Spotlight On…. Tamarack Builders with Owner Mike Potts

Tell us what Tamarack Builders is all about.

Tamarack Builders is a small company primarily doing remodeling and light commercial construction in Marquette since about 1998. We specialize in older buildings, some that might be considered tear-downs. I like that kind of stuff compared to more modern houses and buildings.

Very nice, talented, thoughtful people work with me. When we’re doing projects, we make sure things are done correctly. Sometimes previous work by others has to be corrected. It can be easy to breeze by those things and say they’re fine, but we try to make sure things are done properly.

For example, with remodeling for energy efficiency, we do insulation and venting to prevent ice dams, which can be a huge issue here. Water infiltration issues, proper flashing techniques—all are very important. By doing so, you extend the life of that building, increasing its energy efficiency and decreasing the likelihood that it will get torn down later.

By extending the life of a building, you’re minimizing its carbon footprint because of the embodied carbon in the materials.

For instance, concrete lasts a long time but it’s really carbon-intensive to make. If you can save a building, you’re preserving that embodied carbon. When things get torn down, it all goes in the landfill, plus you use new materials that have their own carbon footprint.

A lot of these old buildings in Marquette were built with old growth lumber. As they get torn down and their components are thrown away, it’s just gone. I try to save building materials. It often doesn’t take that much effort to save stuff. I put old two-by-fours in a pile. When you get enough stuff, you can make something—countertops, sheds—out of the recycled building parts. I’m a little bit of a hoarder of vintage building materials and try to re-use them the best I can. Old studs are beautiful. I try to save those for re-use.

The other day when it was raining, we had enough stuff saved up that we could build a couple of things at the shop out of recycled materials. It’s rewarding and fun to be able to do that. Not always cheaper, but very rewarding. We built a small boat shed entirely out of recycled materials. We installed a couple of recycled doors using recycled materials and re-purposed what we took out. Small stuff but it adds up.

It’s a personal thing.

It feels really good to be able to put something together, like a boat shed, from salvaged materials. It’s good practice for my employees to think it through and make things work. It’s always good for people to practice all these techniques, use them on a small scale. It’s a good way to gain more experience with something like this.

Three good-size commercial projects we did recently were in buildings that were in really bad shape. Little updating had been done to them; one even had some original wallpaper. We spent the time and money to bring them up to code. One building was far from meeting current codes. If there had ever been a fire there, it would have been devastating. We extended the life of these buildings for a very long time.

One of them was the McLean Chiropractic building on Third Street. It had been slated to be torn down for the last twenty years. Now since we’ve done the work on it, it’s up and running, and good for another hundred years.

I’ve worked on a lot of historic buildings—Donckers, Downtown Eye Care, Evergreen Market, what’s now Queen City Running Company on Baraga, the previous flower shop there, and many vintage residential buildings. I really enjoy that. It’s a lot of fun.

How did you get into this line of work?

I’d worked as a carpenter on Mackinac Island in the ’80s and ’90s. I moved to Marquette and building was a way I could make a living with my skill set, and offered a flexible schedule. When I had kids, I could take time off to be with them, go to their events, drive them around, or whatever. was needed. That was a huge draw for me, enhancing my life and hopefully the life of my family too. Having the ability to take care of someone when they’re sick is important. You can’t do that as easily if you run a retail store. Contracting gives a little flexibility. I extend that flexibility to my employees too. It usually doesn’t make a huge difference if we need to take a few hours off. People need that time to have a healthy balance. Work-life balance is number one. I’m not doing this to get rich, and that’s okay because my work-life balance has been very good.

What do you find most challenging about your work?
Doing the paperwork–billing and trying to keep track of that end of the business is not something I like to do. I love being on the job, being with my employees, and working on projects.

Anything else you’d like our readers to know?
As a builder, I think people should know these old buildings are worth investing in. It’s worth coming up with a systematic, comprehensive approach. These older structures are valuable and contain a lot of embodied carbon. If we have any hope for climate change, we need to take care of them.

It’s astounding to see what’s thrown away—it’s unreal, all the building materials. It’s heartbreaking to see what goes in the landfill. I’m not saying we can recycle everything, but we can do more. We’ve got to make efforts toward sustainability. I’ve encouraged green building, energy efficiency, and presrvation. The luxury of building a new green structure is not achievable for a lot of people, but in every structure, there’s potential for comfort, energy efficiency, and financial savings.

Green Living: We Keep Breaking Records! Steve Waller

climate change prevention, green living, sustainability, UP holistic business, UP wellness publication

The latest Emissions Gap Report from the United Nations Environment Program (https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2022) states that the world has just emitted a new annual record amount of carbon dioxide (CO2). Given this increase, to limit global warming to 2°C, we must cut CO2 thirty percent by 2030. A stepwise approach is no longer an option. We need system-wide transformation.

Who is at the top of the emissions list? Americans, emitting over twice the world average CO2 per person. Even though we like to think we are protecting our environment, that “other” people are the problem, we are the actual culprits breaking world CO2 records.

New record: U.S. population–333 million people in November 2022, increasing by 1.4 million Americans per year (https://www.census.gov/popclock/). We must build a new Dallas, Texas (population 1.4 million) each year to accommodate our new Americans. New record: world population–8 billion people by November 2022, increasing by 70 million each year.

Those new additional 1.4 million Americans, our youth, our future, need a slice of our American pie–food, water, land, housing, heat, transportation, all from the limited environment already supporting 333 million Americans. Each must share a smaller, cleaner piece of green pie.

But what more can we Americans do?

How can we emit less and still be Americans? Since most of the rest of the modern world seems able to emit less, how can we break their lower emission records?

We need to learn to live without CO2, then teach the next generation. Eliminate old, fossilized thinking and think anew. That’s hard. But if nothing changes… nothing changes!

Imagine a life without fossil fuels. Cars emit twenty pounds of CO2 per gallon of gas. How would we still drive? We must shift to electric cars (rebates available). No excuses. How would we heat or cool our homes? Homes must rely entirely on electricity so we must install heat pumps (for heating and cooling–rebates available).

How can we clean all that electricity? It still depends mostly on fossil fuels. Our only clean, cost-effective, sustainable option is using renewables. We must install solar at our homes (rebates available). Encourage wind and solar farms in our neighborhoods. Learn to love the look of solar and wind.

Some fossil fuel use will be irreplaceable, but if you think better, most can be eliminated.

Yes, there is a price to pay for changes. Fossil fuels were dishonestly cheap, so cheap that we used them for everything, everywhere. Cheap because we didn’t pay then for our CO2 consequences. The honest, responsible bill is now due. We must pay for the fixes, and fortunately, the fixes create jobs.

Existing homes and apartments must convert to all electric with solar and heat pumps. New construction needs to use less wood to keep trees alive and absorbing CO2. Use less concrete and steel. Making a pound of cement emits a pound of CO2. Making a pound of steel emits 2 lbs. of CO2.

Smaller homes are better, cheaper, have lower emissions, and are easier to clean and maintain. McMansions are fossil thinking. It’s time to upgrade to smaller. Upgrades always have a cost but fossil thinking costs more. That’s the honest price of a healthy environment. We cannot afford to wait for the environment to be on sale.

Let’s break good records this holiday season. Upgrade to eliminate CO2. Get rebates for efficiency, energy, and electric cars. Emit the least CO2 in your life, ever. Let’s have the cleanest water and air, ever. Let’s consume less than ever. These are records waiting to be broken. The next generation is counting on us.

Steve Waller’s family lives in a wind- and solar-powered home. He has been involved with conservation and energy issues since the 1970s and frequently teaches about energy. Steve can be reached at Steve@UPWallers.net.

Green Living: Order Your Electric Car NOW! Steve Waller

PEV, plug-in electric vehicle, green living, sustainability, UP holistic wellness publication, UP holistic business

We finally got our all-wheel-drive plug-in electric vehicle (PEV)—no gasoline engine and no more CO2 emissions. We’ve been driving it hard for a couple of months and tallied over 6,000 miles, including a few 400-mile trips from the U.P. to Chicago and to Detroit.

Based on my experience, you should order yours now because it takes 6 months to more than a year for delivery. As you hesitate to order, the prices keep increasing. They can now cost as much as a new crew cab fossil truck, but cheaper models are available.

Fossil gas drivers have “range anxiety” (fear of running out of battery) but PEVs today have plenty of range, some over 300 miles on one charge. We rarely drive more than 100 miles a day and we recharge at home. It’s like having a gas station in your garage. Charge overnight with an ordinary 240V garage outlet and wake each morning to a fully charged vehicle ready for another long day of driving. For apartment dwellers, there are programs for owners to add parking lot chargers or just fill up at your local public charger, then drive home, just like you do with a gas guzzler. Either way, PEVs drive cheaper.

We drive electric for about $.04 per mile.

Our gasoline car averages a respectable 28 MPG but still cost $.16 per mile. Our PEV gets 131 MPGe in the city and 117 MPGe on the highway. It’s 75% cheaper to drive, saving about $300 per month in gasoline expense. Plus, there is almost no maintenance–no oil changes, muffler, catalytic converter, or tune-ups. PEVs have few moving parts, there is much less to fail so there are fewer repairs. We do occasionally add a windshield washer.

People worry that the batteries will die in a couple of years but federal law mandates that batteries be warrantied for a minimum of eight years or 100,000 miles. Old PEV batteries don’t die, they just have about 5%-10% less range. Experts suggest today’s batteries will last 10-20 years–300,000 miles or more.

On our 400-mile trips, after about 250 miles we needed to recharge as expected, but plenty of rechargers are available. We never experienced “range anxiety.” It takes 20-40 minutes, depending on the recharger’s power, to recharge to about 80% capacity, enough to finish the trip. Rechargers are usually in the parking lots of major grocery chains or near snack areas, and more are being added nationwide. Recharging takes just enough time to stretch your legs, tap a kidney, visit the stores, enjoy a snack, or just lay back and relax for a bit. After hours of continuous driving on a long trip, the break is welcome and healthy. We recharge while the car recharges.

The experience of PEV driving is different—tons of power, electric everything. It’s like driving a computer with wheels except that PEVs often do much of the driving for you. With multiple cameras and sensors, PEVs are very good at adjusting your cruising speed to traffic, keeping the car centered in the lane, and avoiding hazards. It sees and senses more than you can and reacts faster, making PEVs some of the safest cars on the road. People express fears of battery fires, but records show that you are ten times more likely to have a gas-guzzler car fire than a battery-car fire.

Michigan charges a $100 electric registration fee and a $40 electric tax to compensate for road maintenance gasoline taxes that PEVs don’t pay. One month’s gas savings easily exceeds Michigan’s fees, so drive safer, save money, and stop emitting CO2. Order your PEV today.

Green Living: Are You a Biophiliac?Steve Waller

biophilia, love of nature, humans as part of nature, UP holistic wellness publication, UP holistic business

Do you crave a quiet weekend at the cabin with a view of the lake or the ocean?

Are you inspired by a mountainous panorama or a garden bursting with colorful flowers and butterflies?

Does a buck deer running through the woods rivet your attention?

Can a short walk outdoors make you feel a lot better?

Is your dog or cat part of your family?

Are you happy that the house plant you’ve tended for years is doing so well?

Then yes, you are a biophiliac.

Erich Fromm (1900-1980), a German social psychologist, originally said biophilia is the “passionate love of life and of all that is alive…whether in a person, a plant, an idea, or a social group.” E. O. Wilson (1929-1921), Pellegrino University Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard University, claimed that “our natural affinity for life―biophilia―is the very essence of our humanity and binds us to all other living species.”

Biophilia is the recognition that you are part of the natural world.

Your ancestors, for hundreds of generations, lived in and depended on the fields and forests. In exchange, they were imprinted with an appreciation of the hazards, bounty, and beauty in wild, spontaneous nature. Sure, they had to struggle through some of nature’s challenges, but afterwards they were rejuvenated by a warm breeze on a summer’s night, a conversation at the campfire, or a cool dip in the lake.

That imprint, passed down from the ancestors, has not diminished. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize in the bustle of modern times, but given an opportunity, the feelings are still there.

Artists, photographers, musicians, all strive to capture the “essence” of nature because it is so appealing. Architects incorporate living plants and bright skylit rooms to make their urban structures feel warm, spacious, airy, and inviting, more like the outdoors. Subconsciously, they acknowledge that most of us are biophiliacs, even if we don’t realize it. When the right nature button is pushed, we get warm and relaxed.

For many, biophilia is the reason we live in the UP.

We want to be closer to nature than to Detroit or Traverse City. We want to meander along a river that runs clear and cold, home to wily brook trout. We don’t want to see human trash or fences. If we lived down south, we couldn’t talk about how we are so tired of winter but love how the trees look after a snowstorm. Biophilia makes us endure the cold so that we can see those lacy white trees once again.

Birds come in a dazzling array of colors, yet none of the colors ever clash. All birds’ colors go together. Is it because the birds are just snappy fashion-smart feather-dressers? Or is it because our sense of color and what goes with it is based on what humans have experienced in nature for thousands of years? Biophilia likely shapes our sense of color, beauty, and art.

That sense of beauty even extends to our preferences in partners. When we say someone is beautiful or handsome, is it because we are drawn to a certain brand of makeup or shirt, or are we drawn to the person beneath all that dressing? Our ancestors evolved this crazy habit of choosing partners that they found attractive and passed that imprint on to us. Biophilia shapes our preferences.

You might discount this ancient influence and think your modern choices are beyond primal inheritance. You might think it is all just a nostalgic excuse for common and conventional thought. But it’s not. It’s art. It’s beauty. It’s natural. You’re a biophiliac.

Green Living: Finding Carbon Capture Champions, Steve Waller

Identify carbon capture champions, green living, U.P. holistic wellness publication, U.P. holistic wellness

There are champion trees quietly lurking in your neighborhood and your favorite forest. You probably never noticed them. They usually hide in the background, obscured by summer leaves. You didn’t know how to see them but now, before they hide again, it’s time you find and appreciate them. Winter’s ending. Get outdoors before the leaves sprout. Take the kids with you. They can help.

I’m sure you’ve heard that trees capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. Half of dry wood is pure carbon from CO2. When you see trees, you are seeing captured CO2. Trees are carbon! Ten pounds of dry wood contains 5 pounds of pure carbon from CO2 (the rest is mostly oxygen and hydrogen). The magic of chemistry changes pure black carbon to all the beautiful colors of wood. But no matter the warm woody color, 50% of dry wood, by weight, is carbon captured from atmospheric CO2. Wood floors, furniture, cabinets, even house framing, are all 50% carbon.

You don’t need any math, measures, botany, or a degree in silviculture. Carbon capture champions are simply the heavyweights! Find the absolute heaviest-looking trees in your neighborhood. Height or girth is less important. Total weight is what counts. Other trees may be taller, but carbon champions have mass. The absolute heaviest looking trees store the most carbon.

How much CO2 do trees remove from air?

Take the weight of a tree’s carbon and multiply it by 3.67. Example: 500 pounds of carbon (from 1,000 pounds of dry wood) times 3.67, means trees remove 1,835 pounds of CO2 for every 1,000 pounds of dry wood. A single champion tree could weigh 15,000 pounds—that’s a lot of captured CO2!

You can spot champions from a distance, hiding among average trees. Champion branches are exceptionally thick, wide, and dark, easy to see even when hiding in the shroud of wimpy, wispy, young, leafless, wanna-be trees. Kids can easily spot big bold trees. That’s why you bring kids along.

Once you’ve found a potential champion, your phone camera can record the shape, size, and GPS location. You can even add a caption, so name it! Kids can help with that too. Don’t ID it to scientific species. Give it a name that means something to you. What does it remind you of? “Big boy”? “Mother tree”? “Large Leaner”? “Uncle Fred”? “The Sentinel”? Use your imagination. Then keep looking. You’ll discover more. Which is the absolute heaviest? Your pictures can help you rank them in weight order. Compare with friends to find your local grand champion. It’s fun.

You may find that some of your heaviest trees aren’t in the woods.

Most, but not all, of the big forest trees have been logged. There are still some heavyweights hidden in protected areas, but your nearest champion could be a huge street tree in town, or an old farmyard tree that’s been growing for a century or more. Keep looking as you hike around and also as you drive your electric car. You never know when or where you’ll discover another champion.

It takes many decades to become a carbon capture champion. Recent studies found that big trees still capture carbon faster than young trees. That’s why carbon capture champions are so important for our climate future. Carbon champion trees are old but valuable, and need recognition. They capture and keep hundreds of years of CO2 out of the air. An old maple can store 300+ years of CO2.; white pine, 400 years; hemlock, 500 years; white cedars, over 1,000 years! Find the champions. Name them. Protect them. They’re helping you fight global warming.

Green Living: Make Your Airfare “Air-Fair,” Steve Waller

flying green, Green Living, UP Holistic business, U.P. wellness publication, Upper Peninsula of MI holistic publication

“You are now free to move about the country.” We love to fly, and it shows. Airports and airplanes are crowded. It’s finally affordable and possible to just jump on an airplane and “fly the friendly skies” to grandma and the distant kids for a long-awaited holiday hug. “You deserve a break today” in some warm exotic place. Leave COVID confinement a thousand miles behind. What takes days by car is just a couple of hours away by plane. The power and roar of a jet engine taking off is a sign of “something special in the air”—massive amounts of carbon dioxide, CO2.

But you can fly green. I’ll explain.

A single weekend flight, Detroit to Los Angeles, four thousand air miles round trip, emits more CO2 per passenger seat than the average American car emits in three months. Automobiles with two passengers produce only half the CO2 per person. But airplane miles and CO2 are rated per seat. Two passengers generate 8,000 miles of airplane CO2 instead of 4,000. If you and another fly to Los Angeles, that rate comes to the equivalent of almost seven months of automobile CO2 in a weekend!

Jet fuel, aviation gas, and automobile gas each emit almost twenty pounds of CO2 per gallon. On average, an airplane produces over fifty-three pounds of CO2 per air mile. A 747 airplane can carry up to 568 people and 63,000 gallons of fossil fuel. It burns about 5 gallons of fuel per mile, about 1 gallon per second! That 4,000 mile flight generates (4,000 miles x 53 lbs. CO2 per mile) 212,000 lbs.—100 tons of CO2! In 2019, the average domestic commercial flight emitted 0.39 pounds of CO2 per passenger mile. 4,000 miles x 0.39 CO2 per mile = 1,560 lbs. CO2 per person.

Today, globally, there are more than 100,000 flights per day.

Global airline passengers are expected to double in the next 20 years. Improving fuel efficiency (proudly claimed by many airlines) reduces emissions 1% per year but flights are increasing 6% per year. It’s not even close. Airline CO2 is rising.

Some airlines promise “Sustainable Aviation Fuel” (SAF – biofuels) but hardly any is available. One popular airline boldly committed to replacing 10% of fossil jet fuel with SAFs by 2030 (90% will still be fossil fuel).

Fly greener. Compensate for airline emissions by buying carbon offsets. Offsets try to neutralize airplane CO2 by preventing or removing equivalent CO2 elsewhere. However, it is hard to be sure an offset will permanently “absorb” the emissions your flight generates.

Some offsets plant trees to capture CO2, but seedlings take 20 years to grow big enough to be effective. If seedlings or trees die or are cut down or burn in a wildfire within the next 200 years, the CO2 returns to the air. Instead of planting trees, we must focus on growing and protecting trees, especially the biggest and longest-lived trees, for centuries.

Some offsets support social programs in poor countries that build schools to educate people about carbon solutions and sustainability. They build roads and ranger stations to help prevent illegal logging or provide more efficient cookstoves so very poor families burn less wood for cooking or use less fossil energy. My favorite offsets support methane capture or solar and wind energy projects which directly prevent CO2.

You choose how your offset dollars are used. Average offset prices are between $3-$50 per ton of CO2. Some people annually offset all their CO2. Consider the United Nation’s Gold Standard certification (https://marketplace.goldstandard.org/collections/projects or https://clear.eco/).

Green Living: Climate’s Magic Pill, Steve Waller

green living, climate change, climate support

Heat domes, temperature records, droughts, wildfires, smoky UP air from Canadian fires. On June 29th Lytton, British Columbia (near Vancouver, BC) recorded an all-time Canadian record high temperature of 49.6°C (121 °F). Then, the next day, that town burned in a wildfire! People were evacuated. Some died.

Is this our new normal? When will it end? Likely not in your lifetime. Humans haven’t figured out how to renounce fossil fuel, but have invented a magic pill that, like aspirin, ignores the problem but relieves the symptoms—air conditioning. As the climate changes, areas that rarely used AC before, such as the U.P., are now rushing to beat the heat by installing AC. But read this first!

We are living more like human dairy products, in refrigerated spaces behind closed doors, protected from the overheated environment. We go from refrigerated houses to refrigerated cars to refrigerated workplaces, then a quick stop at a refrigerated store on the way home.

The magic AC pill comes in two colors: Blue (conventional AC) and red (heat pumps).

Blue pill (conventional AC): Cools your house using more electricity. The blue pill makes you feel physically better, but the additional electricity generates more CO2, making the global problem worse!

Red pill (heat pump): Cools your house using more electricity, but the heat pump supplement for your furnace can also heat your house for much of the cool weather seasons as well as heat hot water. It generates more CO2 during hot weather, like AC, yes, but less CO2 in colder weather. Total annual CO2 is significantly less. Here’s why:

AC doesn’t “create cold.” It simply moves heat from inside your house to the outside. Refrigerators move heat from inside the fridge to the kitchen, making the fridge cooler and the kitchen warmer.

Home heat pumps can pump (move) heat either way. In summer, they move heat outside, exactly like AC. In cool weather, heat pumps run the AC backwards, moving heat from outside back inside, even at freezing outdoor temperatures or slightly below.

Heat pumps can heat your home while generating less CO2 than oil, gas, even electric furnaces. Heat pumps use much less energy because they just move heat to where you want it, outside or inside.

But there is a problem. HVAC contractors spend a lot of time talking people out of getting heat pumps. Heat pumps are not what they are accustomed to, so they discourage them in favor of their favorites—fossil heat and traditional AC. That locks customers into another thirty years of fossil fuels. Boo. Bad. We must move away from fossil energy. Electricity is slowly getting cleaner. Fossils never will. We must go all-electric.

Contractors will claim that heat pumps won’t work because there’s little heat to move at -30˚F. That’s true and that’s why I suggest the red pill as a supplement. On those -30˚F days, use fossils if you must. But the rest of the time, with the help of your thermostat or control system, you can use the heat pump.

There is a special cold weather heat pump option–ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs). Ground below the frost line doesn’t freeze. GSHPs can capture enough heat for your house most of the winter. Back-up is only needed on the absolute coldest days. GSHPs cost significantly more but eliminate fossils.

When it comes to home heating, especially if we end up with a carbon tax, as I believe we will, heat pumps are our best solution. We need young HVAC heat pump specialists to start new businesses providing the expertise and equipment needed to install heat pumps cost efficiently, to out-compete stubborn fossil contractors stuck in the fossil fuel era. It’s the smart move.

Green Living: U.P. Style Re-Creation, Steve Waller

green living, green recreation, sustainable recreation in MI's Upper Peninsula, U.P. holistic business, U.P. wellness publication

The COVID freeze is thawing. We are waking from a yearlong hibernation, anxious for “normal,” ready to get back to work, enjoy family, friends, and summer fun. Life is restarting. Summer recreation can re-create our lifestyle and for many, lifestyle re-creation would be helpful.

The American Psychological Association’s latest “Stress in America” survey of 3,000 people indicates that since the pandemic began, about 42 percent of U.S. adults gained weight—29 pounds on average. About half of the weight-gainers added more than 15 pounds; 10 percent, more than 50 pounds. On average, men added 37 lbs., women added 22 pounds. Younger adults gained more than older people (millennials 41 pounds, baby boomers 16 pounds). Only 18 percent reported unwanted weight loss. Stress, lack of exercise, unhealthy changes in eating habits, and increased alcohol consumption are all contributing factors.

It’s time to get outside, but being dragged around by a gas-powered ATV, boat, jet ski, dirt bike, motorcycle. or even an automobile won’t help you get back in shape. Recreational gas burning burns gas, not calories. It increases your personal contribution to the global warming problem, not your metabolism. It’s time to re-create your idea of recreation.

U.P. forest trails, some of the best in the nation, are ready for hikers, talking with friends, without noisy gas burning ATVs.

Trails seem much longer, more peaceful, relaxing, and more interesting when on foot. As John Muir, the famous 19th century naturalist, said about his 1,000-mile walk to the Gulf (instead of traveling by train or stagecoach), “How can you see anything when you travel 40 miles in a day?”

Streets are ready for bicyclists running local errands instead of running gas-burning automobiles. Electric bicycles are waiting in local bike shops for those with 10 to 15-mile daily commutes to work, or for a couple of hours of awesome trail riding. Two wheels roar. Four wheels snore!

Swimming is healthy and fun. Snorkeling the U.P.’s clear-water lakes is fascinating. Even sailboats are better exercise. Noisy gas-burning boats or jet skis won’t get that beach body back in shape.

Besides, after a two-year study, the Michigan governor’s recent U.P. Energy Task Force report clearly states that we, all of us, must move away from fossil fuels.

The easy first step is to eliminate recreational gas burning and get healthier at the same time. It’s a win-win!Even converting gas-powered yard tools, mowers (including riding mowers), trimmers, and blowers to battery power reduces stress on your ears, eliminates gasoline, and minimizes fossil-powered pollution. Today, battery-powered tools are versatile workhorses that help you spend more time outdoors, peacefully.

After a 2020 dip in carbon dioxide emissions due to COVID-19, CO2 emissions are forecast to jump this year by the second biggest annual rise in history as people and global economies recover from the pandemic’s recession. Our “new normal” could easily just repeat the old toxic normal. Now is the time to start fresh with smarter habits and less fossil fuel.

Once you’ve paid your bills, put COVID relief money to good use. Don’t blow it on another couch-potato TV, cable or video game subscription. Cancel those subscriptions. Invest that money and freed time in gas-free products and activities. It’s time to dump that gas guzzler and buy an electric car. Install solar power. Replace gas furnaces and water heaters with a cold weather-rated, high-efficiency heat pump.

Explore the U.P. Keep our land, our air, and yourself in great shape. Re-create that pre-COVID body naturally by abandoning recreational gas burning, and physically enjoying the beautiful local places where we live.

Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/the-big-number-a-major-pandemic-weight-gain/2021/04/16/cc347e3e-9dfd-11eb-9d05-ae06f4529ece_story.html
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/61-percent-of-americans-say-they-gained-weight-during-the-pandemic
https://www.michigan.gov/documents/egle/Report-UPETF-Phase-II_720856_7.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/20/carbon-emissions-to-soar-in-2021-by-second-highest-rate-in-history

Green Living: Shopping for Values, Steve Waller

Life has changed, more than just COVID. Old values face new challenges—climate, rural flight (urbanization), jobs and energy. Like COVID, these won’t go away unless we do something. A technological solution has risen from obscurity and matured. It is finally the best economic choice, but it requires new values and attitudes.

Solar is the solution, not just for the homes and businesses of those who can afford it, but also for utilities serving the rest of us who can’t afford it or who rent. Solar has many good points, but there are tradeoffs that question and challenge old,outdated values.

Homeowners who install solar commit to something that neighbors may not be ready to accept. Solar homeowners willingly invest in what they already had (electricity) but value being cleaner and not making the challenges listed above worse. They save money and increase their home value while simultaneously giving doubting neighbors the unexpected gift of stabilized electricity prices and a cleaner environment. Neighbors who see solar working cleanly, silently, effectively, and reliably change their outdated resistance.

The cost for residential solar is about the price of a moderate car except cars need constant refueling, insurance, maintenance, and are pretty much dead after ten years, while solar panels are very much alive, and doubling or eventually tripling the initial investment. A car is an expense, not an investment. Cars never return their original cost.

Two cars cost twice as much for ten years. Two solar panels return twice as much for more than twenty-five years. Solar is an effortless, secure, tax-free, inflation-proof investment, not an expense. To say someone can’t afford solar is saying they don’t have a 401K because they have to put money into the account. If you don’t invest, you don’t get the profit.

Utility grade solar (thousands of solar panels grouped together) should not be taken lightly because there are tradeoffs that challenge old values while offering important new benefits.

Utility solar effortlessly converts all grid-tied customers (resistant households, low-income households, businesses, mines, factories, farms, entire towns) to clean instead of dirty power. New utility solar is now officially the least expensive electricity available, less expensive than natural gas. Grid-tied customers pay less with solar energy. Local communities benefit from tax revenue generated by utility solar panels. Solar stabilizes electricity cost (no fuel price hikes). Solar storage strongly reduces the need for old, expensive, dirty power plants.

U.P. Facts: Solar panels output more power in our cold weather.

The backs of “bifacial” solar panels collect additional energy from sunlight reflected from snow. Solar “trackers” tilt panels for maximum output during the high summer sun or the low winter sun,and also help shed snow.

Utility tradeoff: Thousands of utility solar panels cover hundreds or maybe thousands of acres of rural land. Most see those panels as a needed improvement. Others aren’t ready to see their landscape change. The value of clean solar energy has to outweigh the value of a view for a few. Solar panels prevent much more CO2 than trees can capture. Without solar, our electricity increases CO2, warms earth, and kills wildlife.

Solar brings clean, stable, badly needed, long-term, non-toxic power, tax revenue, and jobs to rural job-starved areas, and benefits the entire region. Utilities must be pushed to build solar farms faster, and residents must value some acreage being safely and economically converted to clean energy.

Give the gift that values our entire generation and kids, brings badly needed resources to local communities, and protects the environment (climate, air, water, and wildlife). Become a vocal supporter of clean solar energy.

Green Living: Women Changing the World, Steve Waller

women activists, green living, U.P. wellness publication, U.P. holistic business

Ordinary, caring people who think clearly, express themselves logically, and communicate effectively are actively shaping our future. They view the big picture, including future generations, and recognize actions we have to take today to improve tomorrow. They rarely start out with privilege and authority. They mostly start just with passion and determination. Maybe it’s you, or your neighbor.

That’s how women such as Naomi Klein, Vandana Shiva, Naomi Oreskes, Winona LaDuke, and Erin Brockovich became recognized and powerful. Because of them, our lives are better.

It isn’t always facts and figures that persuade.

It’s style and relationships. How and to whom you communicate is often more effective than what you communicate. It’s knowing how to say something, how to get through a preconception or bias that makes the difference. Gentle persuasion can lift a very heavy stone. Compassion, not just for your subject, but for your partner, friend, and neighbor, keeps doors of communication open.

But…One individual cannot possibly make a difference, alone. It is individual efforts, collectively, that makes a noticeable difference—all the difference in the world! — Dr. Jane Goodall

For change to actually happen, effort needs to be collective, shaping views for a wide audience.

Share and garner support. Become collective. An excellent example is Greta Thunberg.

Greta Thunberg, a seventeen-year-old Swedish environmental activist, got started after convincing her parents to reduce their own carbon footprint. For two years, Thunberg challenged her parents to lower the family’s environmental impact. She tried showing them graphs and data, but when that did not work, she warned her family they were stealing her future. Giving up flying in part meant her mother had to give up her international career as an opera singer.

Thunberg credits her parents’ eventual changes with giving her hope and belief she could make a difference. The family story is recounted in the 2020 book Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis.

climate activism, women activists, green living, U.P. wellness publication, U.P. holistic business

n 2018, at age fifteen, Greta spent school days outside the Swedish parliament holding a sign reading “School strike for climate.” Soon, ordinary young people organized a school climate strike movement called “Fridays for Future.”

Thunberg’s youth and straightforward speaking in public to political leaders and assemblies criticizes world leaders for their failure on the climate crisis. In 2019, multiple coordinated multi-city protests included over a million students each. To avoid flying, Thunberg sailed to North America where she attended the U.N. Climate Action Summit. Her exclamation “How dare you?” was widely featured by the press. Thunberg has inspired what is called “The Greta Effect.” All this has come from a teenager with Asperger’s syndrome, which Greta calls “my super-power.”

Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was an American marine biologist and author. In the 1950s, she focused on conservation and problems she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides. She and her classic book Silent Spring (1962) were met with fierce opposition by chemical companies. Her book eventually spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy, a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides. It inspired a movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Rachel Carson Prize, an international environmental award established in Norway, commemorates her achievements and awards women who distinguished themselves in outstanding environmental work.

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter. — Rachel Carson

You don’t have to be special. You have to become special.