Destination: Books

Fresh Offerings

Here are some of the fresh new titles Destination: Books will be bringing to the Freedom Farmer's Market at the Carter Center on Saturday morning, May 28th. 

You can appreciate how exotic fungi can be by thumbing through the 40 color illustrations in the book Fungi from the Royal Botanical Garden’s Fungarium. Fungi features the work of Elsie Wakefield (1886 -1972), a pioneer female scientist and artist who was the President of the British Mycological Society. (Did you know that children’s author Beatrix Potter was also a mycologist?)

You don’t know beans until you’ve read Susan Young’s Growing Beans: A Diet for Healthy People and Planet a slim reference book that covers the basics: bean types, growing beans, soil preparation, cooking tips, proper seed storage and a guide to beans around the globe with lots of color photographs. (I was so inspired I ran out and planted half a dozen Carson Bush Beans.)

Consider the shrub when planning a more environmentally friendly garden. Martin Crawford’s Shrubs for Gardens, Agroforestry and Permaculture is a complete reference book to identifying the qualities of useful shrubs ranging from common fruit bushes to those that have medicinal parts. According to Crawford, you cannot underestimate the ability of shrubs to fight climate change. The book covers over 60 varieties of shrubs and it identifies which plants grow well in the Southeastern parts of North America. (I am thinking blueberries bushes.)

For a more complete list of Destination: Books's pop-up inventory, visit here. 

 

Electrify

Electrify: An Optimists Playbook for a Clean Energy Future (MIT Press, 2021) by Saul Griffith is a briskly paced book advocating that the best way to slow climate change is to shift the electric grid away from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. Included in this strategy is connecting our day-to-day necessities (especially electric cars) into that grid. 

Griffith writes that the transmission lines that move the electricity generated by wind and solar energy to the population centers needs to be upgraded.  What makes Griffith's argument compelling is how he uses data to solidify the points he is trying to make. In the appendix, he provides succinct answers to address the main concerns that people will have.

Coincidently, there is one question about utilities that caught my attention:

Appendix A, page 198

Georgians for Renewable Energy

Griffith's sentence "If you really want to make a difference, get yourself elected to the board of your state's utility commission and steer it in the right direction"  really resonates because Georgians now have an opportunity to do something meaningful.

The Georgia Public Service Commissioners (PSC) is a committee of five members that make recommendations on Georgia Energy Policy. On May 25, 2022, the PSC is holding hearings on the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) which is mapping out Georgia's energy future. 

One important way you advocate for clean energy renewables is to comment on the PSC public comments page, but the form has to be filled out properly. Fortunately, a group Decatur Cares About Climate has made that easier by providing step by step instructions HERE. 

If enough people comment,  these commissioners will take notice because they are probably not used to being flooded by citizens input.

 

Additional References

A lengthy radio interview with Saul Griffith from October 29, 2021 on the NPR show Climate One.

The NPR show 1A aired a show on the topic, "Our Climate Is Heating Up and We Know How to Stop It, But Will We?." Members of the panel reinforce Griffith's arguments that the technology is now available for significantly cleaner energy, but the two main obstacles are the transmission line issue and the political will to make it happen.

And finally, you should read Electrify. Order a copy here from Destination: Books.