In this fun, quirky video, filmmaker Andrea Dorfman and poet/singer/songwriter Tanya Davis  use poetry, art, and music to offer advice for tackling one of society’s biggest fears: alone time.

Tanya shows us how to ease into loneliness—starting in easy places like the bathroom or coffee shop, turning off our cell phone security blankets, honoring the things we like to do by ourselves—as we learn to enjoy it and feed ourselves with it.

Recent studies show that our brains need downtime, away from computers and other digital devices, to spur creativity and productivity. Check out the video...then unplug and reap the rewards of solitude!

Film produced by Bravo!FACT.

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• Life After Worry: Akaya Windward decided not to worry. Ever. So how's that working out for her?
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The torrid summer of 2010 will cap off the hottest decade ever recorded on our planet. American households have responded to the heat by doubling our consumption of electricity for air-conditioning since the mid-1990s. Our a/c use has, in turn, boosted greenhouse gas emissions from power plants—helping to speed global climate change and to ensure that future heat waves will be even more frequent and intense … and that we’ll soon be cranking up the air-conditioning yet another notch.

But around the country, people are starting to recognize this vicious cycle and trying to put a stop to it.

I’ve met many people from across the country who enjoy the non-air-conditioned life, even in the heart of the Sunbelt. Here in Salina, Kansas, a place where triple-digit highs are common, my wife Priti and I have lived without air-conditioning for ten years.

Air-conditioning plays an important role in protecting the more vulnerable segments of our population during heat waves. But that doesn’t warrant its lavish deployment throughout society for much of the year. Whether you live in a house on a shady lot or in a third-floor urban apartment, it’s possible to stay comfortable by reviving and updating simple hot-weather strategies that have been cast aside during the age of air-conditioning. And it can be done without costly equipment or home renovations.

The key is to focus on people-cooling, not building-cooling. Your body is constantly converting chemical energy from food into heat; hot and/or humid weather makes it harder to unload that heat. But filling a home with chilled, still, dry air around the clock is only one of the many ways by which we can help our bodies maintain their thermal balance.

Keep air circulating. Air movement is highly effective in helping you evaporate perspiration and shed heat. On a merely warm day, a breeze through an open window is enough to do the job, but in truly hot weather, especially if it’s humid, turn on a fan. Ceiling fans are good, but the direct breeze from a portable or window fan can be more effective. In summer, we have a window fan blowing directly across our bed at night.

Don’t let the morning weather forecast scare you into reaching for the A/C switch. If all of the home’s occupants are away at work or school during the day, midday temperatures are not very relevant. If you are going to be home all day, the predicted high temperature or heat index may sound menacing; however, a naturally ventilated indoor space often remains at least ten degrees cooler than the outdoor maximum, and air movement knocks a few more degrees off the temperature your body is actually sensing. In a closed-up, air-conditioned home, a thermostat set in the mid-to-upper eighties would create a suffocating environment—but with open windows and moving air, living in such temperatures is no sweat.

Change your location with the time of day and sun position. If you’re fortunate enough to have a basement, take advantage of the geothermal cooling it provides. A fan enhances the effect. And if things get really tough, there’s no need to be an absolutist. For a few hours’ break, you can quickly and fairly efficiently cool down a one-room refuge with a window air-conditioner.

Reserve sedentary activities for the hottest part of the day. When physical work is called for, just accept that you may need to wring out your shirt afterward. Don’t do your running or other exercise at three in the afternoon under a broiling sun, but don’t do it in an air-conditioned health club either. Research shows that regular exertion in the heat builds the body’s tolerance, helping you function better in hot weather.

Don’t make extra heat. Remember that any energy-consuming household device releases waste heat. Plan meals that involve less cooking—cut back on boiling and baking especially. Keep the dishwasher and any unneeded lights turned off. Use solar technology—a clothesline—to dry the laundry. And take cold or lukewarm showers to avoid burdening your indoor atmosphere with a big load of humidity.

Get wet. High humidity may be the enemy, but water in liquid form is an essential ally. When it’s feasible, hit the lake or local swimming pool with your friends and neighbors. When it’s not (and if water supplies are sufficient), nothing cools like the old garden hose or lawn sprinkler.

Stay near plants. Head to the woods, where it always feels cooler. Plants can cool twice, by blocking sunlight and by absorbing heat as they transpire water. If you have a yard, you can further reduce the peak indoor temperature by creating more shade [pdf]. If possible, have trees, especially to the south and west. If that’s not possible, a dense stand of other kinds of tall plants—giant reed (Arundo donax) or sunflowers, for example—can be tall enough by July to shade the sun-baked sides of the house. We have grapevines covering a couple of windows.

Bring in the night air. If, when the sun starts going down, the outdoor temperature drops below that in the house, it’s a signal to pull in some of that outdoor air. Use a whole-house or attic fan if you have one; otherwise, set up one window fan blowing in and another out.

Meet your neighbors. Especially in the evening, spend time under a shade tree, patio umbrella, or screen porch, or head for the neighborhood park. Using natural cooling can help reverse the trend toward isolation from neighbors and nature that has characterized the age of air-conditioning.

The most important adjustment to be made is not in the thermostat but in our own view of what constitutes comfort. When people say they couldn’t survive without air conditioning, they tend to be thinking about the last time they dashed from a sun-baked parking lot into a chilled home or business. But focusing on those extremes ignores a wide range of perfectly livable, pleasant environments—that come at a much lower cost to you and the planet.

Stan Cox wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Stan is the author of Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer). His website is LosingOurCool.com.

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The idea behind UK Uncut— a grassroots movement that asks why public services like libraries and health care are being cut while corporations skip out on paying taxes—is spreading to the United States, with dozens of actions planned for Februrary 26. Want to hold your own Uncut protest? It's simple, says filmmaker Oonagh Cousins:

1. Choose a cut.
2. List the action.
3. Tell everyone.
4. Get props.
5. Bail-in

Video by Oonagh Cousins

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The next time you find yourself waiting forever for a light to change at a busy intersection, practice this visualization: Imagine the streets around you completely devoid of cars. Replace the painted lane lines with lush, green, flowering plants. Zap that smog-spewing SUV and manifest a café table in its place, complete with a shady umbrella and chairs. Vanish the ugly traffic light and see instead a whimsical statue.

Think it’s all just a wishful fantasy? It’s actually happening, and in some unexpected places. From an artists’ collective in San Francisco’s funky Mission district to New York City’s Times Square, people are working to reclaim streets as public spaces, partnering with residents and local businesses to create a renewed sense of community while they’re at it.

Here’s how to make it happen in your own city:

Start small and temporary. 

Photo essay: Parking spots take on a whole new meaning.

Even something as small and car-centric as a parking spot can be transformed into a space for pedestrians to enjoy. In 2005, REBAR, an artists’ collective based in San Francisco, wanted to demonstrate the need for more urban green space in San Francisco. They put some quarters in a parking meter, brought in some benches and sod, and used the parking space for a rather unconventional purpose: a park instead of a car. They called it PARK(ing) Day. Park(ing) Day is now “an annual, worldwide event that inspires city dwellers everywhere to transform metered parking spots into temporary parks for the public good,” according to REBAR’s website. The website also offers a downloadable instruction manual ($6.99) with step-by-step instructions on how to transform a parking spot into a park, including ideas about creative uses for the space and advice on how to make your park safe and inviting.

Once you’ve successfully reclaimed 200 square feet, you’re ready to take on a whole street, or even a park.

Request a one-day street closure in an area that pedestrians and bicyclists already frequent, like a park or esplanade.

“Ciclovias” started in Columbia in the 1980s, when several of the country’s major cities declared main streets closed to cars on Sundays and holidays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. A staggering 2 million people (30 percent of Colombian citizens) now participate in these weekly events, where stages are set up for aerobics instructors, yoga instructors, and musicians to encourage people to move their bodies without the assistance of an automobile.

The cities of Portland, Ore., Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and even Cleveland, Ohio, sponsor  “Sunday Parkways”—events where park streets are closed to car traffic. On a recent Sunday in the streets of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, those enjoying the break from cars included families teaching kids how to ride bikes, joggers and runners of all shapes and sizes, and even old-school boom-box-toting roller skaters disco dancing their way across the pavement. 

After you see how much fun a Ciclovia can be, you’ll want to move on to a semi-permanent project. This type of project uses a temporary installation to test a street closure, with the goal of eventually closing the street permanently. For this one, you’ll need help.

To make a park permanent, recruit partners who will benefit from the experience, like community organizations and local businesses.

San Francisco’s Pavement to Parks project reclaims wasted space on overly wide streets and turns the space into temporary public parks and plazas, complete with benches and movable landscaping. City and community organizations help make sure the parks stay clean and coordinate community uses such as farmer’s markets, chess clubs, and concessions. In one “parklet," Pavement to Parks partnered with REBAR and three restaurants to turn parking spots in front of the restaurants into additional seating and bike parking.

Building the World We Want
When city officials told them, "That's public space. No one can use it," architect Mark Lakeman and his neighbors began a revolution in Portland's public places.

Perhaps the most well-known example of a successful temporary street closure that is now on its way to becoming a permanent pedestrian area is in New York City's Times Square, where, in May of 2009, Broadway was closed to traffic between 47th and 42nd Streets. The goal of the project, named “Green Light for Midtown,” was to improve mobility and safety in Manhattan’s Midtown area, and to make it a better place to live, work, and visit. Because this project would affect a large and diverse group of residents and businesses, New York City’s Department of Transportation held numerous public and private meetings with stakeholders before they started the project—with Business Improvement Districts, local community boards, elected officials, local media, the theater community, government agencies, and representatives from the taxi, hotel, real estate, and tourism industries.

This closure yielded some startling results. According to the Department of Transportation’s 2010 evaluation report, pedestrian injuries in the area dropped by 35 percent. In addition, the area has become a much more inviting place, encouraging people to linger and spend time there, which promotes social interaction and benefits local businesses. Again, according to the Department of Transportation (DOT) report:

• 84 percent more people are staying (e.g. reading, eating, taking photographs) in Times Square and in another similar temporary pedestrian area (in Herald Square) than before the projects.

• 42 percent of NYC residents surveyed in Times Square say they shop in the neighborhood more often since the changes.

• 26 percent of Times Square employees report leaving their offices for lunch more frequently.

• 74 percent of New Yorkers surveyed by the Times Square Alliance agree that Times Square has improved dramatically as a result of this project. 


The DOT currently is upgrading and reviving the plaza with a temporary mural, and is designing a permanent pedestrian plaza for the space that will be constructed in 2012.

Like the song says, “if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere.” Here are some more tips to ensure that your new temporary pedestrian plaza will get built, be used, and turn into a permanent pedestrian oasis:

Make the space beautiful and inviting with plants, seating areas, and art.

Using reclaimed materials whenever possible is the inexpensive and environmentally responsible way to go. Pavement to Parks blocked off one street using reclaimed logs that were hollowed out and used as planters. In another plaza, they sanitized, painted, lined, and filled donated dumpsters and unused terracotta sewer pipes with trees and plants. For easy maintenance, make sure your plants are drought-tolerant.

Warn users of the space in advance of the closure with fliers, signs, handouts, and digital announcements.

Because the Green Light in Midtown project would potentially disrupt one of the most congested traffic areas in the United States, the DOT made a tremendous effort to involve the community and form collaborative partnerships long before the first orange cone was placed. In addition to meeting with key stakeholders, project leaders distributed thousands of fliers to inform the public about the proposed closure and invite them to participate in open house discussions. The DOT also welcomed feedback about the proposal on its website.

Make it fun! Have a party in your new park!

It’s easier than you think to turn a parking spot or even a street into a beautiful, safe place for people to relax and socialize, even in the middle of a big city. Look around, visualize, and then start talking to people in your community about it. Happy parking!

Erika Kosina wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Erika is a freelance writer and community organizer who explores ways to make our world a more connected, social place. She blogs about taking a break from technology at TechFreeDay.org.

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Organic cotton production systems replenish and maintain soil fertility, reduce the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers, and build biologically diverse agriculture. Organic cotton represents 1.2 percent of global cotton production, according to the Textile Exchange Farm and Fiber Report 2010.

1. Organic and Fair

Much of the clothing we purchase every year carries hidden environmental and social costs. Growing non-organic cotton, for example, uses copious amounts of pesticides, herbicides, and water. That’s one concern for people who want to make low-impact, ethical choices as consumers. Another issue is that clothing sold in the United States is often produced in the developing world, in factories with poor wages and working conditions. To ensure that you’re buying fair labor clothing, look for companies that are transparent about their production process. Green America’s National Green Pages is a good source of information if you’re looking to buy the most sustainable and fairly produced clothing available.­—K.V.

• Interested? Visit greenamerica.org
  

2. Swap Some

Before you toss your old clothes into the nearest charity drop box and go shopping for new ones, consider a clothing swap. You can arrange one yourself with friends in your living room or take part in a clothing exchange with a difference. Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a community clothes-swap party that also raises funds for nonprofits.

The cost? A bag of old clothes and a donation of no more than $10. Once you pull your finds from the communal heap, volunteers at sewing and silkscreen stations help you decorate and mend your “new” clothes. Artist Wendy Tremayne founded Swap-O-Rama-Rama with a “no mirrors” rule. Swappers give each other face-to-face feedback instead.

Clothes swaps are an attractive alternative to buying, given that the average American household spends $1,725 every year on apparel. But even more attractive is the assurance that

The EPA estimates that each person in the United States throws out 10 pounds of clothing every year.

your new outfit won’t support sweatshop manufacture or farming with harmful pesticides.­—L.H.

• Interested? Find a wap or start your own by visiting swaporama.org.

3. Recycle to Insulate

You can wear recycled cotton—or use it to insulate your home. Home insulation is available that is made from 90 percent post-consumer recycled denim and cotton fibers, uses less energy to manufacture than traditional insulation, contains no fiberglass or formaldehyde, and doesn’t off-gas.

The cotton industry’s “From Blue to Green” campaign showed that consumers are eager to recycle when it collected more than 40,000 pairs of old jeans in 2010. These were used to make insulation that was then donated to community housing projects.—K.V.

4. Make It With Old Jeans

Reuse your old jeans to create a tool belt or gardening apron. Cut the legs off as if you were making a pair of cutoffs. Cut along the seams of the inner legs, and cut out the front fly. Trim the back into an apron shape, leaving the pockets intact. If the waistband is too small, cut off the front button and use an old belt to hold your tool belt in place. Sew on strips of leftover denim to hold hammers, etc.

You can leave the cut edges raw, finish them on the sewing machine, or apply some leftover latex paint on the edges to prevent unraveling. ­—K.V.

5. Wear Local

We’re more likely to find evidence of the “buy local” movement in our refrigerators than in our closets. A pair of organic cotton jeans leaves an 85-pound carbon footprint after its 10,000-mile journey from the field in India to the store in North America. That’s no walk to the farmers’ market.

That’s why Rebecca Burgess’ challenge—a year of wearing only clothes made from materials sourced within 150 miles of her front door—is especially innovative. Of the 20 pieces in Burgess’ wardrobe, her favorite is what she calls the “Golden Pants,” made of local, organic, color-grown, undyed cotton.

Burgess started the Fibershed Project to show what really sustainable clothing production looks like. She and other textile artists produce stylish, eco-friendly clothing from local materials.

The results shown on the Fibershed blog are so desirable that you’ll be tempted to try a sustainable clothing project yourself, like dyeing wool using homemade natural plant dyes.

Burgess is raising funds through the project to build a solar-powered fabric mill in Northern California. That would make wearing local easier—and show what can be done elsewhere. —L.H,

Krista Vogel and Lily Hicks wrote this article for New Livelihoods, the Fall 2011 issue of YES! Magazine. Krista and Lily are editorial interns at YES!

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2. Real-Life Benefits for Women

Ana Sanchez has worked with Southwest Creations Collaborative in Albuquerque, N.M., for the past 12 years. The business offers living-wage jobs to immigrant women who do handwork, contract sewing, packing, and labeling. “Since we run a ‘communal shop,’ women who take side jobs that they find on their own or that SCC passes up because they are too small can use all of the organization’s machinery,” says Program Director Jessica Aranda. SCC provides on-site child care for working mothers; GED, English as a Second Language, computer literacy, and citizenship classes; and reproductive and preventive health care programs. Moms even get paid time off to visit with their children’s teachers and set academic and behavioral goals. southwestcreations.com —Laura Paskus

Photo by Susan Seubert.

3. Pedaling Sustainability
As Jed Lazar pedals his bike and big, blue trailer around town, people often flag him down to ask about his business, SoupCycle. And it’s exactly what it sounds like—soup on bicycles. “That’s so Portland,” they sometimes say.

While the business credits some of its success to the city’s bicycle culture, it’s the tasty soup that keeps customers coming back. Lazar uses local and organic produce whenever possible and has a rotation of more than 50 traditional and exotic recipes. Each week, “soupscribers” sign up for the vegan, vegetarian, or meaty option. Lazar buys the necessary ingredients, and his team transforms them into soups. Then, Lazar’s bicyclists deliver to Portland, Ore., neighborhoods on scheduled days. “Biking is a wonderful way to connect to the community,” he said, “and to run your business.”

Three years ago, Lazar and his business partner Shauna Lambert planned SoupCycle as an MBA project at Bainbridge Graduate Institute in Washington state. They pooled enough of their savings to last six months. If the business didn’t have at least 100 weekly deliveries by then, they’d have to call it quits.

They first served the soup to friends and used their feedback to refine the recipes. They started out cooking in a borrowed church kitchen. Lazar did all the deliveries using an electric-assist bike and was putting in 60 to 80 hours a week. A year and a half in, they hired a professional chef, and the SoupCycle staff now comprises seven workers who put in 10 to 40 hours a week in Portland and nearby Corvallis. Lazar is down to a more manageable 50 hours a week and can comfortably take vacation time. Most of the staff do deliveries, but Lazar makes sure they have a hand in soup production and ordering, too. “I want them to be able to say, ‘I helped make that soup, and it’s incredible,’” he said. “Then the customer also feels more connected to the product.”

It’s that customer connection that’s most fulfilling to Lazar. “We’re spreading hope for a more sustainable world and a thriving local economy,” he said. “We’re living that every day delivering soup.” —Krista Vogel 

Photo by Susan Seubert.

4. Urban Farmers for Hire
Donna Smith works with Patricia and Andrew Nimelman at their home in Portland, Ore., where they receive monthly installments of plant starts, seeds, and instructions. Working just 30 hours a week, Smith earns a living doing what she likes best—farming. Smith and her business partner, Robyn Streeter, run Your Backyard Farmer, which helps its clients plant, tend, and harvest organic gardens in their yards. Families design a menu of veggies to grow, then sit back and wait for their harvest. Smith and Streeter currently tend or consult with 57 farms and have helped farmers around the world start similar programs. —Krista Vogel

Photo by Paul Dunn.

She began making one-of-a-kind children’s clothes from pieces of adult clothes from thrift stores and consignment shops. With her sewing machine tucked into her kitchen, she carefully deconstructs pounds of clothing that would otherwise end up in a landfill and reassembles them into unique kids’ clothes, artful and fun. Adult long sleeves become kids’ pant legs. A mock turtleneck collar becomes the waistband of a flared skirt. Using local suppliers—often the surplus clothing is donated to her—and selling to small shops, she’s built riciclikids.com into a solid local business. She’ll be hiring soon and expanding her operation out of her kitchen.

Another reason for leaving the corporate world behind was quality of life. “I wanted to be more ‘there’ for my family,” said Collins-Pezzner, who has a husband, 15-year-old son, and a merely-days-old baby girl. Although she admits she works full days, they’re hours spent at home where she can be flexible to the needs of her family. She even talked her husband into leaving his corporate job, too. “We’re both believers in doing our dream.”

More articles from New Livelihoods, the Fall 2011 issue of YES! Magazine.

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Sweeten With Honey

Before the global sugar industry, local honey was the universal sweetener. Because raw honey has antibacterial properties and  tends to crystallize, it can store indefinitely.

Stock up on raw, local honey in the summer when it’s been freshly collected. The freshest and purest honey will crystallize rapidly—and this is a good thing. It’s what preserves the quality of the honey. The actual rate of granulation will depend on the floral source: Blackberry honey may granulate in two weeks, while fall wildflower honey takes about a month. Honey granulates quickest at 57°F, so aim for that.

When you need some honey, scoop crystals into an open jar. Set the jar into a pot of hot water for a minute or so, and it will return to its clear and liquid state. Then you’re ready to use it.

For baking, substitute 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup of honey per cup of white sugar. Reduce the amount of other liquids by 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup for every cup of honey used. Lower the oven temperature about 25°F because honey browns faster than sugar. Add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda for each cup of honey in your recipe, because honey is naturally acidic and baking soda will temper it. 

Darn a Sock

Put an old lightbulb or glass jar into the sock so that it shows through the hole. That keeps the material supported and gives a smooth surface for your needle work.

Thread a large needle with thread similar in weight to the thing you’re mending: Embroidery floss works for cotton or synthetic socks.

Use a small running stitch to circle the hole, far enough outside the damage that the fabric won’t unravel later. Don’t use any knots; leave the ends unsecured.

Use long stitches to stitch horizontally across the length of the hole. You will eventually weave a framework of stitches to fill in the damaged area. Sometimes it’s easier if you turn the sock upside down on every other stitch.

Once your horizontal stitches are done, turn your sock sideways and start weaving your thread vertically, in and out of the horizontal stitches. Secure the vertical weave at the end of the row with a couple of small running stitches. Turn your sock the opposite way and weave again. Keep going until your hole is filled in.

Capture Wild Yeast

You don’t need a package of yeast from the store to make a loaf of bread.

Mix 1/2 cup filtered or spring water (no chlorine!) with 1/2 cup of rye flour and 1/2 cup of white bread flour (using malted barley flour can also be helpful) in a glass bowl. Cover the bowl with a wet towel to let air in but keep bugs out. A warm day is optimal. Let the culture sit for 36 hours. After that, feed your culture every 12 hours by removing half of the old culture and replacing with a mixture of white and rye flour and an equal amount of 85°F water. Mark the level of the culture so you’ll know how much rising has happened.

The culture should get more vigorous with each feeding. When the culture is bubbly and doubles itself in 12 hours, around Day 4, you can start feeding with only white flour and water.

After about five to seven days, a successful culture can double itself in eight hours or less, smells pleasantly sour, and is full of bubbles. That’s when a “culture” becomes a “starter,” and it’s ready to bake with. Store as you would any commercial sourdough starter.

If your culture is slow to get going, some people suggest adding 1/4 teaspoon of unfiltered apple cider vinegar to raise the acidity, which encourages the yeast.

Save Kale Seeds

Kale is a winter green and offers more nutrients per serving than any other vegetable. In mild climates it can be a four-season crop. Once temperatures rise, older kale plants will start going to seed. Kale plants create hundreds of tiny flowers on stalks that emerge where the leaves attach to the stem. In a couple of weeks, the flower petals fall off and seed pods form on the stalks. Let the pods ripen and dry on the plant—they’ll get brown and brittle—then harvest the largest pods. Remove the seeds from their pods—there will be hundreds—save them in a paper bag, and plant them in early spring. 

Refrigerate Without Electricity

The pot-in-pot cooler uses the evaporative power of water to draw heat energy away from the contents. In Nigeria, where 90 percent of villages have no electricity, these pots preserve tomatoes for 21 days instead of two or three days.

In a well ventilated dry area, place a small clay pot inside a larger clay pot. Fill the space in between them with wet sand and keep it moist. Cover the top with a cloth. Store produce in the inner pot.

As the water evaporates, it pulls heat out with it, making the inside pot cold.

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Tired of paying car insurance, sitting in traffic jams, and guzzling too much gas? Do you never want to dig your car out of another snowstorm?

Perhaps your family already cut down from two cars to one, but taking the car-free step seems impossible. Maybe you loved your car-free life back before you had kids, and every time you wrestle the kids into their car seats or take the car to the shop you pine for the old days.

You can do it—you can completely get rid of your car, even if you have a family. Yes, it can be daunting, and you will certainly have to figure out new ways to do some things, but you'll feel a payoff quickly in your health, your place in your community, and your pocketbook. There's nothing better than the feeling of freedom that comes from knowing you'll never pay a parking ticket again.

Bikes (and gear) that grow with your family

The ability to ride a bike makes being car-free much easier for anyone, but especially those of us who have kids.

You may already have bikes in the garage that will work just fine if you pump up the tires and get a tune up at your local bike shop. If you have kids, you may well have picked up a child trailer, trailer bike, or child seat along the way (or maybe your neighbor has one sitting unused in the basement). Spend some time looking at the bike gear you already have, and think about how you can transport cargo and children.

Families often already have gear for carrying children for recreational riding, but don't have a good cargo set-up since errands like grocery shopping have been done by car. If you already have a child trailer, that can easily be used for moderate cargo, though it can be difficult to carry both cargo and children at the same time.

If you have a child bike seat, consider adding either front or rear panniers (large removable bags that attach to your bike rack) to hold gear or some groceries. Note that compatibility between panniers and seats can be a problem. Consider a rear seat with front panniers (or vice versa with a seat on front and panniers on back, though rear seats generally have higher weight limits).

If you are trying to solve compatibility issues between racks, seats, and trailers, all competing for precious space on your rig, note that many European child seats attach directly to the seat stem, in contrast to American seats that occupy your back rack. This can leave you more room for a trailer hitch or panniers. If you'll be using a trailer or a trailer bike, consider attaching hitches to all adult bikes.

Let It Snow: The ABCs of Winter Biking
Tips for winter riding from the coldest big city in America.

You also might consider adding some rain gear to your set-up (like a raincover for the trailer, and rain pants and jackets for adults). The number of days that you can ride comfortably, at least where we live in the New England, goes up dramatically once you are moderately protected from water.

Keep in mind that as your family grows, your biking needs will change. Kids will outgrow standard bike seats during the preschool years (most American seats have a 40-pound limit). Trailers will work for a while after that, but soon that won't work either.

The most common next step from the trailer is a trailer bike (a one-wheel bike extension that allows your child to ride behind you)—but like the trailer, that has an extremely limited lifespan and even worse, provides no cargo capacity.

One of the best options, if you can afford it, is to get a bike which is designed for carrying cargo and children. We love our Xtracycle for its ability to carry both kid and stuff in a relatively compact and maneuverable package. There are other great cargo options out there, including the Ute, a Bakfiet (Dutch "box bike"), and the Madsen (a great option for more than two kids). Prices on these options vary quite widely, ranging from about $500 to extend an existing bike into an Xtracycle, to over $3,000 for a Dutch Bakfiet.

But if you have some gear, you don't have to worry about this now. You can wait, see how your car-free lives unfold, and assess what purchase will give your family the most use when your kids are outgrowing your current gear.

What about those of you that don't bike? If you live in an urban area, you can absolutely live well without a car and without biking by using public transit. But if you are physically able, consider getting a bike and learning to ride well in traffic. There are bike instructors and schools that train adults both basic riding and riding in traffic. You can also find additional resources online.

Backup Options & Public Transportation

In general, it is best to have at least two possible ways to get anywhere you need to go on a regular basis.

If you've had a car, even if it's just one car that you rarely use, you've always had a fail-safe backup plan for any required trip. Even if you took almost every trip by bike, foot or public transit, if the weather turned sour or you felt kind of sick that day, you had another option.

Biking is a fabulous primary method of transport for the car-free who are physically able, but most parents, at least those who live in northern climates, find that it's not possible to bike every day. For those of you that live in urban areas, you will likely find a wealth of backup plans, mostly based on public transit. Taking a train or bus may take longer than biking, but is generally reliable and affordable, especially if you are able to get discounts through your employer.

Even if you live in a place with good a good train or subway network, it is also useful to get to know your local bus system. Buses generally cover far more area than subways and can provide a useful backup in case of train delays.

Before you automatically dismiss this option, thinking that maybe your area is too suburban or your town is too small for decent buses, check out what your region actually has to offer. Dorea lived for four years in Lincoln, Nebraska, a moderately sized college town, and there were ample bus options for commuting. Suburban areas of larger cities often have buses or trains designed precisely for commuters that can provide a great backup option for a biker, even if they might take too long for comfortable use every day.

Think through all of your transportation options, including walking and "making do." We almost always shop for groceries by bike at a store about two miles away. When the weather is prohibitive, as it sometimes is in the winter, we will sometimes borrow a car, but more often we will simply make do by shopping at a closer store with higher prices and less variety.

Car-sharing

Another great backup option is a car-sharing program (Zipcar in our area—you can find a list of car sharing services on Wikipedia).

This can be particularly good for someone making the transition away from car ownership. With car-sharing, if you are used to driving for occasional trips, you'll still have that option easily available. Car-sharing can really help you to take the plunge; at first, you can use a car whenever you don't see another easy way to make a trip. It won't feel like much of a lifestyle shift, and you won't feel deprived and resentful.

How to Make Biking Mainstream: Lessons from the Dutch

But one of the beautiful things about a car-share is that it attaches the economic cost of the car to the activity itself because you pay by the hour. So even if at first you use it a lot, you'll soon find yourself motivated to find ways around using the car. After all, is it really worth it to spend $30 to get to Target when you could pay just a tiny bit more for a similar product from the hardware store on the corner?

When we first got rid of our car we were fairly heavy Zipcar users (2-3 times a month). But that was ages ago, and while we still maintain a membership so we can have the option, we now use it only very rarely (the last time was more than six months ago).

Borrowing a car is a great way to build community and to avoid having to have your own car. It is cheaper (and friendlier) than a formal car-sharing service. If you are going to borrow your friends' cars, it is a good idea to set some parameters ahead of time (How often can you borrow the car? For how long? How much do you contribute for gas/repairs?) and then to check in periodically to make sure your friends are still comfortable with the relationship.

Alternatively, if you know another family trying to shift away from driving, consider making your own car-share, where two families share a single car and split expenses.

Finally, you can use a taxi as a fairly expensive backup option, but one that is nearly always just a phone call away.

Keep it Simple: Live Locally

The real gift of being car-free is discovering that much of what you need is available within a mile or two of your home.

There are wonderful people living in your neighborhood who would love to come over for dinner. There's a doctor and a hairdresser right around the corner and both are great with your kids. Your neighborhood park is a social hub and you'll find you can attend a birthday party there nearly every weekend. Your children's friends all seem to live within walking distance, so playdates are a breeze. When you take the time to look around you, and stop spending so much time behind the wheel, you will find that your neighborhood is a rich area.

When we were first car-free, we remember frequently feeling like we were backed into a corner. Suddenly there was something we couldn't do without a car and we hadn't planned far enough ahead to think of another way.

But now that we've settled into our car-free lives, we find we have ready access to two or three methods of doing our most frequent tasks, and we rarely miss having a car. Even when we do, we can get one through the car-share or borrow one from a friend, who likely barely uses her car anyway. We don't have to spend much time or energy trying to figure out how to do things without a car. We just live our life, and enjoy the sense of local community and belonging that living without a car has brought to our family.

Angela and Dorea Vierling-Claassen live in Cambridge, Massachusetts with their two children, where both are mathematicians. Together, they write the blog Car Free with Kids. They originally wrote this article for Shareable.net.

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1. Build a Home

Bats like warm, dry, tight spaces. A bat house provides them with an alternative to your attic, and reduces the chance of human/bat contact. Advice on what to look for in a ready-made bat house, along with plans for building one yourself, are available from Bat Conservation International at batcon.org. 

That’s where you’ll also find a state-by-state guide to the needs of different bat species. For example, the hollows of dead trees provide a roosting site for bats in many areas, but the Western Yellow Bat roosts in living palm trees. So bat lovers in Southern California leave palms untrimmed, particularly during nesting season, when bat babies may be clinging to the fronds.

2. Watch Your Water

Bats need drinking water and are attracted by ponds and birdbaths. They may miscalculate a swooping approach and become stranded in steep-sided swimming pools. Provide an escape route by making or buying a small floating ramp like the “Frog Log”: froglog.us

3. Plant a Night Garden

Bats are the primary predator of agricultural pests—one bat eats 2,000 to 6,000 insects each night. Plant afternoon-blooming or night-scented flowers to attract moths, and the voracious bats that follow will help control your local mosquito population. Evening primrose, phlox, night-flowering catchfly, fleabane, goldenrod, four o’clock,  salvia, nicotiana, and moonflower are all good choices. 

4. Adopt a Bat

This is the year of the bat, according to a United Nations declaration that recognizes their importance to the world’s ecosystems. You can support research, conservation, and protective legislation by adopting a bat through Bat Conservation International. Someone you know might love the (symbolic) gift of a bat. 

	New homeowners at a land trust development in the Old North End neighborhood of Burlington, Vermont. In the early 1980s, soaring housing costs were pricing longtime residents out of their own neighborhoods, and so the nation’s first municipally funded community land trust was born. Today it’s the nation’s largest, and this year it’s being honored with a prestigious U.N. World Habitat Award. Photo by Craig Line for Champlain Housing Trust

Since the recent housing boom went bust, the news has been filled with stories of panic-stricken homeowners, skyrocketing foreclosure rates, and multi-billion-dollar taxpayer bailouts.

It’s especially striking, then, that not a single owner of a house, condo, or co-op purchased through the Vermont-based Champlain Housing Trust (CHT) has experienced a foreclosure in the past year. Nor do any of the renters in the more than 1,600 CHT apartments have to fear eviction because of the mortgage meltdown. It’s the kind of track record that has brought the CHT international accolades and sparked an affordable housing revolution.

Over the past 25 years, the CHT has become one of the largest providers of affordable housing in the tri-county area surrounding Burlington, the state’s largest city, and home to its priciest homes and tightest rental market.

The genesis of the idea took form in the late 1970s, when environmentalist Rick Carbin formed the Vermont Land Trust to preserve open space as developers bought up farms. Instead of buying and holding land, as some land trusts do, the trust bought undeveloped properties at the edge of urban areas and resold them, often at a profit, but with strict limits on future development.

No CHT homeowner has lost a home to foreclosure in the past year. Among the nation’s 200 community land trusts, foreclosures are 30 times lower than the national rate.

Then, in the early 1980s, wealthy out-of-town speculators began driving up the cost of housing in Burlington. Longtime working-class residents were being priced out of their homes and neighborhoods. Frustration reached a boiling point when the political establishment cut a deal with big-time developers to put upscale apartments on the city’s scenic waterfront. Voter disgust with this plan to privatize public space led to an upset mayoral victory in 1981 by socialist gadfly Bernie Sanders and his ragtag Progressive Coalition.

Sanders and the coalition quickly sought to develop institutions that would have a lasting impact. They established the Burlington Community Land Trust as an independent nonprofit corporation in 1984 with backing from the Burlington City Council and $200,000 in seed money. While the land trust was designed primarily to promote sustainable home ownership in the city, the Lake Champlain Housing Development Corporation, set up at the same time, focused on rental properties in the areas surrounding Burlington. The two organizations merged in 2006 to form the nonprofit CHT.

The trust became a central part of the area’s affordable housing effort— one that bridges the ideological divide between a flawed free-market approach and heavy-handed government intervention. Both Democratic and Republican politicians found it difficult to oppose a program that promotes homeownership and offers life-long renters a “piece of the American Dream.”

Housing Trust 101

Buying land through a housing trust starts when the trust acquires a parcel through purchase, foreclosure, tax abatements, or donation. The trust arranges for a housing unit to be built on the parcel if one does not yet exist, then sells the building but retains ownership of the land beneath. The new homeowner leases the land for a nominal sum (for example, $25 per month), generally for 99 years or until the house is resold.

This model supports affordable housing in several ways. First, homebuyers have to meet low-income requirements. Second, the buying price of the home is reduced because it does not include the price of the land. Third, the trust works with lenders to reduce mortgage costs by using the equity of the land as part of the mortgage calculation. This reduces the size of the down payment and other closing costs, and eliminates the need for private mortgage insurance. In all, the trust can cut the cost of home ownership by 25 percent or more.

For longtime CHT member Bob Robbins, purchasing a home through the trust was the only affordable option. “We did not have access to money for a down payment on a regular home, and at our income level, we wouldn’t have qualified for a mortgage,” Robbins says. “Through the CHT, we were able to purchase a $99,000 home with just $2,500 down.”

Unlike federal programs that only help the initial buyer, the CHT keeps the property affordable in perpetuity by restricting the profit buyers are able to take when they sell the house. According to the terms of the CHT leases, homeowners get back all of their equity plus the market value of any capital improvements they made. However, they only get 25 percent of any increase in the value of the house, and none of the increase in the value of the land.

This model gives the buyer access to the benefits of homeownership otherwise beyond her means, including tax deductions, wealth accumulation through equity, and stable housing costs. In return, she gives up her chance at windfall profits. A study of trust homes sold to a second generation of buyers showed that members were realizing a net gain of 29 percent on the money they had invested. “These aren’t sky-high returns,” says CHT executive director Brenda Torpy. But most CHT homeowners would never have been able to buy homes otherwise.

“We’re trying to stop the concentration of land in the hands of a wealthy minority,” says Torpy.

The CHT has become an increasingly important force in Burlington’s housing market as well as in the surrounding counties, even as city administrations have come and gone. After 25 years, the trust has over 2,100 households living in its homes, condos, and apartments, not concentrated in pockets of poverty, but spread throughout the area. Since the 2006 merger of the Burlington Community Land Trust and the Lake Champlain Community Development Corporation into the CHT, the trust has become one of the region’s largest managers of rental property.

The CHT is remarkable not only for its size, but for its promotion of community empowerment. CHT tenants and owners vote for and serve on its governing board, along with government officials and other city residents with technical expertise, such as architects and urban planners. The system is designed so that all interested parties have a voice and a vote, making it an experiment in democratic self-governance as well as an affordable housing program.

Booms Without the Bust

CHT employs several strategies to make sure their model succeeds, even during tough times. They offer homes below the market rate—typically half the price of a comparable open-market unit. Unlike shady mortgage brokers, “we’re not going to let people take risky mortgage products,” says Chris Donnelly, CHT’s director of community relations. And if residents run into trouble, the land trust works with them. “It’s not hand-holding,” Donnelly says. “It’s standing next to the homeowner.”

A study conducted in December showed that foreclosure rates among members of 80 housing trusts across the United States were 30 times lower than the national average.

Tenants in the trust’s rental properties are also benefiting from CHT’s commitment to affordability and community building. By leveraging grants and subsidies, and because they aren’t seeking a profit, CHT is able to keep rents up to 30 percent below market rate, even though they use the most environmentally rigorous building standards and set aside funds to cover future maintenance and repairs. The trust fixes up the buildings that for-profit companies won’t touch. “When a fire destroys a block, we’re the ones who come running in to restore the neighborhood,” says Donnelly.

“We’re going to steward these places forever,” says Donnelly.

Housing advocates in Burlington have created a sustainable model for affordable housing through shrewd politics and a belief that housing is a fundamental human right rather than a commodity. Their model is being emulated across the country. There are 200 community land trusts in the United States today, including in large cities like Atlanta and Cincinnati. Washington, D.C., is in the midst of creating a 1,000-home land trust with advice and support from the CHT. Half of these trusts started up in just the past seven years.

Back in Burlington, the main obstacle to CHT’s expansion is money. The trust relies on government programs, grants, and donations to bring new properties into its model. “We’re doing about 25 new homes each year, and about 25 to 30 resales. We could easily do 100 sales a year if we just had enough cheap capital. The model has been proven to work. It’s gone to scale. It would be a great way to fill the need without the problems we’re seeing nationally,” says Donnelly. But public funding has been flat or falling in recent years, and the economic downturn will make other funding harder to find.

Donnelly hopes that the recent troubles in the conventional housing market and some international accolades will help spur more interest in the land trust model.

In October, CHT will be honored with a World Habitat Award at the annual gathering of UN-HABITAT, the global agency dedicated to sustainable living. The award is one of only two given out each year. Donnelly is proud of the achievement. “It’s like the Nobel Prize for sustainable development and housing.”

YES! MAGAZINE GRAPHIC, 2008. Illustration by Kayann Legg / I-S Sources: Rocky Mountain Institute,
Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, University of Chicago.

Introduction
The Joneses are your average U.S. energy consumers. They haven’t yet upgraded to energy-efficient appliances, their house needs better insulation, and they keep the place as cool in the summer and warm in the winter as most Americans do. The two adults commute 30 miles each per day, in separate cars with average fuel efficiency, and every year they each drive an additional 4,500 miles running errands and taking their child to soccer games and violin practice. The family takes one vacation trip per year, flying to visit grandparents 1,350 miles away. How much CO2 do their house and cars produce? We figure it at 60,000 pounds, or 10 tons for each family member.

Lately, though, the Joneses have been reading about climate change, and they’re getting worried. Ecological crisis has never felt so urgent before. Even little Joey Jones is talking greenhouse gases—he learned at school that scientists are predicting a worldwide climate catastrophe that will change the rest of his life, unless we stop the worst effects by making big changes in the next ten years. The Joneses decide: change is necessary, and they’re ready to do their part. But how much can they really do? A lot, it turns out.

In 10 years, without sacrificing their way of life, the Jones family eliminates the CO2 emissions that their home and transportation used to create—the bulk of their carbon footprint.

Count Your Carbon Want to keep up with the Joneses? Here are the numbers we used. Use them to find—then shrink—your own carbon footprint. Gallon of gas Gallon of fuel oil or diesel Kilowatt hour of electricity (national average) Therm of natural gas Gallon of propane Per passenger: Airplane mile Train mile Long-distance bus mile Local mass transit mile Electric bike mile 19.36 22.38 1.43 11.71 12.67 1.28 0.42 0.18 0.50 0.02

The Rest of the Story The Joneses only changed their housing and transport habits. How can you go further?   Eat meatless. For every day of the week you skip meat, you’ll save 215 lbs. per year. Buy local. Most food eaten in the U.S. has traveled 1,500 miles to your plate. Be a low-impact consumer. Choose local products, reduce the stuff you buy, and save embedded energy by buying used. Reduce waste. Stop junk mail, reduce packaging, and reduce the 2,020 lbs. each American’s waste produces annually. Avoid the McMansion. A smaller house saves a lot of carbon: on average, 11.4 lbs. of CO2 per square foot per year.

The family starts off with easy changes: They wash clothes in cold water and air dry them in the summer, replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents (CFLs), turn off their computer when not in use. That’s an instant, virtually free savings of 6,200 pounds of CO2. They make one simple transportation change: One of the adults commutes by bus three days a week—enough to see whether it can be done, but keeping the second car just in case. That’s worth another 2,200 pounds. They’re down to 51,600 pounds and it hasn’t cost them anything but the price of the CFLs and a clothesline. They’re actually saving money.

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They stop donating so much heat to the outdoors: attic and basement insulation, sealing and insulating heat ducts, and patching the large air leaks typical of standard construction saves them a whopping 7,100 pounds. These savings aren’t free up front, but the savings in heating and cooling bills will repay the cost over time. Besides, Mrs. Jones is handy with home repair, and does a lot of this work herself. Down to 44,500 per year.

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The bus commute’s gone well, so Mr. Jones now buses to work all the time. They’ve worked on consolidating trips outside work, and find they can do without the second car altogether. That’s 5,900 pounds gone. They finish weatherproofing their house: beefing up wall insulation, weatherizing doors and windows, and upgrading to high performance windows. Another 1,800 pounds disappear. They’re at 36,800.

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Instead of flying for their annual vacation, the Joneses take the train: a leisurely way to save 7,200 pounds every year. (If they took the bus, they’d save even more.) They’re at 29,600 pounds per year—halfway there a year early.

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Time to replace the car. Thanks to consumer demand, electric cars have become widely available, and they buy one. Even charging on dirty power, they save 9,000 pounds. Household total is now 20,600.

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They improve their water system, including insulating their hot water heater and their pipes, and also lower the temperature of their water heater: 1,000 pounds down. When the old refrigerator kicks the bucket, the Joneses buy a new energy-efficient one and finally unplug a second fridge in the garage, knocking off another 1,300. Total remaining: 18,300.

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Grandma and Grandpa retire and move nearby. The Joneses now vacation within the range of their electric car, saving 3,300 pounds of CO2 each year. The city converts its bus fleet to clean electricity, which saves another 1,200 pounds. They’re down to 13,800.

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An efficient clothes washer saves carbon on its own, and saves dryer time. With all the money they’re saving, they decide it’s time to invest in a solar hot water system. Total: 2,000. Leaving 11,800.

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While the Joneses have been on this journey, their town has responded to citizen pressure and gone bike friendly. The new bike paths make it easy for both to ride to work. To ease the hills, they buy electric bikes. There are four months of the year when they can’t bike, so they continue their usual commute patterns then. Savings: 3,500.

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The Joneses’ furnace has been groaning and working overtime. They replace it with an electric heat pump, which also cools the house in summer. They also buy certified green, renewable power from their electric company, and the switch from coal plants eliminates the remaining 8,300 pounds of CO2 produced by the electricity for their house and car.

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Brooke Jarvis & Doug Pibel wrote this article as part of Stop Global Warming Cold, the Spring 2008 issue of YES! Magazine. Brooke is editorial assistant and Doug is managing editor of YES! Magazine.

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Relationships count—cultivate them.

Be inclusive of a wide range of food system interests.

When it comes to disagreement, find common ground where you can; for all else, foster a climate of robust debate and respect for everyone’s opinion.

Educate your members, the public and policymakers about terminology like “just,” “sustainable,” and “food policy.”

Look for unusual connections such as economic development and the local food economy.

Find a champion, especially a policymaker, who will work for your cause.

Learn more about your food system by conducting food assessments, research, and ongoing information gathering.

The Community Food Security Coalition provides technical assistance and information about food policy councils. See their website at www.foodsecurity.org.

:: YES! STORY:
Fresh from the City
Citizens and local policymakers join up to get fresh foods to schools and neighborhoods.

Mark Winne contributed these tips to Food for Everyone, the Spring 2009 issue of YES! Magazine. Mark is cofounder of the City of Hartford Food Policy Commission, the Connecticut Food Policy Council, End Hunger Connecticut!, and the national Community Food Security Coalition, and author of Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty (Beacon, 2008). Interested? Check out the YES! Tool Kit for Activists.

Biology is destiny, declared Sigmund Freud. 

But if Freud were around today, he might say “design is destiny”—especially after taking a stroll through most American cities.

The way we design our communities plays a huge role in how we experience our lives. Neighborhoods built without sidewalks, for instance, mean that people walk less and therefore experience fewer spontaneous encounters, which is what instills a spirit of community to a place. That’s a chief cause of the social isolation, so rampant in the modern world, that contributes to depression, distrust, and other maladies.

You don’t have to be a therapist to realize all this creates lasting psychological effects. It thwarts the connections between people that encourage us to congregate, cooperate, and work for the common good. We retreat into ever more privatized existences.

Of course, this is no startling revelation. Over the past 40 years, the shrinking sense of community across America has been widely discussed, and many proposals outlined about how to bring us back together.

One of the notable solutions being put into practice to combat this problem is New Urbanism, an architectural movement to build new communities (and revitalize existing ones) by maximizing opportunities for social exchange: public plazas, front porches, corner stores, coffee shops, neighborhood schools, narrow streets and, yes, sidewalks. 

This line of thinking has transformed many communities, including my own World War I-era neighborhood in Minneapolis, which thankfully has sidewalks but was once bereft of the inviting public places that animate a community. Now I marvel at all the options I have for mingling with the neighbors over a cappuccino, Pabst Blue Ribbon, juevos rancheros, artwork at a gallery opening, or head of lettuce at the farmer’s market.

"That's public space.
Nobody can use it."
How neighborhoods across Portland are reclaiming—and redefining— their neighborhoods.

But while New Urbanism is making strides at the level of the neighborhood, we still spend most of our time at home, which today means seeing no one other than our nuclear family. How could we widen that circle just a bit, to include the good neighbors with whom we share more than a property line?

That’s an idea Seattle-area architect Ross Chapin has explored for many years, and now showcases in an inspiring and beautiful new book: Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating a Small-Scale Community in a Large-Scale World.

He believes that groupings of four to twelve households make an ideal community “where meaningful ‘neighborly’ relationships are fostered.” But even here, design shapes our destiny. Chapin explains that strong connections between neighbors develop most fully and organically when everyone shares some "common ground."

That can be a semi-private square, as in the pocket neighborhoods Chapin designed in the Seattle area. In the book’s bright photographs, they look like grassy patches of paradise, where kids scamper, flowers bloom, and neighbors stop to chat.

Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating a Small-Scale Community in a Large-Scale World

By Ross Chapin
Taunton Press, 2011, 224 pages, $30

Support YES! when you buy here from an independent bookstore.

But Chapin points out these commons can take many different forms—an apartment building in Cambridge with a shared backyard, a group of neighbors in Oakland who tore down their backyard fences to create a commons, a block in Baltimore that turned their alley into a pubic commons, or the residential pedestrian streets found in Manhattan Beach, California, and all around Europe.

The benefits of a living in a pocket neighborhood go further than you might imagine. I lived in one while in graduate school, a rundown 1886 rowhouse with its own courtyard near the University of Minnesota campus. At no other time in my life have I become such close friends with my neighbors. We shared impromptu afternoon conversations at the picnic table and parties that went into the early hours of the morning under Italian lights we strung from the trees. 

When the property was sold to an ambitious young man who jacked up the rents (to raise capital for the eventual demolition of the building to make way for an ugly new one), we organized a rent strike. And we won, which would never have happened if we had not already forged strong bonds with each other. Because the judged ruled that the landlord could not raise our rents until he fixed up the building, he abandoned plans to knock it down. It still stands today, and I remain friends with some of the old gang that partied in the courtyard.

Jay Walljasper is a contributing editor to YES! Magazine, author of All That We Share, a contributing editor to National Geographic Traveler, editor of OnTheCommons.org, a senior fellow of the Project for Public Spaces, and a contributor to Shareable.net, where this article originally appeared.

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For holidays tainted by commercialism, Valentine's Day gives Christmas a run for the money—big money. The National Retail Federation estimates Americans will spend $17.6 billion on Valentine's gifts this year, including $4.1 billion on jewelry, $1.8 billion on flowers and $1.5 billion on candy. But for consumers with a conscience, the very things Madison Avenue markets as expressions of love are some of the worst stuff you can buy.

Chocolate

A heart-shaped box of truffles may be a sweet dream for chocolate lovers, but it's a nightmare for many workers. Most of the world's cocoa beans come from plantations in Ghana and Ivory Coast, where a 2010 BBC investigation exposed the widespread use of child labor, human trafficking and even slavery to harvest cocoa.

Flowers

Most roses and other flowers sold in the United States are imported from Colombia, where the cut flower industry is also known to use child workers and forced labor. Because the flowers have to look perfect, they're treated with immense amounts of toxic pesticides, which contributes to high rates of lung and nerve disease in a workforce dominated by women and children.

Jewelry

Child labor, forced labor and dangerous conditions are well-documented in the mining industry. Gold mining uses mercury and cyanide to separate the metal from ore, and leaves behind mountains of toxic waste—more than 20 tons of waste to make one gold ring. The film Blood Diamond dramatized the role that diamond mining plays in fueling and funding brutal wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola and other African nations that have killed and displaced millions of people.

So should you boycott Valentine's Day? I'm not. I'm all for showing my loved ones how much I care, on Valentine's Day, tomorrow, and every day. A hand-crafted card, a heartfelt note, a home-cooked meal or (ahem) a special favor are all ways to express your love.

And for a gift that keeps on giving you can get involved in efforts to change the way these destructive industries do business. Joining a campaign not only amplifies your voice but brings you together with others who share your concerns.

Last February, Change.org mounted a petition drive that persuaded 1-800-Flowers to add Fair Trade-certified bouquets to its collection and create a code of conduct that prohibits its suppliers from using forced and child labor. Now the Fairness in Flowers campaign is asking consumers to write other major florists urging them to ensure their flowers are not grown and processed with the use of exploited labor or child labor.

More than 100,000 consumers have joined the No Dirty Gold campaign, which works to get jewelers to promise to use only gold mined responsibly. To date, 80 leading jewelry retailers worldwide have signed the pledge. Global Witness, a human rights group that helped bring attention to the bloody truth about the diamond trade, recently pulled out of a flawed United Nations-backed program to certify conflict-free diamonds, but remains active in the campaign to reform the industry.

OK, here's the toughest one to pass by (at least for me)—chocolate. Global Exchange is among the groups working with schools, churches and community groups to get leading chocolate companies to promise that their sweet treats don't exploit or endanger workers on African cocoa plantations.

Real love doesn't trash the planet or force children to work in dangerous mines or pesticide-drenched fields. There's no reason that jewelry, chocolates and flowers have to take such a heavy toll. This Valentine's Day, let's show our love not only to our sweethearts, friends and family, but to the Earth and people around the world.

Annie Leonard is a contributing editor to YES! Magazine. She is the creator of The Story of Stuff, The Story of Cap & Trade, The Story of Cosmetics, The Story of Bottled Water, and The Story of Electronics. This piece first appeared in The Huffington Post.

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Video from Earthjustice on YouTube.

When Jen Slotterback found a well pad stake in a local park, she realized the forest would soon be taken over by a natural gas drilling—and the controversial process hydraulic fracturing, or fracking—unless she did something to stop it. Jen and her husband Jim had never organized a campaign before, and they only had 11 days before the vote on whether to allow fracking in the park. In that short amount of time and with the help of the Responsible Drilling Alliance (RDA), the Slotterbacks mobilized their community to save Rider Park. The board unanimously voted against the drilling.

Now the Slotterbacks and RDA are campaigning to save more than 700,000 acres of forest throughout Pennsylvania from fracking.

To learn more and sign the petition, click here.

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