I appreciate this, I really do, but I have a few notes/comments:
1. Smartphones: I will use mine until it quits on me irreparably. But in the last 10 years, I've had to change smartphones 4 times because tower upgrades where I lived each time actually bricked my old phones and made them useless. Not only are they not engineering the phones to last long enough, but the cell companies are forcing obsolescence on perfectly functional phones.
2. Plastic: people with disabilities, poor people working several jobs, and the houseless rely heavily on plastic. Not just for home medical items for the disabled such as medication ampules or catheter packaging, but also the convenience foods, including (sometimes) bottled water and individually wrapped servings or tv dinners. Personally, I have severe celiac disease with food allergies and I can't just "switch brands." I hate that I'm forced to produce more waste than some folks just because I can't make everything from scratch or switch to another product. I worry that when we shame people for individual product choices, we're inadvertently throwing already oppressed people under the bus and making their lives harder by singling out their choices... instead of calling out the specific manufacturers and financial companies that are making bank by forcing us to use plastic more than we'd like just because these companies refuse to create alternatives, lest it sacrifice a tiny percentage of their massive profits.
3. Fast Fashion: higher weight people don't have a choice where we shop. Even if we had choices, most of us can't afford more ethically sourced options. Higher weight people are paid less, promoted less, and hired less than thin people, so we're already at a disadvantage. And we're just as frustrated as thin people that our clothes don't last longer, because the same t-shirt a thin person buys for $3 is going to cost us $30, but it's going to last just as long (or, more specifically, last just as little). But something like 30% of the clothing manufactured is for larger bodies, despite larger bodies being more than 50% of the bodies shopping for clothes. So it's thin people in particular the fast fashion industry is catering to, and then shipping the unpurchased garments to countries with fewer regulations and less power to be landfilled. Again, this is a problem with the industry, not necessarily the individuals.
Yes, let's all buy less and use items for longer as much as we can. But this problem is 100% created by corporations and we must be sensitive to the individuals who are well aware of their participation in this broken, toxic system, but have no choice if they want to survive.
Time to name and shame the corporations destroying the planet, as well as the lawmakers they bankroll in the process.
Also, stop growing almond trees in Californian deserts. Big Ag is a huge water waster—more so than consumers IMO. We also don’t need red, rosy, but tasteless tomatoes is the winter. Align our diets more with the seasons.
1974. Was the year I became a doomer. Earth day was a new thing and we had a GIANT earth ball and we talked about what we could do to save our earth. This was in foster city, next to the San Francisco airport and the jam
Packed 101 freeway, in the heart of the bay area.
I knew as a kid humans were our own worst enemy. I hoped that I would be dead before the end of the earth. That may still happen- Sarscov2 continues mutate..and who knows what the next virus will be…
I will say that having lived near two monasteries and three cloistered monasteries (formal name for a nunnery), how these religious communities live are pretty good. I know of one cloistered monastery who uses geothermal pumps for their HVAC system and taps into the wind and solar farms for their electricity. Admittedly, this is like thinking that switching from regular Coke to Coke Zero is way to lose weight. Buddhist monasteries are also a very good model.
More importantly though, monasteries try to live like they are in an agrarian society because that is their history. Form communities which can be self-sufficient if necessary but trade and support similar communities and split off if the communities get too large. Another writer was noting how fascists of today don’t want to revert to this agrarian culture nor of the industrial society which championed the individual anonymity of the city, but rather a warped flattened feudalism where they get to rule over a subculture, where it be based on religion, race, or robots.
All I am saying is a monastic community should be studied and considered.
I am a gen x and I have been saying much of this for years! We aren’t all lost causes and many of us support the efforts of younger generations to make it better. I saw the light early on and tried to make change but hard slugging against the status quo. Still trying though!!
I think the big wins are on systemic change. Reducing car dependency is a huge one. We can lobby municipalities to change zoning to allow more density in existing urban/suburban areas. And allow mixed commercial/residential zoning so more amenities are within walking distance of home.
Pair that increased density with public parks, better transit, pedestrian areas and bike lanes, and the wins are huge.
The sacrifice: getting comfortable with the idea of an apartment building going up next door. The benefit: more financially socially and environmentally resilient cities and towns.
I agree with all of the above, and I do them myself. I will continue to wear fresh socks and undies every day though. Many clothes can be worn again, but some parts of your body have lots of bacteria and fungus and stuff, and really do need to be changed daily. I shower every other day, and use clean socks and undies. I only wash full laundry loads, using Tru Earth laundry strips and an eco-friendly washing machine. My dryer is a hybrid (reduces energy use), and a chunk of my clothes are hung to dry.
There are apps that let you know about discounted food that would otherwise be wasted, either from grocery stores or from restaurants. I pick up near-expiry bread, dairy and meat, ripe fruit and veg, and sometimes restaurant meals that didn't sell.
I am privileged to own a house and a car. Although I don't have a huge income (I'm disabled) we managed to borrow against our house and we sold our gas car and bought a used electric car. We took advantage of a Canadian government grant and loan program to change our old gas furnace and AC to an electric heat pump, and our gas water heater to an electric heat pump model. We are also replacing our tattered roof shingles with solar tiles and steel, which will generate about as much electricity as we use, and won't need to be replaced for 30 to 40 years. The government loan program is an interest-free loan of $40,000 for 10 years, so the monthly payments will cost less than we paid for gasoline each month on our old car. We no longer have a natural gas connection to our home, and the solar panels will mean our electricity bills will be almost non-existant.
We also bought used electric garden tools including lawn mower, weed whipper, chainsaw, leaf blower, wood chipper, and snow blower. We don't water or fertilize our lawn, we just let it be what it is.
On the good news, check the Beyond Growth conference. Scientists and European MPs organized a conference to talk about degrowth, and the speeches and plenaries have been great. https://www.beyond-growth-2023.eu/
On the link you can find the recordings on the conference, mainly the 4 plenaries(on yellow color), plenary 1 was great(mostly focus on last 3 speeches, Von der Leyen speech is just BAU), plenary 4 also was great when they started booing a politician when he started talking about "sustainable growth".
I love ( and do) almost everything you talk about here. The only thing I disagree with is supporting peace at any cost. If you do that you will be in a communist country when climate change comes and destroys our lives. This is not ok! We must support Ukraine or it will all fall like dominos to recreate the new Soviet empire. Most wars are senseless, I agree. However, Hitler had to be stopped and Putin has to be stopped! Now I’ll go back out and turn my compost bin…
Voting and focusing on Congressional and state primaries is another big thing we can all do.
That’s how we can get rid of the monied candidates who are beholden to big oil, big banks and conglomerates.
By the time it gets to the generals it’s too late.
Also supporting independent news is really important.
Corporate media is killing us with its lack of climate coverage.
Wonderful list. Basically should be a "Green Democrat" manifesto. We need to do all of this. RIGHT NOW.
Here's the way to view how much ENERGY Americans use.
Americans use 11,000 watts per minute and produce 16 tons of CO2 per capita annually.
Argentinians and Thais use about 2,500 watts per minute and produce about 4 tons of CO2 per capita.
The population of America is 335 million.
The population of ALL of AFRICA is 1.18 Billion.
If ALL of the Americans volunteered to sacrifice themselves. "For the good of the Earth".
Then ALL of AFRICA could live at the same level as your average Thai or Argentinian.
Americans think that the rest of the world doesn't understand this.
They do.
If you don't learn to do with less voluntarily, you will learn to do with less in the Collapse.
I appreciate this, I really do, but I have a few notes/comments:
1. Smartphones: I will use mine until it quits on me irreparably. But in the last 10 years, I've had to change smartphones 4 times because tower upgrades where I lived each time actually bricked my old phones and made them useless. Not only are they not engineering the phones to last long enough, but the cell companies are forcing obsolescence on perfectly functional phones.
2. Plastic: people with disabilities, poor people working several jobs, and the houseless rely heavily on plastic. Not just for home medical items for the disabled such as medication ampules or catheter packaging, but also the convenience foods, including (sometimes) bottled water and individually wrapped servings or tv dinners. Personally, I have severe celiac disease with food allergies and I can't just "switch brands." I hate that I'm forced to produce more waste than some folks just because I can't make everything from scratch or switch to another product. I worry that when we shame people for individual product choices, we're inadvertently throwing already oppressed people under the bus and making their lives harder by singling out their choices... instead of calling out the specific manufacturers and financial companies that are making bank by forcing us to use plastic more than we'd like just because these companies refuse to create alternatives, lest it sacrifice a tiny percentage of their massive profits.
3. Fast Fashion: higher weight people don't have a choice where we shop. Even if we had choices, most of us can't afford more ethically sourced options. Higher weight people are paid less, promoted less, and hired less than thin people, so we're already at a disadvantage. And we're just as frustrated as thin people that our clothes don't last longer, because the same t-shirt a thin person buys for $3 is going to cost us $30, but it's going to last just as long (or, more specifically, last just as little). But something like 30% of the clothing manufactured is for larger bodies, despite larger bodies being more than 50% of the bodies shopping for clothes. So it's thin people in particular the fast fashion industry is catering to, and then shipping the unpurchased garments to countries with fewer regulations and less power to be landfilled. Again, this is a problem with the industry, not necessarily the individuals.
Yes, let's all buy less and use items for longer as much as we can. But this problem is 100% created by corporations and we must be sensitive to the individuals who are well aware of their participation in this broken, toxic system, but have no choice if they want to survive.
Time to name and shame the corporations destroying the planet, as well as the lawmakers they bankroll in the process.
Also, stop growing almond trees in Californian deserts. Big Ag is a huge water waster—more so than consumers IMO. We also don’t need red, rosy, but tasteless tomatoes is the winter. Align our diets more with the seasons.
1974. Was the year I became a doomer. Earth day was a new thing and we had a GIANT earth ball and we talked about what we could do to save our earth. This was in foster city, next to the San Francisco airport and the jam
Packed 101 freeway, in the heart of the bay area.
I knew as a kid humans were our own worst enemy. I hoped that I would be dead before the end of the earth. That may still happen- Sarscov2 continues mutate..and who knows what the next virus will be…
You forgot meat. If we cut back on eating meat by 10%, it would cut carbon imitations. Also, wash in cold water, saving water.
Go vegan for the animals and the planet https://www.pcrm.org/good-nutrition/vegan-diet-environment
you left out one of the most impactful things people can do: stop (or dramatically curtail) eating animal products. Just a few: rainforest clearing, waterway nitrogen pollution, methane production and water ab/use all stem from animal agriculture. https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23655640/colorado-river-water-alfalfa-dairy-beef-meat
The most important thing of all: STOP HAVING KIDS!
I will say that having lived near two monasteries and three cloistered monasteries (formal name for a nunnery), how these religious communities live are pretty good. I know of one cloistered monastery who uses geothermal pumps for their HVAC system and taps into the wind and solar farms for their electricity. Admittedly, this is like thinking that switching from regular Coke to Coke Zero is way to lose weight. Buddhist monasteries are also a very good model.
More importantly though, monasteries try to live like they are in an agrarian society because that is their history. Form communities which can be self-sufficient if necessary but trade and support similar communities and split off if the communities get too large. Another writer was noting how fascists of today don’t want to revert to this agrarian culture nor of the industrial society which championed the individual anonymity of the city, but rather a warped flattened feudalism where they get to rule over a subculture, where it be based on religion, race, or robots.
All I am saying is a monastic community should be studied and considered.
ya mean we should all be old hippies! Been doing it all since the 60's.
I am a gen x and I have been saying much of this for years! We aren’t all lost causes and many of us support the efforts of younger generations to make it better. I saw the light early on and tried to make change but hard slugging against the status quo. Still trying though!!
I think the big wins are on systemic change. Reducing car dependency is a huge one. We can lobby municipalities to change zoning to allow more density in existing urban/suburban areas. And allow mixed commercial/residential zoning so more amenities are within walking distance of home.
Pair that increased density with public parks, better transit, pedestrian areas and bike lanes, and the wins are huge.
The sacrifice: getting comfortable with the idea of an apartment building going up next door. The benefit: more financially socially and environmentally resilient cities and towns.
I agree with all of the above, and I do them myself. I will continue to wear fresh socks and undies every day though. Many clothes can be worn again, but some parts of your body have lots of bacteria and fungus and stuff, and really do need to be changed daily. I shower every other day, and use clean socks and undies. I only wash full laundry loads, using Tru Earth laundry strips and an eco-friendly washing machine. My dryer is a hybrid (reduces energy use), and a chunk of my clothes are hung to dry.
There are apps that let you know about discounted food that would otherwise be wasted, either from grocery stores or from restaurants. I pick up near-expiry bread, dairy and meat, ripe fruit and veg, and sometimes restaurant meals that didn't sell.
I am privileged to own a house and a car. Although I don't have a huge income (I'm disabled) we managed to borrow against our house and we sold our gas car and bought a used electric car. We took advantage of a Canadian government grant and loan program to change our old gas furnace and AC to an electric heat pump, and our gas water heater to an electric heat pump model. We are also replacing our tattered roof shingles with solar tiles and steel, which will generate about as much electricity as we use, and won't need to be replaced for 30 to 40 years. The government loan program is an interest-free loan of $40,000 for 10 years, so the monthly payments will cost less than we paid for gasoline each month on our old car. We no longer have a natural gas connection to our home, and the solar panels will mean our electricity bills will be almost non-existant.
We also bought used electric garden tools including lawn mower, weed whipper, chainsaw, leaf blower, wood chipper, and snow blower. We don't water or fertilize our lawn, we just let it be what it is.
On the good news, check the Beyond Growth conference. Scientists and European MPs organized a conference to talk about degrowth, and the speeches and plenaries have been great. https://www.beyond-growth-2023.eu/
On the link you can find the recordings on the conference, mainly the 4 plenaries(on yellow color), plenary 1 was great(mostly focus on last 3 speeches, Von der Leyen speech is just BAU), plenary 4 also was great when they started booing a politician when he started talking about "sustainable growth".
I love ( and do) almost everything you talk about here. The only thing I disagree with is supporting peace at any cost. If you do that you will be in a communist country when climate change comes and destroys our lives. This is not ok! We must support Ukraine or it will all fall like dominos to recreate the new Soviet empire. Most wars are senseless, I agree. However, Hitler had to be stopped and Putin has to be stopped! Now I’ll go back out and turn my compost bin…