Sustainablog

Are you surviving the financial crisis?

While the mainstream media seem more interested in spinning stories of foreclosures, bankruptcies and the like, millions of Americans who have gone green in either their homes, lifestyles or businesses have discovered a degree of sustained prosperity, security and stability, despite the tough times both nationally and globally. That’s not to say they’re living high on the land. But that’s the whole point for many who have chosen to live lean, green, and with the health of their community in mind, focusing on what they value, not on what they can consume next.

There’s Tazza D’oro, the fair trade and community-focused coffee house I just visited in Pittsburgh, where sales are up by double digits; this, despite the restaurant industry as a whole seeing sales plummet by about 43 percent last I checked with the National Restaurant Association. New Society Publishers, the publisher of my latest books ECOpreneuring and Rural Renaissance, both printed on 100 percent post consumer waste recycled paper, continues to prosper, perhaps even more so with books that provide positive solutions for people hungry to make a difference. For people who took their early summer 2008 Economic Stimulus Package check and invested it in energy efficiency and conservation, paid off a credit card balance, or like my wife and I, added a photovoltaic system to power our all-electric CitiCar, we realized both a return on our investment and return on environment while needing less money to pay the bankers or utility companies.

Here’s what I’ve learned from both personal experience over the past twelve years and in talking with many others about how to survive a financial crisis:

(1) Invest in the future and in your community

In a time when 401ks are quickly turning into 101ks, many Americans are exiting the debt-based economy, paying off credit cards, canceling car loans, paying down mortgages. Suddenly, when we don’t need to earn money to pay the banks, we rediscover what freedom means. We don’t save for the future, we invest in the one we want to live in, filled with green building materials, fairly traded products, and crafted as a part of the restoration and reuse, place-based economy, sometimes costing us only pennies on the dollar. From an old building turned we into a strawbale greenhouse heated by solar thermal system and biodiesel (we make with a neighbor) to various renewable energy systems, we are pleased — happy — that what we invest in does, in fact, make the world just a little better.

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I got an email this morning and it appears that it’s my lucky day, Not only have I won the UK lottery but a barrister in South Africa has a client with an enormous estate who has left me millions. This makes total sense to me being that the deceased gentleman had no living relatives, so it seems perfectly natural that I would be next in line to inherit his money. I also found out this morning that a company called FedEX Couriers has a package that they’ve been trying to deliver to me. I suspect that this box might also contain cash.

These things are funny and relatively easy to delete from my in-box but there’s still some sort of energy I have to exert to do so. A few spam emails are fine—but hundreds can seem exhausting, even though it’s more mentally exhausting than physically so. Still, even though I know it’s junk mail, I must have a vitamin deficiency because I actually read some of them and get my hopes up. I know it’s crazy but I seriously do get a little excited. My gullability is lessening somewhat having read dozens but I still fall for it for a split second. I know what you’re thinking: I am a chump. And I admit it—it’s pathetic! But then I think, who knows, maybe there is a package of cash waiting for me. It could happen. Couldn’t it?
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When winter’s frigid weather rolls in (or “crashes down” might be more appropriate), we humans have the ability to head inside into comfy little dens stockpiled with plenty of food and kept snugly warm by various measures. Things are much harder on the various critters forced to endure the cold, the precipitation, and the widespread dearth of edibles in this “dead” season.

Winter is the perfect time, then, for you to practice a little cold-weather kindness by helping wildlife make it through these dark, grim days when survival is a constant challenge. With a little planning and effort, you can make your entire yard into an oasis in the icy desert, a shelter from the freezing storm, a larder filled with sustaining, tasty tidbits.

Here are some of the best methods for making your homeplace a wildlife-friendly winter habitat:

1. Keep your birdfeeders full and spread extra seed on the ground. Feeder birds are still plentiful in winter and will need the easily accessible, highly nourishing (and fattening) seeds available in birdfeeders. But if you spread some seed on the ground, too, you will ensure that birds and other critters (including squirrels, like it or not) get something to eat as well. Many winter birds will not venture up to the feeder itself; examples include sparrows of all sorts, juncos, and towhees, which are a joy to watch as they scratch and kick in snow or leaves to find little bits to eat.
2. Drop extra-special winter treats around your yard. For example, smear peanut butter in pine cones and hang them up or just throw them about. Dried corn cobs (with kernels, of course) will feed squirrels, deer, and some birds. Suet is a favorite of woodpeckers and other birds–and squirrels, if you let them get to it.
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Will Allen, an urban farmer in Milwaukee, Wisc., was one of 25 people to receive a $500,000 no-strings-attached MacArthur Fellowship this year. Allen is the founder and CEO of Growing Power, a nonprofit organization and land trust to provide people with good health via affordable, quality food.

To me, the fact that an urban farmer leading a nonprofit for the benefit of teaching communities to grow, in a slew of meaningful ways, can receive such a prestigious fellowship — and the associated financial boon — is remarkable.

Along with Allen, there was a saxophonist genius, a lighting designer genius, a neuroscientist genius, an astronomer genius, a fiber artist genius, a geriatrician genius and on and on. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m reading a book about wood. The title is “Wood,” by Harvey Green. It’s written a bit like the slightly more popular and accessible books by a different author titled “Salt” and “Cod” by Mark Kurlansky. But “Wood” is about our use of wood in home construction, furniture, machinery, packaging, religion—everything. In this book, the author makes many interesting observations, like the fact that although the saw was developed independently in many parts of the world and they are strikingly similar, some cultures designed saws to cut on the push stroke (Western) and others to cut on the pull stroke (Eastern). I think this is fascinating.

He also writes about a time in our past when almost everyone had some knowledge of working with wood because everyday activities like farming, cooking, cleaning traveling, required implements that needed to be made out of wood.

Now that I have read it, this seems so obvious. Back in Laura Ingalls’ time, you couldn’t just go to the store and buy everything you needed like we can today (alas, Mr. Oleson’s store was well stocked but not like what you can find at Wal-Mart). Still, what a cool common bond they all had. I feel a little envious of what seems like a really artistic skill, but then I think that this is sort of how computers are for us today. Almost everyone has to have some knowledge of a computer interface in order to help get our jobs done (supposedly) faster and more efficiently.

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Please forgive my rudeness. If I heard my children speak to someone that way, there’d be some serious lecturing going on. But you’ll understand when I relay the conversation I heard between two young moms the other day at a restaurant.

Mom #1 “My garage was so jam packed with boxes of things. I didn’t even know what was in half of them. I finally go so tired of it all I just took them all out to the curb.”

Mom #2 “Isn’t it such a great feeling when the trash men just make it all disappear?”

Mom#1 “Yes, ‘poof’ and it’s all gone.”

To which I wanted to scream over to their table “Your trash just doesn’t disappear, stupid!” But I didn’t because I was raised better than that. And my son was with me. And I’m fairly gutless in situations like that. But I was screaming it in my head.

What an absolute waste. What still perfectly useful items were in those boxes that the trash men hauled away to be burried in a landfill. There’s no way of knowing, but I do know this one thing. There were many ways she could have easily found new homes for the still useful things in those boxes.

As I see it, when you’ve got something that is still useful but you aren’t using it anymore, there are three responsible ways to get rid of it. None of them involve putting it out at the curb for the fairy trash men to waive their wands and make it disappear.

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Katydids visited our back porch on the past several weekends. The way their bodies were designed to look like leaves impressed me, and also made me think about how much of a conundrum these insects are. In fact, it made very confused as to my beliefs in evolution and god. In the end I suppose that the concepts are compatible. But what a marvel to see something designed to be so camouflaged as a katydid.

After looking on Wikipedia, I learned that there are approximately 6,400 species of katydids around the world. I wanted to see more of these fascinating insects, and so I searched for photos on Flickr. What you see here are some of the more beautiful and interesting photos I found, combined with several of my own. Read the rest of this entry »

Quick trivia question: What’s the second verse to “The Farmer in the Dell”? Anybody? Here you go:

The farmer takes a wife,
The farmer takes a wife,
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The farmer takes a wife.

Talk about stale lyrics in dire need of an update. As women make up the largest and fastest growing group buying new farms today, we should be teaching kids something more like:

“The wife took over the farm.
To the land she did no harm,
Hi-ho, times change, you know, These chicks can really grow.”

Consider Iowa farmer, Denise O’Brien, chief song lyric rewriter and female farmer stereotype smasher extraordinaire. For the past twenty years she has led the charge of organizing and promoting the voice and face of women in agriculture and is founder of the Women, Food and Agriculture Network. “Finally, the tides are starting to turn for women farmers as policies start to change,” explains O’Brien. “But it should have happened a long time ago and there’s still much we as women, from growers to grocery shoppers, can do to create a healthy food system for future generations.”

O’Brien racks up a history of seeing opportunity in crisis. Read the rest of this entry »

Upcycling, a phrase coined by Cradle to Cradle authors William McDonough and Michael Braungart, is the act of creating useful products from waste materials.  You’ve probably seen several upcycled products on the market today–reusable bags are often made from old plastic bags, t-shirts, or other upcycled materials.  TerraCycle is now upcycling many products, including juice pouches and cookie wrappers.  Among design junkies, craftsters, and green folks, upcycling is the latest challenge to combat climate change.  My only gripe is I keep seeing the same upcycling ideas–the aforementioned reusable bags, the old t-shirt revamp–and they’ve been done.  Fortunately, places like Ready Made Magazine and Instructables continue to facilitate new upcycled products.  Here are six creative, practical upcycling projects that, with a little time and skill, you can do at home. Read the rest of this entry »

Just as technology continues to infiltrate the masses, becoming less and less a geeks toy, so environmental consciousness and awareness continue to spread. For some, it might be as simple as bringing calico bags to the supermarket. For others, it is taking your house off the grid and growing your own veggies.

But one area that a lot of families and households are stepping up in is the collection of rainwater.

It isn’t like this is a new activity either. Our ancestors would have spent a lot of effort to collect rainwater, to save themselves the need to trek down to the river or well. But now, it’s happening because across the planet, drought conditions are making life more and more difficult.

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