Green Options

Dominique Browning, the former editor-in-chief of House and Garden, is partnering with Environmental Defense Fund to launch a new column called “Personal Nature: Dominique Browning’s distinctive take on all things environmental“. The column will highlight the human impacts of environmental threats like climate change and ocean pollution. Her first piece explores the language we use in talking about climate change and the need for individual and social action.

“It is only a small leap from caring about what’s going on in a garden to caring about what’s going on in the larger environment,” says Ms. Browning. “Environmental issues are hitting the very place we want to feel safest: home. Home ought to be a sacred place of retreat, rest and peace. It won’t be if we turn our backs on the world. This new column was born in the spirit of paying attention, becoming educated and aware and talking about what we can do now. I’m hoping to give matters of global urgency a human touch.

I just got back from three days at one of my favorite ag industry meetings: The Produce Marketing Association “Fresh Summit.”  To those in the industry this is just known as the PMA.   This is an event where the vast majority of the fresh produce and flower industry gathers to show off their products, their new ideas and all the technologies [...]

I live in the suburbs in Northern California and walk to work, so I really see the details of other people’s front yards as I walk past them.  Mostly these are just boring little grass plots going to waste on each side of the sidewalk.

Yet this is your land, homeowners! Why not really use it?

David de Rothschild’s Plastiki is a seaworthy boat made from reclaimed plastic bottles. Michael Reynolds’ Earthships (the subject of the documentary Garbage Warrior) are homes built from reclaimed materials, and designed to provide basic needs for the homeowner: energy, food, water, and waste disposal. Put the two together, and you get the Landlord Independent, a work-in-progress by Providence, Rhode Island-based artists and activists Dan Gladstone and Zachary Weindel.

According to Richard Florida in his latest book, Who’s Your City?, the average American moves every seven years. “More than 40 million people relocate each year; 15 million make significant moves of more than 50 or 100 miles,” writes Florida. That’s a lot of carboard boxes, time and energy.

The implications for such a footloose society is further complicated by a staggering statistic: a roughly 50 percent divorce rate nationally, leading to multiple homes for what was once a single family home. Of course, second home ownership was also on the rise before the financial meltdown, increasing by 22 percent between 1995 and 2005, according to the Harvard University’s Joint Center on Housing Studies. Now we have two (or more) homes (to fill with stuff) only to later sell them, on average, every seven years.

Then when we age, we’re left with the quagmire of what to do with all our accumulated stuff. The solution for many, of course, is to jam it into self-storage lockers. Over the past two decades, self-storage has emerged as a $20 billion industry and comprises over 52,000 facilities, according to the Self Storage Association. In California, many people park their vehicles in their driveway or on the street not because of their famously great weather (no city snow removal), but because their garages are packed full of more stuff.

Florida points out that there are several key trends emerging:

Dear Justin… and Dear all!

Special thanks to Jeff Strasburg for helping us indulge our imaginations in this series!  I’d also like to extend my gratitude to Justin for engaging me in this form.  It has been edifying to explore concepts about sustainability.  I hope that the readers of this “debate” have enjoyed the process as well, and I know I speak for Justin when I say: we welcome all comments!  This a dialog, a free exchange of ideas, so tell us yours and help to fuel the mutual inspiration.

(Author’s Note: I include the image above not only because, figuratively speaking, the “sun is setting” on our Sustainability dialog, but also because I will be travelling westward-ho! throughout the United States until the beginning of September.  My objective is to get some relief from my high-technology-based lifestyle right now, so the vacation will heavily consist of camping in national parks.  Therefore, I will blog if I am able to during this time, but if not… be prepared for both the Sust Enable episode debuts AND a bona fide blogging bonanza upon my return in early September.)

Without further ado,

Here are my final thoughts, in conclusion.

1) If you can learn to modify your life to be as close to environmental sustainability as possible, it is necessary that you proceed to do so. The human will is one of the most powerful–and dangerous–elements on the planet.  At first glance, it might feel like “too much” to give up using a flush toilet (just for an example).  But is it really?  Think about the idea.  Get familiar with it.  Picture what it would look like to use a composting toilet in your home.  Maybe start with a little one, to be used only sometimes.  Soon, the consequences may not seem all that daunting. There is always a choice. 

Don’t let your true identity and dreams for what the world could be become casualties of conforming.  You only have one life, so use it, in the most effective ways visible.  If many individuals decided that, deep in their hearts, ecocide felt wrong to them, that many persons when taken together comprise a mutiny against old, obsolete customs and beliefs.  Your little action today plays a role in a social revolution, of the “green” kind.