“Geranium”

5'' x 7" • Gouache on Fine Paper • Kristin Hussey

In This Issue: Data Centers, Practices, Home Renovation, and Cities.

Mountains of Data: The Physical Reality of the Virtual World (pt. 2)

by Taylor Reed || 1,224 words (5 minute read)

Part Two: Considering Energy Efficiency, Solutions for How to Move Forward Well, and the Present March towards Technification

(This is the second piece of a two-part writing. Click here for the first.)

More than 7 million data centers dot the world, with relatively little scrutiny. Each of these units requires large amounts of electricity, and large amounts of water, largely for powering equipment and maintaining optimal temperatures for the heat-generating electronic operations. According to the Department of Energy, these buildings “are one of the most energy-intensive building types, consuming 10 to 50 times the energy per floor space of a typical commercial office building.”

In the pursuit of efficiency, support is growing for the construction of these centers in areas close to abundant renewable and passive energy — think cooler weather and coastlines where the ocean’s wind and thermal energy can be captured. Microsoft’s Project Natick even experimented with sinking a server into the Pacific to harness the cooler temperatures. Its website quips: “50% of us live near the coast. Why doesn’t our data?”

Well, in Singapore, for example, land is already in short supply, and abundant population centers along the coast are vying for space with the construction of data centers. For that reason, the Natick trial is a model Singapore might find future hope in. Currently, all data center construction has been halted, and concerns about powering facilities loom.

Ireland is going through similar electrification struggles. While the rest of the European Union depends on expansion of the data center capital: “…more than doubling the size of Ireland’s data center industry by 2030 is directly at odds with Ireland’s otherwise progressive climate action goals.”

“Yes, they [data centers] are supporting renewables, but we cannot have all our renewables going towards new developments instead of decarbonizing our existing energy system.”…

Listen to this essay

The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration

|| 1 || I hope you’re finding quiet these days, alongside purposeful work. That quiet is essential for the sort of reflection and inner work that I wrote briefly about in the essay above—the stuff that leads to positive actions. I asked what sorts of things you’re doing in your own life, and I want to draw attention to that. I’m actually interested in hearing, so please let me know if you have a moment.

Sharon Astyk has an annual series of posts called “Independence Days.” Each edition follows a template of prompts: “harvest something,” “want not,” “caregiving and mutual aid,” etc, and invites readers to share their own responses to the prompts. I’ve appreciated reading through them, especially while being mindful of not feeling guilty because there’s a bunch of things I’m not doing, but being grateful for the ideas, reminders and inspiration aiming at good practices on the home-economy scale.

|| 2 || Home renovation. We've got a carpeted living room. The carpet obscures hardwood floors, although I don’t know what state they’re in and there are definite soft spots. Part of me wants to pull the carpeting and padding up, refinish the floors, redo the trim and get some rugs to make it cozy again. Another part of me knows that’s money, time and energy into unnecessary things, while the carpet is serving us just fine. You don’t have to tinker with what works. And if you’re considering chasing trends that are constantly expiring and evolving, forget it. But there is something to the notion of pride in a place. To restoration and improvement. Where you’re at affects you, and you affect where you’re at—domestic and civic.

This makes me think of the following words of Wendell Berry, from The Need To Be Whole. “It seems natural to me to think that there is a law of love operating in this world. If you see the world’s goodness and beauty, and if you love your own place in it (no deed or title required), then your love itself will be one of your life’s great rewards. That is the law that rules the “sticker,” the settler, the actual patriot. The opposite law is that of greed, which sees the goodness and beauty of the world as wealth and power. It says: Take what you want. No individual person is purely a settler or an exploiter, but perhaps every person must submit to the rule of one law or the other.”

|| 3 || I love Bellaire. I’ve been thinking about cities lately though.Thinking about the coffee shops and music venues, or the best—spots that combine the two. The Alluvion at Commongrounds hearkens to this idea thanks to Higher Ground’s involvement in the cooperative venture, but I’m thinking back further to what used to be the KEXP/La Marzocco cafe in Seattle. I remember walking in with the Victrola Crew for a coffee defect tasting session, and, lo and behold, Langhorne Slim was playing. And the next day, Mokhtar Alkhanshali and Dave Eggers were there. And the bike-ability in cities? That felt like freedom, especially coupled with the buses, trains and ferries that rolled up the coast, into the mountains, and across waters to islands and other pleasant peninsulas.

Here’s an article on “micro-communities” with that kind of accessibility, “a radical rejection of just about everything the US has built in our lifetime.” It explores the idea of urban neighborhoods where everything needed can be walked or biked to within fifteen minutes. In short, zoning and design aiming for close-knit, mixed-use areas can lead to vibrancy, safer streets, and healthier, more-affordable living patterns, but there are challenges to be addressed. For instance, you’ve got the model, the inspiration, you want—now how do you go about implementing it?

For me, my question isn’t, “Okay, where is this sort of thing happening, and how can I get over there?” as it used to be. It’s “What might this look like right where I am, here in this town?” Now that I think about it, I can bike to pretty much everything I need in fifteen minutes. It’s not the easiest ride, and it could be a lot safer. But it’s bikeable. And I’ve seen the results of people who’ve made similar commitments to this place a long time ago, despite it not being the easiest. Sometimes that’s not an option, or the best option, for reasons out of our hands. I’ve left a place that I loved, and at times that felt like abandoning my own principles. But I’m here now, and I can reaffirm those commitments. It’s good to be here.

The Weft — News and Events

|| 1 || The Soil Connection Conference. Join plant and soil consultants Dane Terrill and Joe Scrimger in exploring the role of soil in plant health, human health and water quality, at the Soil Connection Conference, held in Traverse City, on February 23rd. Find more information on the day-long gathering, hosted by Krull’s Composting, here.

|| 2 || ACD Farmer Resource Fair. The Antrim Conservation District’s Farmer Resource Fair is coming up on February 28th. The event features representatives, presentations and tables offering networking opportunities and information on various resources available to farmers—small, medium and large-scale—as well as a hot lunch from the Front Porch Cafe. Find more details and sign-up for the Ellsworth event, held at the Banks Township Hall, here.

|| 3 || Bellaire Newspaper Digitization Contest. The Bellaire Historical Societyis one of five finalists in the running for a grant allowing for a portion of their historical newspaper archives to be digitized in a keyword-searchable format available to the public. The winner of the contest is decided by public voting via Twitter, using the hashtag #DigBellaire. Each tweet with that hashtag counts, and users can “vote” as many times as they’d like, while the contest is open February 20th-February 28th. Find out more about the finalists here, and if you’d like help creating a Twitter account, ask the staff at the Bellaire Public Library.

|| 4 || Parallel 45’s Reading Series continues at the Alluvion. Find out more about four upcoming performances held at the Alluvion here. Each play reading concludes with an engaging conversation on a topic relevant to the piece, and society today, ranging from “climate change, LGBTQIA+ and immigrant rights, justice, death, spirituality, and more.” Tickets are available for a suggested donation of $20, and purchasing them ahead of time is recommended.

|| 5 || You might be wondering what’s happening with the Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference. There’s too much to detail here, but we will say that we’re excited! Click here for an update, and watch for more news in upcoming months.

|| 6 || Join MIFFS in Kalamazoo, MI, on February 25, 2023 for the 19th Annual Michigan Family Farms Conference. Workshops include topics such as: beginning bee-keeping, permaculture, finance & lending, grant brainstorming & collaboration, Farm Bill 101, farm-to-school, selling to food hubs, increasing revenue streams through food assistance programs, soil health 101, farming with a disability, branding & content marketing, and much more! Registration and information on shared transportation is available here.

|| 7 || This year’s Real Organic Symposium is tackling two complicated questions—”How Does Regenerative Differ from Organic?” and “Is Tillage Evil?”—in two sessions held a week apart (February 26th and March 5th), featuring insight and commentary from 30+ speakers. Read more on the particulars of these discussions, and find information on registering for the virtual summit, here. Alternatively, check out a newly released three-minute teaser trailer here.

|| 8 || SEEDS is looking for an Environmental Art Fellow and a Resident Farmer. What if your "office" this summer was the Historic Barns Park and the beautiful community garden and trails which surround it? Proposals are due March 15th and February 17th, 2023 respectively. Click here to learn more and to read the full RFPs.

|| 9 || Maple Syrup Masters Workshop Series. Are you interested in learning more about maple syrup production? Whether it’s large-scale tapping techniques, bottling procedure, running a small-scale operation, or any other facet that might have you curious, a series of hands-on demonstrations and workshops is being offered by East Jordan’s Wagbo Farm & Education Center, in partnership with several other farms and sugar shacks in the area. Registration is recommended. Find out more by downloading the flyer available at wagbo.org.

|| 10 || Grant Opportunities
a.) Value-Added Producer Grant. Click here for dates, locations and registration notes for informational workshops on the USDA Value-Added Producer Grant. The MSU Product Center & MSU Extension/USDA Rural Development collaborations offer an opportunity to learn more about the specific requirements for the funding, which “focuses on planning for and conducting farm-based activities to create new products, expanding marketing opportunities, and increasing grower income.”

b.) Are you a farmer, rancher or forest manager? Share your vital feedback with USDA by taking a nationwide survey here. The survey is completely anonymous, will take about 10 minutes to complete, is available in multiple languages, and will be open until March 31, 2023. Also note, 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture responses are due February 6th. To find out more about the five-year questionnaire, visit the USDA’s Census of Agriculture page.

c.) If you are a farmer, or work with an organization that works with farmers, here’s an opportunity for small, short-term grants aimed at mental health and stress efforts in agriculture. Farmers can apply for this funding directly to support stress work with their employees. If you caught Remington Rice’s Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference presentation, you know how important this work can be. Learn more here.

Many thanks to the Michigan Arts & Culture Council and the National Endowment for the Arts for their support of this work.