Mother's Day/ Gulf Oil Spill

This Sunday, May 9th, is Mother's Day in the United States and I would like to give a shout out to all the awesome & amazing mothers out there. There is nothing as challenging and as rewarding as being a mom.

As children we love and take care of our mothers. As a mothers we take care and protect our children at all costs; we give them life & food [see above]. I believe that one of the best ways to take care of our children, and our children's children, is by taking care of the Earth, and it, in turn, will take care of us. Hence the name Mother Earth.

And here I was going to create a list of all the eco-friendly ways to honor our mothers, but in light of the recent catastrophic oil spill I would like to share some suggestions I have found of ways to help.

• Volunteer suggestions from the Daily Green
• Donation suggestions from The Daily Beast
• Including Matter of Trust which collects hair donations- did you know that a pound of hair can soak up a quart of oil in 1 minute- and be reused up to 100 times? I did not.
• An extensive list from the Huffington Post

Please do what you can to minimize the damage to Mother Earth and make her a part of your mother's day celebration.

Cheers and Happy Mother's Day!

monday poetry

And now for something completely different...

My partner has just been at a conference on state and local governments' response to climate change and sea level rise. He did not leave there encouraged; however he did find the time and inspiration to write a little poetry about what he was hearing. Please enjoy a poem this Monday, courtesy of HWWLLB.

hierarchy of desirability

He said, We've all been working very hard
To make a hierarchy of desirability,
Along with a decision tree.
It's kind of like homecoming and the prom,
All rolled into a single scientific craft -
The jock is at the top, the princess chooses first,
And you don't get to pick until a lower bough.
You've probably never thought of your sweet self
As a low-hanging fruit - but don't feel bad.
This kind of public policy may be hard
to take, but it has wide support,
from academics
and especially graduate students,
Who know all there is to know of human love.