blog

My objective with this blog, with my book Deep Green, and with my low-footprint lifestyle, is to help spark a widespread, enduring craze for low-footprint living. Not just a flash-in-the-pan fad, but an enduring passion. And one that is widespread across geographic regions, segments of society.

In my mission, I rely heavily on social media, primarily Facebook and Twitter. Social media have been a great asset to the low-footprint-living movement, as they have to the permaculture design movement and other ecologically oriented movements.

The other day on Facebook, I came across a widely shared post that linked an article about how the late rapper and activist Nipsey Hussle inspired a book club for black men. The Facebook post showed his reading list. (Here is his reading list via Goodreads.com .)

The list is wide-ranging and anyone would do well to embark on it. One of the books that caught my eye was Contagious: Why Things Catch On, by Jonah Berger. That book is now tops on my reading list. I plan to order it and read it in the next three days and will get back to you with a post about it.

For now, a few links for you — may they support you in whatever you are setting out to popularize, be it low-footprint living, homeschooling, the greening of your city, or something else wonderful.

Nipsey Hussle Book Club Creates a Space for Black Men (L.A. Times): The rap star was a bookworm, and black men are finding inspiration in his reading list. (Here is his reading list via Goodreads.com .)

“What makes things popular? Word of mouth is 10 times as effective as traditional advertising, but why do people talk about and share certain things rather than others? Why do some products catch on, some ideas diffuse, and some online content go viral?” (from jonahberger.com, regarding his book Contagious: Why Things Catch On)

“In Contagious, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. … Contagious provides specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread—for designing messages, advertisements, and content that people will share.” (from Amazon listing of Jonah Berger’s book Contagious: Why Things Catch On)

Jonah Berger on YouTube: 6 Reasons Things Go Viral (he has numerous other videos as well, including what looks like a 40-minute TED talk or TED-like talk)

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” ~ Elie Wiesel

“What, exactly, does a survivable future look and feel like? And why have we so far proved unwilling to adapt our lifestyles and demand the policies that are needed to achieve it? … An ambitious new project in Sweden is … developing an unexpected tool that could enable the public to grasp the practical steps that would lead to more sustainable societies: storytelling. Telling tales might seem an odd priority in a fast-transforming climate but … [Chief Storyteller Per] Grankvist insisted that such an approach was vital, for the simple reason that facts alone are not something people engage with.” (Gratitude to grist.org for reproducing this exhilarating CityLab story as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.)

The “storytelling” initiative in Sweden is such a wonderful synchronicity for me. Over the past year or so, I have felt intuitively drawn to invest a considerable amount of love and energy in writing a fiction story (a novel) that revolves around themes of permaculture, low-footprint living, resilience (personal, social, ecological). The story has a strong comic element which I did not initially set out to create, but which lends a nice balance to the seriousness of the themes. The rough draft is finished and I plan to self-publish the novel later this year. Stay tuned for announcements!

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/top-10-most-exciting-environmental-stories-from-2019/

Sounds ever so reassuring but doesn’t seem realistic.

On a related note: What if it turned out that our human technologies could get us out of the entire ecological mess we’ve created?

What if we were to find out that fossil fuels don’t pollute? In the absence of any other changes to the way we live, we’d still have a society of endless hot expanses of asphalt parking lot; neighbors who never see each other; totally car-dependent neighborhoods.

What if we were to find out we can live in a world without flowers, without bees Would that be the kind of world we’d want to live in?

Even widespread, seemingly hopeless global issues have a component we can address with our personal habits. My old rallying cry from my days as an angry eco protester, “Look in the Mirror!” (abbreviated LITM, or sometimes in my extra-emphatic moments LITFM) turns from an eco-chide into an opportunity.

One example: the coral-reef crisis.

The following list of links starts with articles about the problem, then you get some articles about solutions being implemented on different levels. And finally, the last two articles suggest choices you can make in your everyday life to help protect coral reefs and even contribute to their restoration.

Enjoy! And thanks always for being on this journey with me, to protect our amazing planet and all the creatures with whom we share it.

State of the Planet: Losing Our Coral Reefs (by Renee Cho, on Columbia University blog). “Coral reefs, the ‘rainforests of the sea,’ are some of the most biodiverse and productive ecosystems on earth. … If we continue with business as usual, 90 percent of coral reefs will be in danger by 2030, and nearly all of them by 2050.” Excellent article, includes good background info on “What is coral?”

Plastic trash is sickening the world’s coral reefs (nature.com) While plastic trash is only one of numerous human-induced threats to coral reefs, it is significant, and it’s one we can all work on. By the way, there are natural threats to coral reefs also (such as predatory starfish, and El Niño), but that’s no reason not to do the many things that are in our power to help the situation.

‘Iconic’ Florida Keys Primed for $100 million restoration (Tampa Bay Times)

Grassroots divers known as ‘gardeners’ are trying to save coral reefs (Metro News UK)

Mini Reefs Filter Water, Attract Fish (WPTV.com) – mini reefs that retail for a mere $300 are reportedly increasing numbers of fish and other marine life. Any growth in those populations is good news for coral reefs, since the reefs depend on fish and other creatures for their survival.

Five Common Causes of Coral Reef Destruction (LeisurePro.com)

How To Protect Coral Reefs – 14 Steps (Wikihow) – Things you can do to make a difference, from reducing single-use-plastics to being mindful about where you buy pet fish. (I never knew “fishing with cyanide” was a thing. Yikes!) I learned some new things from this article.

Inequality: “Anti-Quarantine Protesters: You want to blame your economic situation on proven self-distancing measures, when the blame belongs on an economic system that has failed its workers.”

Net worth, income

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/01/06/the-ultra-wealthy-who-argue-that-they-should-be-paying-higher-taxes?utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Magazine_010620&utm_medium=email&bxid=5be9ea6c2ddf9c72dc7b688e&cndid=52479545&esrc=AUTO_PRINT&mbid=&utm_content=A&utm_term=TNY_Magazine

“In 2011, she joined an organization called the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy Americans who are concerned about rising income inequality and who speak out in favor of policies traditionally considered to be antithetical to their economic interests.”

“In the U.S., executive compensation has increased, on average, by nine hundred and forty per cent since 1978, according to one estimate; during the same period, worker pay has risen twelve per cent. Income inequality hasn’t been this extreme since the nineteen-twenties. ”

Net worth world http://www.globalrichlist.com

home equity 129k, investments 165k, possessions 500 = top 3.94% in world

update as of 6/6/19- top 3.80 when i add 150k + 30k

investments 0, possessions 1,000 = still top 68.58%

a millionaire is top 0.56% (i used investments only)

Net Income world http://www.globalrichlist.com

7k top 19.54%

13k top 11.62%

15k top 7.91%

(but, above are my gross figs, not sure of net )

if 4k then top 26.72%

if 10k then top 16.01%

Net worth USA https://dqydj.com/net-worth-percentile-calculator-united-states/

300k = 71st percentile

1k = 14.5 percentile

Income USA https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/

USA avg 2018 – 55,880; median 39,048; top 10% 114,068; top 5% 153,420

me 7k 10 percentile; 13k 16 percentile; 15k 18 percentile

Net worth, income

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/01/06/the-ultra-wealthy-who-argue-that-they-should-be-paying-higher-taxes?utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Magazine_010620&utm_medium=email&bxid=5be9ea6c2ddf9c72dc7b688e&cndid=52479545&esrc=AUTO_PRINT&mbid=&utm_content=A&utm_term=TNY_Magazine

“In 2011, she joined an organization called the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy Americans who are concerned about rising income inequality and who speak out in favor of policies traditionally considered to be antithetical to their economic interests.”

“In the U.S., executive compensation has increased, on average, by nine hundred and forty per cent since 1978, according to one estimate; during the same period, worker pay has risen twelve per cent. Income inequality hasn’t been this extreme since the nineteen-twenties. ”

Net worth world http://www.globalrichlist.com

home equity 129k, investments 165k, possessions 500 = top 3.94% in world

update as of 6/6/19- top 3.80 when i add 150k + 30k

investments 0, possessions 1,000 = still top 68.58%

a millionaire is top 0.56% (i used investments only)

Net Income world http://www.globalrichlist.com

7k top 19.54%

13k top 11.62%

15k top 7.91%

(but, above are my gross figs, not sure of net )

if 4k then top 26.72%

if 10k then top 16.01%

Net worth USA https://dqydj.com/net-worth-percentile-calculator-united-states/

300k = 71st percentile

1k = 14.5 percentile

Income USA https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/

USA avg 2018 – 55,880; median 39,048; top 10% 114,068; top 5% 153,420

me 7k 10 percentile; 13k 16 percentile; 15k 18 percentile

How I Am Investing To Save the Planet (Laura Oldanie, Triple Bottom Line FI)

Here’s a corner of my living room. The little “painting” on the wall is actually just a piece of cloth covering a thermostat. Here’s the story …

I have a wall-mounted electronic thermostat I’m not using. (I don’t use air-conditioning because I don’t like being shut in from nature; and I don’t use heat either, we don’t really need heat in my part of Florida.)

The electronic thingee is small but still not pretty, and I wanted to find a way to pretty it up rather than have to rip it out of the wall. (I plan to live the rest of my life in this house – but in case I ever do have to sell it, the central climate-control system is all intact, except the new owner would have to buy a new a/c compressor because I got rid of that large outdoor object to make room for a birdbath.)

So, I used the little thermostat box as a base for a “painting” — which I made by wrapping an old piece of silk (which I had been using as a paintbrush-wipe cloth) around the box and tying it with twine. I enjoy the effect! And I can change out the “painting” to a different one anytime!

Happy New Year everyone! I think 2020 is going to be a great year for eco consciousness and compassion.

#ZeroWasteInteriorDesign #ArtOfLowFootprintLiving

BTW I just now posted this same post on the Journey To Zero-Waste Facebook group, but I’ve added the teeniest bit of extra content here for you my dear readers. Love you and thanks for being here with me in the #GrassrootsGreenMobilization! “Our chief weapon is joy…joy and style…style and joy…. Our two weapons are joy and style…and ruthless energy-efficiency…. Our *three* weapons are joy, style, and ruthless energy-efficiency…and an almost fanatical devotion to the Goddess of Thrift…. Our *four*…no… *Amongst* our weapons…. Amongst our weaponry…are such elements as joy, style…. I’ll come in again.”

(And if you get that reference, I love you even more, and I have an extra special bonus New Year’s Eve prezzy for you. Here you go. You’re ever so welcome.)

… included some sci-fi-ishly eeerily good news. We all want to believe in good news but some of it seems like the “free lunch” variety (for example, a blast furnace that vaporizes plastic and turns it into clean energy without any emissions – excess gases become fuel that can be used to power airplanes):

“The fuel that is made from the FastOx technology is reportedly 20 times cleaner than California fuel standards. Additionally, all of the gases that are generated by the chemical process are captured for reuse—for instance, to replace fossil fuels that power airplanes or for use as fertilizer, hydrogen, or ethanol.”

Read more: Top 10 Most Exciting Environmental News Stories for 2019 Raise Hope for An Eco-Friendly Year Ahead

It all sounds good – but I am skeptical.

Furthermore: Even if we were to invent a car that runs on air, we’ll still have the problems of obesity and social isolation, and un-walkable neighborhoods cut off from one another by multi-lane high-speed roads.

Maybe we will figure out how to grow food without pollinators – but would we really want to live in a world without bees and flowers?

How much does beauty and wonder matter to us?

That may be USAmerican mainstream society’s biggest flaw: we devalue beauty, atmosphere, sense of wonder. Well, second-biggest, after devaluing other creatures and our fellow humans.

It’s all part of the same root: a disconnect from nature. And the fixes all start from the same root: Re-connect with nature.