Shari Della Penna
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"Small acts of kindness can change and humanise our world."
   Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks 1948-2020
   ​Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, 1991-2020
                         Author, Advocate, Advisor

What’s a Microforest?

7/25/2023

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Trees make the woods.
They make everything beautiful.

                                                from A Tree is Nice
                                        written by Janice May Udry
                                           pictures by Marc Simont
                                                         Harper, 1956
                                     Accessed on YouTube 7/14/23

    Anyone driving or walking by could tell the tree had breathed its last. A big storm passed through my neighborhood July 3rd and ripped off a large limb of one of my neighbor’s big, old maple trees. It’s extremely sad when a tree dies, but it is the way of our world. 
    Although much of the tree still bravely stood, its insides had rotted. The arborists came last weekend to remove the tree. It took most of the day. They fed limbs, branches, and leaves into the shredder, turned it to mulch, and hauled it away. I’m sure the mulch will nurture many gardens and help them winter over. That is also the way of the world.
    We have a symbiotic relationship with trees. We breathe the oxygen they produce during photosynthesis and expel carbon dioxide. Trees use carbon dioxide to make the carbon-based sugars it needs to for wood growth and other necessary functions. Trees store carbon in their leaves, branches, trucks, and roots. They naturally release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as they decompose after they die. They also release carbon if they catch on fire or become infested with insects or disease. 
    When it’s in balance, the amount of carbon stored in forests generally equals the amount released into the atmosphere. 
    Wildfires and insect infestations upset that balance. So does excessive logging. So does turning forests into grazing lands or other agricultural purposes. When we burn fossil fuels, which were formed over millions of years, we release carbon into the atmosphere. Since we cannot re-capture as much carbon as we are releasing, the earth is out of balance. Less carbon stored in trees, means more carbon is in the air, an ingredient in the recipe for a warmer planet. 
    Oceans absorb some carbon dioxide. So do trees. Actually all vegetation stores carbon, but trees are especially important. Their large size allows them to store lots of carbon. Their long lives allow them to store lots of carbon for a long time. 
    Enter Akiro Miyawaki (1928 - 2021) a Japanese botanist and ecologist. In 1958, he was invited to study in Germany where he learned that “native vegetation … has the ability to support … [a given area] that existed before human intervention.” This was during a time in Japan of massive building with little regard for environmental disturbances and consequences.
    Dr. Miyawaki returned to Japan in 1960 and put his knowledge to work. Since most native plants had been removed, he used the protected forests around Shinto shrines to begin a catalogue of native species. These surveys caught the attention of the Japanese business world. Staying true to what he learned in Germany, Dr. Miyawaki was not interested in quick fixes, covering up the pollution companies caused with their destruction with “a little greenery.” 
    “I would,” he said at a lecture before the Ministry of the Environment, “be very happy to cooperate in creating a real, native forest based on the potential natural vegetation of the area.” 
    Many Japanese companies have a global reach and Miyawaki’s idea of Microforests grew to a worldwide movement. 
    Microforests are small, dense, biodiverse forests that grow fast in both urban and rural areas. A variety of native species is densely planted in an area that can cover as little as under 4 acres. Flowers, shrubs, and trees grow quickly because they compete for nutrients and sunlight. Generally they are cared for (weeded and watered) for about 3 years. Within just a few years, they reach their optimum height and density. Regular forests can take up to 20 or even 50 years to mature. 
    ADKN is an organization that works mainly in African and Asian countries “to help communities and individuals become self-reliant.” Here are some photos of the microforests they have planted enlisting the help of local people, mostly women.
    In the US, Miyawaki forests are also catching on. You can find tiny forests from Cambridge, MA, to Los Angeles, CA. According to earth.org,  “[c]reating accessible ways to store carbon and increase biodiversity can help slow down climate change.” Conveniently, microforests are becoming most popular where they are most needed, urban areas. And because they are planted in “layers,” many kinds of plants (including trees), birds, animals, insects, and fungi thrive together. Each layer helps the others become healthier. 
    Just like us with our glands, organs, and systems, our planet needs a vast variety and number of living organisms working together to stay healthy. This is biodiversity.
    Miyawaki planted over 40 million trees in thousands of tiny forests during his lifetime, adding to the biodiversity mainly in cities. But microforests will never be able to replace the 5 million hectares (over 12 million acres) of forest every year lost to local agriculture and consumers worldwide demanding more and more goods. 
    Maybe my neighbor will replant the tree she lost. Maybe I’ll find room to plant one, too. Since trees communicate through their root systems with the help of pheromones and fungi, they are more likely to thrive if a couple of the same species live near each other. 
                  
    While a little dry for my taste, Lies My Teacher Taught Me (James W. Loewen.The New Press, 2018) is an important recognition of our society’s denial of racism and reliance on whitewashing our history. Thoroughly researched and told in a no-nonsense voice, it’s anything but didactic. The combination of sociology and history gives the author a firm footing for his comparison of High School History Textbooks and how they (and our teachers) have influenced us. Recommended, but allow plenty of time! 
                    -—Be curious! (and hug, better yet, plant a tree)
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Fear Factor OR Thrill of the Flight

7/18/2023

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Clickety, clickety, clackety, clickity
        up 
    up 
up
and then
whoosh!
                                                 from Roller Coaster
                            written and illustrated by Marla Frazee
                                                        Harcourt, 2003
                                      (accessed on YouTube 7/13/23)

    For some people, summer means roller coasters. The clack and rumble of wheels on track, the uphill chug, the downhill screams all define fun for lots of people, kids and grown ups. 
    But not me.
    Roller coasters are not my favorite things. I don’t like to be scared, so horror movies, fun houses, and pretty much everything else that jumps out and says “boo!” are off limits, too. It’s the surprise factor that gets me unnerved. 
    Feeling fear raises our levels of adrenaline. The classic fight or flight response is engaged when we feel threatened or know we are about to do something dangerous. If we put ourselves in a non-threatening environment like buckling the safety belt on a roller coaster, we expect all will end well. But I still don’t like it. 
    Instead of high-tailing it out of the queue and mowing over anyone in my path, roller coaster lovers hold their place in line, excitement pulsing, anticipation mounting, heart pounding. They (you?) experience a type of stress called eustress. 
    The word itself is formed by adding the Greek prefix eu (good) as in euphoric and utopia (with its English spelling variation) to stress to name the opposite of distress. So eustress is good stress. It’s anticipation. It’s motivation. It’s ambition. 
    It’s also invigorating and important. I first learned about eustress in my Sounds of Silence post on June 27, 2023, when I read about Imke Kirste’s work about the generation of new brain cells when we are silent.
    Roller Coasters are probably the opposite of silence. Is their purpose to let us see how loud we can scream? All kidding aside, though, silence has its place. And so does cacophony, noise, and sound (loud and soft).  
    Roller Coasters descended from “Russian Mountains.” Built in the 17th century near St. Petersburg of specially constructed ice hills, they became a favorite of Catherine the Great as well as many others in Russia’s upper class.
    Some believe when wheels were attached to carts at some point in Europe, most probably France, the coaster was born.
    La Marcus Thompson built a switchback railway at Coney Island in 1884. But just because he built that one, it didn’t mean he invented roller coasters, per se. But he was the best at promoting and improving them. Thompson was granted thirty patents from 1884 to 1887. All of them lead to the advancement of the gravity ride earning him the title, “father of the roller coaster.”
    The Guinness World Record for the fastest roller coaster is held by The Storm Coaster found in the Dubai Hills Mall.
    The Kingda Ka is the fastest roller coaster in the United States. It’s at Six Flags in Jackson Township, NJ. After a 90° climb to the top, you’ll plummet right back down in a 270-degree spiral. The coaster travels from 0-128 mph in 3.5 seconds. It’s as high as a 40 story skyscraper, 456 feet. You’ll travel its 3118 feet in 50 seconds. 
    You can find all the fastest, longest, and highest roller coasters in the world today by clicking on CoasterForce. 
    National Roller Coaster Day is August 16 every year. According to Smithsonian Magazine, on August 16, 1898, Edwin Prescott was granted the first patent for the vertical loop, seen as a vast improvement for a Roller Coaster. Prescott’s Loop the Loop was disappointingly unsuccessful. Only one car holding four passengers could ride the coaster at a time. The wait-lines must have been extraordinarily long. The ride closed after nine years in operation. 
    So what about safety? Are my fears justified?
    According to a report in USA Today, roller coasters, really all amusement park rides, are “incredibly safe.” IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) collects data from amusement parks and theme parks and reports back to the public. From their latest information, “There were an estimated 130 serious [fatal and non-fatal] ride-related injuries at North American theme parks in 2021.” The same article quotes Jim Seay, former chairman of a global committee that sets industry standards for attraction safety, and the IAAPA Global Safety Committee. "Incidences that are extremely severe are very rare in our industry," said Seay, adding that's why they draw attention – "because it is so rare.”
    I don’t have the statistics for those county fair rides that are torn down, travel from place, and re-set, but they are inspected even more than the rides that are part of an established park. They must conform to safety rules for each state where they set-up, and must be inspected before they are allowed to receive passengers. 
    IAAPA estimates your chance of being injured or killed on a fixed amusement park ride is 1 in 15.5 million rides taken. (According to the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are less than one in a million.”)     
    Even so, in the unlikely event that I’m anywhere near an amusement park, you’ll find me enjoying the calliope on the merry-go-round.
     
    Lies My Teacher Told Me (by James Loewen, correct spelling) has turned into a bit of a slog. I had to put it down to read Master Slave, Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo (Simon & Schuster, 2023) for a book club I’m in. It’s the true story of Ellen and William Craft who escaped slavery in 1848. Ellen disguised herself as a white man and William posed as “his” slave. Their daring “self-emancipation” took them over 1000 miles from Georgia to New England on many modes of transportation. They found themselves in constant danger of being discovered as they toured the speaking circuit with Frederick Douglass and other Abolitionists. Recommended.
    Now…back to those Lies.
                                   Be curious! (and enjoy the ride)
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Taking the Day Off

7/11/2023

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After a wonderful week with my granddaughters, I’m taking the day off.

See you next week.
                              Be curious! (and kind to yourself)
I'm still reading Lies My Teacher Told Me by by James Lowen. More on that next week too!
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Where Will All the Cattle Go? Long Time Passing

7/4/2023

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“I’ve never had a hot dog before…
    What do they taste like?”
“Well, they are a taste sensation.
    Each morsel is a joy!
    A celebration in a bun!”
                                   from The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog
                               written and illustrated by Mo Willems
                                Hyperion Books for Children, 2004
                                      (accessed on YouTube 7/2/23)

    Have you ever thought about entering an eating contest? They’re held for all kinds of food. Major League Eating is a real thing with an organization and rules and everything. You can find all MLE contests under the tab on their website.     
    Start in January noshing bagels in Las Vegas and work your way up to the epitome of eating contests on July 4th every year on Coney Island, home of Nathan’s hotdogs. Along the way stop in Santa Monica for pistachios in February. Gobble chicken wings in Miami in March. Inhale burritos in April in Milwaukee and sweet corn in West Palm Beach, FL. In May, run over to Manor, TX for the Sausage Palooza then bolt down glazed donuts in San Diego on June 2, National Donut Day. 
    Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest has been held since 1972, but legend holds that four immigrant customers at Nathan Handwerker’s newly-opened hot dog shop on Coney Island started it all. They challenged each other to see who was most patriotic. Of course they chose to eat the most American food of all, hotdogs. Over 40,000 fans come in person or tune in to ESPN to watch the contestants live.        
    Joey Chestnut won the contest seven years in a row from 2007 to 2014, and again in 2016. In 2021, he broke his old world record of 73 by downing 76 dogs (and buns) in 10 minutes. But that’s not all. According to MLE, he holds 55 World Records in 55 categories including chicken wings, asparagus, tacos, twinkies, apple pie, cherry pie and of course, hot dogs. He’ll be competing on Coney Island again this year. 
    What goes into Nathan’s famous hot dogs? You can check the ingredients list, but the nutrition label states:
290 calories
18g fat
24g carbohydrate
1g fiber
10g protein
    I did the math. Joey’s World Record hot dog prize amounted to 22,040 calories! 
    Hot dogs even all-beef ones, have fillers, preservatives, and flavor enhancers. Even so, that’s a lot of beef. 
    And it all comes from cows, but maybe not forever. 
    Last week, Upside Foods and GOOD Meat both received their approvals to use cells from chickens to create cultured chicken products. Lab produced meat has been in development for a number of years by several different labs. 
    The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) work together (USDA-FSIS) to certify processed food sold in the US is safe. 
    The The United States Federal Department of Agriculture (FDA) regulates our meat, poultry, and egg products. Since July, 2018, the two agencies have been working together to oversee lab-produced meat.   
    Companies need approval from both agencies before they can sell their products to the public. So lab-grown chicken is on its way to market in the US. Could beef be next?
    Of course labs won’t give out their secrets, but the overgeneralization goes something like this. Through a needle biopsy, DNA cells are extracted from an animal. Inside huge, sterile vats, these cells are fed a mixture of fats, sugar, amino acids, and vitamins so they can grow into meat. And voila!
    Based on the list I made of the pros and cons of lab produced meat, it’s probably a good idea. Cows, chickens, and even fish will be saved from slaughter. Ocean life will be allowed to replenish itself. “Warehousing” chickens can become a thing of the past. Methane and other greenhouse gasses will be reduced, helping to lessen the effects of our current climate catastrophe. Grazing land can be used for human crops and renewable energy. Water use can be diverted to grow crops for humans instead of irrigating pasture land.
    Harder to list are the negatives. Where will our eggs come from? Milk? Leather? Suitable substitutes are already in the market, so…
    What will become of the cows? the ranchers? I doubt that cattlemen or chicken farmers can be convinced to convert their land to solar or wind farms. But maybe?
    A June 27, 2023, article in Forbes predicted the process to expensive to ever be able to catch on. But with good marketing and adequate public and private funding, it just might.
    Wouldn’t you be in favor of cultured meat? How about ? Clean meat? No-kill meat meat? Sustainable meat? Wouldn’t a steak by any other name still taste as good? or better!

    I just started reading (finally) Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen (The New Press, 2018). I’ll post my impressions next week!
                               -—Be curious! (and celebrate July 4,
​                                with—or without—a hot dog or two)
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         I'm a children's writer and poet intent on observing the world and nurturing those I find in my small space .

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