Getting Rid of Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers – A Variety Pack of Ideas

April 4, 2021 by

How to organize your community to ban gas-powered leaf blowers:

Gas-powered leaf-blowers (GLBs) are noisy and polluting tools. There are better alternatives such as electric leaf blowers. Here are some ways our local Portland group, Quiet Clean PDX has gone about trying to encourage people and companies to switch away from using GLBs so we can have a quieter and less polluted urban environment. Feel free to use any of these methods where you live.

  • Find a group of people who want to help you change things and meet regularly. This is how we got started – having food and drink available is a good idea. “A meeting without eating is cheating” as they say. 
  • Use Nextdoor.com to effect change in your area.
  • Use Facebook and other social media to get the word out widely.
  • Get a newsletter  going so you can reach those interested in your efforts – send it regularly – please sign up here for our newsletter
  • Build an awesome website with a group interested in this issue
  • Create an online petition (or 2 or 3) and post a link to it on your website. (this is also a way to build your email list/newsletter subscribers)
  • Develop a list of local landscape companies that don’t use gas-powered leaf blowers. Post it on your website and promote it widely.
  • Create door hangers and postcards that residents can use to encourage their neighbors to change what they’re doing
  • Create a fun video explaining the issue
  • Lobby for and help draft legislation to ban or restrict GLBs.  Use all of the above methods to get the word out as you do this.
  • Host a periodic Zoom meeting with newsletter subscribers and others to discuss how things are going and ideas for action.
  • Launch a yard sign campaign.
  • Get op-eds and letters to the editor in local media.
  • articles in local media – podcasts, videos – all are good!
  • Gather organizational supporters like environmental groups and neighborhood associations.
  • Connect with other groups around the country who are involved in similar work. There are also some great Facebook groups that can provide connections to people close to you that you can organize with.

    Pick one of the above and give it a try. Every action you take is going to move things in the right direction. Find someone to do it with and you’ll have even more success and more fun! Good luck, and thank you!

postcard front - no logo - glb

 

Filed Under: Change Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Timber Industry of Today Part 1-5 – Logging in Oregon

January 6, 2021 by


Here’s a 5-part series from Vernonia’s Voice.  Enjoy

VoicePt1Timber2020 – August 20th, 2020

VoicePt2Timber2020

VoicePt3Timber2020

VoicePt4Timber2020

VoicePt5Timber2020

And, from the wayback machine.

“I had the wonderful opportunity to speak to a classroom full of young tree-planters as part of [Youth Acting for Our Earth’s youth climate training] at the Mittleman JCC in Portland, Oregon. I watched as the young people delivered a poignant and passionate report about climate change and how planting trees can have a positive impact going forward. It looks like everyone learned a lot that day and both the young people and their parents seemed pleased by what was learned and for young people to get the chance to practice their public speaking skills. In my talk I tried to cover some information about on-going efforts to keep Pacific Northwest trees standing – both in the countryside and in the City. I also talked a little bit about population growth’s effect on climate change as well as a personal passion – planting more fruit and nut trees everywhere when we’re talking about planting trees. Thanks to [Youth Acting for Our Earth’s] efforts to bring forward the importance of tree planting – may Governor Brown hear the call to plant millions of trees in Oregon.”

—Albert Kaufman, Environmental and Social Justice Activist and Founder of Farm My Yard

Filed Under: Logging Tagged With: , , , , ,

Georgia

December 23, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Georgia on My Mind

The upcoming election in Georgia will set the tone and pace of how our lives go for the next two years. If we win the 2 senate seats – Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock – we’ll have a little better chance to get serious about the climate crisis. So many things will be possible that will be blocked by Mitch McConnell and his cronies if Georgia votes Republican in these races. Let’s all help get out the vote in Georgia for the next few days.

The day after I was aware that there were to be two senate runoff seats in Georgia I decided to do some things to win these seats for Democrats. Here’s why and some guidance about what you can still do to help.

I’m a musician, so whenever I’m asked to contribute my mind goes to music. Georgia on my Mind has been an ongoing theme for many during this upcoming election. I’m also a marketing guide – so my main mode is email newsletters. So, I combined the two.

Here are the four newsletters I’ve sent to my list and tried to send further as well via social media.

  1. If you didn’t know, now you know
  2. See possibilities, dear Georgia – John and Eecole write a song
  3. Featuring an awesome Broadway for Georgia
  4. You’re getting very Peachy

​This is Important

For the children

For your neighbors

For you

​Get busy!

For lots more information on these two races and how you and your friends can get involved, click here.

Please copy the url of this post and share it on social media: https://albertideation.com/georgia-now

Credit: HTML help from Dan Kaufman at DKG Promotions

Editing: Hannah Kaufman

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The Eleven August 2019

August 17, 2019 by

The Eleven is my monthly newsletter for friends and family.

It comes out on the 11th of most months. You can sign up for it, here. Archived past versions of The Eleven, are over here.
Beloved Festival by Carlton Ward
Greetings!
Hello from the Beloved Festival year 12 (photo above by Carlton Ward). I’ve been attending this one every year and it just keeps getting better. On Sunday, the 11th, 2019, it will be a late morning after a very long night for many of the attendees.
Before I start with a review of the last couple of months – please take a moment to donate to Amy McGrath who is running against Republican Senator Mitch McConnell. Donate any amount. You’ll feel better after that.
Well, it’s been quite a full time on my end these past months. The main reason I didn’t send out an 11 for July was that I was busily preparing for the Oregon Country Faire. Here are some highlights from recent travels around the area.
June: Summer Solstice Healing Retreat @ Breitenbush – my 24th year. I started attending this event in 1995 when my friend Shelley G. asked if I wanted to travel from my new home, Seattle, and volunteer for something fun in Oregon. I had no idea how influential this event, Breitenbush, and the family I’ve met there would be in my life. It’s a sweet gathering where we all offer healing workshops for one another and I get to play a ton of music and sing my heart out. This year was, as they say, “the best solstice ever!”. Come join me next year – send a note to be alerted when tickets go on sale (usually in April). It’s one of the most cost-effective ways to visit Breitenbush, too.
June: World Domination Summit: This was my 2nd year attending this incredible conference. My write-up from last year still stands as an accurate reflection of what this is all about – how to live an extraordinary life in a conventional world. But this year I really dove deeper and tried harder to understand what was going on. And, I offered 2 meetups of my own to fellow attendees. Yes, it’s an incredible group of people from all over the world coming together for a week sans cynicism and sarcasm. And, when that happens, and people are there to learn from one another and collaborate on each other’s projects and personal growth – incredible results occur. I’m still in awe of my experience this year and bought a ticket for the final year, 2020. This is probably the most expensive ticket that I bought this year, but the price was worth it for just one day. Join me next year!
July: 2 weeks later I was helping out in the Wileyware booth at the Oregon Country Fair – 50th Anniversary. I finally realized that what I do at OCF is visit friends old and new in a 5-day long conversation-fest. I played music naked at the Ritz on Friday this year, which is certainly fun. And the Wileyware gang is a blast – our annual cocktail party on Thursday night featured many of my favorite musicians – Steve Bennett, Timothy Michael Shaw, and Katie Sontag. Overall, one of my best Faires ever. Then, it was home to rest for a couple of days before the …
Northwest String Summit or, Strummit as it’s known. This was my 4th year attending Strummit and I have to say it was one of the best musical highlights of my life. The quality of the music is very high – it’s mostly jam band/bluegrass – which I love. Think Danny Barnes meets Yonder Mountain String Band meets Dark Star Orchestra meets a bunch of traveling bands that you’ve never heard of who are full of such heart and stories it makes you wanna cry with joy. See below for some links to the Saturday night Yonder Mountain set and music by SideBoob (a collection of all of the women who play the festival who are available to play at the time appointed). Their outfits were incredibly outrageous this year. Strummit has some work to do to improve – some of the same issues I note in my review above from 2018 are still prevalent. I’m particularly concerned about the amount of time bright spotlights are focused directly on the audience and I’m working to try to get this across to whoever is running the mainstage lights. I’m mostly discussing this in the Strummit FB group. Btw, it would be great to have more friends at this event next year. Come dance with me!
August: This past weekend my friends and I played @ Destin and Kellie’s wedding. That was delicious and fun – here’s a picture of me with Mt. Hood behind from Husum, WA!
Albert in Husum 2019
Then, there is the ongoing work with QuietCleanPDX! I’m meeting with a group every other week to push for a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers. Check out our Resources page. If you want to stay abreast of what we’re doing click here and that will automatically add you to our email list on that topic.
I’m also still busy trying to protect and increase Portland’s tree canopy. I organized a group to go see Canopy Stories, recently, and that was fun and educational. If that topic interests you, join us in a group on Facebook.
There were also some community-building activities – I instigated a fun 44th Ave. SE block party on 8.2.19. It was the first time some neighbors who’d lived on the block for years had ever met one another. And, the mix of generations was awesome to experience, too. On another day I gave a lesson in “birthday autoresponders” to 2 local 13-year-olds while their parents watched. I’m trying to figure out how to pass along the knowledge I have about social media and email marketing to the next generation – because they are powerful tools if used well. I’m also playing way too much online chess on chess.com. Just one more game…
Like you, I’m pretty upset about the gun violence that’s been happening. It’s the fault of Republicans and especially President Trump – that is where the blame lies – and I hope you’re excited as I am to throw them out of office in 2020. They are also responsible for our inaction on climate change. Until they are gone we can all keep speaking out and working on issues and for candidates who speak the truth and do not support white supremacy. I do have hope – and will continue speaking out.
In the meantime, I think it’s also important to take care of our health – physical and emotional. Do what you have to to get enough rest; drink water, and stay connected with friends and family. We will weather this storm – let’s do it together and laugh, cry and live in the world we want to see – NOW!
Take care and happy Summer.
Albert
PS – Here’s a great set of music by the Yonder Mountain String Band from this year’s Strummit. And Sideboob’s show – all the women who played at Strummit.
PPS – If you like the work I do in the world please take a moment and post a review in one of the spots below. This is something I asked of business connections, but I’d love it if you’d say something you would. Thanks!
Greetings!
If you are willing, I’d love your review on the following platforms. If you have a Constant Contact account a review in the Constant Contact marketplace would be fantastic.
If not, a review on Nextdoor.com, Yelp!, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google , would be welcome – thank you!
I hope you’re having a great Summer.
Sincerely,
Albert Kaufman
PS – if you leave a review in 5 of the 6 places – let me know and you will receive something very fun.

 

Filed Under: The Eleven Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Defeating Climate Change by Dismantling World Economies

March 20, 2019 by

Climate Change

Climate Change

I’ve been working on a campaign to rid my City, Portland, Oregon of gas-powered leaf blowers. This seems like low-hanging fruit in our fight to stop climate change. DC just banned them, so I figure we can do the same. While I’m working on this it got me to thinking what other simple changes could we make that would have a great impact on our climate.

For a long time I’ve had a few ideas that I think would make society simpler and in case #2 reduce commute times. The first is “Where does this dirt go?” The idea is that there is a centralized database that could track when dirt is being dug and moved — which could connect those who have dirt/fill with those who need it — rather than what currently seems to happen — dirt is dug, and then moved to a pile in the sub or ex-urbs and then brought back in via dump trucks. The 2nd idea is also database driven and has people who do exchangeable jobs switch with others to move their jobs closer to their homes. Ie, I am a 3rd grade teacher who drives an hour each day to my school — instead I switch with another 3rd grade teacher so that both of our commutes shorten — this might involve many people switching.

But really on a larger scale, a great way for us to combat climate change will be to pretty much shut down our current economy. I’m in the US, but other countries would probably benefit from this action, too. Our current economy is pretty new and does not have to be the way things are — it just is. So, what do I mean by shut down the economy?  Basically, everything that is not necessary to peoples’ lives should stop being produced. Especially, anything that has to do with war or killing (speaking of low-hanging fruit). Yes, many jobs will disappear and the transition will both take time and be a challenge to all of us. And, the other choice is cooking ourselves to death and moving towards a planet that is uninhabitable. So, please hear me out and possibly suggest ideas that could shape this into an actual policy.

Here’s further what I have in mind: the complete localization of everything. I wander my neighborhood in SE Portland and imagine a future where more people are at home — spending time with their kids; learning french and the piano. Imagine a life like that lived by Bill Murray in Groundhog Day — where we’re spending our precious lives learning, playing, cooking food together and being in community with one another. Doesn’t that sound more appetizing than commuting to a cubicle and spending 40+ hours a week working, anyway?  It does to me. I think it does to a lot of people.

So, what would go? Well, war-related everything. Health insurance companies seem unnecessary — I could see the US copying Germany’s version of healthcare. The production of a lot of stuff — I’m sure there’s some way to figure out together what’s useful and what’s not? And then for those jobs that are necessary, we share them.  The stock market and the way companies progress by driving up share prices for shareholders obviously needs to change. That’s leading to the using up of our natural resources — I’m watching as Oregon forests get chopped down for toilet paper and phone books by out of state investment companies looking to make a quick buck. These trees are the planets lungs — there should be an immediate moratorium on cutting trees, worldwide and planting as many as possible.

And, as quickly as possible we should all be moving towards solar and wind-powered everything. Wow, there’s a lot to think about here.  The gist is — how quickly can we transition away from our current way of doing things to something that looks more local, village-like, less resource-intensive, and less fossil-fuel based.  While we reduce our human population.

Last word on that idea: there’s a lot of talk about “replacement level” population growth. Why on God’s earth would we want to be at replacement level? Why is that seen as a good thing? The US with 320 million people is crowded. Forget replacement level — shrinking could be a great thing for all of us.

Further thought is needed on a lot of this. And, my a-ha moment about changing how we do things seemed valuable enough that I wanted to share it. Let me know if you have something to add. Thanks. For a better world, Albert Kaufman

PS – this article was also shared on Daily Kos – if you’d like to read some interesting comments check it out.

4.7.19 – this books looks like a good guide. How to Do Nothing

Filed Under: climate change Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Spring 2016 – Saving Time – Use Facebook Less

May 2, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Spring Cleaning: How to use Facebook less.

Happy Spring. Like many, I find myself using Facebook at lot of time when I have other things to do.  My simple hack is to have Facebook open on one browser and the rest of my productivity tools (Hello, WordPress) open on another. This has led to using Facebook a whole lot less. Many of us learned to use Facebook for marketing our businesses back when it was free and reach was a real thing. Now that you have to pay to play, and even that is an unreliable indicator of any kind of usefulness, that which Facebook is useful for has shifted. I still do think that Facebook is useful – especially for networking and keeping in touch with others. Organizing things also goes pretty well – groups, events – still are great ways to gather people for a cause.  Try putting Facebook in it’s own browser and having the rest of your world happening on another and see what you think – I’d love to hear your thoughts below.

2.6.18 – Update: I took Facecrack off my phone (as well as Instagram) = this has led to about 70% decrease in my use of Facecrack – I highly recommend this move! 

In other news, it was quite a weekend. I attended the first ever Cultivation Classic.

Cultivation Classic

Spring into Cultivation Classic

According to Jeremy Plumb, one of the organizers: “This competition welcomes growers who can demonstrate a commitment to organic production methods, moving toward a regenerative approach,” said Jeremy Plumb, owner of Newcleus Nurseries and Farma dispensary in Portland. “This competition regards the quality of the process used, as well as the quality of the product.“

I learned a ton. I met great people. My Congressman, Earl Blumenauer was there. I’m still tickled by how incredible the event was – really great speakers; good food; people dedicated to organic; good music. I can’t wait till the next one.  Here’s info about the winning strains…

Then, there’s global warming. You just can’t escape it.  We just had the warmest April in Portland’s history. I still believe the answer is lessening the number of people on the planet, gradually.  I can’t believe how little the topic of human population growth in regards to climate change is discussed. I had a talk with a friend this past weekend who was arguing that US populatin growth is just fine. We’re the fastest growing population of any developed country and our consumption levels are over the top – so, hello warmest month ever, we’ve been expecting you.

I’ve been inspired, lately, to make more content and to share more of my thinking with the world. So, that’s what this is about. Thanks to Tim Ferris and Seth Godin and Michael Katz, some of the people who put out great content on a regular basis. I hope to fit into this tradition 🙂  I used to write a whole lot more – my newsletters used to be little tomes and as the trend has changed to shorter format, so have I.

That’s it for today. Have a great Spring! I hope life is treating you well. Feel free to leave comments below and to share this post on the social network of your choice!

AlbertCultivation Classic

More pictures of the event here.

Filed Under: Spring Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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