Climate Change and Personal Responsibility

...en so much positive change on this front, even just in the last few years. Urban homesteading, slow food, organics, bikes, car share, DIY, all of it — it’s blossoming. It’s very hopeful. I’m going to put the next part in italics because it’s so important: The pleasure and satisfaction that we all receive from living this way is the positive counterspell to the dark enchantment of consumer culture. When we live this way, we become positive examples...

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The Great Beekeeping Debate

...in from Disorder, monkeying with complex systems from a point of ignorance leads to horrible, unintended consequences. Take the issue of varroa mite treatments. Let’s say you test a miticide’s toxicity on bees. You expose the bees to the miticide. The mites die and the bees live. Success! But . . . the unforeseen. What if that treatment wreaks havoc on the microbiology of the hive? What about a chemical’s effect on the symbiotic relationships with...

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Saturday Tweets: Holiday Weekend Edition

...be born: https://t.co/UGG7C8WNWH — Root Simple (@rootsimple) May 21, 2015 Urban Farmers Say It's Time They Got Their Own Research Farms http://t.co/E9XucbOcfb — Root Simple (@rootsimple) May 21, 2015 Green Hot Sauce recipe: http://t.co/mD1xjPt4z9 — Root Simple (@rootsimple) May 22, 2015 Not a new video, but thoughtful and beautiful re: handcraft: A World Through the Hands http://t.co/992T4RhuWk via @beingtweets — Root Simple (@rootsimple) May...

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So Cal Alert: Polyphagus Shot Hole Borer

...two or three feet. That’s no quick sprinkle with a hose! Visit the Inland Urban Forest Council to download a PDF about how to properly water your trees. Also, we might suggest that this is a great time to install a laundry to landscape graywater system. Many thanks to our excellent arborist, Nick Araya of Tree Care LA, who came out yesterday to look at our drought-stressed avocado tree (no beetles yet, thankfully!) and gave me the 411 on the Poly...

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Saturday Tweets: Oatmeal, Bikes and a Pickle Maker

...5Xs7x — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 28, 2015 The Skip Garden a moveable urban veggie patch built with 90% reclaimed materials http://t.co/LnpEmIPMIB — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 1, 2015 ‘Sandorkraut: A Pickle Maker’ http://t.co/l04xhAZ3AF — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 30, 2015 Watch bicyclist lift and move car blocking bike path via @BoingBoing http://t.co/0ut26E2kui — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 28, 2015 On a ‘Tour De Tacos’ with L...

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