Page 29 - Sonoma County Gazette 6-20

© Tish Levee, 2020
Returning to “Normal...” As I write this every state’s begun opening
up from shelter-in-place, but we don’t know how well that’ll work. Several countries and states have seen spikes in COVID-19 cases when restrictions were lifted. For the foreseeable future, we need to stay home as much as we can—practice social distancing, wear face coverings, and wash our hands often.
We’re all washing our hands—a lot. But... Most of northwestern California is already in a severe drought. If you’re washing your hands just 10 times daily AND leaving the water running for the recommended 20 seconds, you’re wasting water. Turn off the tap after you wet your hands and save 2-5 gallons daily. For more water saving tips, go to sonomawater.org/residential.
Petition for All Nature in “The NeighborWood”
Trying to be Zero Waste in the midst of COVID... The County Health Department’s banned the use of reusable shopping bags during the pandemic. However, many stores will let you put your groceries back in your cart and take it to you car (or bike?), where you can put them in your own bags. Pacific Market, Oliver’s, and Community Market all do this. Check where you shop.
We the undersigned support the formation of the Roseland Creek Park
as a Special Purpose Park which is centered on “environmental interpretive experiences” (PSF-A-3), where “...the most sensitive environmental resource areas should generally be preserved for more passive recreation that assures their protection” (PSF-A-5) as set forth in the Santa Rosa General Plan 2035.
Banning single-use bags in Sonoma County in 2014 made a big difference; we need to learn how to work with the new restrictions on using them.
We support the approval of the “Community Ideal Plan 2019” which the surrounding residential community has generated, instead of the City Parks Dept. Draft Master Plan 2018, which contains elements of active recreation and other features which threaten, rather than preserve this Sensitive Environmental Resource Area for environmental experience and educational endeavors.
Please see ROSELAND REVIEW column by Duane Dewitt for details on the history of Roseland Creek Park and why the people pf Roseland value this land as a precious island of nature amid the City of Roseland.
If you are inclined, please sign this petition and pass it around. CONTACT Duane Dewitt at dewittstory@yahoo.com so he can collect these signed petitions and submit them for review.
THANK YOU Roseland Neighbors!
We won’t be able to go back to bulk shopping... No one knows when, if ever, we can do that. So we have to be creative in eliminating packaging as much as we can. Buy in larger sizes, make sure you recycle whatever you can, try to avoid plastic as much as possible, and continue cooking from- scratch. Explore alternative laundry, dishwashing, cleaning, and person care products that use less packaging. You may have to go online, but you can find shampoo bars locally, at the Farmer’s Market.
Try to shop locally as much as you can. Local businesses have been badly hurt by the shutdown. Give them your business whenever possible. Most shops have curbside delivery available.
Daily Acts—Be the Change! Since 2009, Daily Acts has had various Resiliency Challenges. Their original goal of planting 350 gardens nearly doubled the first year. In the next decade over 81,000 individual actions were taken, and the Challenge spread to other cities and states. Now, the Be the Change Campaign is sharing action ideas, how-to videos, and weekly resources to help you practice self-care and personal leadership, grow food and medicine, conserve water and resources, and build community and civic engagement. Check it out at dailyacts.org/bethechange/.
COVID isn’t the only crisis we’re facing. It’s just the tip of the iceberg. We see the numbers daily, but we don’t know the long term effects of either
the virus OR the world economy, which is reeling. At the same time, we’re faced with an even more existential threat—and one that is here now, too, not just in some future period.
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The Climate Crisis is killing people right now, and it has exacerbated the effect of COVID for poorer and marginal people who are already suffering from extreme air pollution and the effects of climate change. See the online version
of this column on the Gazette’s website for information on how many people are dying right now as a result of the Climate Crisis. (There’s lots of other news about the Climate Emergency there, too.) There are many parallels between the COVID pandemic and the Climate Crisis. It’s become increasingly clear, during the shutdown, that we can’t return to “Business as Usual” We’ve an opportunity RIGHT NOW to go forward to a new “normal”— one that works a lot better For the Planet and its nearly eight billion people.
A reminder—this column is now bi-monthly. Since April, “For the Planet” appears in print only in even-numbered months. However, I set up a Facebook page, “For the Planet,” for breaking news and virtual actions. I haven’t posted a lot there yet, as I’m still dealing with vision problems. Message me there if you have questions about the Climate Crisis and what you can do.
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