Recycling Projects: Featuring Jennifer Kemper

Today, Viridorari's eighth Guest Writer, Jennifer Kemper, will provide you with four recycling projects!  I discovered Jennifer at an arts and crafts show in Cazenovia, NY.

Jennifer Kemper has been an artist and potter all of her life. Though pottery is her main work, she has fun using other media as well.  A junk-collector from early on, she learned through experimentation to make various things using items that might have been thrown away. Her creations include wind chimes, hurricane lamps, garden totems, terrariums, candles, jewelry, lampworked glass beads, masks, clothing, and more. Some of these items can be found on her website www.kemperpottery.webs.com.
You can also see her work at The Artisans Guild in Oneonta, NY and at her studio at 120 Taylor Rd, Morris, NY.

Harsh Facts, Ecofriendly Economics: Homemade Products

Harsh Facts of the Week

These facts come from 350.org and their campaigns to curb global warming.

350 parts per million is what scientists and climate experts believe is the safe upper limit of how much carbon dioxide can be in our atmosphere. We recently broke 400 ppm.

Scientists and governments alike also agree that warming the Earth by 2 more degrees Celsius would create a catastrophic outcome.

We can emit 565 more gigatons of CO2 and stay below that disastrous 2˚C mark.

Fossil fuel corporations have enough fuel in their reserves to create 2,795 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions- almost five times the safe amount.

Picture courtesy of: http://www.carbonemissionstradingexchange.com/

These numbers are simple and straightforward. They tell us that we need to get off our butts and do something. We have no place for careless fossil fuel, oil, and coal burning in a liveable future. Enough said.

“The environment is where we all meet; where all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share. It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what we can become.” –Lady Bird Johnson