a fish out of water

By now we are all familiar with the benefits of shopping locally.  When you purchase what you can in your own community you support people, your local merchants directly, instead of the corporations of the big box stores, and strengthen the fabric of your downtown.  Shopping locally for produce puts money directly into your local farmers' pockets, not the supermarket corporation.  Here a post on localism and a related post of voting with your $. 

Permaculture (here a post on that), a fairly new agricultural system, has always worked with native plants.  Now we are beginning to expand our awareness to the benefits of using native plants in our gardens - gardening localism.   

Plants that naturally evolved in a particular habitat are inherently hardier, which means more resistant to weather extremes and more resilient to pests.  Native plants have stronger genetic material than hybrids, and are biologically more diverse.  Perhaps you have heard that Peru's staple, the potato, comes in almost four thousand different varieties!  Now that is biodiversity.  Each potato variable developed within its own little ecosystem of weather and soil conditions, and thrives in that particular small patch of land.  A hybrid, on the other hand, was developed in a research facility, out of context of particular local soil and weather conditions.  When such a hybrid is introduced into an out-of-context garden ecosystem that plant is like a fish out of water.  

every bit helps

A few days ago I saw a small, unassuming house with just a few solar panels on the roof.   Sometimes you leave your reusable shopping bags at home when you go the supermarket and have to pick up one of those flimsy single-use plastic bags that often end up in the trees.  The other day I forgot to bring water to my exercise class and had to buy a bottle.

It's ok.  It's the willingness that counts, the growing awareness.  When you remember most of the time it slowly becomes part of your culture.   It matters if you care and do a little bit often.  

Caring for the environment, even just a bit, on this Earth Day weekend, is what our planet needs so much from all of us at this time.

a whole new aesthetic

A few people in our town have complained about the looks of an enormous solar field that powers the entire school district, but also about a small residential two-panel solar installation alongside a country road.  While many residential solar rooftop applications disappear into the roof design, the larger solar installations are usually purely functional and not particularly attractive. 

Yet aesthetics is important because beautiful things enhance the quality of life.  Wouldn't you rather look at something attractive than at something ugly? 

When it comes to renewable energy applications and their architectural expressions we are still in virgin territory because these technologies are relatively new. But if the expression of, say, a solar installation matches its environmental benefits by being skillfully integrated into the architecture, we are creating a whole new aesthetic.  A whole new sense of what we call beautiful or attractive. Instead of form following function, then function will follow form. 

solar louvers at Hotel Augustus in Montegrotto Terme/Italy - photo by SMF

my vacuum

My vacuum cleaner is twelve years old and going strong.  Before I bought this one I got a new one every three years or so.  This one cost double what the others cost, but in the long run it's cheaper.  The others always cost around $300, which comes to about $100 per year.  This one has so far cost me half, $50 per year, and becomes cheaper every year of its life.  My dad used to say, "We can't afford to buy cheap." He is right.   

Built-in obsolescence may be good for the manufacturer and the economy, but not for your wallet or the environment.  Long-term thinking is more sustainable - more money in your pocket, less stuff in the landfill. 

honorable harvest

...the Native American concept of "taking only what you need, and using everything you took,"  needs no further explanation.  Also consider rereading a previous related blog post nose-to-tail.

inspirited

            I had encountered this word previously in an eco-spiritual context.  Now I read it again in Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer's melding of her Native American background's eco-spiritual understanding of the natural world and her scientific education as a botanist.

            The best of both worlds, in my perception, involves indeed the broadening of our scientific worldview, which is naked and somewhat devoid on its own, and doesn't tell the whole story.  We are slowly coming around to understanding that.

            As an example, Kimmerer tells of a two-year scientific investigation into the link between depletion of sweetgrass in particular areas and the lack of harvesting it for the purpose of weaving baskets in that same area.  Put differently, there is a link between ongoing tending to and harvesting of sweetgrass, and its increased vigor and growth.  This is something science can't explain because, according to its paradigm, harvesting equals depletion, not the other way round.  Yet Native Americans, and all who have a green thumb and speak to their flowers, or pets for that matter, or biodynamic farmers who farm "spiritually" and "homeopathically," know that we are connected to Nature, we are in ongoing communication with Nature, and that Nature is inspirited in some way, not dead.  In order to live sustainably we must recognize the reciprocal relationship with Nature we exist in, and the inspiritedness of it.  It's a win-win for both side.

just vinegar

             Or almost.  Vinegar, water and a drop of liquid soap for wood floors, Bon Ami scouring powder for sinks and shower tiles, baking soda and vinegar for shower doors, vinegar for the toilets, wet sponge, and sometimes a drop of soap, for countertops and cabinet fronts, vinegar and water for glass tops. That's pretty much all I use for cleaning my house.

            No harsh chemicals, no artificial scents, no nonsense, and inexpensive.   And I bet you that my house is as clean as yours.

unlimited energy

            And by this I don't mean your personal level of energy, I mean energy to produce electricity for transportation and machinery/electronics as a basis for our economy. 

            Rob Hopkins founded his Transition Movement in England in 2005 based on the idea that we are coming to the end of the fossil-fuel era and need to revert to local economies to reduce our reliance on oil.   One element of this reasoning, the suggested need to decrease our energy requirements, is now changing.  While the local economies movement is stronger than ever, it is for different reasons than the potential lack of energy. 

            We are now seeing a strong movement towards renewable energies, much of it based on solar and hydrogen, but also wind, geothermal, and others.  My prediction is that we will actually have way more energy than we have available now, an overabundance of energy, and that geopolitical alliances will shift because everybody will have access to enough energy, not just a few.  We will never ever run out of sunlight and hydrogen.  So even if a country didn't have enough sunshine, well - nobody will ever run out of hydrogen.  Iceland is such an example that is already energy independent and produces all of its energy from hydro and geothermal sources.

            Volvo, no longer Swedish but long owned by the Chinese, bets on the future of electric cars, and is throwing their Chinese power and money behind it.  Hydrogen is unlimited and may become one of our foremost energy sources in the form of hydrogen fuel cells.  Meanwhile the return to local economies, away from globalization, will remain a strong movement because people want agency, they want responsibility for, and involvement in, their local politics, be it for reasons of local customs and culture, sustainability, landuse, or general policies.  But the return to village life will no longer happen due to a lack of energy.

saying no

           I never wanted to be a soccer mom and always told my children that their freedom ended where mine began because everyone's needs in a family had to be met.  We also said no two years ago when a college with a $60K tag and no proposed contribution accepted our son.  We've got to eat, too.   And I said no to my daughter to Barbies (and not because we couldn't afford one...).

            My parents set clear boundaries when it came to expenses.  They said no when I learned to drive and had visions of grandeur, wanting a Triumph Spitfire - I got to share a car with my mom; they also said "we will only pay for one year, you've got to manage after that," when I decided I'd had enough of the Belgian university system and wanted to continue my studies in the US (and it was way less expensive then than it is now....).

            Wednesday's NY Times article To raise better kids, say no explains that always saying yes "fosters a sense of deficiency that can never be fully satisfied," while learning to do with what you have fosters creativity, flexibility, resourcefulness, and inventiveness.  It turns out that receiving some pushback teaches children to "solve problems more effectively." 

            Creativity, flexibility, resourcefulness, inventiveness, and good problem solving are are all qualities we most definitely need in today's complex world.  So let's convey to our children that nobody's resources, most of all not our planet's, are infinite.  Say no every one in a while, you'll do them a favor.

H2O

             Fresh water will be the next oil in terms of governing our economies of the future.  A few decades ago I thought for sure that we would have run out of oil by now, or almost. And even though we haven't yet, we are in the last throws of the oil age, regardless of desperate fracking efforts and attempts to get to the Alaska oil reserves.  Our energy needs will eventually be met with renewable energies.

            More worrisome than the oil situation is the water situation.  With climate change we are getting too much of it in some areas, to the point of coastal areas and islands becoming submerged and diluvian rain storms, and too little in others.   On the one hand sea levels are rising due to melting glaciers and polar ice caps, while other areas are becoming more prone to temporary droughts, as we have seen in California for the past years, and downright desertification.  In the US our fresh water tables have sunk to half the 1960s levels, due to agricultural and economic activity. 

            Ocean water desalination will become the new  hot ticket in terms of investments and developments. The Middle East is currently leading with over 50% of the world's desalination capacity.   While you won't need to curtail your shower time anywhere soon the price of produce is likely to go up, and the mix of your investment portfolio could change.  Oil is out, water is in.