Freelance Writer · Soprano · Actor
Freelance Writer · Soprano · Actor
by Connie Shakalis | Special to the H-T
A book by three Bloomington authors and an illustrator could inspire arguments between children and adults about thermometer settings and what goes into the compost pile.
“Hands On! How Generation Z Will Take Us to a Cooler Planet Beginning at Home” seeks to inspire Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, to step in and cool down our roasting Earth. Young people, armed with energy and information, can effect change, author Norm Crampton believes, and the book provides plenty of ideas.
It also provides intriguing experiments designed by Indiana University climate scientist Ben B. Brabson.
“Experiments let you see that the information is real,” Brabson said in a phone interview. “The book is an informal way to learn about science. Young people will start traditions.”
Brabson stressed the importance of “"showing your friends what you are doing.” Children can be outstanding problem solvers, and I kept thinking of that 10-year-old boy I read about decades ago who, unlike the adults at the scene, figured out how to get the semitrailer unstuck from the overpass: partially deflate the tires.
Crampton, along with his colleagues, authors Brabson and Jane St. John and illustrator Joe Lee, are hopeful about what youth can and do accomplish. Children have a vested interest and will inherit the Earth we leave.
The authors note that humans love buying things: paper towels, teabags, SUVs, houses, magazines, washing machines. Our belongings cost us money, space, insurance premiums, maintenance and worry.
I think, also, of buying our house in Bloomington seven years ago and the honesty of our broker. When my eyes glistened with house lust and I wanted the big one on the west side, he reminded me that I would have to “heat it, cool it, insure it — and (gasp) clean it.” We took the small eastside house.
Now, COVID-19 might be helping us pare down, “Hands On!” authors say.
“The challenge for everyone who wants to respond to global warming is simple: Use less… stuff,” Crampton said.
“But that’s hard for Americans because we have so much stuff, and we’re proud that we have so much stuff — we’ve been called ‘a nation of consumers.’ Can we live happily with less stuff? Oddly, the pandemic seems to show that maybe we can.”
Reading “Hands On!” was like being preached to while in the choir, as I have been rescuing paper towels (and aluminum foil) for decades. But the authors shocked me when they said paper towels come not from recycled paper but from pulp mashed right out of virgin wood. A more Earth-saving alternative, they say, is to keep a bucket of cotton and wool rags under the sink and wash them in the washing machine. Use paper towels only for the truly repulsive cleanups. Keep two clean fabric towels within easy reach, one for hands the other for drying clean dishes.
Another surprise for me was the safety of bicycling. According to the authors, the consulting firm Exponent states there are only 0.26 bicycle deaths per million hours, compared with 0.47 for passenger cars. Also, apparently the cost of operating a passenger car had climbed to 60.8 cents per mile in 2018.
“You can save up to 20% of your fuel by paying attention to acceleration,” Brabson said.
Who, do the authors say, are some of the best people to consult about waste? Housekeeping and maintenance workers, who actually see what gets discarded daily.
The authors present the disappointment of recycling: It’s very costly, the remind us. Separating, hauling, disposing all take fuel. Their report on food waste also jolted me. They claim that is alone is one of the biggest factors in climate change. Not only does dumped food need to be transported to the landfill, it sends out copious amounts of methane gas as it decomposes.
Some of the book’s suggestions may be on hold now due to COVID-19, such as opting for public transportation and washing clothes in cold water.
“(We have) lots to learn about how COVID-19 works,” Brabson said. “We used to think that only the big droplets mattered. Now we know that longer suspended vapor is important. This argues against long exposure to enclosed spaces without a mask — a real one that removes the small particles, (such as the) N-95 (mask). So airplanes, buses, trains go with high-quality masks.”
Some of the books’s material I had heard before, such as counterclockwise ceiling fan rotation during summer and the waste associated with eating mead. But the authors present their information in a way that doesn’t sermonize or rant.
Read any newspaper opinion page, and you’ll get plenty of complaints. These authors, however, don’t just complain: they offer doable — and often fun-filled — solutions. One is to eat more bananas: The authors found that growing and transporting these fruits produces minimal quantities of Earth-warming gasses.
Crampton was the founding director of the Indiana Institute on Recycling and has written books on waste. St. John has served as a consultant to the city of Bloomington and designed and ran one of the first municipal programs for curbside collection of recyclables in the Midwest. Brabson is emeritus professor of physics and climate sciences at IU and is regarded as an expert on global warming science. Lee is a former professional circus clown, a cartoonist and a writer.
Before the pandemic the authors had planned to sell “Hands On!” in bookstores, with teachers giving copies to students to keep as a guide for their own families. School budgets, however, have become constricted, so the authors have decided to absorb the cost of providing limited copies to Bloomington area principals and teachers.
“Science teachers at Jackson Creek and Tri-North are invited to sue the book in class and send it home with the kids,” Crampton said in an email. “We’re providing copies free. If you want to see the whole book, let me know and I’ll send the file or a paperback — or both. If yo want to use the book as supplementary material, as a community service we’ll give you classroom quantities of the paperback at no cost.”
Those interested can contact Crampton at lyndntn@yahoo.com.
Originally published in The Herald-Times | Attractions section | Sunday, September 20, 2020