warm temperatures. tucson is home to 128 parks and 131 miles of paved bikeways to connect community members with the outdoors.

these green public spaces have seen an uptick in usage as residents were ordered to remain at home and engage in social distancing. 

“i believe that these trying times are shedding light on peoples’ desire to access public spaces,” said julian griffee, climate adaptation planning outreach assistant to the city of tucson and urban planning graduate student from the university of arizona.

“i’m interested to see if the public will continue to adopt new habits like cycling and walking outdoors once the pandemic begins to calm down,” griffee said. “will we start to see cities across the nation promote and invest in public spaces and green infrastructure?”

in 2018, voters approved a $225 million bond package  to improve park amenities, a sign that the tucson community is committed to investing more in green spaces for public use.

“public spaces like parks and bike pathways serve important contributions to our community’s public health by promoting healthy outcomes and reducing the number of injuries and fatalities associated with automobile incidents,” griffee said. “but these green spaces also serve an important function in our fight to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.”

cities like tucson are challenged by the onset of rising temperatures and the urban heat island effect. increased concentrations of buildings and pavement absorb and retain heat that increase an urban environment’s energy costs, air pollution levels, and heat-related illness and mortality.

urban mitigation and adaptation efforts to “green” public spaces are enabling residents to make more sustainable choices for their health and built environment.

“i think the pandemic is showing how adaptable we all can be,” baum said. “i hope that some of the changes we are making today will empower us with skills and confidence to continue making those changes once it is over.”

wind energy is so prevalent in texas, that if the state were its own country, it would rank fifth in the world for wind energy with about 25 megawatts installed throughout the state according to the american wind energy association.

what’s even more impressive about wind-powered electricity in texas? in 2019, something monumental happened. the electric reliability council of texas (ercot) released their biannual report for the first half of the year and wind had surpassed coal. the difference in energy usage was small with wind coming in at 22% and coal at 21%, but wind has been growing steadily in practice and as a focus for politicians, educators, environmentalists, and local economies.

lubbock, texas, is the heart of wind research, industry, and education in the country. it’s the home of texas tech university and the national wind institute (nwi), and the university is the only one in the nation with a degree program for wind engineering. anyone that’s familiar with west texas knows that wind turbines are as plentiful as tumbleweeds and prairie dogs. new “wind farms” appear every year on the farmland surrounding small towns. these wind farms pump money into local economies and bring new life to these communities.

matt saldana is a small-town texas native and an employee of the national wind institute. saldana also is an instructor at texas tech, specializing in renewable energies, finance and economics, and project management. he has seen firsthand the changes that come with the wind industry while living in sweetwater, texas. while there, he witnessed a revival of the small town as money was brought into the community as a result of a new wind farm outside of town. saldana explained the entire process. 

when a contractor sees potential for a wind farm in an area, they go to the landowners of large farms and ranches with the request to put instruments on their land to take readings of wind speeds in the area, according to saldana. he said this stage is fully noncommittal and comes with no guaranteed compensation for the landowner. if the owner agrees to having turbines built on their property, the contracting company will begin construction.

as a thank you to the community, developers will often pay for new roads, sidewalks, or schools. in sweetwater, a new, state-of-the-art school district was built. this allowed for more money to be spent on teachers’ salaries, bringing in new faculty from the metroplex.

while the turbines are being constructed, thousands of temporary jobs are created. not only are local men and women hired to be on the construction crews, but local motels, restaurants, and gas stations see more business than they have in a long time. while they are under construction, the developers are subject to all local tax rates as well, ensuring the cities receive municipal funding. saldana said after construction, about 30 well-paying, permanent jobs are given to local residents. the landowners that have turbines on their properties receive a percentage of the revenue that each turbine produces (generally 3% to 8% depending on the specific company and production levels of each turbine, according to saldana).

“people are being allowed to keep the family farms they’ve had for generations,” saldana said.

the american farmer is in critical condition. production prices are at an all-time high, climate change is affecting growing seasons and harvesting, and trade wars with foreign countries have made it harder for many to sell what little yield they have. farm bankruptcies are up across every region of the country and the farmer suicide rate is one of the highest in the nation. saldana said that the extra revenue brought in by turbines to family farms has helped people save the land that’s been in their families for generations.

saldana said that research is being done constantly in order to push the industry forward. a few hot topics in the field include cybersecurity of turbines on the grid, finding a use for old and out of date equipment, moving into offshore capabilities, and finding a way to store renewable energy.

“renewable electricity can’t be stored,” saldana said. “finding a solution to that would be a game changer.”

saldana said despite the many positive aspects of the wind industry, there is still controversy surrounding wind turbines for people who live around them: endangering wildlife such as birds and bats, disrupting flora and fauna, and the low aesthetic value of the wind farms. he said the nwi is working on addressing these issues and that developers often work with wildlife conservation groups funding research and relocating bird species, like the lesser prairie chicken.

“there’s always going to be pushback no matter the industry,” saldana said. “(the positives) outweigh the negatives by environmental benefits and just keeping stuff in the ground.”

despite these controversies, there’s no question that renewable energy industries have earned their place in texas. wind powered energy has become a major source of power for the state and only continues to grow. wind energy allows for more assurance from blackouts, brownouts, and offers a new, clean means of electricity on the grid, ensuring a green method of urban resilience as our population spreads in urban areas; as a result, rural communities in west texas continue to thrive thanks to the economic spark this industry brings them.

if you live in japan, you might have a chance to see top athletes all over the world wear your old phones on their necks next summer.

well, not quite, but close. the tokyo organizing committee of the olympic and paralympic games has been collecting used electronics all over japan, including old cellphones and home appliances. the plan is to extract the metal and make – you guessed it – olympic medals.

“the medal project,” as the committee calls it, is a big part of sustainability innovations ahead of the games. kicked off in april 2017, the project is now near the finish line – march marks the last month of collection, said tatsuo ogura, senior manager of international communications for the committee.

“when we started this project in 2017, we expected it to finish in two years,” ogura said. “we are on the right track and we almost met with the goal.”

the committee fulfilled the 2,700-kilogram goal (that’s nearly 3 tons) of bronze collection last june. in october, it met 93.7% of the target for salvaging gold and 85.4 percent for silver, ogura said.

a total of 1,500 municipalities across japan are involved in the medal project, and they put the signature yellow donation boxes at post offices or street corners for citizens to donate their used devices, ogura said. they can also donate at 2,400 ntt docomo stores nationwide, japan’s predominant mobile phone operator.

“we believe that, by supporting schemes like the medal project which encourage participation by the public, we can draw attention to the importance of recycling and help realize an environmentally friendly and sustainable society,” a ntt docomo representative said in an email.  

ntt docomo began recycling used mobile phones in 1998. the company is dedicated to “urban mining,” the process of “reclaiming raw materials from used products, buildings and waste,” according to sintef, a european independent research organization.

surging demands for electronic devices each year indicate huge market potential in urban mining. the annual production of electronic goods in the world required “320 tons of gold and over 7,500 tons of silver, with a combined value of $21 billion,” from which only 15% is recovered, according to a study by the solving the e-waste problem initiative (step).

as part of its contribution to the medal project, ntt docomo also runs educational workshops to teach school children about the precious mineral resources in mobile phones and other consumer electronics, the representative said in the email.

over the span of the project, japanese municipalities received approximately 47,488 tons of used electronic devices in total, including 5.07 million used mobile phones. people need to be informed on how many resources they have just within their homes, ogura said.

promoting an environmentally friendly and sustainable society is deeply connected to tokyo’s vision for the  2020 olympic and paralympic games. “sports has the power to change the world and our future,” ogura said, and the international sporting event is a great opportunity to send a message to the world.

“we tried to show our stance to the vision and it is really important to leave that intangible legacy to japanese society and also to the world, especially for the younger generation,” ogura said.

the purpose behind this project is twofold, he said. following the sustainable development goals (sdg) set by the united nations, the tokyo olympics committee is dedicated to achieve zero waste through recycling, but it also wants to engage and excite the public ahead of the games.

people usually start engaging when volunteer applications open or ticket sales start, ogura said, but the medal project gave them an early opportunity to take part in the quadrennial event.

“tokyo won the bid in september 2013. at that moment, japanese people are really enthusiastic about hosting the games, but it’s a long way,” ogura said. “we obviously need to retain the enthusiasm and excitement.”

our idea was to share a story about food deserts and the efforts to mitigate them by introducing the program plant a row for the hungry. this podcast illustrates the evolution of a program from its very beginnings to its present, documenting the challenges associated with taking on a task as daunting as feeding the hungry. food deserts are a common problem faced throughout the united states, and this program helps to alleviate the impacts they have on disenfranchised communities. 

this was late july of 2017: exhausted from farm work and eager for a break in the shade, my coworkers and i were more than happy to indulge our manager in watching this menacing-looking fly lay her eggs.

the university farm in sewanee can afford these small breaks and experiments. subsidized by the university of the south, the farm was reestablished in 2012 as a research and hands-on learning opportunity for undergraduate students, like christopher hornsby, who has been intentionally breeding these ‘black soldier flies’ on the farm for over two years, harvesting their maggots.

these flies’ larvae are grown on a commercial scale across the united states for fish and chicken feed, but chris’s project focuses on what the larvae can feed on: once hatched, these larvae fatten for two weeks before emerging as adults, eating twice their own weight every 20-24 hours. to chris, and to many small farmers, this can be an invaluable service. reducing whatever mass of food waste given to them by ninety percent, the flies would expedite the university’s composting process by weeks, if not months, and allow the farm to accept 400-500 pounds of food waste from sewanee’s dining facilities every day.

an impressive metabolism hardly signifies the soldier fly as unique; most larvae can consume a large amount compared to their own mass. but many species’ adult flies can damage the local environment or become a nuisance to humans if their populations get out of hand, so it took a few weeks of research for chris to find the right fit for sewanee’s ecosystem.

“they’re very harmless,” chris explained; “when it becomes an adult fly it sheds the inner lining of its gut, expelling any hazardous microorganisms. and it loses its mouth. so it’s got no mouth, meaning it’s not a disease vector,  it’s not a crop pest, and they won’t swarm in houses, usually, unless you’ve got a mountain of food waste in there. and they die after two to three days.” he paused momentarily, and added almost as an afterthought,  “they’re also native to the entire western hemisphere. ”

but even this fly isn’t perfect. according to a pair of uga entomologists’ research from 1984, 99.6% of egg-laying takes place from 81.5° to 99.5°, and the university of windsor released a study from 2010 suggesting that the larvae’s ideal developmental environment has about 70% relative humidity. although a tennessee july easily provides these conditions, only tropical climates can host them year-round. the seasonality of the larvae may not be a problem to small farmers hoping to establish their own backyard colony because most agricultural systems dwindle as winter encroaches, anyway. but at sewanee, the converse is true: winter is when all 2,000 students are huddled together in the same dining hall, and it’s when the farm grows the most greens and accepts the most food waste. so chris’s project comes down to controlling climate, which would allow the flies’ reproduction and developmental cycle to continue through the farm’s busiest season.

chris and carolyn have worked on multiple prototypes for smaller weather-controlled breeding boxes, but in the summer of 2017 the university’s domain management raised a pole barn for the farm to house tractors, large equipment, and gave them the space to accommodate a room full of soldier flies. so chris’s project has shifted from research to construction, as he tries to plan and prepare an insulated and vermin-proof home for his maggots.

“i don’t know how to vermin-proof a building, but i’m learning. but it’s just me, and i can’t do that kind of construction on my own. if i had more time and more people and more skills… it would all be very helpful.”

since he graduates in 2019, chris’s project might not be completed soon enough for him to see it. with preliminary research finished and finding success in smaller-scale larvae breeding, now he needs to build the larvae a home. as a full-time student he can only work eight hours a week on the farm, which limits a project that is now so contingent on major construction work.

however close his graduation looms, he is confident that another student will bear the torch after him. once it’s finished, he sees sewanee’s waste management system as a model that can be used by other small farms across the country, like bill keener’s sequatchie cove farm.

keener, a dairy, poultry, and vegetable farmer outside of sewanee, is intrigued by chris’s work. sold at first by the prospect of self-producing chicken feed, he’s now hoping to do research about a small-scale implementation of a soldier fly colony in his farmland.

“maybe i could find an easy and big enough source of food waste to feed them with. maybe i could talk to local public schools.”

keener typically feeds his hogs excess whey from his dairy operation, and if the public school falls through as a food source, he may be able to use the whey as a substrate for soldier fly growth. the soldier flies would create an organic alternative to grain chicken feed, which would lower the price of his organic eggs and increase his competitivity in the local organic market.

“i think it’s a good project for me. for a homestead, it’d just make sense.”

we don’t have to continue with this destruction, however. according to sam thayer, a forager and author from northwestern wisconsin, the key to better stewardship of the environment may be reconnecting emotionally with the natural world.  he believes it’s time we viewed the earth as sacred, like many indigenous cultures do.

“i think that sacredness is a way in which culture speaks to individuals about what is important,” thayer said.

if we view the ecosystems that surround us as sacred, we might just realize how much we rely on their support. when we acknowledge that relationship, appreciation will likely follow, and from appreciation could stem the action our ailing planet needs: a major change from how we’re treating it today.

seeing the sacredness

so how do we transform the “ordinary” earth into something so special, so sacred? if you look at the stories that pepper our past, you might think it takes a legend, maybe a war.  but thayer thinks there’s an easier way, no violence involved: if you want to make something sacred, all you have to do is eat.

it may sound ridiculous, but thayer’s not suggesting we munch on the stones beneath our feet: he’s urging us to see the sacrality in the plants we already consume. according to thayer, modern humans have forgotten how important the plants that feed us really are, because we spend little time on basic needs like finding food.

“so many people don’t know that cotton is a plant, or that potatoes have leaves,” thayer lamented.  and if you’ve never witnessed your food sprouting up from the soil, it’s hard to see that soil is sacred – it’s not just dirt.

sam’s experience has taught him that it is through direct interaction that we develop a sense of sacredness. physical connections to the environment will become emotional the longer they last: from objective knowledge to subjective feeling, our bond grows stronger over time.  eventually the connection strengthens into “a spiritual relationship, and a feeling of deep responsibility to our landscape and our descendants,” thayer said.

the problem is that in today’s culture very few people have any direct contact with the plants that provide them with food: as urbanization continues, more people spend their lives in the concrete jungle of cities instead of the “real” jungles beyond.  that means many people lack the physical connections to the environment from which a sense of sacredness might sprout.

a scrumptious solution

thayer knows there’s a way to reverse this trend: interacting more with nature is the solution to our woes.  and this is far from an arduous, difficult task, because that interaction can take the form of a meal.

“i believe that gathering and eating food directly from nature is the easiest and most effective way to build an appreciation for plants and the ecosystems they create,” thayer said.  “it fosters gratitude. it creates sacredness… it is better for us and better for the earth.”

if thayer is right – and there’s evidence he is – we should snack on berries and nuts, not burgers and fries. but just shifting our diets won’t solve the whole dilemma, because how we obtain our food is what really needs to change.  “gathering and using a plant is the process that makes it sacred,” thayer explained. “look at the plants considered sacred by native peoples–they are all plants that were extensively gathered and used.”

if this sounds over-the-top, don’t run away yet, we don’t have to return to our primitive past.  “we need to create, maintain, foster, and reinforce those physical relationships that lead to an attitude of sacredness,” thayer said, but that doesn’t mean abandoning modern life!

by taking small steps to explore wild food, you’ll build relationships with the land outside your door.  even in cities, there are plenty of opportunities to sample a few wild plants in your salad and connect to the ecosystems from which they come.

building that relationship isn’t a chore either, it can be a pleasure. “i tell people to forage because it is fun, first and foremost” thayer said. “the rest grows naturally and automatically from that.”

the more you get to know local ecosystems (including the urban ones so many of us now inhabit) the more fun you’ll have.  but it’s not just you that will benefit. as you grow closer to plants you once passed without a thought, your attitude towards the earth is likely to improve as well.

“the act of gathering builds and compounds gratitude,” says thayer. if we all tried foraging, our collective gratitude could grow.  we could learn to see the earth as sacred, worth our time and effort to protect.  as this attitude spreads and begins to gather strength, we could radically shift the way we treat our planet.  the more plants and places we really get to know, the less likely we are to replace them with a parking lot.

the environment would certainly benefit from this shift, and we might notice our own bodies changing as well. by replacing processed foods with nature’s nutrient-rich fare, foraging would do our health a favor too.  but even more than the planet, your body, or your tastebuds, thayer believes foraging is good for the soul.  “i think a connection to nature is a vital part of what it is to be human,” he explains; in other words, our human nature could be more natural than we know.

what thayer is implying is truly profound: foraging is about more than gathering food. it is a way of reminding ourselves how sacred life is – human life, and all other forms in the world. so why not just try it: give gathering a chance! there are more edible plants out there than you might think, and many are growing in the abandoned lots, sidewalks, and gardens that surround you even in the concrete world of the city. so grab a foraging guidebook, and pull your friends out the door, as well: as you connect with each other and the planet, you’ll be defending our sacred earth.

nature
wondrous, grand
giving, stunning, hurting
scarred from lifetimes of deep neglect
mother

cities
powerful, clout
bustling, swarming, living
responsible to change the world
impact

streetlights
bright, everywhere
shining, revealing, welcoming
needed but right now quite wasteful
misused

solar
gift, prevalent
powering, driving, innovating
our world needs to run on solar
future

to tell my story, i decided to write several cinquain formatted poems and string them together. my final product tells the story of a hurting world in which the key to survival is found in the power of cities. cities are powerful because of their sheer size and energy, but the innovation to drive our planet forward is much less noticeable: streetlights. traditional streetlights are vulnerable to natural disasters, powered by dirty fuel, and are inefficient (some estimates say traditional streetlights lose 40% of their light to the sky, as opposed to illuminating the ground).

meanwhile solar street lights are completely off the grid and are powered from totally renewable energy. all solar street lights use led light bulbs, which can be up to 70% more efficient. they are extremely resilient, continuing to work during natural disasters while anything connected to the grid is left inoperable. they can even offer a helping hand during these disasters because, if installed correctly, the light post can become a charging station for aid workers and vital equipment.

the simple beauty of solar street lights isn’t that they save money, conserve energy, emit less emissions, or their resilience. the simple beauty of solar street lights is that they are universal. they can be installed in a developed country to replace aging infrastructure or in a developing country in which traditional infrastructure has never existed. this inclusiveness is very rare to find in an innovation, which is why solar street lights could prove to be so important.

in order to properly repair the damage done to the natural environment, cities must use their influence and size to lead the sustainability movement. an integral part of this movement can be achieved through solar street lighting, which if powered by cities, will leave the world a little bit brighter than it was yesterday.

not ready to make the investment?  according to the american society of landscape architects, homeowners can take a smaller step in reducing energy consumption through smart tree placement.  when planted strategically, trees can reduce wintertime heating needs by two to eight percent. check out this animation that shows you how.

_{originally submitted july 7, 2011.}

watch an animation that explains how to use the landscape to reduce the energy consumed by a typical suburban home. see how smart tree placement and green roofs and walls dramatically improve energy efficiency. trees are being cut down to make way for new single-family homes, which then often sit on bare lots. these treeless lots not only have negative impacts on the climate, environment, and community health, but they also exacerbate the energy inefficient practices found within homes. this is a major problem given the average american home consumes 70 million btus annually. in fact, taken together, american homes account for 22 percent of total energy use as well as nearly 22 percent of carbon dioxide emissions (1.19 billion metric tons). (sources: the washington post and architecture 2030) mckinsey & co, a management consulting firm, found that energy use in the u.s. could be cut by 23 percent by 2020 by implementing simple energy efficiency measures. while homeowners can take low-cost steps to make the inside of their homes better insulated and therefore more energy efficient, the landscape isn’t often seen as a part of the problem–or the solution. basic green technologies like smart tree placement and green roofs and walls can be used to dramatically reduce energy usage inside homes. if placed strategically, trees can reduce summertime cooling energy needs by 7-47 percent and wintertime heating needs by 2-8 percent. (sources: the washington post and reducing urban heat islands: compendium of strategies. trees and vegetation, u.s. e.p.a.) in addition, well-designed residential green roofs, which are growing popular in some parts of the world, can reduce energy usage in both summer and winter. according to one canadian study, a 32,000- square foot green roof on a one-story commercial building in toronto reduced energy usage by 6 percent in the summer and 10 percent in the winter. similarly, the green roof of the american society of landscape architects (asla) at just 3,000 square feet reduces energy usage by 3 percent in summer and 10 percent in winter. weather, roof, and building size and location also have an impact on the amount of energy savings. lastly, fast-growing green walls can also reduce energy use by providing insulation in the winter and limiting direct sunlight on walls in the summer. in hotter months they also cool air temperatures by up to 10 degrees. (sources: reducing urban heat islands: compendium of strategies. green roofs, u.s. e.p.a. and american society of landscape architects (asla) green roof)