Posted on

Getting into Action: Climate Friendly Gardening

Earlier this year, a climate partnership was born as a part of our Drawdown Solutions: Getting into Action workshop series between participants Jim Little and Elizabeth Smoots. During the workshop, Elizabeth and Jim decided to research and write a tip sheet on Climate Friendly Gardening for the King County Master Gardeners. This tip sheet was recently accepted and published. These tip sheets are handed out for free to clients that visit the King County Master Gardener Clinics throughout the county and they are available on-line. This tip sheet will help inform both Master Gardeners and their clients about Climate Friendly Gardening. You can read a news brief about the process that Elizabeth and Jim went through in developing this worksheet HERE (and reproduced below as well).

The Foundation Connection

            A monthly e-newsletter from the Master Gardener Foundation of King County                                                                                                                   

Extend Your Resources

An occasional series highlighting recent WSU Extension or King County Master Gardener home gardening publications and other helpful clinic resources.

New Tip Sheet #14: Climate Friendly Gardening

…Introduction by Mary Watts, WSU King County Master Gardener Program Coordinator; Story and Tip Sheet #14 by James Little, Master Gardener, and Elizabeth Smoots, Seattle physician and gardener

There is a brand new tip sheet, hot off the presses, our new Climate Friendly Gardening Tip Sheet #14. This was the brainchild of Master Gardener James Little and a community member. Here is their story:

“The idea for a Climate Friendly Gardening Tip Sheet grew out of a “Getting Into Action” workshop sponsored by Drawdown Seattle (DrawdownSeattle.org) earlier this year. Veteran Master Gardener Jim Little met Seattle gardener Elizabeth Smoots at the workshop, and they decided to do a joint project on the contribution gardeners can make in reversing climate change. Drawdown Seattle inspires workshop attendees to get informed and engaged in promoting the many solutions available right now to limit global warming. Drawdown Seattle encourages attendees to initiate actions in their local communities and as well as support larger-scale climate action to preserve a livable planet for our children.

In February, Little and Smoots attended the Soil, Food and Climate Change workshop sponsored by Master Gardeners in Fall City, hosted by Susan Miller. The workshop featured talks by husband and wife team Dr. David Montgomery and Anne Biklé on how to build healthy soil that stores the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. WSU Professor Chad Kruger also presented a lecture on agriculture and climate change. After the workshop, Jim and Elizabeth decided to try to put together a Master Gardener tip sheet on climate-friendly gardening.

In addition to a shared interest in gardening, Jim and Elizabeth discovered on the drive to the workshop that they are both physicians. Jim Little was a spinal cord injury physician at the Seattle VA Medical Center for 29 years, and is now retired. A family physician for many years, Elizabeth Smoots specializes in integrative and functional medicine in her telemedicine practice. She has authored Allergy Guide: Alternative & Conventional Solutions and has published many health articles. 

Before writing the tip sheet, both Jim and Elizabeth had a good understanding of climate change and the recommended solutions, but they needed to undertake a critical review of the research on gardening in relation to climate change. After sifting through the scientific research and writing multiple drafts, they finally had a draft to submit to Carrie Hill and Mary Watts. Carrie and Mary made some additional edits and the team arrived at the final version of the 14th tip sheet, Climate Friendly Gardening. You can view it, download it, or print it out at https://extension.wsu.edu/king/gardening/gardening–tip–sheets/ ˮ

WSU Publications: 

There are well over 200 home gardening publications available at pubs.wsu.edu Most are free to download. Many of these publications are also posted at WSU’s Gardening in Washington State: gardening.wsu.edu

Posted on

Seattle Awakening: New Events and Programs for the Fall

Green Trees

We are excited to announce new virtual events in September and October. Plus, we are offering a new series, Awakening the Dreamer. This course encourages us to take an honest look at the challenging state of the world, reflect, and discover opportunities. At the end of the class, you will be able to create a new future—one where you have a key role to play.

There are also new offerings of previous workshops: Introduction to Drawdown and the five-part Getting Into Action series. These courses all build on each other beginning with the Awakening the Dreamer course and culminating with the Getting Into Action series.

Make sure to sign-up for each workshop from our Meetup page. This is where you will find important information such as how to join each class on the Zoom platform. Check out the calendar of events to find meeting dates that work with your schedule today!

Seattle Climate Change Meetup Group

Seattle, WA
478 Members

This group is for anyone interested in discussing new ways of engaging with global climate change. All skills and backgrounds are welcome. You might feel confused about the be…

Next Meetup

Awakening the Dreamer

Tuesday, Sep 8, 2020, 5:30 PM
3 Attending

Check out this Meetup Group →

Posted on

Climate Conversations

This is where we will keep the topics and output from our twice a month (or so) climate conversations where we discuss whatever is on your mind as it related to implementing solutions at all levels of action for the Climate Crisis.

July 26, 2020 – The Movement Voter Project and Food Waste (Watch Here)

Our discussion focused primarily on two topics: the Movement Voter Project (Rob Beem presenting)  and Food Waste (Maddie Price presenting).  Jim Little also did an introduction to set up why voting is so critical for the climate crisis this year.  Thank you Jim, Maddie, and Rob for your time and effort in leading these discussions!

Posted on

Learn. Act. Envision: New June Events Announced for Drawdown Seattle

Seattle Sunset

We are here to help the Seattle community take action on climate change. This month our event calendar is full of opportunities to get engaged and make a difference.

All of our meetings and workshops this month will be held virtually on Zoom. You can obtain the meeting links by registering from the Drawdown Seattle Meetup page.

Getting Into Action 2.0

Back by popular demand, we are bringing back our Getting Into Action Series so you can learn, engage, and develop your own personal action plan. This series builds on the Introduction to Reversing Global Warming through a series of workshop meetings.

The Getting Into Action series is a great way to meet other community members who want to take action too. While we will be offering this next session virtually, the positive spirit and solution-focused mindset will surely endure!

The Getting Into Action workshops will be meeting online on June 14, 21, 28; July 5; August 2.

Climate Conversations

If you want to get connected with the community to find more about what is being done right here in Seattle, then our bi-monthly Climate Conversations is for you. Each meeting is different and features a variety of community members presenting on climate solution topics or on ongoing projects.

The next Climate Conversations are on June 14 and 28.

Introduction Workshops

Our next Introduction to Reversing Global Warming workshop is on June 18. If you have attended one of these sessions before, then you know that this is place to learn about Project Drawdown and what you can do to help. If this is your first time attending, encourage a friend or family member to join you. It’s a great opportunity to meet new people and learn more about climate change solutions.

Posted on

New Drawdown Seattle Events Scheduled for May

Space Needle and Fountain

We may still have to stay home to stay healthy, but that is not stopping the energy in our community. In that spirit, we are excited to offer three online events this month to help Seattleites get engaged with reversing global warming.

There will be one session of the Reversing Global Warming: Introduction to Drawdown series on May 14. This is a 90-minute interactive discussion where participants will engage with other community members to learn more about Project Drawdown and how we can take action to reverse global warming.

We are also going to continue the Climate Solutions Conversation meetings on May 17 and May 31. This is an opportunity to learn about projects and actions that are going on within the community.

You can pre-register for all of our events on the Seattle Climate Change Meetup page. See you soon (and on Zoom)!

Posted on

Happy 50th Birthday Earth Day! Earth Week Resources

What an incredible time for humans and life on Earth right now.  There is so much that is simultaneously wonderful and challenging that it can be overwhelming to know how to process all of it.   If you are looking for some places to get plugged in and involved, here are a few for your consideration:

Of course, the main thing to share in the official Earth Day Live.  From the site: “From April 22, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, to April 24, activists, performers, thought leaders, and artists will come together for an empowering, inspiring, and communal three day livestream mobilization.”  The site and registration are here:

https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/

Through the week, Executive Director of Project Drawdown Jonathan Foley and other members will be giving a series of talks and keynotes on proven solutions to reverse global warming.  You can find that link to these events here:

https://www.drawdown.org/events/

Dr. Foley’s Earth Day Webinar was a fantastic overview of the science of the problem and proven solutions to reverse the climate emergency we find ourselves in.  You can find a previously recorded version of that talk here:

Introduction to Project Drawdown 2020

This talk is a great complement to his Earth Day blog entry on Medium: A Personalized Action Guide for the Environment

For the final resource to check out, The Pachamama Alliance will be hosting a virtual  “Voices for the Earth Summit” from 8:30am to 6pm on April 22nd.  There will be an incredible list of speakers from indigenous leaders to leading activists including Paul Hawken, Van Jones, Annie Leonard, Lynne Twist, Charles Eisenstein and many others.  You can find out more info and register for that event here:

https://landing.pachamama.org/earth-day

We hope you all find this week a great week to reconnect with whatever your passion is to help with the planet.  Please look for future events we will be hosting (virtually of course) to keep the conversation going about continuing to find ways we can all participate in be a part of the solution to reversing the climate crisis.

–Team Drawdown Seattle

Posted on

Climate Solution Conversations

Project Drawdown identified the top 100 solutions for reversing global warming. Drawdown Seattle aims to connect local people to local projects working to advance the Drawdown solutions.

During this gathering you will:
— Meet neighbors interested in reversing global warming, from those who’ve been at it for decades to those newly interested;
— Learn about local projects and ways you could engage to help reverse global warming at a community level;
— Discover volunteer opportunities with Drawdown Seattle so more people can get connected to the climate work that most inspires them;
— Swap ideas, resources and learnings about reversing global warming.

We’re meeting bi-weekly via Zoom video call on Sunday’s from 3-4:30 pm.

To RSVP for upcoming dates,visit Seattle Climate Change Meetup group

Orient yourself before you come with these helpful resources:

What are Project Drawdown’s climate solutions?
https://www.drawdown.org/solutions
http://bit.ly/DrawdownSolutionsTedTalk

How can you make the biggest impact?
Check out this 3 minute video
https://youtu.be/vn_dazz39Pc

Have a project you’d like some help with?

Email wendie.hipolito@gmail.com to get on the agenda to share your project. Helpful information to include is a brief description of your project, the Drawdown Solution(s) it’s advancing, project’s goal, what phase you’re project is in (discovery/research, planning, action, etc), and what kind of help you could use to advance your project (eg. organizers, researchers, writers, teachers, farmers, engineers, architects, etc)

Posted on

Reversing Global Warming: Introduction to Drawdown (with Updated Sessions Through December)

Project Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming

Reversing Global Warming: Introduction to Drawdown is a 90 minute in-person experience that invites you to see both the possibility of reversing global warming and that you have an important role to play in that process. Through videos and group activities, you will learn about a comprehensive plan to reverse global warming from Project Drawdown—a scientific study that identified 100 solutions that together, could actually reverse global warming by 2050. These solutions encompass the energy we use, the food we eat, and the cities we live in. By the end you will see the vital role you can play in the movement to reverse global warming.

What it offers

  • Learn about a comprehensive scientific study of 100 solutions that together, could actually reverse global warming by 2050
  • Connect with people in your community to find inspiration and discover new possibilities for addressing global warming
  • Learn how you can change the conversation about global warming from “game over” to “game on!”
  • People who are interested in the more in-depth multi-day workshop Drawdown Solutions: Getting into Action will be invited to attend at a future date.

We are planning multiple introduction sessions so please choose one that works best for your schedule (click to RSVP on Meetup):

WHERE: 3608 Wallingford Ave. N, Seattle, WA 98103

Please RSVP on Meetup by clicking on the date that works for you and join us!