Count your blessings

In view of tragic events that continue to occur around the world, let's think about the following and count our blessings.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep---you are richer than 75 per cent of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet and spare change in a dish---you are among the top 8 per cent of the worlds wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness---you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation---you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful---you are blessed because the majority can but most do not.

Thanks, take care and please don't forget to eat your veggies! - Karen Jones @ community garden digest

2nd Free From Power Day Report - By Robb

Planning pays off! In the month between the first FFPD and yesterday I built a rocket/vita stove, gathered and dried fuel for it (see below), planned out my menu and gathered my food. Fortunately we had rain so I had some nice fresh water as well though I had a large reserve if needed.


I boiled about 4 liters of water for my use for the day , most of which went to flasks for tea, it was a cold rainy, windy day after all. I boiled another couple of liters to cook eggs and sweet corn. I used a bundle of sticks and scrap wood about 8" in diameter and 12 to 14" long for all of that. I lit it once and did all my cooking for the day. Relighting would be significantly less efficient. I'll detail the stove itself in another post.

In addition to the eggs (sourced from a local farm a 3 mile walk away) and corn (from our organic box delivery), I ate about 4 ounces of organic muesli with organic rice milk (the two most heavily packaged and shipped foods of the day) and locally picked blackberries, one cucumber and 8 ounces of tomatoes from our organic garden, 4 ounces of tortilla chips (unfortunately non organic and packaged), about 6 small apples from a tree up the street, and finally some apple juice pressed from local apples at the local sustainable wood fair I took my nephew to. More planning is necessary for food requirements.

I did well on most other fronts, no electronic media, instead I read half of Rob Hopkins "The Transition Handbook". This is an excellent read for anybody wishing to assist their community in getting prepared for a post oil economy as it lays out the proven techniques used by many transition initiatives around the world.

I managed to avoid using any lights (except when I went into the cellar, same as last time, I need to plan for this better), I never turned on any heat and stayed either outside or in our solar heated conservatory all day, I used rainwater to wash and flush with, boiled for brushing teeth, I drank boiled rainwater, I borrowed my friend Graemes wind up torch for reading at night (I must get one before the next FFPD).
I did purchase some local produced venison sausages for next days dinner. I would have skipped this except they have a stand at the fair and it is the only way to source them currently without a long journey.

So all in all I made progress but there is more to make.

October Free from Power Day

Tomorrow is the first Saturday in October and therefore it's Free From Power Day. You can read a report on the first Free from Power Day, in september by clicking here;

first report


As using electricity and media are not allowed I will post about my progress on Sunday.

Are you ready for this?

Most scientists now agree that 400 ppm is the tipping point for CO2 content in the atmosphere, the point beyond which we will trigger irreversible catastrophic climate change. The 100 month group has calculated that we have just that, 100 months to get it right. This is the summary from their report;


"We calculate that 100 months from 1 August 2008, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases will begin to exceed a point whereby it is no longer likely we will be able to avert potentially irreversible climate change. 'Likely' in this context refers to the definition of risk used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to mean that, at that particular level of greenhouse gas concentration, there is only a 66 - 90 per cent chance of global average surface temperatures stabilising at 2o Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 1 Once this concentration is exceeded, it becomes more and more likely that we will overshoot a 2o C level of warming. This is the maximum acceptable level of temperature rise agreed by the European Union and others as necessary to retain reasonable confidence of preventing uncontrollable and ultimately catastrophic warming. We also believe this calculation to be conservative. The reasons why and the assumptions behind our conclusion are detailed below."

You can download the report here;

100 months website

Some scientists think we are already past the tipping point and our challenge is to get it back to 350ppm as soon as is humanly possible.

Is this too much scary stuff? At what point do we just have to face up to the science and accept that yes it is scary and yes we really have to make big changes? Is anything less than that going to get it done?

report on the first Free From Power Day -By Robb

It went pretty well. There were a couple of oops moments when my instincts took over but for the most part I'm encouraged and have begun to plan October's Free From Power Day.

Results:
• For 24 hours I used no grid electricity, aside from 5 oops moments where I turned on a light without thinking which I quickly turned back off. Lighting was provided by a windup torch on loan from my friend Graeme.
• For 24 hours I used no fossil fuels of any kind; not to cook, heat, or drive.
• For 24 hours I turned on no taps for water aside from one oops moment when brushing my teeth. Toilet was flushed with rainwater. Hands were washed with rainwater. More about water below.
• For 24 hours I connected to no electronic media aside from listening to some classical music on a windup/solar radio. This was a big one for me as I usually spent alot of time on the computer, listening to mp3 player and even a few hours watching TV every day.
• For 24 hours I bought nothing, this was easy as I don't usually buy anything anyway.

Challenges:
Water - I collect rainwater for my garden and I was happy to use that to wash with but for drinking I did not prepare a purification method. Thus I drew water from the taps the night before for drinking. I made a flask of tea with the kettle and super insulated it overnight. This was my biggest failing as it meant I still consumed tap water and had used fossil fuel to make tea, just not on the day.

Food - For most of the day I did well. I ate English organic apples, though they had been purchased from a supermarket the week before, something I will try to remedy for next time. I foraged for berries and raw nettles on a 7 mile walk. I ate runner beans and tomatoes from my garden. My biggest failing was the bag of tortilla chips and salsa I ate in the evening. I did manage to never open the fridge during the day however.

Plans:
I am going to devise a method for purifying rainwater and cooking via a biomass cooker, probably something like a Vita stove. It will have to be small and very smoke free for use in this urban jungle I live in. I will collect and dry fuel in advance.

I will source local organic non-corporate unpackaged food in advance. There is a farm within a 3 mile walk of my house to source free range eggs, I will try to gather/forage more in advance, I will locate a green grocer selling local veg.

If weather permits I will set out my portable solar hot water heater for washing.

What I did:
As mentioned I walked and foraged, I worked in the garden, I played scrabble with Jacqui, I finished reading Michael Pollan's "An Omnivore's Dilemma" and started his "In Defense of Food", I organized my thesis paperwork, I tidied our room, sorted out our gear closet and designated stuff to go to recycling and freecycle, I avoided the TV room.

I also spent some time thinking about this Free From Power Day. Traditionally most western cultures have practiced this sort of thing to some degree and called it the sabbath. I think we need to look at this practice and encourage people to take it up again. Imagine if every business closed; no-one would need to drive to shop or to work, no sporting events planned would mean people could spend time exercising instead of watching people exercise, time for cooking wholesome meals from quality ingredients, time for growing quality ingredients, time for spending with loved ones, time for studying, time for worship, time to slow down, to relax. Isn't that what a day of rest is all about?

Sheffield Star online post #3 - by Robb

Here's the next post from my Sheffield Star online Green Scene column.

Beyond Consumerism?

"We are at a stage in human history that is as monumental as changing from a hunter/gatherer society to an agricultural society and from an agricultural society to an industrial society. ...We need to face the way we used the world for our gains, pleasures, satisfactions. ... we need to change our view about acquiring things. We have the opportunity to take a great leap forward in these very challenging times. We need to change our institutions and ourselves. ...We need to launch our imaginations beyond the thinking of the past. ...That's how we change the world... because WE will be the change."- Grace Lee Boggs, 93, a long-time Detroit activist and philosopher.

2030, imagine a scenario where you live in a completely different way than you do now. Your home doesn’t generate bills it generates power. Your bin only needs emptying once every month because you generate almost no waste. The clothes you wear are designed for practicality and durability and are rarely replaced. The food you eat is grown very close to where you live, some of it by yourself, the rest of it by your neighbors or farmers you know. You work either from home or within an easy walk or bus ride. You don’t need or own a car. As a result of all of the above your bank account doesn’t hemorrhage your hard earned pay but creates income because you have minimal debt. And best of all your choice to live this way along with all of your neighbors has supported the worldwide grassroots movement away from crippling dependance on fossil fuels and has helped to significantly reduced carbon emissions, stabilizing global climate. All of this is possible with current technology and current knowledge. All of this is happening currently. Don’t wait for 2030. You can take steps towards it now.

There are many benefits but perhaps chief among them is that this new style of life involves less stress, more time to spend with loved ones and neighbors, time for cooking and eating healthy food, exercising, and building a healthy community. It is a lifestyle based around long term sustainability, good health, and the development of human potential for all citizens.

Studies abound pointing out that the current cult of consumerism involves much less of the above, but who needs scientific research to prove what is evident to any who care to see it. Too many hours of the day are spent earning and spending money as our class based lifestyles rely on debt. Stress related illness is rife, obesity and ill health are at pandemic proportions due to poor nutrition and minimal exercise. The divide between rich and poor, educated and ignorant, healthy and sick is widening. And worst of all, the ecosystems that support our very existence are being sacrificed to support this short term pleasure based individualistic lifestyle. It is unsustainable. There is literally no future in it.

Every step you take towards a sustainable life is progress but small steps are not enough. As I pointed out in my second post of this series we are in a tight spot.

For more about that, download the WWF report “Weathercocks and Signposts”
We have a very short time to make very big changes.

In the next post I will look in more detail at some characteristics of a sustainable lifestyle.

For more about Grace Lee Boggs see:
http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/GraceLeeBoggs/HomePage

Is being green so hard?-By Robb

Over on celsias.com there a thread starting up about the difficulties of "Being Green"
It includes some good points and worth a read. I don't mean to deny that change isn't difficult but I think it needs to be put in context. The degree of change we, in the developed world, need to make are actually pretty minor compared to the level of change demanded of those on the front lines of climate change. I wonder, what do the citizens of Tuvalu think? Here is my post on the topic.

What's so hard about living an intentional life? For me it's simple, "being green" is about using less of anything produced with fossil fuels, being more self sufficient in as many ways possible, and helping others to do the same. It's the difference between being a citizen and being a consumer.

There is a well known mantra I try to live by at all times and I don't find it a hardship, REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE, with heavy emphasis on REDUCE.

"Being green" appears much less difficult than being an environmental refugee, starving to death, or drowning, all increasingly likely outcomes for billions of people, even those of us in the developed world, if we continue to consume fossil fuels.

Any action that reduces use of fossil fuel matters, the more the reduction, the more it matters.

For the citizens on the move in India due to the recent unprecedented flooding, those that didn't drown, a massive and immediate lifestyle change is required now. Right Now! No choice in the matter, no pondering how difficult it is, to survive it must be done.

We here in the developed world have the luxury of a continuum of change. It generally isn't forced upon us by calamity, though the citizens of the ninth ward in New Orleans might disagree. For instance, I personally have reduced my flying by over 60% per year in the last two years as I have come to understand it's impacts. Next winter's visit home I hope to be the last time I ever step foot on an airplane. After that I will travel by sea. It took effort, a bit of soul searching, some compromise with my family, and perhaps has been the most "difficult" aspect of my personal continuum of change. I know many people that have already sworn off flying for good, one man I know has not flown in 18 years. Not driving more than once every 2 weeks, not eating fast food more than once a month, not leaving devices on standby, drastically cutting meat eating while drastically increasing my consumption of organic food, changing all my lightbulbs to CFL's, buying only used clothing, growing as much of my own food as possible, staying out of debt to maintain flexibility, the list of actions grows and all are on some sort of continuum.

This is the luxury I have, this is to some extent the luxury I have created. Guilt comes from not doing these things, frustration is eased by understanding that the continuum is a necessary part of transition, and enthusiasm is not "dead of a thousand cuts" rather it flourishes on the life giving blood of a thousand efforts.

We have less than 10 years to get our emissions under control, do we have the luxury of the easy?

Choices

This is the next post from my series on the Sheffield Star online Green Scene section.

In my last post I presented some recent climate science to help establish the context within which we face perhaps the most important and yet mundane choices we will make. Important in that our choices will resonate down the ages just as those our forefathers made in choosing to build an economy based on fossil fuels. Mundane in that they involve the most basic of choices we make on a daily basis but which could move us beyond our dependence on fossil fuels. Whether our forefathers are to be held to blame for their choices is not at issue, whether or not we will be held accountable is, because we know the consequences of our choice.

In our own lifetimes we are likely to see major changes in our planet come about just from the damage we have allowed to occur up to now. If we don’t make major changes in the way we go about the business of our lives we will induce far worse changes to come about after we are gone.

So do we choose to address this personally or do we leave it up to governments and corporations? Will governments and corporations choose to address this if we don’t address it on a personal level? I don’t think so. The scale of the change necessary requires both. This means that each and every one of us must make changes in the way we live. We’ve done it before in the face of catastrophe,namely WWII, we can do it again.

On BBC’s Countryfile I recently learned about the scallop fishery of Lyme Bay. 60nm2 of the bay are being closed to dredging in an attempt to restore the coral ecosystem of the bay upon which the fisheries depend. A fisherman was lamenting the loss of a way of life he and his family had pursued for many years but acknowledged that he could change to another type of fishing. It will cost money to do so and the government should help with that, after all they allowed the damage to continue for so long that such drastic action became necessary.

This one instance is a microcosm of the choices we face. If we get lost in trying preserve a way of life that is destroying the ecosystems that support us we will fail. This realisation must pervade our every decision. It is going to be difficult. It will be hard for the politicians to do the right thing if we aren’t willing to demonstrate that we understand the sacrifices necessary.

"It is no use saying 'We are doing our best' you have got to succeed at doing what is necessary" - Winston Churchill



For more about the Lyme Bay issue see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7464585.stm

Better to laugh than cry?

The Epiphany of Enough by Dave

The populations of the developed world generally and the United States particularly are choosing more and enjoying it less. That's the basic premise of a book entitled, "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz. This book is a great resource for reinforcing our commitment to living a balanced, sustainable life.
Schwartz examines the apparently contrary fact that, although people today have a veritable cornucopia of options to choose from...an array that has increased exponentially since the 60's, we also see a corresponding decrease in well being. Since 1960 in the U.S., the divorce rate has doubled,the teen suicide rate has tripled,the recorded violent crime rate has quadrupled,the prison population has quintupled, and the percentage of babies born to unwed parents has sextupled. Also, and perhaps the most telling of all, the rate of serious clinical depression has more than tripled over the last two generations, and increased by a factor of 10 from 1900 to 2000. Why all this in a culture that assures us that being in control of your needs and wants...the freedom of choosing...is the key to a happy, fulfilled life?
The author's conclusions lend new resonance to Orwell's anti-mantra, "Freedom is Slavery". This freedom we celebrate as a birthright comes with a curse: what economist Fred Hirsch called "the tyranny of small decisions". The many field studies Schwartz cites show that choice, in the modern age, has become burdensome, not liberating. A study in a hospital asked patients if they would prefer to choose their own mode of treatment should they contract cancer...65% said yes. However, when patients who actually got the cancer were asked, 88% said they would prefer that the professionals made that choice.
Other data presented showed that accumulations of wealth (i.e. more choices) did not always translate into increased happiness. People in wealthy nations are generally happier than people in poor nations,yes...money matters. But, once subsistence needs are met, surveys show that further increases in wealth don't seem to matter much.
Another interesting element is the discovery that the things that seem to make people the most happy, are the things that limit choices . Marriage for instance, and closer, more committed ties to family and religious institutions.....the kind of things that can't be easily opted out of. That part reminded me of a discovery I made when working in the theatre, building scenery. When I built sets on a tight budget, I had to get more creative about problem-solving, and the rewards for success were richer than later in my career when I could just throw money at the problem. The limitations became the reward.
So the dynamics of choice are seen to vary from a sense of helplessness at the extreme where a person has no choice at all, to a sense of empty ennui and depression at the other end.
Choosing when to choose is one corrective. Some control over choice is certainly rewarding.We don't want to give up on choosing altogether, like the somnambulent Eloi in H.G. Wells' "Time Machine", just waiting around listlessly to die, but neither do we want to invest too much in the expectation that mere choosing will enrich our lives and make us happy.
Schwartz encourages us to cultivate an "attitude of gratitude", and substitute an elusive and ultimately disappointing search for the "best", with a calm acceptance of the concept of "good enough".
I found all this to be yet more evidence that sustainable living is not a discipline that we need to shrink from as onerous, but an ideal to pursue for our own, and the planet's enhanced well-being.