Author: jennynazak

“Lights” has often been used as a popular shorthand term for electricity. Illustrating the value and importance that people place on illumination when no natural light is available.

In some countries, schoolchildren don’t even have lights to study by.

Personally, I think that kids shouldn’t be forced to stay up late like that, because kids learn much more quickly than we give them credit for, if we get out of their way.

And many studies have shown that staying up late with artificial lighting isn’t good for human bodies in general.

But, the fact remains that people need lighting in various situations.

As I wrote in my book, lighting need not have a high energy footprint, if we use it with discernment. Even a plain old incandescent bulb 100 W doesn’t have to add up to much, if we minimize its use to the bare essential. A lot of times in the rich Global North, we use lights when we actually don’t need to have lights on. It’s a social norm mainly.

(This does not apply to people living in apartments or other dwellings that simply do not have adequate natural light even in the daytime in some cases.)

For me, one of the major benefits of minimizing use of electric lighting is aesthetic, as I prefer natural light. Minimizing use of lightbulbs doesn’t make much of a difference on our electric bill.

another benefit is reduced sense of vulnerability. I simply don’t care about lights when there’s a power outage. I’ve been doing it for so long and I’m very used to it, but for some people, it can be very scary when there are no lights available.

The usual ways to deal with this unnerving situation are to have candles, and back-up battery-powered lamps. Nowadays there are lots of cool rechargeable lanterns, some of them rechargeable by the sun.

I also recommend oil lamps. I have a little collection of vintage ones. (SAFETY NOTE: If you are new to oil lamps, please read the label of the fuel container very carefully. Some lamps and fuels are not suitable for use in enclosed spaces. I use a specialized lamp oil for indoors.)

Some other ways to reduce dependency on electric lighting include going to bed when it gets dark (not an option for everyone’s work or school schedule); and using night time for phone visits with friends, watching TV, or other things that don’t require light. Again, it’s a social norm. People don’t usually think about it, but we don’t need to have the lights on when we’re just having a phone chat with a friend. Or sitting out on the porch with a neighbor. Or watching TV or videos, whether on our phone or computer or a regular TV.

If you have kids or grandkids, you could even do a camp-out, either outside or in the living room! I’ve heard lots of people enjoy pitching a tent in the living room.

Lights at night are a thing that humans have always valued. The original version was probably the good old campfire. Not only for safety, but also for community. I doubt that I will ever do without lights, especially at night, but there’s a certain freedom from being able to think of electric lighting as optional.

Of course, an environmental-justice aspect of this is that we need to make it a priority that all dwellings have adequate natural lighting. Many do not, and thus the residents depend on electric lighting even in the daytime. This jacks up people’s electric bills and also is just not very pleasant.

It’s always painful for me to see people in such distress during the power outages that inevitably accompany hurricanes and other storms. Minimizing our dependency on electric lighting is something that can benefit us all.

during and after last summer’s storms here, I became more keenly aware of how we the public have given the electric power company a huge blank check. It’s like we’ll pay them anything just to turn the lights back on. Hundreds of electric power workers were even brought in from out of state. This had to cost a fortune, and ultimately the ones footing the bill will be us.

It’s not a secure or safe position to be in. The power companies can jack up the rates anytime, and most people are all too willing to go along with it. Maybe if enough of us are able to reduce our dependency, they won’t feel so free to constantly jack up our base rates, tack on “storm recovery fees,” etc.

Response to an invitation from a reader/listener, to visit their rural land “if you’re wanting a little time to yourself in the Wild”:

Thank you for the invitation. I’m not big on solo venturing into the wild these days, and also I’m not likely to make it out there unless the public-transportation infrastructure changes radically. But I appreciate your kind hospitable offer just the same.

It would be nice if rural areas in Florida felt a bit safer for people on foot and bicycle, but they really don’t.

Also, maybe Amtrak or Greyhound would consider adding a stop in {tiny rural Florida town on a river}. However, the trend seems to be in the reverse direction these days, as many towns are losing their stops.

Even St. Augustine, a sizable city and tourist destination, lost its Greyhound stop at some point while I wasn’t looking. Very disheartening. Maybe if more of our fellow environmentalists over the years had supported public transportation instead of accepting the relentless creep of suburbanization and car-dominance, we wouldn’t be in such dire straits.

We don’t have a time machine at our disposal, alas, but we can all use our influence to de-normalize the idea that everyone must own a private car that they can just casually hop into and drive anywhere.

Energy-intensive transport is a huge part of what’s heating up the planet. During the Covid shutdown, as I mentioned in my talk, we saw noticeable improvements in various planetary indices.

The “Ramble On” film on WaterBear is very inspiring. I love that these British everyday people pushed so hard to gain the right to walk freely around the countryside, across private land. I love that they so value walking in their own bioregion. I also love that they can take the bus from the city out to the country to do their walks.

PS. Thanks for this conversation! Conversation ongoing, and I will let you know if I get enough interest to set up a zoom chat. So we can all cross-pollinate ideas and resources.

(Photo: Urban meadow mini-wilderness about 10 minutes’ walk from my house.)

Time to start building real resiliency. The missing link tends to be the community scale / neighborhood scale / district scale of infrastructure. When I was studying and interning in New Mexico some years back, I met a guy who was involved in promoting a project for district heating with biomass. The biomass was locally gathered deadwood.

* The above is a comment I made in regard to a fellow permaculture activist’s post (it was not public or I would’ve shared it). But basically he was commenting on various infrastructure outages that have happened over the years. From pipeline spills to telecomms cables breaking and what have you.

People in permie circles often offer “off-grid living” as a solution to this infrastructure vulnerability, as well as to the rising cost of water and energy bills, but that’s a hyperindividualistic solution and leaves many people behind, as well as chewing up a lot of land and resources.

As I have pointed out in my book and on this blog, the most ethical and economical way I have found to be sort of de facto off-grid (-ish) without leaving people behind, is to live in an existing dwelling that’s connected to infrastructure, but minimize my own use of water, electric etc. Also I don’t cable service; just use basic phone cellular data plan to get online.

Photo: Beautiful little oak tree tucked away in an empty lot in my neighborhood. It’s a whole community in and under that tree, largely unseen and unnoticed by humans.

On elders’ fears of “Having to give up the car keys”:

I dream of a world where elders don’t have to be forced to give up their car keys, because they can live rich full lives without cars. When all people (elders, kids, families) aren’t basically forced, by bad govt policy and corporate greed, to own a car in order to get their needs met. Other countries have this, why shouldn’t we? Not driving a car should not mean loss of independence.

Whenever I hear someone say some typical USA culture elder-praise thing like, “my mom is such a pistol, she’s 97 years old and still driving!” I totally cringe.

If I’m blessed to live into old age, I don’t plan to be the “pistol” by being the special one who is still driving. I plan on being the one who is agitating for a shuttle service for nursing-home residents, pushing for safer sidewalks, extended city bus service etc.

I’m only in my early 60s, but if I never have to drive again, I’ll be pretty happy. It’s going to take considerable activist muscle to make that happen though. We’re building some critical mass in my city, probably in large part because we have a large population of elders.

I can think of worse things for us elder activists to do than band together and make the big push for public transportation that is long overdue. And / or, fixing the zoning and coding restrictions that make it virtually impossible to have a lively urban village these days.

Photo taken at a restaurant that I walk to in my neighborhood. With great outdoor seating.

Bookmarking this podcast. No relation to me or my book! I haven’t listened yet but I am eager to.

Two of the episodes that grab me right away are the one about the climate impact of office furniture; and the value of rehabbing old apartment buildings instead of building new. Listening to these is on my list of homework!

From their page:

“Deep Green is a show about how the built environment impacts climate change and equity. Buildings are some of the biggest things we make as human beings. In these bi-weekly episodes, we explore how through understanding buildings, cities, and all the things that go into them, we can do better for the environment and all life on this planet.”

Lots of really enticing content here: https://surroundpodcasts.com/deep-green/

Metropolis Deep Green

The unused utility-type pole on the sidewalk in front of my house has become a new art project. I am wrapping the pole with sparkly threads, starting near the bottom.

And voilà, just like that, I find a fun use for a huge amount of metallic thread (that came to me via a lavish stockpile of unused sewing supplies I inherited from multiple generations of stitchy women on both sides of my family). So much fun to do this, and maybe other people will even participate.

There’s a lot of untreated mental health stuff going on in the community, and I know that messing with thread helps my mental health so maybe it will bring others increased sense of peace as well. And maybe joy too, hope so!

At the corner of my house nearest the pole, is what I call “porous property.” (Not visible in the photos but I’m just mentioning it here in case you’re not yet familiar with my porous-property experiments.) It’s a corner of my yard that I open to the public. With benches, Little Free Library, blackboard w chalk, etc. I’ve posted about it repeatedly here and on my DEEP GREEN facebook page, so you can see photos etc.

By encroaching on the utility pole with my arty activities, I’ve started opening the door to an interesting experiment. We’ll see if any authoritarian figure claims responsibility for the pole by immediately removing the bootleg craft project ha ha Meanwhile I want it to light up people’s day as we move into the new year.

PS. In this very humid coastal climate, pretty much everything is perishable. That means you use it or lose it. And often “losing it” means it gets infested by bugs and mold and all sorts of other stuff you don’t want in your house. Beachside Florida for me is like one big “carpe diem / smoke em if you’ve got em” billboard!

Pix here.

Below is a synopsis and bio for a talk that I have been giving about climate action. I tailor it slightly for each group and for any major news of the moment.

The past couple of my talks, in my opinion, I have severely flopped. And, if I look honestly, my talks had been going downhill for awhile. This is not any kind of humble-bragging perfectionism. And also it’s nothing that I have heard from any audience feedback. In my experience, audiences don’t typically give feedback when a talk is bad.

No, I actually just have not measured up to the quality standards that I endeavor to provide. And which I feel that people who are looking to me for guidance (and futhermore paying me!) have a right to expect.

Accordingly, I am currently involved in a troubleshooting process. This may at some point include posting five-minute segments on my YouTube channel for anyone to access.

For more than a minute, I took the failures as a sign that I just need to step down from speaking. Which still might be true. Honestly, I feel a lot more comfortable writing. However, speaking reaches some audiences that writing might not reach. And, if not many others are offering these kinds of talks, maybe stepping down is not a public service.

An approach I had been using for years to structure my talks no longer seems to work very well. I used to write out five general “header” points, or maybe seven at the most. It was easy to remember such a relatively small number of points. (And they would be written in big letters on a note page in front of me.) And I could remember a few key things to say about each point. But somehow that’s breaking down. I don’t know if my heart’s not in it, or if my short-term memory is getting worse, or my tendency to ramble is getting worse, or what. Maybe it’s always been bad and I’ve just been waking up to it more. There could also be some Covid brain effects.

For the time being, I am just doing some reflecting and restructuring. One thing I have always said is that if someone hears me give a talk and they think I did a crappy job, I would love for them to take it as a sign that they themselves should get out there and start speaking. Throw your hat in the ring!The world always needs more speakers who help people get motivated and show up more authentically in the world.

PS. This post is not seeking public-speaking advice. I am connected with all sorts of resources and am incorporating them into my troubleshooting. This is more of an inner thing. Another reason for posting this is in case any of you are involved in public speaking or other public appearances, and are starting to face this kind of situation. Questioning your quality control. I’m here to just let you know that you’re not alone, and whatever you decide, I know you will keep finding the best channels for you to serve the people / causes you serve.

Here is the summary and bio FYI:

Convenient truths: Climate action leverage points for everyday people

Contrary to popular belief, everyday people do have the power. And we cannot afford to wait on government or corporations. Distant centralized entities don’t have sufficient vested interest in really attacking climate change. We, the everyday people do, as climate change is destroying our homes and communities and hitting us in the wallet. In this talk I will be sharing some very large, very accessible leverage points that are typically overlooked. And I’ll be talking about the real secret weapon, which is the stories we tell ourselves.

jenny nazak is an eco educator and community activist based in Daytona Beach. She is author of the self-published practical guidebook DEEP GREEN; and a contributing author to Growing FREE: Building Regenerative Wealth without Losing Your Soul or Destroying the Planet. Her ongoing writings, and more about her background, can be found at jennynazak.com. Her eco Facebook page is “DEEP GREEN book by jenny nazak.” You can see video content on her YouTube and TikTok channels.

Further Exploration:

• Joshua Spodek’s website has several of his TEDx talks. This professor, who lives in Manhattan, is supposedly now currently living at a 1.0-ton carbon footprint. He and I have in common, among other things, focus on intrinsic motivation; and the fact that we have voluntarily lived without refrigeration for multiyear periods.

I aspire to his virtuouso level of waste reduction; he has not had to take out his trash since like 2018 or something! Also, I love the video where he gives his uncompromising stance on air travel. Similar to my approach, he has found ways to get all of the benefits that people typically use as reasons they need to engage in longdistance/overseas travel.

• OK, I finally got online and braved watching my talk. And actually I was surprised to find that it was nowhere near as bad as I had thought! Not superstellar, but not really terrible, and I did cover most of the main points I wanted to cover. If you would like to hear my talk, visit this link and look for December 22, 2024.

The audience was absolutely wonderful, by the way. I always offer Q&A after my talks, and this group was exceptionally lively. Unfortunately the Q&A usually isn’t included on the recording. One thing I forgot to cover in my talk (that I mentioned in the Q&A) was that we have had a “green mobilization” already, even though it wasn’t called that. It was the pandemic shutdown, and I’ve written about it before in this blog. We saw improvements in numerous aspects of planetary/biospheric health. Including some key aspects of human happiness and emotional well-being. A re-set of priorities, social and economic as well as ecological.