By Sherri Stilwell

The Sustainability Book Group met Tuesday, September 1 (our regular meeting date is the first Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m.), to discuss Farewell, My Subaru by Doug Fine. An adventure journalist by trade, the author knows he is addicted to the creature comforts of the American life. And he doesn’t want to give up his comforts, he aims to simply change how he powers them—reduce his carbon footprint, power with the sun not fossil fuels. He leaves his home in New York City in 2005, moves to the wilds of southwestern New Mexico and buys property he names the Funky Butte Ranch. In order to show that ‘a regular American’ can still live life to the fullest, he sacrifices his beloved Subaru Legacy, purchases 2 baby goats on Craigslist, plants a garden and begins to wean himself off Wal-Mart.

Our discussion really came down to these core ideas: drive less, eat local, reduce, reuse, renew and recycle. But Doug Fine gives his readers 5 things to do: 1. Vote for sustainable candidates. Make carbon reduction a priority. (We talked about what this means and what questions to ask of our candidates. Party affiliation may not always provide the answers.) 2. Think every day about the carbon miles you rack up in your diet. The average tomato travels 1,500 miles from the field to the table. 3. Drive on something other than fossil fuels to help create a market for biofuels. 4. Fight sprawl in your community. 5. Stay atop new carbon-reducing technologies. (Attend the offerings at the Center for the Environment).

He closes with one more suggestion that our book groups considers at every meeting—work together to spread the gospel of sustainable living.

Our next meeting is Tuesday, October 6, at 6 p.m. The assigned readings are from American Earth, a book of environmental essays edited by Bill McKibben. Specifically, we’re reading “How Flowers Changed the World” by Loren Eiseley and “Wrath of Grapes Boycott Speech” by Cesar Chavez.