Books

Silent Seasons is now at Burning Books!

Now that Silent Seasons is published and available for purchase as an ebook and paperback, I’ve shifted into a new phase of the book process: sharing it with the world! This is a steep learning curve for me and comes with strong feelings of inadequacy and fear, but the more I face it all, the easier (and more fun) it gets.

I am so grateful to Burning Books out of Buffalo, NY for being the first brick-and-mortar bookstore to carry Silent Seasons! You can buy your copy at the store, or order directly from their website HERE.

If you’re reading this before November 3rd, you’re invited to come out to Burning Books at 7pm for a Silent Seasons book talk! Check out the above flyer. And please support the Burning Books expansion project via their online fundraiser HERE.

 

Books, Climate Change, Sustainability

Silent Seasons the E-Book is Here!

Silent Seasons

Chasing Sustainability through the Law

by: Laura Evans

e-book available for purchase on Amazon HERE for 99¢ until September 28th (then $4.99)!

e-book also available for purchase on Kobo HERE for $4.99!

Paperback arrives the first week of October 2022.

Publisher: New Degree Press

 

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Silent Seasons: Chasing Sustainability through the Law is a thought leadership book about sustainability and US environmental law based on what author Laura Evans has experienced and learned as an environmental lawyer, consultant, and nonprofit staffer living in both Western New York and Austin, Texas.

Silent Seasons combines personal stories and legal information to teach the reader:

  • How specific environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act work.
  • How the current U.S. environmental law system is organized and failing us all.
  • How you can benefit from personal sustainability lessons I learned along the way.
  • How to create a broader framework for addressing current problems like climate change, water pollution, air pollution, species extinction, and more.
  • How to make chicken noodle soup.

The stories and lessons in this book will give the reader broader perspectives and new ways of thinking about sustainability, which will empower us all to move toward a more healthy and sustainable future together.

Books, Climate Change, Mind and Body, Politics, Post, Sustainability

Planting Trees

There is so much thinking (and talking) going on in the United States right now, as action slowly emerges. It’s hard to get unstuck! Last night someone commented on one of my earlier posts on mourning trees, and it reminded me of the genuine value of planting trees to cool our warming planet.

Carl Sagan‘s last book is called Billions and Billions, and it was published in 1998 (he died in 1996). I am fascinated by works that artists (I consider scientists and environmentalists to be artists if they are doing it right) create when they know that they are going to die in the near future. Carl Sagan wrote Billions and Billions as he died of cancer, to the point where his wife had to finish it. Rachel Carson spent over half of her time writing Silent Spring when she knew she was dying of cancer.

So here is Carl Sagan’s advice on taking real action to reduce the negative effects of global warming (this advice was published in 1998!):

The only method of cooling down the greenhouse effect which seems both safe and reliable is to plant trees. Everyone can plant trees – individuals, nations, industries. But especially, industry. Applied Energy Services in Arlington, Virginia, has built a coal-fired power plant in Connecticut; it is also planting trees in Guatemala that will remove from the Earth’s atmosphere more carbon dioxide than the company’s new facility will inject into the air over its operational lifetime. Shouldn’t lumber companies plant more forests – of the fast growing, leafy variety useful for mitigating the greenhouse effect – than they cut down? What about the coal, oil, natural gas, petroleum, and automobile industries? Shouldn’t every company that puts CO2 into the atmosphere be engaged in removing it as well? Shouldn’t every citizen? What about planting trees at Christmastime? Or birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries. Our ancestors came from the trees and we have a natural affinity for them. It is perfectly appropriate for us to plant more.