Today being Earth Day, here is a sentence on how we can help combat climate change. In food writer Michael Pollan’s essay Why Bother?, he makes the case that taking small steps to live green really matters. Pollan recommends planting a garden, adding that during WWII Victory Gardens grew 40% of the produce Americans ate.

“At least in this one corner of your yard and life, you will have begun to heal the split between what you think and what you do, to commingle your identities as consumer and producer and citizen.”

His sentence captures the enormity of the problem, pointing out this will only help in one corner rather than solve the entire, overwhelming problem. I feel the split he describes when I buy a product for my family that comes with unnecessary packaging which can’t be recycled, or when I use more gas to drive out of my own town to buy florescent light bulbs. Central Oregon is a challenging climate for gardening but this year we’re trying vegetables beyond tomatoes, perhaps zucchini. More writing on Earth Day can be found in New York Times Magazine The Green Issue.