DK GreenRoots

As a part of the 350.org International Day of Climate Action, folks in Ann Arbor, Michigan, gathered to figure out what we could do to reduce our own carbon footprints. You can read more about it here and see some great pictures and information below the fold.

It was somewhat nasty today, weather wise, in Ann Arbor (no surprise for late October around here). A good sized group of folks gathered indoors at a local high school to learn various skills that our culture has somewhat lost (hence the name "re-skilling").

This included building a greenhouse:

Learning about bee-keeping:

Learning about alternative fermentation methods used in Indian cooking (I can't wait to make Dosas):

Spinning yarn:

And even how to raise chickens and milk goats:

There was of course the nod to the number of the day:

I'm guessing that this was different than most of the climate action day events. Less of a dramatic gathering and more of a teaching event, but no less important in my mind. The new, lower-energy lifestyle that will be necessary to get us to 350ppm CO2 is going to require us to do more for ourselves than we do today.

This effort was aligned with the Transition Towns movement that started a few years ago to address the oncoming challenges of climate change, peak oil and economic instability.

If you live in Southeast Michigan, I invite you to check out Transition Ann Arbor. I'd love to actually meet a few of the good folks who read DK Greenroots regularly.