From April to December, I wake up not to the sounds of birds singing, but of lawn mowers and leaf blowers. I peer outside my window and see the neighbors ready to make their lawns immaculate. Sometimes I wonder who they are trying to impress.

In the summer, instead of sweet flowers, I smell the fumes of noxious chemicals being poured over turf lawns. Sprinklers at full blast to make sure the grass grows green and tall, but not too tall or else off with their heads! We drag out our lawn mowers, while glaring at the enemy. Fill it up with gas, pull that cord, and off we go. Nature is no match for us.

Dramatic? Yes, but true. So true. None of this makes any sense to me. Our habit creates a wasteful cycle of time, energy, and resources. And that’s not mentioning how our weekend obsession adds to the destruction of our natural habitat.

Now that it is mid-November, instead of lawn mowers, the sounds have been replaced with leaf blowers.

When I look out, all I see is an army of Terminators that have taken over my street. Machines strapped to backs, ready to wage war on nature. Habitats be damned! Hours of blowing leaves back and forth, back and forth. Blowing from one edge of the street to the next. Stuffing them in bags then sending them to landfills. Plumes of smoke and the smell of fumes tells me they won the war in creating a “litter” free lawn.

But why? Why are we doing this? Who says this is what beauty looks like? And at what cost?

This fall, you will not see a rake in my hand. We are leaving the leaves. If you drive past our home, one might conclude that we’re lazy or don’t care about our lawn, but quite the contrary.

Fallen leaves provide shelter for wildlife, including native insects, and pollinators to hibernate over the winter. You want butterflies and bees? Leave the leaves. You want to hear the songbirds sing? Then leave the leaves so they have insects to eat. Leaves provide nutrients to our garden beds and can turn into rich compost that benefits our soil without fertilizers. Shouldn’t we be listening to their name? They are called ‘leaves’ not ‘take aways.’
​
My yard may look unkempt, but I don’t care. I’m doing it for all of us, and that includes wildlife. Let’s stop trying to tame the wild. Let’s change our habits so we can learn to live with nature, not against it.

No balloons at a birthday party? Surely you have to have balloons! It’s not a party without balloons! But…well…umm…what about the sea turtles, birds, and other wildlife that could choke on it? Who cares! Buy the balloons!

And just look at all of the excess waste: disposal plates, napkins, cups, and party bags filled with plastic crap that some young child was probably exploited to make. It makes me want to cry. Most likely it will all just end up in the landfill anyway. I feel the same about the mountains of presents that always accompanies the party. I feel that it is one of the first introductions in life that teaches our children that in our society, we need to consume in order to feel loved, special, and valued.

Our family cares about the well-being of animals and therefore we are vegan. Will people make comments if I serve only vegan food? Will they be disappointed if they don’t get their slice of extra-cheese pizza and piece of buttercream cake? Not to mention, all zoo and aquarium parities are out of the question.

I’ve tried to dodge the party topic every year. During the previous five years, we have held only one larger party where we invited neighbors and friends. Since then, we’ve opted for experiences and take James places as his birthday treat instead of spending money on a big party.

But this year is a little different. All his friends from kindergarten are having parties and he’s more adamant about wanting one. We are just about four weeks away from his birthday and I am still paralyzed about what to do.
Is a family party good enough when it’s just the three of us? It sounds like a simple solution but with no extended family around and James being an only child, mom guilt kicks in extra hard.

I already have the extra guilt of “only” having one child (that’s a story for another day), but not being brave enough to plan a birthday party for him surely should land me in mom jail.  

I can’t do it, but do I have to do it for my son? Will I permanently scar him for not being able to have a party at the fancy trampoline park down the street?   
What does it even mean to celebrate? Why do we even have birthday parties and when did they become such extravagant affairs? What are they really teaching our children?
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I admit that I don’t know what I’m going to do. Does anyone have any advice? Maybe I just need to talk to him and explain that there are many ways to celebrate special occasions and when he’s older he’ll understand and appreciate what I was trying to do…or maybe I’ll just start a savings account now with money for the therapy he will need because I didn’t allow him to have the big birthday party he always wanted. C'est la vie. 

Abby 

It was a cold February evening and I was sitting at my desk preparing for an assignment for my Culture & Change class. We had just read the book, Creating a World That Works For All by Sharif Abdullah and I felt like I could fly. Yes, I wanted to create a world that worked for all! 

If you know me at all you know that I have about a million ideas a minute of how to change the world. Most people just roll their eyes or say, "That's just Abby," when I go on about my next big idea. I get it, I can seem a bit pie in the sky sometimes. 

It wasn't until I started my Master's program in Humane Education that I felt confident enough to try some of my ideas. The program has taught me so much about the world, about animals, and about people; that I want to share it with as many people as possible. I even try and include my son with what I'm learning. It's a great way to spend time together but also a wonderful opportunity to teach him how to lead a more compassionate life. I do this by showing and modeling as opposed to telling and instructing. 

James has helped me collect donations for refugee's for the Boston Center for Refugee Health & Human Rights and even attended the "Big E" to witness how we use animals for entertainment.

Including James in this part of my life has been wonderful. It's also allowed me to become a Solutionary Parent. Solutionary parenting is parenting in a way that invites our children to be part of the solution. It is about helping them cultivate a love for our environment, the animals, and other people; so that they can be the next generation of changemakers that will design a world that works for all. 

When I look at James I see so much of myself in him. He has a passion for life and incredible inner strength. So when James came to me that February evening and said that he wanted to do something to change the world, without any hesitation I said, "let's do it!"

My goal as a parent is to support his natural love and curiosity for life. I believe this can be the catalyst for social change. This will not just help form him into being a kind and compassionate child, but also what can help make him into a great citizen of the world. 

I told James to sketch out some ideas and think about what his/our goal(s) were. He wanted to protect the world and the animals and the people in it so I said, why don't we be,"The Earth Protectors!" ​And that's just what we became. 

If you or your child has an idea of how to change the world, please don't just let it pass you by. Take the first step and see where it takes you. It may be the best journey that you ever go on. 

​Remember the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? It’s a favorite in our house. It tells the story of a mouse and the domino effect of what happens after he eats a cookie. Here’s a little excerpt:
 
"If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk.
When you give him the milk, he'll probably ask you for a straw.
When he's finished, he'll ask you for a napkin.
Then he'll want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn't have a milk mustache.
When he looks in the mirror, he might notice his hair needs a trim.
So he'll probably ask for a pair of nail scissors…”

You get the picture. It ends up being quite an exhausting day for the little boy who was looking after the mouse.

It made me think of our world and how one simple action can have a rippling effect. Believe it or not, we are much more interconnected than you may think.
​
 So without further ado, here’s my revised version of, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It’s called, If You Give a Landfill a Tomato. 

We walk over to our kitchen counter and here we find a lonely and sad, shriveled tomato. You had the best intentions but sadly, it never got used. (I guess it’s not surprising as 46% of fresh food purchased in the United States is wasted every year.)  
 
So what happens next to our little tomato? For those tomatoes that aren’t composted, they are put into the trash, a garbage truck picks it up, and it’s sent to the landfill. The End.
 
Not so fast. This is where it gets tricky. You have to remember that a landfill does not contain any oxygen, it’s considered anaerobic. Everything is tightly compacted and hot. So when the tomato decomposes inside of the landfill, it produces methane and methane is 25 times more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. This contributes to climate change.
 
But it doesn’t end there. The impact of food waste is far greater. It also impacts other people, nonhuman animals and in turn, it impacts ourselves.
 
People who need food are not getting it and the food that is not getting consumed is heating up the planet; so by reducing food waste, a massive impact can be made for our planet. Imagine the deforestation of trees that could be avoided if we reduced our food waste. (Less trees being destroyed for food production.)   
 
We have to keep in mind that up to 137 plant, animal and insect species are lost every day because of the destruction of these biodiverse regions of our planet, specifically within the Amazon rainforest— the home for at least 10 percent of the world’s known biodiversity.
 
The Amazon rainforest plays a key role in absorbing carbon and moderating climate. Trees not only store carbon but they are the cornerstone of the climate balance in which we depend. Without trees and vegetation, erosion occurs, which leads to the disruption of our soil and the ability for life to grow.
 
Not only is this a huge environmental concern, but it’s also a concern for the Indigenous people that live off this land. They are constantly threatened by ranchers and loggers ready to take over, further depleting their resources and home.
 
Climate change is especially damaging to impoverished communities. In places like Bangladesh, Haiti, Puerto Rico, India and Nepal, the effects of flooding, droughts and climate events have been devastating. As Muhammad Yunus explains in, Creating a World Without Poverty, climate change exposes those that live in poverty to life-threatening dangers. Natural disasters affect these areas the most because they don’t have the money to build the infrastructure that will keep them safe.
 
Another offshoot of how climate change affects the most vulnerable, is that when resources are impacted and dwindle, it promotes local competition for land and water which subsequently fuels social tensions, population displacement, and even violent conflict, as we have seen with Boko Haram around Lake Chad in northern Africa.
 
As you can see, the effects of climate change are far reaching. Those living in the Boston area know about the discussions that have taken place due to the rising sea levels. As Greenland’s ice sheet is melting, sea levels are threatening cities. 70% of populations live on coastal plains and 11 of the 15 biggest cities stand on a coast line, just like us on the East Coast. As seas rise, there is a possibility for salt to evade the water table; depriving inhabitants of drinking water. Water shortages could affect more than 2 billion people before 2025.
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Could we too be climate refugees?
 
So the next time you find yourself at the store, think about that lonely tomato and how being mindful with our purchases can make a world of difference. Maybe instead of buying two tomatoes, you buy one, or instead of buying five, you buy four. You may find that you don’t need so many tomatoes after all.
 
Every moment is an opportunity to make a different choice. Let’s move from an “ego-system” to an “ecosystem” and ask ourselves, how can we create a world that works for all? 

Super Bowl Sunday. For over 100 million people, it's a day filled with food, football and watching those highly anticipated commercials (Otterson & Otterson, 2018). 

For a cool $5.25 million, you too could have a 30-second slot on CBS to hock your product (Bruton, 2019). With that amount of money, I can only imagine the meetings that take place to ensure their company gets the greatest bang for their buck. 

But what happens when companies change their strategy? More and more people are becoming aware of the hold advertisements have on us. We can see through their manipulation, so much so, that it's causing advertisers to come up with a new game plan. And that new game plan is to show that they are socially conscious. 
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So what do people need right now? Hope, acceptance and goodness. And this is exactly how companies are changing their message. 

​Here are a couple of examples: 

When a company is socially aware and wants to help save the world, doesn't it make you want to go out and save the world with them? And because you believe in their message, you're going to want to buy their product. A truck load of wood from 84 Lumber? Yes, please! Just drop it right over there next to the boxes of Always pads, please. Yay me for being a conscious consumer! 

But is there any danger in this? It seems harmless, right? Well, we have to remember that under capitalism, the system is set up to reward profit. This makes it vital that we all do our due diligence to research the companies we support. Are they really aligning their actions with their message? 

We have to ask the following questions:
How does this product or service impact the environment?
How does this product or service impact people? 
Does this product or service help or hurt animal protection efforts? 

Let's take a look at this "feel good" commercial and see what we can uncover. 

(Jones, "Toll House | Bake the World a Better Place", 2017)

This Nestlé Toll House commercial wants to "Bake the World a Better Place." Yes! We can all do that! Get me to the store so I can pick up a pack of the pre-cut Nestlé Toll House cookie dough packs and we'll be well on our way to save the leopards. 

Before we hope in the car, let's stop and think about those three questions that I just mentioned:

How does this product or service impact the environment?
How does this product or service impact people? 
Does this product or service help or hurt animal protection efforts? 

When doing more research into Nestlé here is what I found: 

Well, their website sure makes it look like they are an Eco-minded, sustainable, people-centered company. Great! Get my car keys! 

​Not so fast. Our research shouldn't stop there. We should never take the company's word for it. And you'll see why. 

Out of the world's entire water supply only 3% of Earth's water is fresh water. 97% of the water on this planet is undrinkable. However, out of the 3% we can drink, much of it is polluted and beyond human use (Bozzo, 2013). So what is the connection with Nestlé (Nestlé Toll House's parent)?  
​
We all know what is STILL happening in Flint, Michigan with the water crisis.  But did you know that a Nestlé has a bottling facility located just 2 hours a way? 

According to an article by The Guardian, 

"Despite having endured lead-laden tap water for years, Flint pays some of the highest water rates in the US. Several residents cited bills upwards of $200 per month for tap water they refuse to touch.

But just two hours away, in the tiny town of Evart, creeks lined by wildflowers run with clear water. The town is so small, the fairground, McDonald’s, high school and church are all within a block. But in a town of only 1,503 people, there are a dozen wells pumping water from the underground aquifer. This is where the beverage giant Nestlé pumps almost 100,000 times what an average Michigan resident uses into plastic bottles that are sold all over the midwest for around $1.

To use this natural resource, Nestlé pays $200 per year.

Now, Nestlé wants more Michigan water. In a recent permit application, the company asked to pump 210m gallons per year from Evart, a 60% increase, and for no more than it pays today...the company pays nothing for the 150 gallons per minute it already pumps from the ground in central Michigan. The $200 per year is just an administration fee."

To sum it up, Nestlé is paying virtually nothing for the water that they take from Michigan, selling it back to the community for over $1 a bottle while the residents in some areas (especially Flint) have some of the highest water bills. Roughly half of all residents in Flint are in poverty, the highest poverty rate in the United States (Adams, 2017). This is a human rights AND environmental issue, people! 

I won't even go into the waste and pollution that is caused by the plastic bottled beverages that is produced by Nestlé. 

​Moving on and back to buying cookies to save the leopards. There are many issues with this one but I'll touch on just two. 

Those chocolate chips in your cookie, may not be as wholesome as you think they are. Ghana and the Ivory Coast in West Africa provide 60% of the world’s cocoa. Several thousands of young children, some reported as young as 5 years old, go missing every year where they are forced to work on cocoa plantations. They are given machetes to harvest the cocoa pods and carry large sacks on their backs all day long. Children sustain many injuries and are often beaten if they are not able to keep up. They live in horrific spaces and do not have access to adequate meals (BBC One, 2011). Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestlé are just a sample of companies that source their cocoa from this part of Africa (Food Empowerment Project, "Child Labor and Slavery in the Chocolate Industry").

While Nestlé is working towards their own Cocoa Plan to combat child labor and trafficking, we can applaud their efforts but we must keep scrutinizing them to ensure that they keep up their end of the bargain.  

Tip: If you are at the store and thinking about what chocolate to buy, please consider purchasing Certified Fair Trade chocolate. 

Here is a great website that lists what chocolates you should be looking for:
http://www.foodispower.org/chocolate-list/

Lastly, one of the major reasons that the leopards and so many other animals are becoming endangered is due to deforestation. What is causing deforestation? Animal agriculture and also the sourcing of palm fruit for the production of palm oil. 

Animal agriculture uses 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface. It is the largest driver of deforestation in every Amazon country, accounting for 80 percent of current deforestation rates. An acre or more of rainforest is destroyed every second largely due to clearing the land to graze animals and grow their feed (Matthews, 2006). 

P.S If everyone went plant-based, global land use for farming would drop 75 percent (Poore & Nemecek, 2018). 

Let's look at the ingredients in Nestlé Toll House Cookie Dough to see what's inside.  Highlighted are the animal and palm products (not including the potential animal products in the "natural flavoring":  

ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID) , SUGAR, NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® SEMI -SWEET CHOCOLATE MORSELS (SUGAR, CHOCOLATE, MILKFAT, COCOA BUTTER, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL FLAVORS), SHORTENING (PALM OIL, HIGH OLEIC CANOLA OIL, BETA CAROTENE [COLOR] ) , WATER, 2% OR LESS OF EGGS, MOLASSES, SALT, BAKING SODA (CONTAINS SOY LECITHIN) , NATURAL FLAVOR, VANILLA EXTRACT. 
​(Nestlé, "NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Refrigerated Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar Dough")

So there we have it. That package of Nestlé Toll House Cookies is not going to save the leopards and may actually harm them instead.  (And I doubt that any of the profits will go towards their conservation). 

​Are we prepared for these emotionally engaging commercials that are ready to pull at our heart strings making us think that if only we buy their product, we too can be changemakers? These companies just got savvy and they may have a lot of power behind them...but what we have are the facts. Let's use them like armor to fend off misinformation! 

We all have blind spots when it comes to advertising…
What are yours? What are mine?

Sincerely, 
Abby 

This presentation was created for my environmental ethics capstone project. It follows my journey of how our garden became certified as a national wildlife habitat and what the steps to get certified are.

A little bit about the video:
How can we rethink the idea of what our lawn should be? Instead of pouring harmful fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides onto our lawns just to cut them down, can we change the way we define what a beautiful lawn is?
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How can we all be "ecolutionary renegades" like Ron Finley encourages and take back our yards. Instead of having a monoculture of grass, let's fill it with productive garden beds, wildflowers and native plants that help sequester carbon emissions and help the environment. Let's create a natural habitat for the wildlife around us.
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I believe we can solve big problems with local solutions. All it takes is for each of us to take just one step. This is why I am starting the conversation and retelling the story of what beauty is in a garden.

Hope you enjoy! 
Abby

​I'm incredibly proud of this project I did for my environmental ethics class in order to raise awareness for our growing population and what the impact will be for the animals, earth and fellow humans.

Video can be found via YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-zdcWJGxAI&t=13s

Population
By Abby Power

Music by my husband, Gerald Power: Artificial Memory:  https://soundcloud.com/artificialmemory

Looking out my window and there’s people everywhere. 
I know you don’t wanna talk about it but who else is gonna care?

Our climates heating up and our wells are going dry.
Just how are we supposed to look into our children’s eyes?

Environmental degradation, conflict, wars.
I’m not sure you’re ready for that big storm?

How about the fish, do you care about them? 
They may be gone by twenty fifty taking with it coral gems.

What about the birds where will their home be? 
In treeless skies that no one will ever see?

A world in balance and a world at peace is exactly what this place needs. 
Not a population that goes at warp speed.

Can’t we stop this mindless consumption?
We don’t have infinite resources; so let’s stop making that assumption.

Look for the helpers as Mr. Rodger’s said
The answers right in front of you, just listen to good ole’ Fred.

We all need to learn about humane education. 
That thinks about the animals, the environment, our population.

Let’s teach our fellow neighbor about their choice in contraception. 
It’s their right, their body. There’s too much misconception.

Remember that less is more. Things won’t always make us happy. 
Take only what you need, just listen to Dear Abby.

Be a reflection to this earth. A mirage or an illusion. 
So when you leave this place you leave nothing but a revolution.

In less than forty years we may have no other choice but say goodbye. 
So let’s do all we can now and raise that battle cry.
​
Are you ready to join the fight? Who’s with me, what do you say?
Let’s take action and make strides, before we get to our species last day.