Gayle Giovanna
POINTS TOTAL
- 0 TODAY
- 0 THIS WEEK
- 900 TOTAL
participant impact
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UP TO1.0documentarywatched
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UP TO1,025minutesspent learning
Gayle's actions
Nourishing Food
Research the Benefits of Agricultural Biodiversity
I will spend 10 minutes each day researching how agricultural biodiversity positively impacts the food I eat.
Nourishing Food
Forest-Friendly Foods
I will spend 20 minutes learning about palm oil, coffee, cocoa, and other products known to contribute to deforestation, and replace or remove them.
Nourishing Food
Watch a Documentary about Food Sovereignty
I will watch 1 documentary(ies) about food sovereignty: the right of local peoples to control their own food systems including markets, ecological resources, food cultures and production methods.
Enacting Equity
Learn About Accessible & Equitable Voter Registration
I will spend 60 minutes learning about voter access and equity. And if applicable, I will register to vote, ask someone I trust to help me register, or help others register.
Enacting Equity
Research Indigenous & First Nations Communities
I will spend 60 learning about the past and present indigenous or first nation communities in my regions impacted by colonization, and what I can do to be supportive.
Enacting Equity
Learn About Trans, Femme, and Nonbinary Experiences
I will spend 15 minutes learning about the experiences of trans, femme, and/or nonbinary people.
Enacting Equity
Watch a Documentary about Racial Injustice
I will watch 2 documentaries about racism and racial injustice.
Regenerating Nature
Advocate for Forest Protection
I will contact 5 congress people or representatives to advocate for public policy that protects forests, improves their ability to sequester carbon, and supports biodiversity.
Regenerating Nature
Is Nature on the Ballot?
I will spend 10 minute(s) per day finding out what sustainability and nature-related legislation is on local and state ballots this year.
Regenerating Nature
Listen to a Nature Podcast
I will spend 20 minutes listening to a podcast about nature.
Participant Feed
Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.
To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?
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Gayle Giovanna 10/28/2022 8:47 AMI learned a great deal in doing this challenge. I enjoyed Jane Goodall's podcasts, and watching a film about indigenous food sovereignty; YouTube videos with Robin Wall Kimmerer, indigenous plant ecologist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass. I couldn't find much on nature on the ballot, but I did research individual candidate's positions on climate crisis and what to do about it, including talking with a candidate in person at some length. ( She said she was going to use one of my stories about carbon sequestration and retention in trees, in her campaign speeches!)
I joined the Environmental Voters Project, to encourage low- propensity voters to get out there and vote, especially important in this year's election. I didn't complete the challenge to contact five legislators about forestry issues, but I went to a meeting about the management plan for our local community forest, and asked them to not send 500 big open-grown pines to a biomass plant, which would send all the carbon directly into the atmosphere. They agreed to change that part of the plan. I went to a second meeting, at which I learned a great deal about sustainable forestry.
Finally, I very much enjoyed doing this. Thank you, Ecochallenge Staff! -
Gayle Giovanna 10/26/2022 8:28 PMI learned an enormous amount about a variety of subjects, and enjoyed this Ecochallenge -
REFLECTION QUESTIONNourishing Food Watch a Documentary about Food SovereigntyHow does food sovereignty address the complex transition from localized food systems to modern global food systems?
Gayle Giovanna 10/26/2022 1:07 AMWow! I watched a PBS documentary on Native American foodways in Northern Minnesota. It was powerful! Besides learning a great deal about the food history of the Red Lake Tribe, including the connection between government commodity food supplies and rampant diabetes and heart disease, I learned about the taking back of traditional foodways. Great wisdom! -
REFLECTION QUESTIONEnacting Equity Research Indigenous & First Nations CommunitiesIndigenous speaker and activist Winona LaDuke says that, “most indigenous ceremonies, if you look to their essence, are about the restoration of balance — they are a reaffirmation of our relationship to creation. That is our intent: to restore, and then to retain balance and honor our part in creation.” Why is balance important to sustainability? If you identify with or are a member of an indigenous community, how does your community practice sustainability?
Gayle Giovanna 10/25/2022 1:08 AMIndigenous wisdom balances the rigorous scientific approach. Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a book of indigenous plant wisdom, is also a plant ecologist and botanist, trained in Western scientific traditions. She represents to me the balance of nature and science: how to live in this world utilizing the best of both worlds. -
REFLECTION QUESTIONEnacting Equity Learn About Trans, Femme, and Nonbinary ExperiencesHow is equality for trans, femme, and nonbinary people important to a just and sustainable society?
Gayle Giovanna 10/17/2022 7:20 PMEveryone should get to be comfortable with their own identity, and not have an identity imposed upon them by society. That would seem to be the basis of a just and equitable society. -
REFLECTION QUESTIONRegenerating Nature Is Nature on the Ballot?What ballot measure are you interested in following through this election cycle and why?
Gayle Giovanna 10/17/2022 7:09 PMThere isn't anything on the ballot to do with the natural world or the climate crisis for the upcoming voting day here in Vermont, unless you count a constitutional amendment on a woman's right to bodily integrity and abortion, as a natural phenomenon. I suppose in a way it is indirectly related to the climate emergency: If women are compelled to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, that would increase the human population, which would increase demand on resources, which would add to the carbon loading in the atmosphere.
So even though there is nothing on the ballot that directly relates to climate crisis or the natural world, I will vote for the candidates that I think will to their best to advance bills protecting the natural world and ameliorating the climate crisis in the next legislative session. -
Gayle Giovanna 10/17/2022 6:49 PMI watched several YouTube videos on foraging diverse food plants. Wild plants generally are more nutrient dense than their grocery-store counterparts. Stinging nettle, for example, has huge amounts of nutrients, much more than cultivated spinach. And wild parsnips-- called poison parsnips around here, because the second-year plants cause dermatitis--- are abundant along roadsides here, to the point that they are considered invasive weeds. As with any foraged food, you have to know when and how to harvest them safely, what parts to use and whether and how to cook them. Sam Thayer's three books on foraging are the best source for foraging techniques. (I think his website is Forager's Harvest). -
Gayle Giovanna 10/16/2022 7:59 PMI listened to the Bioneers podcast on the Green New Deal, with Tom Hayden and Demons Drummer. Fascinating! It compares the Green New Deal to the New Deal of the 1930's. -
Gayle Giovanna 10/15/2022 2:17 AMI have not been able to find much on the state ballot about sustainability or nature. I have tried various resources, including talking in person to the Democratic candidate for state representative. Vermont did pass a major climate bill last session, but there seems to be nothing new on that front. -
REFLECTION QUESTIONNourishing Food Research the Benefits of Agricultural BiodiversityWhat are the benefits of agricultural biodiversity and how do you see this connecting to overall biodiversity?
Gayle Giovanna 10/13/2022 9:24 PMAgricultural biodiversity is a fascinating subject. Apples are a prime example: There are hundreds of varieties, all of which are different from one another. In our orchard, we have an early Macintosh that ripens in late July, and is sweet and yummy. Then there are Empires and Delicious and Paula Reds that are tart and not fully ripe until after the first frost, generally in October. Then we have to race the bears and the wild turkeys and the deer, who love the apples and are trying to fatten up for the winter, to harvest them for ourselves.
In the tropics, multistrata agroforestry makes a lot of sense. Shade-grown coffee, for example, uses less fertilizer, less toxic chemicals, and is more friendly to birdlife. Sun-grown coffee, on the other hand, is generally grown as a monoculture, which is like an ecological desert to wildlife, and requires many more chemicals to survive.