A letter to the the President

I wrote this letter to the White House today:

"Dear President Obama, I voted for you in both of the past elections. I am a citizen who is very concerned about the future of our beautiful planet and humanity. New evidence coming to light regarding global warming and the nuclear catastrophe of Fukushima have made my apprehensions about our future even stronger. I do and have always believed that you are a good man at heart. I reach out because I see the need for policy change at the highest levels if we are to save ourselves and our great country. I see that humanity, as a whole, needs to sit down at the table together, putting aside our political, religious and ethical differences and get real about our future. I picture a great meeting happening. This would have representatives from all over the world including business leaders, religious leaders and average human beings. The goal would be to acknowledge what we, as a species, are doing to the planet we depend on for survival and for us to come up with a workable plan quickly. There is some very sobering data now available on the rate at which global warming is happening. Nuclear energy is unsafe. Renewable energy options are plentiful and becoming more inexpensive all of the time. I have some real ideas to help. I recently learned that I will be a father soon and this realization has changed my world. I would love to meet with you and to make this great meeting of humanity a reality. I don't know if you will ever hear of this letter I wrote but I pray you do. Your presidency could leave the greatest legacy in human history--the time when we came together as a species and decided that the beautiful planet we live on is worth saving. Thank you."

Which would you prefer?

Would you rather live in an industrial wasteland or a green, fertile paradise? We have a choice in the matter. Much of what we humans have created, infatuated with the ego-idea of isolation and blinded by greed, has matched the former but we could, just as easily, make our abode an ecological heaven. The key insight is that, when we see a picture of Earth from outer space, we're looking at a self-portrait. Everyone out there, no matter how hurt and confused they are, is really love. We are capable of such great things. Why NOT live a happy, healthy fulfilling life? I think it's important to realize that such a thing is entirely possible, with technology available NOW. We have a choice in the matter. Education is important. Most of us haven't been taught about sustainability and unsustainability from a young age. It's very simple, commonsensical stuff and easily overlooked when your society's frame of reference is looking somewhere else.

The bottom line is, would you rather live here:

Or here?:

Happy Earth Day!; A change in content; easy steps to make easy steps.

Happy Earth Day! I suggest we make every day Earth Day by living more sustainably. A lot of small steps will eventually add up to a BIG difference! It only makes sense to take care of our larger body and our smaller body. Be kind to yourself. Any harm we do to the planet, we do DIRECTLY to ourselves. Separation isn't real or possible in this interconnectedness that is life.

 Yesterday I decided to make this blog more about hands-on projects and hopefully a little less about philosophical musings on the state of the Earth. My first post will be about how to make an easy set of very solid steps.

Step 1: Level a spot where you will build the steps and tamp it well. I sprinkled sand on the earth so it wouldn't stick to the tamper, I also sprinkled cement on the area to give it more stability.

Step 2: Set your cinder blocks where you want them and make sure they're relatively level. I left a gap between the rear and front blocks to fill in with plaster and bind them together. I also left a gap between the back block and the wood so water wouldn't come in contact with it. I used a big block and a small one, as you can see. I then stuffed them with plastic bags as a filler so I wouldn't need so much plaster.

Step 3: Mix some plaster up. I used earth from on site with a good bit (15% - 20% maybe?) of cement in it to hold the mix together. We'll see how it works. Trowel the mix onto the steps. When you go over the areas with the bags, hold them from behind to keep them in place while you're applying the plaster. Make sure you angle the steps slightly so water will flow off of them and down and not pool up. I also sprinkled sand on the still wet plaster and pushed it into the finish to make sure the steps will have good grip and won't be too slippery when wet. Very easy, very durable steps. I will try to remember to report back on how the mostly earth and a little cement plaster holds up.

Thelma and Louise

I've been reading a book called "The End of Fossil Energy and the Last Chance for Survival" by retired engineer John G. Howe and, in it, he is talking about the difficult situation we are in with fossil fuels, particularly oil. As we know, the American way of life is built around oil. We drive to a supermarket with our gas powered cars to buy products and food that, in many cases, have been shipped thousands of miles. The materials we use to build our houses and the goods we fill them with have also usually been shipped long distances and often the majority of these are made from plastics and other petroleum based materials. So, imagine all of this being gone. It is inevitable that it will happen in the not-too-distant future.

The things I've already mentioned aren't even the most troubling aspects of peak oil and post oil. Right now, the human population is around 7 billion people. The only things that have allowed us to reach these astonishing numbers is the defeat of many infectious diseases that used to keep the population in check and oil based agriculture. Without the power of oil, we wouldn't be able to grow nearly as much food as we do now. Also, some projections say that we may reach a population of 10 billion by 2040. Without oil, we won't be able to feed nearly this many people and there will be mass hunger and starvation as oil becomes scarcer and runs out UNLESS we can start purposely reducing our numbers now. Humans have forgotten that we are subject to the same rules that all other species are--a certain amount of resources and space can only feed a certain population.

Reading Mr. Howe's book, it occurred to me that our society is at a point like the end scene of Thelma and Louise. The car (a petroleum based lifestyle) is already racing towards the cliff (post oil) and Louise (our society, including the government and corporate interests) has the pedal to the metal and isn't considering letting up. The fact that oil is going to run out at all has been kept secret so folks will keep happily consuming and not interfere with oil company profits. You and I are in the passenger seat and see the cliff coming. What will you do? There is still time to act. I don't know about you but I'm in the process of jumping out!

How does one jump out? To start, quit relying on fossil fuels so much. Drive as little as possible and go solar, wind or hydro electric for your home power. Coal is an extremely dirty power source and mountains are being leveled to get to it. Nuclear power has horrible waste products and a checkered, at best, safety record (Fukishima, anyone?). Compost using the humanure system so we can start recycling our organic matter instead of flushing it and ruining it and fresh water in the process. Learn how to grow your own food or, at least, buy locally. Many cities now have transition movements which have also seen "the cliff" and are changing their wasteful ways. Being sustainable and self-sufficient is going to become a necessity in the coming years, if we start now, we may be ready by the time we need to be. Don't wait!

Occupy your life to make a lasting difference

I have been observing and participating in the "occupy" movement with hope and fascination. Will it amount to anything? If so, I think it's important to remember that it's not what we do in the short term--setting up camps in public places, etc--that is going to make changes but it's the decisions we make every day.

When we flick a light switch in our area (Western North Carolina), we either "vote" for coal power which means mountaintop removal, polluted air and slag ponds or we "vote" for clean air, keeping the mountains and no toxic waste by using renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro-electric, geothermal, etc). When we drive our cars instead of biking and walking, we vote for our dependence on foreign oil to continue and the pollution, wars, oppressive governments and occupations that go along with it. When we have our money in a mega-bank, we vote for more mergers and centralized control of money, when we put our money in a credit union we vote for the people being in control of their money and friendlier terms. When we buy produce and products shipped from half way around the world, we vote for air pollution (from all of the fuel it takes to ship these things) and unfair trade. When we buy locally, we support the economy and craftspeople in our area.

Almost every action we take and the choices we make form the kind of world and social landscape we live in. THIS is extremely empowering to realize. We can and do create a saner or more ruthless world by our daily decisions.

I urge everyone who reads this to realize that nature is our greatest treasure. If we and all other life on the planet are to survive, we must change our relationship to resources, energy and each other. The war against nature waged by ego-centric, modern, industrialized humans will stop if we realize that we are nature and to destroy it is to destroy ourselves.