Search results for ""author virginia aronson""

“Mottainai feels like sacrifice at first. Then it feels like the only way to live.” Mottainai means waste. Popular with the Japanese for generations, mottainai (pronounced moe-tie-nye) is the Buddhist term for essence. One can say mottainai and mean “waste nothing.” Or, if something appears wasteful, one might remark, “mottainai.” A kind of modern day fairy tale, MOTTAINAI: A JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE ZERO WASTE LIFE is the story of a young man who has everything and feels nothing but frustration. Until he meets an unusual stranger and learns how little we really need—and why living differently is important for each of us, and for the planet. An ancient Japanese philosophy popularized worldwide by the late African activist Wangari Maathai, mottainai is both an individual consciousness and a global movement toward zero waste. To support this important worldview, MOTTAINAI: A JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE ZERO WASTE LIFE provides an entertaining story, an allegory about what it takes for us to change our comfortable, wasteful lifestyle in order to save our beautiful, beleaguered planet. Includes tips for cutting back on waste and helpful resources/references.

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A cautionary tale with depth and humour, A Garden on Top of the World is environmental fiction for ages 12 and up. Includes resources on gardening, urban gardens, heirloom seeds and organic foods. The year is 2066 and life in Greenland is much warmer, more crowded, and lacking in fresh food. Sixteen-year-old Jonnie lives in the Relocation city of Shamed. Hundred-story high rises house extended families from American coastal cities relocated after the Sixth Sea Rise. Work and school are conducted from overcrowded apartments, and homeless people camp out in the streets. Red is a homeless man who takes up temporary residence in a pigeon coop on the roof. After Red talks about the seeds in the birds' droppings, Jonnie gets interested in heirloom seeds. The family business has just been awarded a lucrative contract from Monarcho, the international conglomerate that holds patents to much of the world's seeds. Jonnie knows little about how food grows because meals come in packages ordered online and delivered by drone. Dishes are manufactured in the home using 3D printers. Armed with a new understanding of old-fashioned garden-grown food, Jonnie is determined to create her own garden on the roof of her high rise. Jonnie's search for who she is and what she might be able to offer the world is one that will resonate with readers of all ages. The information she learns about healthy food, sustainable agriculture, and urban gardens may inspire readers to start their own gardens.

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Alyson Soule is a novice journalist working for a Florida newspaper. A hospital calls to inform her that her forty-one-year-old mother has overdosed again. Virgie Soule's addiction is related to her secret past, which Alyson is determined to uncover. Back when Virgie was a college student, she volunteered to spend the summer in Belle Glade, Florida, helping the families of the sugar cane fieldworkers. She found them used clothing and donated food, and taught the children to read. And she fell in love with a fellow volunteer, a Harvard Law grad training to do foreign service work. Al Gomez also wanted to help the sugar cane workers, who led desperate lives. Together, Virgie and Al became involved in plans for a worker protest over unfair pay. But Al disappeared and Virgie returned to her parents' house, her world a much darker place. Now Alyson wants to know what happened to Al and to her mother back in 1986. In seeking answers, she learns about the plight of the sugar cane workers. The owners of the US sugar companies are some of the world's richest people. They've made their billions on the backs of the world's poorest people. In addition to human rights violations and corruption, Big Sugar has made significant contributions to environmental destruction and global ill health. Sugar cane fields take up thousands of acres of Florida land. The waste and runoff from the cane fields are the source of serious pollution. Drinking water in the state is contaminated, fish and aquatic life die, wildlife and sea grass are threatened. Bull Sugar fictionalizes true events to show the kind of insidious social injustice exhibited by Big Sugar, and to illustrate the ongoing damage caused to the environment and people of Florida. Bull Sugar is eco-fiction for readers age 12 and up.

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