The EcoGrrl Interview: Chris

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Chris

chriscorn

Chris is a friend as well as a software engineer, urban homesteader, husband to the awesome Bethany, and new dad!  I met him originally when I hired him at my last company, and soon learned they live right in my neighborhood.  Remember my blog on duck sitting?  Yep, that’s them!  Great people I look forward to more meetups with at the pub in 2013!

What or who inspires you most?
Dennis Kucinich

What do you turn to when you need strength?  
Beer :)

How can women best support and/or empower other women?

I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer this?  :)

What do you love to grow? What would you like to try growing someday?
Flour corn and winter squash—they are super easy and provide tons of food that is very simple to store over the winter.  I really want to successfully grow Brussels Sprouts some day… we keep trying and failing :)

What are your creative outlets?  Is there anything you’ve always wanted to try but you haven’t?
Programming and working on software / web sites is always a fulfilling creative outlet for me.  Trying to design my garden is another.  I’ve always wanted to try bike camping or doing a long multi-day bike tour, but haven’t made time for it yet.

In what environment(s) do you feel most in your element?  
Hiking in the mountains!

Who are your top nonprofits you support and/or volunteer with and why?

What recent “green” change have you made in your own life?  What’s next?
We got some pet ducks to help improve the fertility of our soil without needing to rely on fertilizers, to help us with pest control, and to provide us with fresh eggs.  Next up is an energy audit of our home.

Where in the world do you consider a sanctuary?  Why?
Hiking in the Alps in Switzerland.  It’s so easy to get around without relying on automobiles, and it’s so pristine there.  If you want to, you can hike for days, lodging exclusively at the hiking huts and completely immersing yourself in the natural beauty of the landscape without coming into any contact with roads or cars or other artifacts of city life.

What advice would you give to your younger self? (i.e., 12 year old version of you)
Learn about where your food comes from.  Doing so will inspire you to be more involved in choosing it, growing it, and appreciating it, and will open the door to exploring a fascinating and important science that our current culture and educational systems do not give us enough exposure to.

How can we as a society be more radical in supporting a healthy planet?
Taxing goods and services based on their environmental impact, rather than only based on economic factors.  The easiest first step would be to stop subsidizing the production of fossil fuels and potentially taxing them based on their carbon emissions.  This would help to quickly awaken people to the previously hidden environmental costs of their actions, which would promote real change rather than the mainstream green-washing that we are seeing so much of today.

What sparked your interest in environmental issues?   What’s the first “eco” thing you ever did?
Someone sent me a news article about “Peak Oil”, and the potentially disastrous social, economic, and environmental consequences of our dependence on non-renewable, polluting energy sources.  This inspired me to start riding my bike more and driving less.  Eventually, learning about the relationship between the fossil fuel industry and our commercial agricultural system inspired me to become more connected to my food and start learning about gardening.

How do you live simply?
Try to stay out of the car as much as possible!  This results in minimizing trips both in terms of quantity and distance.

Could you leave us with a favorite quote of yours?
“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.” ~ Bill Mollison

Workin’ 9 to 5 (and interviewing for leadership roles)

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“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”
~ Ralph Nader

In My Career Coach Gets Me Thinking, a recent executive client of mine shares his thoughts as he prepares for his search, and offers his thoughts, background, and overall philosophies on leadership following our coaching session.  I thought it offered a lot of great insight for anyone pursuing leadership roles, and wanted to share.

What inspires you as a leader?

Tuesday Go Ponder – Nutrition over Drugging

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Want to prevent tooth decay in your kids? Stop giving them sodas and sugary drinks and foods!  Stop filling their sippy cups with juice and give them good, clean, pure water!  Check out What the World Eats if you want to see what the average American has in their kitchen versus other countries.

So you probably have figured it out that I’m against adding fluoride to Portland’s water.  No matter what the science debates are out there, the facts of the matter are this:

* They’re trying to force all people to ingest something that 50% of the population have said HELL NO to in surveys.  To add a drug to the water (fluoride is not a “nutrient”, it’s a fertilizer byproduct) is extraordinarily unethical and in direct violation of human rights. Why are they not banning GMOs, or HFCS, or all the toxic foods we’re ingesting?

* Fluoride banned in many countries – seems like Europe is usually far ahead of us in environmental and social progress and yes, here is another fine example of that.

* In a time where our Mayor is slashing police and fire budgets, where schools are up for closure, etc., this type of taxation is asinine.

* Oh, and it just came out in the Oregonian that pro-fluoride special interest groups pressured facts to be altered to look like we’re going through a “dental crisis” in our community which is an outright fabrication.

It’s interesting, I posted an article on Saturday on my blog and Twitter, and a follower (and former coworker!) had the nerve to insult me and tell me I’m being “selfish” for being anti-fluoride, and actually harangue me online for voicing my opinion.  Yes, this is a polarizing subject, but resorting to personal insults?

Sure, maybe I’m selfish for our environment and the fact that this chemical is supposed to be used topically – not swallowed and that I don’t want to therefore ingest it (my teeth are just fine thankyouverymuch) and then have it go back into our water.  Maybe I’m selfish for the kids who are being treated for fluorosis. Maybe I’m selfish for wanting Portland’s clean water to remain free of chemicals and taste wonderful.  Maybe I’m selfish for a person’s right to clean water.  For a community’s right to clean water.

You want fluoride?  I’m not telling you not to use it. I’m telling you that you cannot force it on me, that’s all.  I’m telling you that I care more about our environment – the one that supports ALL of us – more than anything else in the world.  Without a healthy planet, we’re all screwed.  It’s not exactly time to start drugging the water.

See below if you’re still not convinced:

Water-Fluoridation-Infographic-672x1024

Weekend in Pictures

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everything garden.

the nice thing about being gluten & dairy free? breakfast is about whole foods. blueberries picked and frozen last summer by the quart, strawberries growing in my yard, and an organic kiwi and banana for good measure. happiness.

the nice thing about being gluten & dairy free? breakfast is all about whole foods. these blueberries were picked and frozen last summer by the quart, strawberries growing in my yard, and an organic kiwi and banana for good measure. happiness.

basil coming up from seed, happy happy!

Genovese basil coming up from seed, happy happy!

rented & totally dug this movie...a little elmore leonard-esque in style but rockwell, walken and farrell are awesome in this with a great supporting cast to boot.

rented (& totally dug) seven psychopaths… it’s a little elmore leonard-esque in genre but i gotta say, rockwell, walken and farrell were awesome in this flick, with a great supporting cast to boot. (image source)

Sunday morning back on track at my favorite Woodlawn Coffee. I had forgotten they make an amazing oatmeal - this week's included bacon, walnuts, and bananas. (Oatmeal has the potential to have traces of gluten in it, but it's not affected me thus far fortunately).

Sunday morning back on track at my favorite Woodlawn Coffee. It’d been a while due to the g/d/e-free diet, but I had forgotten they make an amazing oatmeal – this week’s included bacon, walnuts, and bananas. (Oatmeal has the potential to have traces of gluten in it, due to cross-contamination, but it’s not affected me thus far). My journal, the Sunday Times, nice employees, and the comforting familiarity of breakfast in my neighborhood – that’s bliss. (image source)

tomatoes -

Yay! Tomatoes! 16 organically-grown viva italia paste tomato starts this year (due to my carelessness during the hardening-off process, I lost every single one of my starts from last year’s saved seeds, oy!), which came recommended as a good alternative to San Marzanos, and more disease-resistant. Yay!

Currants, pineapple sage, and coneflowers all growing like crazy (and don't you love how a new layer of mulch just pretties things up?)

White currants, pineapple sage, and coneflowers all growing like crazy (and don’t you love how a new layer of mulch just pretties things up?).

My favorite peppers, the Sweet Tolles, an Italian pepper that does SO much better than the traditional sweet bell peppers in my garden

My favorite Sweet Tolles Italian peppers that do SO much better than the traditional sweet bell peppers in my garden (and tastes incredible), along with a serrano and cherry bomb for good measure (& heat!). In the background, scarlet runner beans are just starting to grow, and this year my plan is to have them prettyin’ up the whole back fence (and disguising it!) – hence the checkerboard lattice I gave them to climb up.

and the nasturtiums, of course, are having no problem at all coming up in the sweet potato bed (my slips, as usual, didn't do well so I'll be picking up starts soon enough for this li'l bed ;)

and the nasturtiums, of course, are having no problem at all coming up in the sweet potato bed…my sweet potato slips, as usual, didn’t do well so I’ll be picking up starts soon enough for this li’l bed :)

dr

testing the limits of my back patio until I figure out where to place the furniture in the yard… FYI those are seven pots of lettuces, a couple tarragon in their third year, and one of green onions with a random potato that somehow made its way in there (a trickster squirrel?).

and hitting the hay dreaming about the picture of Havasu Falls in Arizona and the accompanying article in the New York Times, Seeking Solitude (With a Guide)

…and I’ll be dreaming about this picture of Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon in Arizona after seeing it featured in the article in today’s New York Times, Seeking Solitude (With a Guide)

 

Magpie 169

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you know i never needed a lot.  i watch you watch the  bees anchoring themselves into those sunflowers and am reminded of the way i would pick the smaller, scandalous blooms from the ground…don’t blow, they’ll spread the weeds everywhere, they’d tell us, yet we’d still make wishes and dream about having a horse someday and a big house where we’d sit outside all day and drink lemonade…but honestly you know i just loved to lay out on the grass with you, under the australian stars, laughing as you pointed out constellations under the darkness and light of the southern hemisphere…i held my breath last night and tore off another layer of skin, exposed and raw and with heartwrenching aching beautiful daring love. standing there holding my hands over my eyes as i gave myself to you, asked myself the hardest questions, admitted what had been truly burning inside of me. it was a simple question, and you gave me truth.  you squeezed my hand back, and showed me the way.  this morning i woke up and began to heal from days torn asunder.  this morning i felt your heart beat as i put my hand on your chest, and put my worries at ease.  you know maybe i do need some things, and maybe that’s okay.  i think and i thank and i breathe in more and breathe out more and walk, easily, alongside you.  it’s not the house or the flowers or the sun or the rain or even the way the birds caw at each other from my rooftop. it’s the way i’m learning to live this life, to trust more, to venture further, to allow for everything, for love and truth and yes, while you talk in your sleep i will always, always have your hand.

Love is not consolation. It is light.
~Friedrich Nietzsche