Tag Archives: sustainability

Learn Trade Skills

Motivational graphic for repairing, building, making (and don’t forget gardening!)

“An ally in leaving the world better than one found it!” – My own saying

“Build a better world by doing good things instead of being angry at bad guys.” – Paul Wheaton of Permies.com

Repair, Recycle, ReUse

Go to a Repair Cafe near you!

– Fun hobbies
– Fulfilling & educational
– Meaningful, build resilience
– Direct action to build a better world environmentally, socially, productively
– Save money

* Not all trade skill applications equal, YMMV

E-Waste: The Role of IT Electronics in Permaculture 

Under construction! This post is a work in progress.

“The problem is the solution”

‘Most of the world’s problems can be solved through gardening’

Electronics are an everyday part of life in much of the world. For many good reasons: electronics greatly increase our ability to access, store, transfer, and precisely act on information. Yet electronics also have severe dark sides, the most obvious being toxic electronic waste (“e-waste”) which trickles through our world economy until it is spread to us all by way of air, water, and reduced access/concentration of precious metals.

With that + and – in mind, what role do electronics have in permaculture? For the sake of consideration we need a more stable definition of permaculture, and in this case I’ll propose “regenerative lifestyles and landscapes” and “

Uses > Measurements > Scale of Measurements >

When is hyperlocal needed? When does specialization warrant centralization?

Online market monopolies: an inevitable issue?

A big difference in shopping local vs. online is their underlying tendency to monopolize. Monopolies exist both online, in infrastructure, and in in-person retail markets. When shopping online, the economically and ecologically natural thing to do is centralize shopping: save time, save packaging and transportation, often save money by getting all your online shopping done in one place and even more-so when supplied by one manufacturer/seller. There is a paradoxical dissonance in the feedback loop of online shopping, where what kind of shopping pattern one has is simultaneously the “right” and “wrong” thing to do for environmental, economic, and social good.

What is right and wrong anyway?

Of course, this depends on one’s definition of right, wrong, and ‘good’, but in that regard we can at least identify a reliable guiding star. Paraphrasing Sam Harris:

‘There is some maximum amount of human suffering possible. If we can agree on that, the next step is whether or not there is any condition better than the absolute worst, most suffering-filled condition possible. We can plainly see there are some conditions with more or less suffering; in a most blunt way, consider holding your hand on a hot stove top and seeing if you can find a way to a condition with less suffering – you would automatically. With that understanding, we can see a landscape of conditions where there exists a topography of suffering or wellness. This is the moral landscape, where actions lead us through this uncertain, pertinent space of mounds and valleys, minima and maxima of the amount of suffering for one and all.’ – Paraphrasing Sam Harris’ central concept about morality from the Moral Landscape book and Waking Up podcasts.

What is more likely to lead us to a preferable place in the moral landscape?

With that concept in mind, navigating the ‘moral landscape’ from the starting point of shopping for something, what is right and wrong anyway? Online shopping in particular: to shop around from multiple smaller venders, perhaps those offering the most environmentally friendly wares and/or cheapest; or the shop from fewer sellers, preferring the often most convenient shopping experience and likely least amount of overall embodied energy directly used in packaging and transportation? Which option is most environmentally friendly? What is more likely to lead us to a preferable place in the moral landscape?

Inspired by a conundrum while shopping for electronics and electrical engineering & repair supplies and tools. Where/how do you do your shopping (e.g. for electronics, which are thoroughly nowadays)?

Mitigate globally, adapt locally

On Personal Ethics

What is the supply chain of my basic needs?

Nowadays for most humans daily life is a degrading grind of that which supports us at most basic – and also most absolute, transcendental – levels. Yet human life is not inherently this way. Humans are hard pressed not to have a significant impact on their environment; if at peace in the woods for long enough I’ll surely interact, intervene, interject something into the dynamics of the ecosystem. Will that human impact be good or bad? For what?

Well, what is one’s will?

On Direction as Part of the Whole

Mitigate and adapt to present problems.

To mitigate: Change one’s stance, one’s position, one’s approach. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Lead by example.

To adapt: Lead by example. Live in a way that can be truly sustained through nature’s changes. Engage in mutually beneficial relationships with the source of one’s well being.

Carbon Circuits

Related comments in response to someone doubting anthropogenic global warming and the importance of our effects on the carbon cycle:

I see both large-scale data from climate experts and see wackier weather in my own neck of the woods over the past 20yrs. Anthropogenic climate change or not, I’ve seen first hand that humans are degrading ecosystems we live in and/or rely on. Regardless of political agenda, we shouldn’t shit where we sleep.

That said, humanity is changing the carbon cycle, storing more carbon in the atmosphere; how is pottery made? concrete? steel? What happens to carbon atoms when gas goes from underground to our car’s engines? Or the natural gas as it goes from underground to our home furnaces and water heaters? Thus, I disagree with you saying “quit worrying about carbon”. Let’s actively store carbon in ways beneficial to us – trees, wood, soil – and not let it go haphazardly to oceans, where simple & advanced science experiments can show it is not helpful for us or most other organisms.

Self sufficiency for every body

One thing I find much agreement on between folks on either side of the political spectrum – especially those on either extreme – is self sufficiency. There’s a variety of benefits, direct and indirect, of efforts to become more self sufficient at various scales. I realized recently the importance in distinguishing between self sufficiency vs. survival-at-all-costs, when someone asked me about how personal weaknesses, differences, and disabilities could lead to their demise in a community/world that prioritizes self sufficiency and a survival mindset.
 
In a survival-at-all-costs situation, it is indeed an ugly context where any weakness could lead to one’s demise. However, self sufficiency and even ‘preparedness’ or ‘survivalism’ is not the same as survival-at-all-costs; rather, it’s about taking measures to avoid situations that dire in the first place. Prepare in advance to address weaknesses and optimize use of strengths. Take responsibility unto oneself to identify and compensate for one’s weaknesses (which can look a lot like self improvement at a personal scale, or team building at a neighborhood block scale). Self sufficiency can be improved at various scales (a subtle lesson about what ‘self’ really means), and at all scales there are lessons which can contribute to healthier lives and landscapes. It is not doomsday eat-or-be-eaten, but it is probably the best thing we can do to lessen the blow should we ever face such dark times as we have in the past.
 
“Helping you live a better life if times get tough or even if they don’t.” – Jack Spirko