way too much waste

 

Have you ever thought about what happens with your waste once the garbage truck pulls away from your curb?  Out of sight, out of mind? The garbage statistics in this country are staggering even if we only consider residential garbage (a mere 2% of the total garbage output, which includes industrial, commercial and construction garbage).  San Francisco has striven for many years to become a zero waste city, trying to either recycle or compost most waste.

I do want to make you feel guilty in order to make you more aware.  After all, toxic landfill juice leaks into our groundwater (which we drink), and toxic landfill breath evaporates into our air (which we breathe in).

What can you do to help?  Many things.  First, recycle, recycle, recycle.  Get the biggest residential recycling can from your recycling company, and the smallest available garbage can from your garbage company (and save a few dollars a year).  Recycle all your paper products, from cereal boxes to newspapers to gift wrap.  If you get your eggs from a farm return your egg cartons to them for reuse.  If you do some home printing print on both sides of the paper.  Recycle all your plastics (the recycling company does not take bags in our area, but the local supermarkets collect them for recycling) and glass containers (I actually save a lot of my wide mouth glass jars to store home made hummus or bulk items I get from the coop).

Bring your own canvas shopping bags when you go shopping.  Start a composting bin if you have a garden and compost all produce waste (see an earlier post), coffee filters and tea leaves/bags, egg shells, stale bread (although I'd rather make bread pudding or a breakfast strata with it).  If you eat a lot of produce like we do, that should cut your kitchen garbage output by about half!

You might also consider buying clothes at second hand shops (I am always amazed what great things in superb condition I find at a fraction of the cost of new clothing), and give your used clothing (that is still in good condition) to a local shelter or bring it to the many clothing donation bins that abound.  And do buy compostable garbage bags since standard plastics can take up to 1000 years (!!!) to decompose.

Most of all, buy less stuff (stuff does not make you happy, inner peace does) and produce less garbage.  Please reread an earlier related post,

piranhas and the eco-mind

It is interesting and eye-opening how "the truth" can be so deeply in the eyes of the beholder.  We see what we believe, and we don't see what we don't believe.  We have been thinking along the (somewhat) misinterpreted Darwinian lines of nature's potential ferociousness and cruelty in the name of the survival of the fittest.  But scientists are beginning to dismantle this paradigm. Sunday's NY Times article took wildly exaggerated reports about the supposedly blood thirsty piranhas apart and reduced them to nothing much.  Growing up I remember hearing stories about entire cows supposedly being stripped to the bones in minutes by a huge swarm of these fish.  But I also acknowledge reading later about indigenous people wading and swimming fearlessly in piranha inhabited waters.

A short video on Suzanne Simard's work on the wood-wide-web and the mycorhizzal (mushroom) network recently made the rounds on Facebook.  Dr. Simard is involved in research about mother trees (huge old trees in the woods) and their social network, where plant seedlings grow up around the mother tree, and mushroom networks reach far underground, living in symbiotically nourishing relationships with the trees for their mutual benefit.

Nature is becoming friendlier by the minute as our outlook on the environment is shifting and we are becoming more eco-minded.

no Me Generation

Turns out that Generation Y is very different from the Me Generation, the baby boomers.  The NY Times reported in a recent article that Generation Y, those born after 1980, are more into quality of life and less into financial success - quality over quantity.  "Meaning" and "making a difference" are terms that come up.  Meaningfulness for these millenials is associated with "other-orientation" as well as giving, as opposed to egocentrism and personal gain.  The term ecocentrism (as in ecosystem, in contrast to egocentrism) has also been used for those who think "green," who care about doing what's good for all and nature vs. what's just good for oneself.  This is a real shift and in sync with the shift or rise in consciousness we have been told is underway.  These convictions will have huge implications on our culture and politics.

Fasten your seat belts!  Move to the side boomers!

what the heck is kernza?

You might ask what the heck Kernza is?  It's about sustainable agriculture.   Sustainable means in short eternally renewable from within, which is without bringing in outside products.

We almost take for granted the annual winter seed buying ritual from seed catalogs.  But I always thought that buying those decorative annuals for the garden was a bit of a waste, compared to perennials that come up every year again, no worries, no money, no effort.  Wouldn't it be nice if our wheat came up every year again?  No buying seeds, no sowing, no tilling, less effort, less money.  Researchers have been working on exactly that: developing perennial varieties of our staple cereals, and Kernza is one of them.

This is thinking more in terms of permaculture (please read my previous post on it), a perennial polyculture, which is what most ecosystems look like as Mark Bittman explains in a recent article:  "In perennial polyculture, the plants may fertilize one another, physically support one another, ward off pests and diseases together, resist drought and flood, and survive even when one member suffers."  How does that sound for a wonderfully cooperative plant community?  No Darwin here.

You can start small in your own garden by saving seeds from this year's harvest for next year's planting instead of relying on the big seed companies; or look for a local seed library for some interesting heirloom varieties.  Local seed libraries  (see Hudson Valley Seed Library) work collaboratively and require you to bring back some of your own seeds to keep the library replenished.

Think in renewable cycles.

divorce is not an option

That's what Bill Clinton said about our interdependence with our planet in his keynote address at Omega Institute's recent conference on sustainability which I attended. We must all wake up to the fact that climate change is here and that it is real, that it is manmade, that it is happening fast, and that it is a scary thing.  As a matter of fact, Jeremy Rifkin, the writer and economic and social visionary actually called it "terrifying."

But then, out of crisis and chaos new things are born.  Environmentalist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken's message at that same conference was to embrace carbon, our supposed enemy.  "Carbon," he says, "is the business of life and the answer to our nightmares," the subject of a book he is currently writing, because carbon is "the currency of abundance," a concept we lack in our present interest based economics of scarcity (see also Charles Eisenstein's Sacred Economics).  Interesting, because spiritual traditions have always advised us to embrace our enemies who mirror back to us what we lack or need to embrace.

So, since divorce from our planet is not an option, and closing our eyes and ears just prolongs the agony, we each need to wake up - quick quick.  The break, or consciousness shift, that the Mayans may have seen in the ending of their calendar with the year 2012 is here.  Change is opportunity, and we choose how gently or how chaotic change happens.  Through embrace and acceptance change happens more gently.   Do your bit  -  we must get off carbon as an energy source and embrace it in other forms.  Get a Prius, insulate your home, realize that the world is changing, eat much less meat and not the supermarket kind, open up to your intuition, speak kindly to others, and most of all enjoy life!  That way "life does not come at you, it comes from you," as my wise yoga teacher Aura Lehrer said.

It's no longer business as usual!

Also see recent posts on what sustainability is and the conference notes.

conference notes - sustainable living conference

Totally inspiring conference at Omega on Sustainable Living this past week-end, awesome speakers, all on the forefront of this new consciousness paradigm. Bill Clinton made two major points: Americans are not politically active enough (hence the Congressional mess - 40 years in the making he said, go vote, not only in the presidential elections), and from here on in it's  all about cooperation and community, win-win for all.

Economist Jeremy Rifkin, who consults the Germany government on how to transition to the new energy paradigm (not enough people listening on this side of the Atlantic yet, oops) foresees the new cultural paradigm arising out of the climate change calamity and predicts a lateral energy and infrastructure development, solar go! - Germany and Denmark are developing it now, America - look there for the future.

Environmentalist Paul Hawken is currently writing a book on loving our enemy: carbon - isn't that what they teach in all the spiritual disciplines, to love your enemy?

Biologist Janine Benyus teaches think tanks to use the natural world as a model for new technologies.

Rob Hopkins of the Transition Movement, which is about living without fossil fuels, preaches local + community + cooperation.

Environmental professor David W. Orr and architect Bob Berkebile are developing entire sustainable communities, not just individual buildings.

Live stream of conference can be watched until December 5:  http://www.eomega.org/workshops/conferences/where-we-go-from-here

Let yourself be inspired!  These are people we need to listen to.

on sustainability

You may wonder what all the buzz is with sustainability and "green" practices and what it actually means. Most of our current manufacturing processes are linear, energy intense and they create waste, thus damaging the environment one way or the other. Just imagine how corn flakes are made (not that I'm an expert). The various ingredients - GMO corn (oh no), food coloring (just saying), high-fructose corn syrup (oh well), preservatives and additives (ahem) - have to be shipped to the corn flakes factory from various locations at the expense of a lot of energy (trucking, gas) and packaging material. The packaging waste of the corn flakes ingredients goes into the garbage or recycling (if we are lucky) stream. Then the cereal is being manufactured (don't like that word for food) by machines with high energy input and some waste products (waste water, steam and fumes, and who knows what else). After that it gets packaged into sealed inner plastic bags and outer cardboard boxes (another high energy/high supply input process) and shipped to distributors (trucking, gas - you get the picture), after that to the supermarkets, where they have to recycle or throw away the pallets/shrink wrap/outer cartons. Finally the cereal gets purchased, and the retail packaging goes into the waste (the inside plastic pouch) or gets recycled (the exterior cardboard box).   Overall it's a process that requires huge material and energy inputs all along and creates enormous waste and pollution.

A sustainable process should require no exterior input of energy or material. It is a cyclical and wasteless process that repeats itself indefinitely without damage or side effects to the environment. The easiest example of such a process is a vegetable garden. If we save the seeds from one year to the next, if we fertilize with compost created from organic home and garden waste, if we use manual labor to tend to it, it becomes a wasteless indefinitely renewable cycle that requires no outside energy or product purchase other than elbow grease. All natural cycles are thus sustainable. Permaculture is such a sustainable agricultural/cultural system (please refer to an earlier post on permaculture).

On the homefront the better our houses are insulated for example, the less outside energy we need to introduce to heat and cool them, and the more sustainable the home energy cycle becomes. The Passivhaus is a residential building concept with such stringent insulation specifications that the house retains a constant temperature and requires no heating system (heating the hot water is another story, and energy to run appliances and lighting is yet another). A Passivhaus also takes into account the heat output from lights, people, and appliances in its energy calculations. There is also a zero-energy house, which is sustainable and generates its own energy needs. A zero energy house may include a geothermal heating/cooling system, solar panels to offset the electrical needs, LED lighting (the lightbulbs are good for 50,000 hours!!! - something like 20 years, and consume minimal energy), triple-pane windows (see a previous post), and a few other new cutting edge mechanical systems, in addition to superior insulation.

Sustainable is the way to go, it is gentle on the planet!

we are nature

That we have come to think of ourselves as separate from nature shines through when we say "let me take a walk in nature," or when we refer to nature as "outside."  And of course it shines through in how we treat nature - we have not been kind to it lately.  As a society we have come to view ourselves as superior to nature, as separate from nature; we dominate and control nature, and "use" it for our enrichment.    I believe this behavior arose from disassociation and fear - what indigenous person would fear nature?  How absurd, they live with it, in it, as part of it, from it.  We Westerners of industrialized nations need to relearn to live with it, understand it, be kind to it, embrace it, and work with it. What is "nature" actually?   The 1970s gave rise to the idea of the Gaia principle, the idea of earth as one enormously complex organism that encompasses everything from rocks and rivers, to plants and minerals, animals and humans.  While the Gaia principle excludes elements outside of planet earth (the planets, the cosmos) it is a step in the right direction of a more encompassing understanding of our embeddedness in earth.  Native American Chief Seattle supposedly said something like "whatever you do to the web you do to yourself." We are part of nature, we are nature just as much as trees, mushrooms, mice, wales, clouds, the sun, or our consciousness.  And because We Are Nature we need to relearn to honor it, and we need to learn responsible stewardship of it and ourselves as part of this enormous and intricate web.

put your money where your values are

In the spring we switched our electric energy supplier to Viridian and chose 100% renewable energy (they also have a 20% renewable energy option).   Viridian is a socially responsible (another worthwhile value) power company that supplies clean energy from local wind power. I found that cheaper is not necessarily better, because this is no longer my only value and consideration when making a purchase.  Oh - I do admit that I buy things at Walmart - where else can I get sewing thread, school notebooks, cotton socks, a sink stopper, pens and envelopes, marshmallows for our camping trip all in one place?  And at Trader Joe's (lots of inexpensive organics).  But then they have certain values attached to them, which I buy into.  Walmart (the new Woolworth) offers lots of different utilitarian things in one place (important since I live in the country and have few specialty stores), and Trader Joe's means organics for the masses.

I am conscientious about what I buy and where I buy it:  meat from local farmers (or venison from our own fall harvest), produce from food coop, local farm stands, or the farmers' market, organic grocery staples in bulk from the coop, eggs from a friend or a local farmer, clothes for myself and my daughter mostly from local second hand stores, pet supplies from the local pet store for the corn based cat litter (and I make my own cat food), 100% recycled copy paper for the office: from Staples (only place that has it), 100% recycled toilet paper and paper towels from Trader Joe's (lots less than the local supermarket), to name just a few choices that indicate clear values.

Imagine what would happen if 80% of Americans stopped buying GMO corn and soy products? And remember, if you don't buy organic they'll keep spraying the pesticides that are killing the bees, which are our main produce pollinators (!!!). So be aware of what values you fund, or don't fund with your purchases.  Cheap is not the only value.

Also see a similar post on voting with your dollars.

be patient!

We have become used to instant gratification.  Information is now available at the touch of a finger.   We no longer write letters, barely even send e-mails or make telephone calls, we text and twitter.  Our attention spans have become shorter, as teachers have noticed, and the movie and TV industries exploit and promote it, which then self-perpetuates.  On the material side the credit system has enabled us to buy now and pay later, since we choose no longer to be patient until we have saved up enough money.  Besides houses and cars we can also get everything else instantly without paying for it upfront (just pay Amazon an annual fee and you'll get 2-day shipping on all your orders).  We have lost our patience, we live on credit, and we are banking on a better future to acquire today’s perceived needs now.

The belief that this system will work long-term is also coloring our relationship with nature.  Many don’t want to believe - yet, as it seems - that oil and natural gas reserves are finite.  Many don’t want to believe - yet, - that we have a huge garbage problem.  Many don’t want to believe that we have any number of grave environmental challenges to deal with.  We’ll fix them in the future – or so many still like to believe.  Environmentally speaking, we live thus on credit instead of investing now into our environmental future.  From indigenous cultures we need to relearn patience and a long-term outlook on issues.  

Native Americans look seven generations ahead into the future!   We must invest in a viable future for our children, grandchildren, and five more generations out, instead of leaving them to mop up our messes. The Lorax is a good book by Dr. Seuss on what happens otherwise.