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."

Why live sustainably?

Why did I change my life so that I live more sustainably? Because I saw the necessity of it. I realized that if I didn't do it, I couldn't depend on anyone else to. I started becoming educated about the destructive systems we depend on for energy, like coal power and nuclear power, and decided to quit being a part of it. Of course I still have a long way to go to complete sustainability, mostly in terms of driving less and becoming food independent, but the community group I'm part of is an attempt to address that and take it to a larger scale. If we turn a blind eye to what we're doing to ourselves and the Earth, who do we expect will save us?

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.

Wake up and smell the oneness!

What is the strange disconnect that makes people think that the office of President is anything more than symbolic? "My team is better than yours!" The real power, behind the scenes, stays the same from administration to administration--the banks and financiers, oil companies, defense contractors, insurance companies, etc. At this point in our "union", democracy is a joke. This isn't to say we can't take saving the world into our own hands, in fact it is the only sane course that I see.

It seems to me that we should all be getting concerned with water security, food security and the building of non-toxic housing. For those tired of isolationism and alienation, community is the obvious solution. Sustainability, environmentally and economically, should always be at the forefront of our thinking processes and ways of living. Unsustainable systems and behaviors are obviously doomed to failure and collapse. Many great nations and empires have collapsed, usually brought down by inward corruption and egocentricity. Unsustainable farming practices alone have destroyed many proud and powerful societies.

Time to wake up and smell the oneness! We aren't apart from the Earth or each other, only a part of it!

If you'd like to change your way of living to be more at peace with the planet I suggest these systems and techniques:

http://humanurehandbook.com/

http://earthship.com/

http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/

http://ases.org/

There is also a sustainability degree available at AB-Tech in Asheville, this is so cool! http://www1.abtech.edu/academic-programs/engineering-and-applied-technology/sustainability-technologies/sustainability-tech

Humans need to get together as a species

We humans need to get together as a species and get some shit figured out. We need to put aside all traditions and outmoded belief systems and look at the sobering facts before we overpopulate and pollute ourselves to death. Are we ready to "grow up" and realize our oneness with the rest of the planet and quit being moved by the unconscious whims of biology and primate politics? Maybe it's a pipe dream but it would be nice to put some thought into taking our foot off of the gas and applying the brakes before our runaway "civilization" flies off the cliff. Relating to life with anything other than a sustainable way of being is, obviously, unsustainable--meaning it is doomed to failure and ultimate collapse. Are we ready to "get real" or should we just carry on in an ignorant, destructive way, heads buried in the sand of the nightmare of isolation?

 

Can we pull our fat out of the fire?

I say "yes!" It's just time to quit believing in the vested interests that seem to be implying that fossil fuels are forever or even a good choice. I read this excellent article from Rolling Stone ( http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719) talking about the level of climate change we're looking at if we burn the remaining fossil fuel reserves, not to mention how many mountains would be leveled, and it is quite sobering. We are "looking down the barrel" of extreme changes on this planet. The polar ice is melting at an alarming rate. If it all melts, as it did many millions of years ago, the ocean levels would be over 400 feet higher than they are now. Many islands and coastal areas and, yes, even some entire countries would simply become ocean floor, not to mention higher temps causing crop failures and more severe wildfires. There is a lot of coal left to burn but this isn't really a "good thing" because coal is the dirtiest of the fossil fuels, putting more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which will amplify the already staggering amount of global warming, and toxic substances such as mercury which poison the air, water and soil.

The only problem I find with most approaches to environmental destruction is that they try to legislate a better future but take our individual life style out of the equation. In the area where I live (Western North Carolina), every time you flick the lights on, you are burning coal that is coming from mountaintop removal in West Virginia, unless you are using renewable energy such as solar, wind or hydroelectric. These are all viable options. Solar panels can be bought at astonishingly low prices now, I've seen them for around 75 cents a watt on this website. When I first started buying solar panels 4 years ago, three dollars and change was a cheap price. What I am saying, and I am largely proving this by my own lifestyle, is that living a sustainable life is fully possible now and for much less than a conventional, more destructive way of living.

If we hope to see civilization as we know it survive, we need to become serious about LOCAL food production NOW. If the gas supply was interrupted for even a short amount of time, as I saw it here in the mountains in 2008, food supplies would run low quickly as we depend on constant shipment from remote sources to stock our groceries. Buy and encourage local food. Grow your own garden. Now is the time for urban permaculture. We human beings are fully capable of living a sustainable life NOW, we just have to see the need for it. The need is there. Let's don't wait until an interruption in the supply chain or a solar flare frying the electrical grid shows us, let's start making the transition to a more sane, less oil dependent way of living now.

The oil, coal, tar sands, natural gas and other fossil fuel companies aren't going to tell us the "hard truth" about what's going on and the high toll that their energy takes on the planet and personal health. They aren't going to tell us that this gluttonous, drunken orgy of energy squandering we've been taking part in is going to lead to a hangover that may kill us. It's time to take it upon ourselves to start living a life that isn't at war with our larger body, the Earth. Everything we do that harms it is visited directly back on ourselves because we are not apart from it, not one bit. One day soon we may awake to find that our bed is burning and our house is in flames, some in Colorado would say this is already happening. Let's take action to make our dreams come true before our reality becomes a nightmare.