How to Help: Flooding in Jakarta
Dita Alangkara for Time
This isn’t being shown as much in the media, but Australia’s neighbor, Indonesia is dealing with a crisis of their own. There is severe flooding in Jakarta that’s been happening since New Year’s Eve and is one of the most powerful monsoons seen in over a decade.
66 people are confirmed dead, with more missing. Over 173,000 people have been displaced in Jakarta and nearby Bekasi City — and there’s more rain on the way.
The bad weather has caused blackouts and mudslides, hindering rescue efforts. Some roads are totally cut off due to the flooding.
The Red Cross has started to spray the city with a disinfectant meant to stop the spread of waterborne diseases. Warming temperatures and higher levels of rainfall cause the increase in these diseases — which is worrisome with our current climate crisis. (cnn)
Subsidence data courtesy of Irwan Gumilar of Geodesy Research Group of ITB | Satellite images via Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 via NY Times
Jakarta is also the fastest-sinking city in the world, which is largely caused by groundwater extraction in commercial and residential areas. It’s estimated that Jakarta is currently sinking at a rate of 25 centimeters per year, which can make flooding worse.
It’s sinking even faster than climate change is causing the sea to rise — so surreally fast that rivers sometimes flow upstream, ordinary rains regularly swamp neighborhoods and buildings slowly disappear underground, swallowed by the earth. (ny times)
The Indonesian government is planning on moving the country's capital to the island of Borneo to mitigate some of the problems Jakarta is expected to encounter due to climate change. That project is expected to take a decade and cost about $34 billion. (cnn)
How can you help?
I had a harder time finding places to donate for the Jakarta floods, but I’ve shared a few links for places to donate below:
Singapore Red Cross: Give Towards Jakarta Floods
Emergency Response: The Flooding Across Jakarta
Help Flood Victims Together with Kitabisa
Repeating this again because it’s important. In cases like this where the media isn’t highlighting what’s going on, it’s so important to SPREAD AWARENESS. One of the greatest challenges with climate change is its intangibility. The scope is just too large to grasp, and many of the most noticeable impacts are still too far removed from our daily lives. For some, climate change becomes either overwhelmingly challenging or abstract enough that it is easy to ignore. (Land Trust Alliance) If we communicate openly about what’s going on, it becomes easier to grasp and feel for something that you might not be seeing right in front of your face. This sparks change on so many different levels.
There have also been studies finding that people tend to believe that victims in racial groups different than their own suffer fewer “uniquely human” emotions like anguish, mourning, and remorse than victims of their own race. Vox wrote an article about this after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and it’s worth a read. You can also find the studies it cites here and here.
How to Help: Australia Bushfires
SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images
Australia is in the middle of fighting one of the worst fire seasons it’s ever seen, caused by record-breaking temperatures and severe drought, coupled with high winds. There’s currently no weather forecast in sight with any rain at all to give any reprieve to these fires. This has been happening since September. (BBC)
Copernicus EMS
More than four million hectares have burned in New South Wales alone - one hectare is roughly the size of a sports field. To put that in perspective: some 900,000 hectares burned in the 2019 Amazon fires and around 800,000 hectares in 2018 in California. (1 Hectar = 2.47 miles)
20 people have been confirmed dead and many are missing. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate, and nearly half a billion animals have died (including at least one third of the koala population). (BI)
Robert Oerlemans, via Associated Press
In three months, the fires have released an estimated 350 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. By comparison, the Amazon fires produced less than half of that at 140 million metric tons.
Air quality indexes over 200 are considered hazardous for health. The air quality index in parts of Australia have exceeded 999 during these fires. (Washington Post)
Climate change increases the likelihood, size, and frequency of wildfires, since warmer air sucks away moisture from trees and soil, leading to dryer land. Rising temperatures also make heat waves and droughts more frequent and severe, which exacerbates wildfire risk, since hot, parched forests are prone to burning.
via Reuters
The bush fire smoke has reached New Zealand, covering glaciers in brown ash, affecting the air quality, and turning the skies into an eery amber color. (Washington Post)
Matthew Abbott for The New York Times
How can you help?
I’ve shared links for places to donate below:
Fire Relief Fund for First Nations Communities
It’s also so important to SPREAD AWARENESS. One of the greatest challenges with climate change is its intangibility. The scope is just too large to grasp, and many of the most noticeable impacts are still too far removed from our daily lives. For some, climate change becomes either overwhelmingly challenging or abstract enough that it is easy to ignore. (Land Trust Alliance) If we communicate openly about what’s going on, it becomes easier to grasp and feel for something that you might not be seeing right in front of your face. This sparks change on so many different levels.
Pine All-Purpose Cleaner
A great way to use extra trimmings from your Christmas tree is to throw them in a jar with vinegar to create an all-purpose cleaner that smells like the holidays! Not only will it make your home smell like straight up Christmas, it will also keep you from having to buy another bottle of cleaner from the store. White vinegar (aka acetic acid) is a great disinfectant and cleaner on most surfaces. Here’s how you make it!
Fill a jar with leftover pine twigs + needles
Pour white vinegar over the pine twigs to fill the jar
Let is sit out of sunlight for 2-3 weeks
Strain out the pine twigs + needles
Fill a spray bottle halfway with the vinegar
Fill the rest of the bottle with water
Use it to clean your home (just avoid real hardwood floors, granite and marble).
Do you have any other ways you use discarded holiday decor? Twigs make a great addition to a holiday tablescape as well!
Environmentally Friendly Christmas Tree
Getting into the holiday spirit and doing a bit of research: What are the most sustainable options for Christmas trees? I’ll share what I found.
First off, if you’re looking to purchase a tree this year, buying a real tree is much better for the environment than a plastic one (unless you already have a plastic tree at home you can use).
Benefits of purchasing a real tree > a plastic one:
One acre of fir trees can consume 12,000lbs of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Buying from a local farm helps support the economy (and small business owners, yay)!
Christmas trees are grown like a crop, not usually in a forest setting. For every tree cut down, 1-5 are planted in its place. This is great for capturing CO2!
Real Christmas trees can be composted.
If you already have a plastic tree, you’re better off using that than switching over to a real tree. If you can’t buy a real tree for any reason (ex. allergies), try to find a plastic one secondhand. Take care of it and use it for as long as you can.
According to the Carbon Trust, you need to reuse an artificial tree for at least 10 years to keep its environmental impact lower than that of one real tree being grown and transported.
Another great option is to buy a potted Christmas tree. This way, you can use it for years to come… or plant it in your yard! In California, there’s a company called Living Christmas Tree that will allow you to rent a living tree for the season!
Finally, you avoid purchasing a Christmas tree all together. There are a lot of ways to get creative, while still making your home feel festive for the holidays.
Use a rosemary bush as a miniature Christmas tree this year. It’ll give you the endless gift of fresh rosemary and will smell great.
Craft up something with items around the house. Use spare wood, paper, cardboard, etc… and create something to showcase in your house.
Use a plant you already have on hand. A Christmas cactus is never a bad idea.
Do you have other sustainable plans for the holidays? I’d love to hear from you. Happy Holidays!
A Sustainable Thanksgiving
I wanted to share some thoughts on going into Thanksgiving (and the holidays in general) with more of a sustainable mindset. According to the EPA, waste increases by 25% from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. That’s a lot of excess waste! There are a lot of simple changes that can be made that won’t ruin your holiday traditions.
Shop locally at your farmers market or local produce market. Food grown locally uses fewer greenhouse gases to get to you, and are usually grown on smaller farms using more sustainable practices. If you can, consolidate your shopping into one trip to minimize the extra miles and save gas.
Buying locally also helps to keep jobs and money in your community’s economy. Plus, local food tends to be fresher and tastier. And don’t forget your reusable bags! My favorite tote is the standard Baggu because it folds up and can fit inside my purse. I also love these bulk bags from The Sunshine Series!
Ditch the disposables. If you’re hosting and you don’t have enough dinnerware + don’t have a budget to get a matching set of ceramic dishes, head to your local goodwill or other thrift store to see what they have. It’s fun to mix and match vintage dishes too!
If you are interested in purchasing a set of matching ceramics, I highly recommend BX ceramics who will make everything to order or a brand like Heath Ceramics, that has a fantastic zero waste program.
If you don’t have room for more items in your house, ask if any of your guests have a set you can borrow.
Save your raw veggie scraps. If you freeze raw veggie scraps, you can make your own veggie stock to use later on. I throw the veggie scraps and water into a pot with some garlic and bay leaves — it’s saves me from having to buy it from the market! If you don’t have room to save them, compost them.
Ask about food allergies/preferences. To keep food waste to a minimum, make sure you know what your guests can eat/want to eat. If 7/8 people don’t like a certain dish, maybe don’t make a huge portion of it.
We had dairy, gluten and nut allergies at our friendsgiving this year (and a lot of vegetarians), so we planned ahead with our dishes to make sure everyone could take part in the feast!
Traveling to visit family or friends for the holidays? Purchase carbon offsets if you can afford it. I use Terrapass, but there are others out there as well. It’s a lot cheaper than you’d think! I spent under $20 to offset my roundtrip to Fort Worth from Burbank last month.
Bring your own containers for leftovers (just in case)! I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Thanksgiving gathering and not been sent home with a plastic Tupperware full of leftovers. This year, I’ll be bringing my stainless steal or glass reusable containers to bring home the goods.
If you’re going out of town, unplug unnecessary electronics to lower your footprint. If you plan to leave the lights on for safety reasons, get a timer so they’re not on 24/7 (and use L.E.D. lightbulbs)!
I’d love to hear if you have any other tips on sustainability for the holidays this year!
CACAO ENERGY BITES
I’ve been playing around with a few different energy bite recipes and created this one that I’m obsessed with. It’s a perfect bite-sized snack for a busy day on the go. Recipe for cacao energy bites below!
Ingredients:
1 cup pitted dates
1/2 cup raw almonds (or nut of choice)
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 avocado
1/4 cup rolled oats
2 tsp cacao powder (and extra to roll each ball in)
Directions:
1. Put all ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth (I like to leave some small chunks of almonds to keep them crunchy)
2. Roll each ball in cacao powder or crushed almonds (optional)
JANUARY IN BOOKS
I started the new year off with a bit of reading and wanted to share the three books I’ve finished this month with you! I’ve been using the app GoodReads to keep track of the books I’m reading and want to read. It’s a great way to keep track of my wishlist of books that I never stop adding to!
There There by Tommy Orange
★★★★★
My brother gave me this book for Christmas and I started reading it the next day. The book consists of multiple stories that all intertwine. Each individual story is visceral, heartbreaking, and relentless. It had me feeling a pit in my stomach, of a reality I knew existing but not so intimately. It’s a truly important book to read and reveals how broken we still are.
The book felt like a voice I needed to listen to, screaming with urgency and anger. A voice that can’t wrap their head around their own identity because it was taken away. I highly recommend.
Motherhood by Sheila Heti
★
Ok, I have to be honest about this one. It did nothing for me! I’m so worried that I read it the wrong way or took my expectations too seriously, ruining the book. If you’ve read it, I’d LOVE to know your thoughts because I’m feeling pretty guilty about the one star rating I’m giving it.
Diving right in to my feelings toward Motherhood, I’ll start with the feeling of self-indulgence? I went in hoping for a book that would make me think a bit differently about the decision to be a mother, but I didn’t feel like the book was even about that. The more I read, the more I felt that the author was talking herself in and out of wanting to be in her relationship, which felt really toxic to me. A thought would start with “maybe I do want to have a baby with him” and a paragraph later, she would said “Maybe I don’t want to be with him at all?” It felt like an internal dialogue that she was trying to relate to motherhood, when in reality it was a diary about a relationship that (to me) seemed unhealthy. It reminded me of previous toxic relationships and made me feel really uneasy.
Educated by Tara Westover
★★★★★
Once I picked this book up, I couldn’t put it down until it was finished. I had to remind myself at times that this book is a memoir, not fiction. The author grew up in a way I couldn’t relate to at all — in the middle of nowhere Utah with family that did not believe in schooling, medicine, and really anything that felt a step outside of their home on the side of the mountain. It started off sounding magical; living in nature, making herbal tinctures, and learning from the world around you… but it was due to delusion, not knowledge. I was fascinated by how her and a few of her siblings were able to step outside of the bubble they knew and create a life for themselves (without even an elementary education).
The most impressive parts of the book were hard to read, about abusive relationships that start before you know what that even means… It felt like I was watching someone learn how to move through life with these scars and learn about herself through them. It was heartbreaking and real. I know this is a book I’ll be reading again in the future.
What are you reading so far this year?
FIVE FILMS
I've watched a lot of great films this year so far and I'd love to share some current favorites with you! I'd love to hear what your current favorites are and/or if you've seen any of the below:
WORKING GIRL (1988) - trailer
This film really stood out to me when I watched it last month. Working Girl was the first of a series put on by a friend of ours called Working Girls: America's Career Women on Screen (you can watch the trailer for that series, here). If you haven't seen the movie (go watch it!), it's a story about a hardworking women named Tess (Melanie Griffith) who is trying to work her way up the career ladder, only to keep running in to pesky barriers (one example is a sleazy Kevin Spacey, which is surprisingly timely). She's offered one last shot at a job working for Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver), but that comes with its own complications. You'll follow along her journey of career growth, which takes some fun twists and turns.
THE SQUARE (2017) - trailer
If you've seen Force Majeure, you know that Ruben Östlund is incredible at creating worlds where you feel like you're living through someone else's existential crisis. The Square will have you feeling uncomfortable in ways you probably won't be expecting, but not necessarily in a bad way. It's beautifully shot and the way he taps into the senses is extraordinary. This film in particular is about a highly respective museum curator (Claes Bang) who appears perfectly put together, but slowly unravels to show that keeping up with the ideals he curates for the museum isn't that easy when it comes to a busy life. The below scene with Elizabeth Moss was a personal favorite.
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (2017) - trailer
This movie was SO REAL. I was blown away. In it, you follow 6-year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince as she grows up in a budget motel with her young mom. You mostly see her out with her friends, wreaking havoc around the area. The motel manager, Bobby (Willem Dafoe), is trying his best to make the motel a nice place for tourists, while simultaneously doing more than is expected of him and allowing guests to live there. He has a soft spot for the kids and you'll LOVE him in this film. In the end, it will open your eyes to a situation where right around the corner from Disney World, there are kids that are unable to make that lifestyle a reality.
ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS (2017) - trailer
About five minutes into this movie, Mark paused it and told me "Just a reminder, this is a documentary." I'm so glad he did because it plays like a narrative! It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. The reason it feels this way is partly because the director (Michal Marczak) is close with the two main subjects in the film, so it feels extremely intimate. You follow the lives of Michal and Krzysztof, two young friends that seems to be part of an endless party. You see them fall in love and fall apart. It's one of the most beautiful things I've watched in a long time.
NORMA RAE (1979) - trailer
This film was also part of the series Working Girls: America's Career Women on Screen. It's about a strong-willed woman named Norma Rae, who takes risks to make the workplace a safer place to be. After multiple examples of poor treatment in the textile factory where she works with both her mother and father, Norma Rae joins a movement to unionize her factory. You'll see some of the struggles it takes to organize a labor union in the film, which is truly eye-opening. We listened to a Q&A with two labor workers in Los Angeles after the screening, which showed us that these conditions still exist today.
GOODWIN
You can now find my three signature fragrances over at Goodwin, a shop run by an inspiring Nashville-based creative, Elise Joseph. Her shop is beautifully curated, with classic pieces that are eye-catching and minimal. These are items that are timeless and will be loved for years to come. There's truly something for everyone, so make sure to take a look!
I'm honored to be along side so many talented makers in such a beautiful shop. From their descriptions, which fragrance would you choose?
Fragrance 01 | cedarwood, vetiver, vanilla and black pepper
Fragrance 02 | sandalwood, rose, palo santo, lemon and sage
Fragrance 03 | vetiver, myrrh, sage and lavender
All photos by Goodwin
SAY WHEN
I'm so excited to share the first short video I've ever shot and edited! From ideating and creating a moodboard, filming and editing, this was a lot of fun to work on. Thanks to those that helped make this happen below:
Mark Harrison - for teaching me all things editing
Rachel Silkowski - for sharing your wonderful wine with us and for being the perfect wine model
Lisa Garcia - for being an expert wine swirler and stylist for this shoot
Now I'm itching for the next video project. If you want to collaborate, let me know!