The Greening of Gavin

The Paradox of Our Age

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We live in the age of abundant energy, and we have a lot to be thankful for, but for how much longer, and what are we doing about it?

Humanity has reached a stage in its development where everything we now have is reliant on a source of cheap energy, in the form of oil.  We have transportation that would shock an early 20th century person, as we can get from point A to point B with a minimum of fuss and travel distances in time-frames that would be unheard of only 50 years ago.  Way back then, only the rich could afford to fly, and the rest of us were stuck on the ground or traveled vast distances slowly via the oceans.  However, whilst on the ground we spent this precious resource building roads and freeways that have cut the travelling time between cities in half (except for the odd traffic jam).  We have built magnificent cities from steel, concrete and glass (with the aid of oil) that glow in the night that can be seen from space.   These cities house many millions of people throughout the world and consume resources from neighboring countryside.  We have a medical procedures that can replace most parts of the body when they get diseased or worn out, except for the human brain, but I am sure we are working on that as well.  We live longer than any other time in human history and have the biggest population that increases by 1,000,000,000 people every 25 years.  All because of cheap energy in the form of oil and other fossil fuels.

So, on the down side, at this very moment we are on a plateau of energy production.  Our demand for energy is now outstripping supply, and this demand grows with every single human born into existence.  Prices rise because of supply shortages, and this in turn continues to feed the whoa’s of the continuing economic crisis which is build on continuous upward growth.  However, with all fossil fuels and natural resources being of finite supply, our economic system is bashing up against natural hard limits.  You cannot have a system that is reliant on growth when there is only so much of everything.  You cannot change the laws of physics.  Not only fossil fuels are depleting, but things like fresh water with depletion in the form of ancient aquifers, phosphates for fertilization, arable land to grow food on, and global fish stocks.  We do not seem to be awake to the fact that many of the things we take for granted are depleting rapidly, we have no plan to implement a scalable replacement for our energy needs, which drives all other human activities.

Even with all our cleverness, much of humanity lacks the foresight to plan for a future with less of everything.  Our population has grown alongside of energy growth, because we have been able to produce abundant surpluses of food.  But only in some parts of the world.  Over 5/7th of our species do not have a regular meal on the table, or access to clean drinking water.

Recent events do not fill me with joy or hope.  Diplomats from all over the world returned home after a hard-won agreement in Durban, South Africa during the latest round of climate talks. They agreed to do nothing to save our climate from disaster.   Our governments will continue to talk until 2015, and then maybe do something serious about greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. By then, we will be committed to at least 3 and a half degrees Centigrade hotter world in 2100, than our ancestors knew in 1750 and a climactic system that is totally unpredictable. It will only get hotter after that and maybe, as some scientist predict, this will occur earlier, our own lifetimes, and that of our children.  Surely we can do better than this?

Now that we have hit the 7,000,000,000 mark in population in October 2011, and that we are constrained by natures hard limits, and the threat of environmental disaster in the form of a changing climate, what are we to do?  I ask myself this question every day, and wonder often ‘what happens next?’  How are we to cut emissions by 50-80% by 2050, and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels if it is predicted that the human population will be at 9 billion?  More people means more emissions and more resources.  I believe that we will be too worried about feeding ourselves, rather than trying to stabilize the climate!

So many unanswered questions, and with little visible action from world leaders and governments, I am afraid I cannot think of any other outcome except a train-wreck.  I may be wrong, but I think our civilization is moving too fast on the rails to slow down in time.  But think of this train-wreck happening in slow motion.  We are at overshoot, and the only other result is a long slow decline.  All because we have delayed action on alternative energy, changing our economic system, mitigating climate change, and population overshoot to feed economic growth and to fatten someones wallet.  Whatever happens from now on in, it will not be pretty.

Look, I didn’t mean to bring everyone down, but we do live in troubled times.  It is just that many of us cannot connect the dots, or even want to talk about these big issues.  We only have one habitable planet in this neck of the Universe, so we have to clean up the mess we made.  What is needed is a call to arms, and where we start talking about these issues on a daily basis.  The more we talk about it, the more thinking we will do, and we may even come up with some real solutions for the climate or an effective way to power-down during energy descent.

However, until such time that we really start talking seriously, we will just keep things as business as usual.  The only problem is that business is starting to get bad!

I will leave you with this thought though.  It is something I posted a long time ago, but is still relevant today.

The Paradox of Our Age

by The 14th Dalai Lama 

We have bigger houses but smaller families;
More conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, but less judgment;
More experts, but more problems;
More medicines, but less healthiness;
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.
We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever but have less communication.
We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;
Tall men but short character;
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It’s a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room.

So lets get busy, and start talking about these things to people who are yet aware of the issues we face.  It will be only way we will solve them in the time we have available.  I will keep talking about this, will you?

Being Different – Cross post from SGFC

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I am different.  Yes, really different, but I hope it doesn’t stay that way for long.

However, I know that I am not alone.  Slowly growing within the consumeristic heart of western culture and society, there is a special kind of person that is different from the mainstream.  Sometimes they are hard to spot, but with a bit of careful observation you can pick them out from the crowd.

You will see them shopping in op shops buying clothes and other essentials.  You will catch them on weekends in their gardens growing their own food.  You will find them in their kitchens cooking meals for their family.  You will see them mending and repairing, reducing, reusing, and recycling items around the home.  You will find them talking about the antics of their chickens instead of talking about weekend football or some other trivial pursuit.  You will notice their friendly demeanour, and note that they give endlessly of their skills and knowledge.  You will finding them buying local produce and goods.  You will find them using less resources in their lifestyle.  You will hear them enjoying life and not have a nagging feeling in their gut that something is missing in their life.

In fact, these people are you.  I can see you out there as our audience, changing your lives, being different from the rest of society, every single day of the year and living life to the full.  Having fun and finding the courage to be someone different who stands up for the future of humanity and all creatures on the Earth in each and every action you take towards your simple, green, and frugal lifestyle.

It feels good to be different is a small way, however what would please me much, much more was if everyone lived as if the welfare of Mother Earth, Gaia, Mother Nature, or whatever label you put on this big blue-green marble we live on and call home.  I yearn to see the day when we are all the same.

Being different is maybe good in the short term, but a big green groundswell that reaches a tipping point is far superior.  Change at the community level is the only thing that will make a difference in the long run to our environment which without we do not stand much of a chance.  It makes me laugh when I hear the term “Save the Environment”.  As I know full well that the environment is not something separate from humans, what that term really means, and has a bigger punch in the process is “Save Humanity and all other Species on the planet”.  It has a better ring to it, and a worthy goal.

So lets take the “different” and make it “the norm”.  Reach out to your local community and share all the different things you do in your sustainable lifestyle, and I bet you my best laying chicken, that you will make a difference to someone’s life!

Who is up for the challenge?

Adapting To Change

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“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”- Charles Darwin

Some will adapt, many will not, because to adapt, you must see the change coming!

I overheard this on the train this morning.   “A white Christmas in Australia.  That’s funny! (laughter heard)”.  My thoughts at the time were “That is bloody hilarious love, but that is climate change for you, and you still have no idea what is coming down the line.”

It was as if climate change was a forgone conclusion, with no action required.  Just go for the ride, so to speak.  Well, I suppose in a way it is.  With 2 degrees of warming already locked in and tipping points rapidly approaching, the train is unequivocally heading towards the end of the tracks at a runaway velocity with no-one at the brake lever to slow it down.  Heads up their arses or in the sand.

After a record spell of drought in many parts of Australia, we now have floods and torrential rains, and even snow in the high country only one week before Christmas Day in the south eastern part of the country.  Now snow in December may seem normal to those readers in the northern hemisphere, but it is far from a normal climactic pattern here south of the equator in Summer no less.  We should be dressing shorts and sandals, having barbecues every weekend!  I have never seen it so cold here in summer.  To put it in perspective, this time last year we were swimming every day, eating tomatoes, and having fun in the sun.  Not so this year.  All winter crops have gone a month or two longer than normal, spring planting was delayed due to the colder start to spring.  With yesterday being summer solstice here in the south, the climate is anything but normal or summer like.

The seasons have been progressively moving out of kilter by a few months.  This article in The Age newspaper titled “Facing the hard local realities of a warming world“, really struck home with me, and confirmed what I have been observing all around me.  Adapt or not, that is the question.

In relation to this issue, I feel helpless.  I can see the changes and am trying to do something constructive about it, but most around me don’t give a shit, nor look like they have the same sense of urgency about them as I do.  Maybe I am either ahead of my time, or just plain wacko?  As for the UN climate talks, it looked like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  Too little, too late, or in my own words I liken it to pissing into the wind.  Do it long enough and some will splash back on your legs!  Guess what folks, it is now splashing back and we are having a lot of trouble stopping the flow.

Waiting for governments to act doesn’t work.  Waiting for corporations to change doesn’t work and neither does waiting for ‘the market’ to miraculously save us.  

What hope do we have, when all I see is hopelessness and inaction?

Well, I will tell you what gives me hope.  People who read this unusual blog give me hope because I realise that you are here because you want to learn how to make simple changes to your lives, and of course you put up with my ramblings.  If I also make some kind of sense, then I will take that as a bonus!

I gain hope when new members join our local sustainable living group, so that they can learn survival skills and want to help educate others.  My children give me hope, because I know that they understand that it will be them who have to continue the work long after I am gone.  After all, they are the generation to come that I talk so often about.

Hope comes from people like you and I, who make this issue personal to our friends and family, who then take actions themselves.  We are all influential in our own special way.  What we do and say matters to them.  Making it personal is a powerful motivator.

We just have to influence faster.  Spread the message of hope and the message that we can change behaviours for the better before tipping point happen.  Tell friends and family about the great personal sustainable living actions that you have taken, even if you don’t think it is important in the grand scheme of things.  Trust me, your actions are important to you and to them.

Together we can lower greenhouse gas emissions below 350 part per million, where it should be.  This is the challenge I put to you, my readers.  Act now, tell others about the solutions, and together we can adapt not to the effects of catastrophic climate change, but to a better way of living.

Gavin x