Category: Sustainability

Nuclear abolition, climate change, environmental degradation, nature, peace and justice.

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Environment

After COP 28 Keep On The Sunny Side

Dubai, UAE site of COP 28 – Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric on Pexels.com

I met with State Senator Joe Bolkcom before he retired to discuss ways to mitigate the effects of climate change. He told me something important as we finished our conversation. “Join a group and get active,” he said. What does that mean?

With a challenge so big it involves all of the populated regions of the globe, one person’s impact is not as useful as when we work with others to solve the climate crisis. As we face its challenges, it is important for our own sanity to feel like we contribute to solutions as individuals. Actions like reducing gasoline use, reducing natural gas use, reducing electricity use, eating less meat and dairy, and growing some of our own food are all important. These actions matter, yet what matters more is what we, as a society, do collectively. That was Bolkcom’s point.

On Dec. 13, 2023, delegates to the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP 28) agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. This despite heavy lobbying from delegates representing fossil fuel interests to do nothing.

Nearly 200 countries struck a breakthrough climate agreement Wednesday, calling for a transition away from fossil fuels in an unprecedented deal that targets the greatest contributors to the planet’s warming. The deal came swiftly — with no discussion or objection — in a packed room in Dubai following two weeks of negotiations and rising contention. It is the first time a global climate deal has specifically called to curb the use of fossil fuels.

Countries clinch unprecedented deal to transition away from fossil fuels, Washington Post, Dec. 13, 2023.

Is the cup half full or half empty? Citizens engaged in solving the climate crisis should take the positive which this agreement represents even though it falls short of our aspirations.

When I activated an account on Threads, one of the first accounts I followed was climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe who is active on that platform. We had this exchange about COP 28, in which I quote-posted her report from COP 28:

As Hayhoe said in the talk referenced above (Here is a link), the challenge is to move from worried to activated. It is not only possible, it is imperative that advocates for solving the climate crisis do so.

Back to my question, is the cup half full or half empty when progress toward transitioning from fossil fuels saw such resistance at COP 28?

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said after COP 28 closed, “A small, self-interested minority of states cannot be allowed to block the progress necessary to put our entire planet on a path to climate safety.”

2023 was a disastrous year for our climate. We experienced the hottest year on record and the extended Iowa drought impacted corn and soybean yields. Rivers and lakes began to dry up. What gets overlooked is that just as the climate crisis seems to get worse, actions to tackle the problem are ramping up. There were environmental wins out of COP 28:

  • The cost of solar power has fallen by around 90% and wind by 70% in the past decade.
  • The majority of new energy capacity being added in the U.S. and globally is solar, wind, and battery storage; these renewables already account for nearly 14% of the U.S. energy production and 12% worldwide.
  • Electric vehicles are becoming cheaper and more attractive. For the first time, more than one million EVs have been sold in the United States in a calendar year.
  • At COP28, delegates took a historic step in establishing a loss and damage fund, the latest development in a three-decades-long fight to have wealthy, high-emitting countries compensate vulnerable, developing ones for the harms of climate change.

For more positive news, read Katarina Zimmer’s complete article on Atmos.

Despite its shortcomings, COP 28 marked a major step forward for the environmental movement. For the first time ever, a COP agreement explicitly acknowledges the main culprit responsible for the climate crisis is fossil fuels. While the agreement falls short of what many of us wanted, it still reflects progress in a decades long struggle to address the climate crisis. We should keep on the sunny side and build on this progress by finding other, like-minded people and getting active.

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Environment

Reducing Consumption of Animal Products

Black-eyed peas, rice, and cornbread for first meal of 2024.

An uncomfortable truth about environmentalism — that no one wants to discuss, especially in Iowa — is the amount of land used to feed and husband animals. To say it another way, the best thing we could do to mitigate the effects of ongoing climate disruption is to drastically reduce the amount of animal products consumed by humans. Not by a little, but by a lot… and immediately.

In his recent book, We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast, author Jonathan Safran Foer wrote about this. In the appendix he discusses how he came to the environmental impact animal husbandry makes. It ranges from 14.5 and 51 percent among different experts. How does one even begin to address this? Here in Iowa, someone who suggests humans stop eating animals and their dairy products wouldn’t get one minute of attention. They would be run out of the state.

The State of Iowa developed into an agricultural state and with reason. The prairie that existed after the 1832 Black Hawk War is almost gone. In its place is a grid of once fertile fields and crop land to take advantage of our temperate climate, rich soil, and adequate rainfall. It seems quite organized in 2024. It is. It is organized to extract as many crops from this ground as it can, growing corn and beans fence row to fence row. If the nutritional content of the soil isn’t what it used to be, there are fertilizers to help. While not all of the corn and soybeans is fed to animals, the contribution Iowa-style farming makes to environmental degradation is astounding.

Safran Foer would have the population take collective action to reduce or eliminate consumption of animal products. As the title of his book suggests, he asks us as to eat no animal products before the evening meal. The problem, he points out, is that people will convert to a “plant-based diet” or “go vegan” in order to check a box, assuage guilt, and feel hope, rather than taking more substantial, collective action to mitigate the causes of climate disruption related to agriculture. This is a problem wanting a solution. Because it is controversial, few appear to be working on it.

As we face the climate crisis, it is important for our own sanity to feel like we contribute to solutions as individuals. Actions like reducing gasoline use, reducing natural gas use, reducing electricity use, eating less meat and dairy, and growing some of our own food are all important. These actions matter, yet what matters more is what we, as a society, do collectively.

While I type this post people are working to expand U.S. export of liquefied natural gas. Government support for this is among the crazy things the Trump and Biden administrations have in common. The level of methane pollution of this export operation is mind-boggling and Biden could do something about it. It is just one example of how collective advocacy could make a difference in reducing methane pollution. Few people even realize what is going on and that’s a problem.

The meal shown in the photograph above has no animal products in it. It was satisfying from the standpoint of living a New Year’s Day tradition, and from a save the planet perspective. I checked off the box and feel good. However, there is much more to do to organize our neighbors and encourage our government to take more affirmative climate action. That is just as important as what we eat.

Categories
Environment

Electric Cars and Iowa

Photo by Rathaphon Nanthapreecha on Pexels.com

When we couldn’t get new parts for our 2002 Subaru in 2022, we decided to get a replacement car. First of all, it rots that basic suspension parts are unavailable from the manufacturer of a relatively new and otherwise fine car. Second, we wanted an electric vehicle, yet manufacturers couldn’t even tell us when we could get one. It was more than a year’s wait for some basic models with actual delivery date unknowable, they said. Demand was so high, they apparently didn’t mind missing a few sales. We resolved the immediate crisis by getting a used subcompact that gets 38 miles per gallon of gasoline.

The 45th President had something to say about electric cars during his Christmas message to the nation. He said he hopes supporters of “Electric Car Lunacy… ROT IN HELL.” Our Congresswoman, Mariannette Miller-Meeks is on board with the former president and wrote a column on the topic in our local newspaper, the Solon Economist. Not only does she have her lips busy kissing Trump’s behind, she is unabashedly in favor of the Iowa ethanol and biodiesel crazes. Heaven help us that the Environmental Protection Agency attempt to regulate a livable climate and infringe on our “freedom,” I wrote sarcastically.

Miller-Meeks takes the tone of a serious person, yet she is not one. While her predecessor, Democrat Dave Loebsack supported corn ethanol and biofuels, Miller-Meeks let her membership on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Conservative Climate Caucus go to her head. She became a parrot for what the oil and gas, and corn ethanol and biofuels lobbies want from Washington. This compared to a legislator that looks out for all of the people she represents.

In her column, she wrote, “For one reason or another, the Biden administration has relentlessly pushed its fixation on electric vehicles (EVs), or vehicles that have an electric motor in place of an internal combustion engine, on everyday Americans.” We know the reason, and I suspect Miller-Meeks does as well. 2023 has been the hottest year in recorded history for our atmosphere and oceans. At this rate, global heating will soar past the recommendations of scientists who study it for a living. The scale of the problem demands bold solutions, which is what the EPA proposed. Is two-thirds of all new vehicles being electric by 2032 the right number? Given the ramp up time and obstruction from the corn ethanol, biofuels, and oil and gas industries, it may not be good enough.

Miller-Meeks took her corn ethanol/biofuels show on the road to COP 28 in Dubai. She had a story to tell which is reprinted below from her weekly newsletter.

At COP, I had the opportunity to speak at the U.S. Pavilion to discuss how our farmers across Iowa and the United States are the backbone of this country and our economy. I highlighted how Iowa is a leading producer of soybeans, corn, pork, and eggs in the United States, even while reducing fertilizer and pesticide use with adoption of sustainable regenerative Ag practices. Further, I mentioned how our farmers help fuel the world with lower carbon, cleaner emissions liquid fuels. 

I had the opportunity to discuss how we have taken advantage of the geographic composition of our state to support the entire gamut of renewables, from wind to solar to ethanol, biodiesel, biomass, manure, and compressed renewable natural gas. 

In Iowa, we can introduce innovative technologies like carbon capture and underground storage to our biofuel refineries. We’ve added hydropower at Lake Red Rock, and advanced nuclear energy is being revisited to provide capacity and dispatchable continual base load to the energy mix. We have the Ames Lab, one of the U.S. national labs, that adds to the exciting research conducted at the University of Iowa and Iowa State. 

We have a story to tell, and I was honored to represent our district and our agricultural priorities at COP28, and I am excited to continue to tell the story about how Iowa is setting the example and creating systems to support and harness clean energy to secure a cleaner, healthier planet for generations to come.

Miller-Meeks Weekly Script, Dec. 17, 2023.

By filling her time at the U.S. Pavilion with all of these things, she avoided addressing the real and increasingly dangerous challenges of a heating planet. While she is good at cramming buzz words into these paragraphs, notably, she avoided mentioning electric vehicles. It may sound like she is saying a lot, but in truth, she is saying nothing but that we should continue the status quo. That is simply not good enough to create a livable world.

Iowans should consider buying an electric vehicle when they need a replacement for an internal combustion vehicle, and vote Miller-Meeks out of office in 2024.

Categories
Sustainability

No More Nuclear Power

Nuclear Power? – No Thanks

One of the items coming out of COP 28 was a declaration about the role of nuclear power in combating the climate crisis. The press release is titled “Declaration Recognizes the Key Role of Nuclear Energy in Keeping Within Reach the Goal of Limiting Temperature Rise to 1.5 Degrees Celsius.”

Among other things, participating states pledge to “commit to work together to advance a global aspirational goal of tripling nuclear energy capacity from 2020 by 2050, recognizing the different domestic circumstances of each Participant.” The problem is adding nuclear capacity by 2050 is not fast enough to address the climate crisis. In essence, the declaration is yet another delay tactic by moneyed interests. Like it or not, we are set to blow past a temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius. We can’t wait for nuclear power, especially when effective, easier to implement, and less expensive alternatives are available.

This 60-second video by Stanford Professor Mark Z. Jacobsen cuts to the chase. Time is running out.

Sunday evening, my congresswoman released a statement after attending COP 28. It includes this sketchy language about nuclear power: “advanced nuclear energy is being revisited to provide capacity and dispatchable continual base load to the energy mix.” In other words, she didn’t get the word that ten years ago, Iowa had an opportunity to build new nuclear power capacity and pulled the plug on it.

As Professor Jacobsen said in this video, new nuclear energy is no help whatsoever in solving the climate problem. We should proceed on that basis.

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Living in Society Sustainability

Provisioning in Isolation

Lafayette Flats, Buffalo, New York. Photo Credit – Wikimedia Commons.

Millennials seem unlikely to purchase homes in the same numbers as my cohort did. So many are sharing an apartment or house and paying rent. It becomes difficult for them to build equity the way I did when we paid down a mortgage. There are other consequences of living with others in a shared apartment or house.

The worm has turned on millennial home purchases according to some. When student loan payments were paused during the coronavirus pandemic, newly available funds were directed into home-buying. According to CNN, “The Department of Education said Wednesday it has approved the cancellation of nearly $5 billion more in federal student loan debt, bringing the total amount of student debt relief provided under the Biden administration to $132 billion for more than 3.6 million borrowers.” This should be a catalyst for more home-buying in the millennial cohort. Maybe they will catch up.

The other part of this financial equation is the lack of good-paying jobs. In part, this is driven by consolidation and outsourcing of functions in the business world. Pay packages have changed so more of compensation goes into hourly wages or contractor fees. Thanks Ronald Reagan and the Republicans for this crappy economic environment for younger people.

The change in types of jobs available also has to do with automation. The automation revolution began some time ago, yet it is taking off with force in 2023. Anything that can be done by a computer or robot will be. Human workers? Not needed as much any more.

Stuck living together with unrelated others is an issue, in particular, during the continuing coronavirus pandemic. According to the University of Minnesota, older adults made up 90 percent of U.S. COVID deaths in 2023. While the younger people the virus targets may be less likely to die of COVID, they continue to get sick and it’s debilitating. A goal for mixed households is to prevent the coronavirus from entering the residence. If it does get in, isolating individuals so they don’t contract it in close proximity to each other is a priority. For some that means shutting the door to a private room if they have one and not leaving one’s room except to use the plumbing.

I had a conversation this week about what food could be eaten in isolation from COVID without going to the kitchen or refrigerator often. It came down to only items that could be eaten as is, or made with boiling water. It didn’t take long to develop something both nutritious and filling. I had some ideas to contribute to the conversation.

When I was younger, I rode buses a lot. From time to time I encountered Hispanic men heading North for agricultural work from Mexico and points south. They solved the food issue for a long journey by making a meal of two cans of food: one beans with sauce and the other some kind of vegetable. They carried the full trip’s supply with them in their bags. It was shelf stable, filling, and reasonably nutritious. They could eat them while standing in a bus station and did.

When my group of Army officers left Germany in 1979-80, one of my buddies was assigned to the U.S. Army’s Fort Natick Labs. He participated in development of meals, ready to eat (MREs). Modern versions of these are available to the public, yet are too expensive for a person who has to share an apartment in order to live in a large city. They make nutritional eating, and people keep them in their bug-out bags to use in case of an emergency. The reality is there exists a generation that can’t afford to live, even in the most ideal economic circumstances, let alone in difficult situations during a time of contagion.

Eventually all the housing stock will become available as older generations die off. Perhaps prices will decline enough for millennials to buy. When I was born, I came home to a three generation home where an aunt and uncle lived along with Grandmother, Mother and Father. It was how they coped with limited income from mostly menial or low-skilled jobs. If I believe being related to housemates makes a difference, it’s because I have experience it has. Multi-generational households are a tradition that goes back deeply into my Appalachian roots. My forebears were dirt poor in many cases.

Being unrelated to others in a shared house is something different, though. I don’t have good advice for those who must do so. What may be the first step is realizing shared households have become a permanent fixture in the American landscape, a significant change from what has been. With such acceptance may come peace of mind if not riches. Peace of mind is well needed in a modern society that evolved around wealth migrating to the richest among us. It’s become a place where we must fend for ourselves.

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Living in Society Sustainability

More About Groundwater

Waterfowl swimming in dawn’s light on Dec. 7, 2023.

The nearby City of Solon contributed about $1,000 to a four-year study of the Silurian Aquifer. By comparison, The U.S. Geological Survey contributed $153,000, Johnson County contributed $310,700, and the City of Marion, much larger than Solon, and a subject of the 2011 Silurian Aquifer study, didn’t give one penny. Johnson County is hosting the study and expected to eat cost overruns of about $50,000 thus far, Josh Busard, Director of the Johnson County Planning, Development and Sustainability Department said in a meeting I had with him yesterday.

I’ve been following sustainability of the Silurian Aquifer, where much of east-central Iowa draws groundwater, for almost 20 years. The meeting with Busard was prompted by County Supervisor Rod Sullivan after I sent him a link to this post. After the meeting, the good news is there is plenty of groundwater for the next couple years. Cut to the chase: Y’all should be conserving water where ever you live. The study is about a year from completion, said Busard.

The study is important locally because Solon, Tiffin, and North Liberty are among the fastest-growing cities in the state. Solon alone grew 50 percent in the 2020 U.S. Census. If Solon does nothing more than build out already approved subdivisions within city limits, it could easily add another 750 to 1,000 residents. That’s not to mention the many subdivisions surrounding the city. Each new person will bring increased demand for water. The entire area draws from the Silurian Aquifer.

I have a lot to say about what the study does and doesn’t do. I’ll save that for another post.

The main outcome of my meeting was to get up to date on what the county is doing. It is always positive to find someone else working on the same issues. We had a good conversation. Busard sent me some public documents to which I link below. If interested in the sustainability of the Silurian Aquifer, I recommend you read them.

Executive Summary for the Board of Supervisors.

Exhibit A to Scope of Work Agreement.

U.S. Geological Survey PowerPoint on the Johnson County Silurian Groundwater Model.

Read my previous post, “Enough Groundwater?” here.

Thanks for reading.

Categories
Living in Society Sustainability

Enough Groundwater?

Community well.

Will the Silurian Aquifer have enough water to support the population that draws from it? Answers to that question are a bit sketchy due to infrequent research into groundwater projections. A 2011 study published by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources had this to say about nearby Coralville, which draws water from the Silurian Aquifer.

The City of Coralville may have to limit its future withdrawal of water from the Silurian aquifer to maintain the sustainability of the resource. Contingency plans should be prepared by the City of Coralville to evaluate alternative water sources.

Groundwater availability modeling of the Silurian Aquifer in East-Central Iowa, November 2011.

Read that quote again and say after me, “Yikes!”

Last summer, water usage on our community’s public water system surged with the drought. We are also on the Silurian Aquifer. So much more water was used during the worst days of drought the well faltered. We instituted voluntary conservation practices and the issue resolved. Usage dropped by 26 percent the following month. The question repeats itself. Will there be enough water in the aquifer?

In 2006 a similar study was published by the U.S. Geological Survey. While I was on the board of health, we reviewed it, and saw it’s conclusion that until 2025, projections indicated there would be enough water to serve the population. That was good enough for the Public Health Department and the Board of Supervisors. It may be time for a new survey, and perhaps one of the involved entities has already undertaken it. I hope so. The message was clear in 2011: decrease reliance on the Silurian Aquifer.

Things have shifted. Two of Big Grove Township’s neighboring cities, Tiffin and North Liberty, are among the fastest growing in Iowa. All those people will need water and their public water systems draw from the Silurian Aquifer. Similarly, there has been an exodus of population from rural parts of the state with many moving to urban areas where there are jobs, healthcare, and commerce. This also creates more localized demand for groundwater. Finally, our rivers have been a source of drinking water, as they are in Iowa City. Surface water quality in Iowa continues to get worse with extractive agricultural operations going on in almost every square inch of the state. For how much longer can cities rely on river water for humans to use? Drawing more from the Silurian Aquifer may not be a reasonable alternative when Coralville is being told to make other plans.

My point in this post is ground water is not a limitless resource. We should each be taking steps to minimize household use and if on a public well, use more of our water during off peak hours. The talk about water used for flushing the toilet, watering the lawn, and fixing household leaks is not a liberal conspiracy. Conservation benefits everyone.

We don’t know if there will be enough water for human populations. We cannot live without adequate water and our scientists and governmental organizations should make sure the projected usage models are accurate, and then work on solutions to shortages. If the Silurian Aquifer goes dry we are in for a wake up call. I predict it won’t be pleasant.

Editor’s Note: I checked with the county and, in fact, a new study of the Silurian Aquifer is in progress. Looking forward to reading it when finished.

Categories
Environment

COP 28 and Beyond

Photo by Laura Penwell on Pexels.com

Ahead of Joe Biden and Xi Jinping’s Nov. 15 meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco, the parties pledged to strengthen their cooperation on climate change. The U.S. State Department released a statement detailing areas of agreement. Both presidents pointed to the importance of the upcoming Conference of the Parties (COP 28) that begins Nov. 30, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The luster has gone off the Conference of the Parties, as hundreds of fossil fuel lobbyists participate as delegates to impede progress toward conference goals of eliminating use of fossil fuels. Biden and Jinping’s mentioning COP was important to regenerate interest. Their agreement on climate change was significant, yet hardly noticed in major media.

Members of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, part of The Climate Reality Project founded by former Vice President Al Gore to address the climate crisis, seeks three outcomes of COP 28.

During a year of record-breaking temperatures and climate disasters, we cannot afford to stay silent. We must ensure that global leaders convening in Dubai hear our demands for an agreement at COP 28 to: 

  1. Phase out fossil fuel emissions and stop funding fossil fuel projects.
  2. Increase funding for climate solutions in countries that need it most.
  3. Reform future COP processes so fossil fuel interests can’t block progress. 
Email from The Climate Reality Project, Nov. 14, 2023.

Fossil fuel interests are fighting any and every advance that leads to a true net-zero economy. My Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA01) has taken the fossil fuel companies’ positions and attended COP 26 and COP 27. In a newsletter earlier this year, she wrote:

Americans have suffered the consequences of reckless and misguided energy policy. From day one of his administration, President Biden has waged an all-out war on American fossil fuel production that has contributed to record inflation and weakened our national security.

Miller-Meeks Weekly Script, April 16, 2023.

Miller-Meeks couldn’t be more wrong. The Washington Post recently called out people like her regarding the so-called war on fossil fuels:

Former vice president Mike Pence framed the issue in one of the presidential debates: “On day one, Joe Biden declared a war on energy, which was no surprise, because when Joe Biden ran for president, he said he was going to end fossil fuels, and they’ve been working overtime to do that ever since.”

It sounds just awful. But I have good news for Republicans: U.S. fossil fuel exploitation is pretty much booming. Here are a few stats from this supposed war’s front lines:

  • After plummeting early in the pandemic, U.S. crude oil production has been climbing and is now back near record highs. That’s according to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The agency also projects that oil production will hit new all-time highs next year.
  • U.S. natural gas production has also been hovering around record highs.
  • To date, the Biden administration has approved slightly more permits for oil and gas drilling on public lands than the Trump administration had over the same periods of their respective presidencies, according to Texas A&M professor Eric Lewis. (My Post colleague Harry Stevens has previously covered this in depth.)
  • If “energy independence” means exporting more than you import, we’ve achieved it in spades. The United States has been exporting more crude oil and petroleum products than it imports for 22 straight months now, far longer than was the case under Trump.
Washington Post, A ‘war on American energy’? So why is oil production near record highs? by Catherine Rampell, Oct. 3, 2023.

When fossil fuel interests and Republicans who parrot their talking points focus on the so-called war on fossil fuels, it distracts society from pursuing solutions to the climate crisis. There are viable solutions to ridding the world of man-made greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning fossil fuels without compromising our quality of life. They distract us because distraction is a time-tested method of furthering their interests while seeking to avoid blame for causing the the climate crisis.

As society races toward exceeding the 1.5 degree Celsius limit in increasing global temperatures since the pre-industrial era, it seems increasingly evident we will wait until it is too late to take action. While Biden and Xi call our attention to COP 28, it seems doubtful the conference will accomplish what is needed. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is all we currently have to address the climate crisis as a global society. Individual countries doing so is not enough. We’ll see if delegates get serious this December. I am hopeful they will.

Categories
Environment

It Seems Very Warm

Photo by James Frid on Pexels.com

We’ve lived through the hottest 12 months since record-keeping began. It’s not just me saying this. It’s likely the hottest it’s been in 125,000 years according to scientists quoted by the Washington Post.

It is not a risky thing to say that our planet will pass the tipping point of climate change. With the increased average temperature of Earth passing 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial norms, entire ecosystems could be irreversibly damaged or destroyed by global warming. Things won’t be like we know them now. According to the Post article, “nearly 3 in 4 people experienced more than a month’s worth of heat so extreme, it would have been unusual in the past, but became at least three times more likely because of human-caused climate change.”

It seems very warm here in Big Grove. That’s because it is.

This year’s drought has been a humdinger. Crop reports indicate it hasn’t been as bad as 2012 based on corn and soybean yields, yet unless we get rain soon, farmers will be facing a dry spring again. On my daily walks along the lake shore, the culvert that drain the lake watershed still doesn’t have anything in it except cracking chunks of soil like those in the photo above.

The only thing I know is no one person will be the solution to preventing as much irreversible damage as we can. It is too late for that. We can’t get agreement that children should not be slaughtered in Israel or Gaza, for Pete’s sake. There is necessary work to be done here.

Categories
Environment

Deeper Into Autumn

Some shots from my morning walk on Oct. 19, 2023.

Red leaves of autumn.
Abandoned freshwater shell.