Residents of New York, Philadelphia, and neighboring areas can turn on their taps without worrying about the flammability of their water for at least a little while longer. The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) made anti-fracking supporters happy this week when they announced the cancellation of a crucial Monday vote to approve fracking in Trenton, N.J. 

Thanks to the move, the drinking water of 15.6 million people in the Delaware River Basin has been temporarily spared from the potential damage caused by hydraulic fracturing.

On the fracktivist website Save the Delaware River, Gasland director Josh Fox wrote, “They cancel the meeting if they no longer have three out of five commissioners voting in favor of fracking. Which is exactly what they have done. They don’t cancel meetings often, let alone votes.”

Appeals to Vice President Joe Biden and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, and 69,800 public comments to the DRBC opposing fracking may all have contributed to the meeting’s cancellation.

“This is not a complete victory by any means,” Fox wrote. “We still do not know when the DRBC will reschedule their meeting. Could be 10 days, could be a month, could be a year.”

The previously scheduled rally in Trenton on Monday, Nov. 21 (and peaceful action trainings planned for Sunday, Nov. 20) are set to take place as planned. 

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters linked climate and the environment to their movement this past Sunday, Oct. 30. 

OWS’s environmental working group put the Climate Justice Day event together in five days, hosting workshops at New York City’s Zuccotti Park on topics such as fracking and sustainable economics. 

Throughout the day, speakers drew connections between the economy and the environment. “Every bank which you are down here protesting finances extreme energy — fracking, tar sands development, mountaintop removal, deep water drilling,” said Gasland documentary director Josh Fox after a “mic check” to the crowd.

He encouraged listeners to join the protest against fracking in the Delaware River basin planned for Nov. 21 in Trenton, N.J., to protect New York City’s drinking supply. “Right now,” he said, “50 percent of New York State, including the New York City watershed, the aquifers and the aqueducts that bring the water to the city are in jeopardy of this massive natural gas drilling campaign.”

You can see Fox’s speech to the crowd here:

An animated Joshua Kahn Russell spoke about the plan to encircle the White House on Sunday, Nov. 6 to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Here’s Russell’s speech at OWS:

Also urging the OWS crowd to join the Keystone protest was incarcerated climate activist Tim DeChristopher, who sent OWS a letter from jail, which was read by Russell and Ashley Anderson from Peaceful Uprising. “The message should be clear,” DeChristopher wrote. “We’re not giving up on our future even if it’s difficult. And we need a president with similar courage.”

You can read the entire letter here, or watch the reading at OWS: 

Protesting is serious business, but it’s fun too.Photo: Jennifer Prediger

McKibben spoke to Grist on the last day of protests, which he described as “chaotic and beautiful.” Said McKibben, “This is the biggest civil disobedience action of any kind this century in this country.”

Watch the video here:

So what’s phase two? According to McKibben, “We’re still planning something big for Oct. 7 or 8 — Oct. 7 is the date of the last State Department hearing in Washington, D.C. — but first we need to go back into our communities to keep building this movement.”

To learn more about the ongoing and upcoming Tar Sands Action, go to tarsandsactions.org.

Got a dial-up connection? Hate watching ruggedly handsome Sundance-darlings-cum-Earth-advocates? No matter. Here are four disturbing reasons why you should fight the tar sands:

1. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline runs from Alberta, Canada to Texas.TransCanada’s 1,700-mile-long Keystone XL pipeline will stretch across the continent, from Alberta to Texas and into the Gulf of Mexico. If approved, it will be among the largest industrial projects in the world.
2. You know it’s bad when it makes conventional oil look good: The process to make liquid fuel from the tar sands generates two to four times the amount of greenhouse gases per barrel as conventional oil, earning the tar sands the nickname “carbon bomb.”
3. Extracting crude bitumen (the semisolid fossil fuel found in tar sands) pollutes the air and water of nearby boreal forests and wetlands that serve as natural carbon sinks. These same forests and wetlands also serve as breeding grounds and habitat for 30 percent of North America’s land birds (about 215 species) and are home to fragile populations of wolverines, caribou, lynx, and grizzly bears.
4. As Ruffalo notes, “This pipeline will travel over some of the richest farmland and most beautiful, pristine wilderness on the continent — and spills are inevitable.” Tar-sands oil gets pumped under high pressure, and high concentrations of chloride salts, sulfur, abrasive minerals, and acids act as corrosives.

President Obama will decide as soon as September on whether to OK the Keystone XL pipeline, so fast action is critical. Tim DeChristopher’s Peaceful Uprising will coordinate sustained protests and camping in front of the White House from Aug. 20-Sep. 3. Over 2,000 people have committed to participating in nonviolent, civil disobedience during these two weeks. Bill McKibben, James Hansen, Danny Glover, and many others are expected to attend to put “our values into action.”

“The action could turn out to be the largest ongoing collective civil disobedience in the history of our movement,” says Flora Bernard, co-director of Peaceful Uprising.

In case you could only make it to Salt Lake City in spirit on the day of Tim DeChristopher’s sentencing last week, the mini-doc below gives an up-close view of what went down on the streets outside the courthouse. Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) makes an appearance to strum and sing along in protest, and footage captures peaceful supporters being hauled away in handcuffs (many of them while still singing). Watch and be inspired: What action can you take against climate injustice?

Money can’t make you happy, they say. Maybe a new kind of economy can?

The film makes a connection between the economic crisis, the environment, and a “crisis of the human spirit” — the reality that even as our material wealth has increased, we have not gotten happier. According to a study cited by author and 350.org activist (and Grist Board member) Bill McKibben, people in the United States have actually become less happy since the 1950s.

Economics of Happiness makes a well-reasoned case that the “consumer culture” we’re living in has broken down community and our connection to nature. The film also takes a look at the negative impacts of corporate globalization, arguing that the process focuses on profits rather than people.

Ladakh, a region in northern India known as “Little Tibet,” serves as a case study in the ways globalization and industrialization are damaging cultures, livelihoods, and human connections. Once a place with zero unemployment, ample leisure time, natural resources, and a sense of general well-being, Ladakh has changed. The introduction of Western culture and values has created a sense of relative impoverishment. The introduction of subsidized food, fuel, and roads have all undermined the local economy. 

So what’s the solution? The filmmakers, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Steven Gorelick, and John Page, focus on systemic economic transformation. They show examples of initiatives around the globe where people are “rebuilding more democratic, human scale, ecological and local economies — the foundation of an ‘economics of happiness’.”

Interviews with Bill McKibben, Vandana Shiva, Juliet Schor, and Samdhong Rinpoche — the prime minister of Tibet’s government in exile — make for a thought-provoking re-contextualization of globalization and the potential that lies in supporting local local banking, food production, and commerce.

It’s a comfort to watch a film that presents the sentiment that a future with less oil is preferable to a future with lots of oil.

Find where the film is screening near you or host a screening.

Check out the trailer here:

Last week, cinephiles and filmmakers gathered in the small, snow-covered town of Park City, Utah, for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Many of the films at the festival were inspirational to those of us interested in creating a “world that makes sense.” Some dealt with themes of sustainability, some were made sustainably, some were simply hopeful. So pop yourself some organic popcorn and stay on the lookout at a theater, television, or video-on-demand screen near you for some of the festival’s most sense-making entries.Robert Redford, a storyteller’s storyteller who supports sustainability.Photo: Sundance

Two especially intriguing films to keep an eye out for this coming year are The Last Mountain and Connected.

The Last Mountain, directed by Bill Haney, shines a light on the dark side of our use of coal in the U.S. The film begins with the scary statistic that half of all the electricity used in the U.S. comes from burning coal, which is also the number one source of greenhouse gases globally. It then takes us to Appalachia, where 30 percent of U.S. coal is extracted through mountaintop removal.

This practice has a huge impact on the lives and health of local residents, and the film digs deep into the struggles of the people of the Coal River Valley in West Virginia. Coal-related health issues for the local people include leaking toxic sludge ponds and copious amounts of silt in the air. On one single block in the area, six people were diagnosed with brain tumors.

The story has its villains — mainly Massey Energy, which controls all of the mining in Coal River Valley. The movie’s heroes are the former coal miners, their families, and the protestors engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience. This movie is informative and inspirational in the get-off-your-ass department. With luck, it will get as much attention as last year’s Gasland, the film that exposed the dangers of hydraulic fracking for natural gas. Definitely add The Last Mountain to the top of your movie-watching queue.

Pioneering naturalist John Muir wrote, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” Muir’s musings kick off the wonderful film Connected: An Autobiography of Love, Death and Technology. Tiffany Shlain, the film’s director, is an interdependence-loving, brain-curious culture influencer (she’s founder of the Webby Awards). In a film that mixes wildly creative animation with found and archival footage, she unpacks the interrelatedness of honeybees, history, and technology — and explores the possibility of a potential shift from a left-brain to a right-brain culture. She also delves into the riches of human connection. For instance, did you know every time you make a contact with another person, even in a text message or tweet, your brain releases oxytocin, also known as “the love hormone”? The film illuminates the necessity of our interdependence and our ability to use technology to share ideas and make connections for a better world.

Connected is also Tiffany Shlain’s ode to her late father, Dr. Leonard Shlain, author of many thought-provoking works, including “The Alphabet vs. the Goddess.” His ability to find links between disparate disciplines made him one of the most exciting thinkers of our time. You can see some of his lectures here.

Other Sustainable, Sense-Making Films from Sundance 2011

The Off Hours, a well-received independent film directed by Seattleite Megan Griffiths and starring the lovely Amy Seimetz, is the first film to receive a Sustainable Style Foundation stamp of approval for its on-set efforts to buy local, use secondhand materials, recycle, compost, shoot digitally, and have the cast using reusable materials for eating and drinking.

Miranda July’s new film The Future was difficult to get into and much talked about. It tells the story of a couple who learn that their lives are going to change dramatically in the near future because of an ill cat they adopt. The pair quit their jobs and unplug from the internet. One goes on to “knock on doors for a tree-planting environmental group” and the other faces suburban meaninglessness.

The Woods, directed by Matthew Lessner, satirizes the globally connected younger generation by following a group of idealists who have gone into the woods to start anew. In this would-be utopia, flat-screen televisions are attached to trees and washing machines stand amid the underbrush. The film’s description notes, “In a world where new technologies merely distract us from reality, the greatest revolution can only begin by leaving everything behind.” Check out some of the absurdist humor on the teaser here.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is Morgan Spurlock’s documentary skewering product placement, which was actually funded by — you guessed it — product placement.
 
I didn’t get a chance to see If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Front Liberation, but from what I heard, it’s a nuanced, well-told story told about fighting for your beliefs and your country.

Life in a Day premiered on YouTube as a part of Sundance. It’s a short film compiling user-generated footage from people around the world to tell the story of one day of life on Earth. Check here for upcoming screenings.

Lord Byron, directed by Zack Godshall, is about a man trying to decide between women and monasticism. It’s a wonderfully alive, character-rich ode to living in the moment.

Hot Coffee by Susan Saladoff is an exposé of the ways big corporations have distorted our sense of civil justice and are impacting tort reform. This film is sure to inspire in the get-off-your-ass department.

Sing Your Song is a documentary about the life of singer/songwriter/activist Harry Belafonte which should light a fire under you. The film traces the history of activism in the Civil Rights movement up to the present, where Belafonte asks, “What do we do now?”

We’ve all heard of road rage. But what happens when car tires get tired of being kicked?

Thanks to the horror/action/comedy/drama Rubber, about a tire with an axle to grind, we now have one idea — they get psychokinetic powers and start killing birds and people.

Watch the trailer here:

To keep your tires from going off the deep end, make sure to rotate them and keep them properly inflated. For instructions, watch Ask Umbra’s video “Inflation: The Good Kind for Tires“.

To everything turnip, turnip, turnip…Photo: J. Prediger

Fall produce is a whole new concept for me thanks to Community Supported Agriculture. For the past 24 weeks, freshly grown vegetables travel from Long Island to Brooklyn to be picked up, cooked and eaten by me and other city folk. I’m taking note of the experience here in this Urbivore’s Dilemma column.

The past two weeks have seen an autumnal cornucopia of leeks, sweet potatoes, radish, broccoli, cauliflower, string beans, lettuce, butternut squash, turnips, dill, red mustards, and bai cai.

Fresh broccoli is a miracle. It’s tender and has an alive sort of sweetness. It’s a delicious thing that needs very little done to it. I sautéed it with sesame oil in a pan with tofu. Waiting on the tofu, I think the broccoli got overcooked.

The orange cauliflower has yet to be eaten. My typical cauliflower concoction is simple. I roast it with olive oil and garlic. It’s so good I never try any thing else. But might you expand my horizons with a different suggestion, readers? Another thing I’d love your thoughts on are sweet potatoes. I’m still gathering sweet potato recipes. I have about 15 of these roots waiting to be transformed into something splendid this Thanksgiving. What are you making with sweet potatoes for T-day?

Speaking of the letter ‘T’, the turnips from the CSA this week are stunning. Black, white, and curling, they’re reminiscent of a yin and yang symbol pulled up from the dirt.

Unfortunately, I have an aesthetic appreciation for them, but I don’t have an appetite for them. That’s right, I turn up my nose at turnips.

I’m not really sure I can put this into words, but I shall try. I have a strange reaction to the cooking of two specific foods. It’s something chemical, disturbing, and has happened as long as I can remember. When turnips are baked or ham is frying, it’s as if my nose were a television that suddenly went to the fuzzy black-and-white snow channel. The signals get jammed and an uncomfortable smell enters my nostrils.

So, actually, turnips turn up my nose rather than the other way around.

Readers, am I insane? Have you such a reaction to any foods out there?

Oh, how I wish I could give you my turnips.

As this worm turned, he left presents everywhere.Photo: Jennifer PredigerNow, I’d like to share something else unsavory. I know part of the beauty of eating local, seasonal food is that we’re much more in tune with the land. But this week I felt the land had gotten a bit too close to me.

Rather, a worm got too close to me. A big worm that had definitely been snacking on the bai cai (a.k.a. bok choy). I almost bok-choyed when I saw the size of the very alive worm, the impressive holes it had chewed and end product of that mastication.

I know, I should be stronger-stomached than this. But even if I do want to eat local and seasonal foods, one thing remains the same: pestilence is still pestilence. I threw the worm in the trash, my act of pesticide.

The vegetarian in me feels bad about that. But the produce vigilante is okay with it. My guilt is overcome by gratitude. I plan on giving thanks to the produce and all that I’ve learned by having it around this Thanksgiving.

Yes, the Urbivore will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the first time ever. (Why did I just hear Mister T’s voice so clearly saying in my head “I pity the fool”) So, uh, yes, there will be guests over for dinner. The sweet potatoes will surely be an important dish. (Come on, readers, I need your recipes!)

Next week’s CSA delivery, just in time for Thanksgiving, promises purple broccoli, winter radish, sweet potato, lettuce, acorn squash, and red pakchoy.

What are you getting in your CSA boxes this week, and how do you plan on using it for your T-day meal?

Thank you for sharing. Your ideas and expertise are vital to this Urbivore.

Some of my recent CSA bounty.Photos: Jennifer Prediger

It’s week 22 of Community Supported Agriculture living, which I’ve been chronicling in this Urbivore’s Dilemma column.

The past few weeks have been a blur. I keep thinking it’s still August, or ought to be. The whole fall thing really speeds things up. No more days where at least someone you know is out reading magazines on a beach. Everything is back in business and it’s getting colder, darker, and more serious. My brow has become furrowed.

All that to say, I’ve spent very little quality time with the fruits and vegetables from my CSA box of late except in their most simple form — i.e., raw. Here’s what’s been in the box: pears, apples, turnips, a small boatload of sweet potatoes, delicious mystery greens, so many string beans, tākēcài, leeks, lettuce, mustard greens, radicchio, eggplant, sweet pepper, winter squash, and cilantro.

Apples and mystery greensFood that’s good to eat with little preparation has been my new best friend. Mutsu and Honeycrisp apples are my jam. They’re delicious and plentiful, enough for almost one a day. The pears are a Vivaldi concerto for the tongue. And there’s this lovely green which I have yet to identify. As far as I can tell, it wasn’t named on the signs at the CSA pickup. Can you tell me what it is? And no, I don’t think it’s arugula. But it is so fresh and alive that when you add olive oil, lemon, and sea salt to it, there’s a snapping crescendo of goodness that quite fills a person up. Could it be that CSA greens are more nutritious and therefore more filling?

With this theory in mind, I wanted to have a breakfast of champions one rushed morning. I ran out of cereal so I ate turnip greens instead. Granted, I did think they were beet greens. As I ate them, I knew something was unusual. They were bitter. Come to find out, they’re also really high in calcium and among the most lauded cruciferous vegetables for their exceptional nutritional content. Those greens put a spring in my step that day. Eating raw food does seem to be a great diet for those stressed and without enough time to cook. You don’t have to do much to prepare raw foods, a definite time saver, and they energize you with their freshness. I really know nothing about raw food diets except that once at Angelika Kitchen I had a “live almond” paté and it was delicious. Given the energizing turnip greens, it does seem this way of eating is something to explore. Readers, how are you integrating raw foods into your diet?

And can everything be eaten raw? Even sweet potatoes? Because I’ve got a lot of them. These sweet potatoes have been waiting for me to have some free time to spend with them. They’re quite piled up. If I can hang on to them until Thanksgiving, one righteous sweet potato something-or-other is in store. Do you have a favorite sweet potato recipe, Readers? And do you store your sweet potatoes in the refrigerator? Mark Bittman says not to, but in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen, it’s really the only place that makes any sense. What are those drawers labeled “Vegetables” for if not sweet potatoes?

[Editor's note: Oh Urbivore, they're for vegetables. Your root vegetables, winter squashes, and tubers should go in a cool, dark, and most importantly dry place, as Steph says. Loose, in a box in a cold corner would be fine. Oh, and April has a killer tart recipe for the sweet potatoes.]

What’s left? The sweet peppers are sitting sweetly in the refrigerator. I gave away the radicchio. It’s so pretty and I keep attempting to eat it like a salad and then find myself miserable from chewing such bitterness. I know, I know. I ought to cook it in some splendid stew. But who has time for stew? And what would raw foodies do with radicchio? Give it to friends, too?

Another thing I could give to the neighbors are these string beans. I’m strung out on them. To the CSA’s credit, at least they vary it up. There are string beans of nearly every color of the rainbow — white, yellow, green, reddish, purple, purplish. I did cook a rainbow of not-so-green beans in a pan with some olive oil and they were tasty. But maybe they’d be better as a raw food paté?

Help me out, raw food people. How does one being to think about being a raw food eater? This is unfamiliar terrain. And what’s in your CSA boxes around the country this week?

Thanks for sharing your CSA stories at the virtual table we call Grist.

See you next week,
The Urbivore