Permaculture 101: Feed The People: What Everyone Can Learn From The Cuban Oil Crisis
By Erin Gallagher
Filed Under The Big Picture | 7 Comments
Another day passes and the buzz about fuel prices and dwindling oil reserves hangs (along with the rush-hour traffic exhaust) in the evening air. The future of our global petroleum-based economy is a picture that not many of us want to paint, yet it is unavoidable not to ask what our lives may look like when the last drop of oil has burned.
In the US, the average person currently requires 7 barrels of oil to operate their home (heating, cooling and electricity), 9 barrels to power their vehicle and 10 to grow and transport the food they eat. Does ten barrels of oil for food sound surprising? The food industry is an extremely energy intensive process that has been expanded and commercialized to a point where industrial-sized machinery and mass production methods such as monopolized corporate farms and indiscriminate pesticide use are necessary to keep up with demand.
Fortunately, there is a country who can provide us with an image of what that the not-so-distant future without oil may look like. Cuba faced a crisis due to oil shortage with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Oil exports abruptly dropped 50% and the country lost 80% of it’s international trade economy.
Food production quickly became Cuba’s number one issue after their oil supply dwindled. Buses stopped running, factories became silent, tractors sat on the side of the road and people began to realize that food was not making the long journey from the farm to the city. People began to starve. Within a few months the average person lost 25 pounds and malnutrition in pregnant women and small children became the dominant issues for the medical community. Continue reading Permaculture 101: Feed The People: What Everyone Can Learn From The Cuban Oil Crisis…
Posted on August 29, 2008 |
Permaculture 101: Go With The Flow: Harvest The Rain
By Erin Gallagher
Filed Under Green Living, The Big Picture | 5 Comments
While most humans can live without food for 3 weeks, we will only survive for 3 days without water. Clean drinking water is a natural resource that has the potential to become more scarce than oil and therefore another cause of heated international conflict.
Last week, Permaculture 101 introduced the whole system design approach to living as a method for designing human habitats so that all elements integrate to form a simple, non-wasteful, harmless, self sustaining, productive, efficient system that is essential to having an environmentally responsible lifestyle. A major permacultural design principle is starting simple, so this article delves into the first of many basic components of a healthy system: water.
Collecting the water that falls on a piece of land is not a new idea. Archaeologists believe that inhabitants of Jawa (now North-Eastern Jordan) practiced “rainwater harvesting” in clay-built cisterns as early as 3,000 BC to ensure that their food continued to thrive in times of drought. Continue reading Permaculture 101: Go With The Flow: Harvest The Rain…
Posted on August 21, 2008 |
Permaculture 101: Designing A Life Beyond Sustainability
By Erin Gallagher
Filed Under The Big Picture | 6 Comments
According to the Hirsch Report issued by the US Department of Energy, global oil production peaked in 2005 with the last major discoveries of light crude oil occurring in the 1960s. Regardless, global consumption rates continue to climb 1.5% each year and the UN estimates the world population will hit 9.1 Billion in the next 40 years. It should be glaringly apparent that our world is off balance; what remains unclear is where we should start to stabilize ourselves.
A revolutionary concept developed in the 1970s, dubbed “permaculture,” is rapidly gaining attention as a transformative vehicle for creating holistic, healthy systems from the microcosm of our immediate surroundings to the macrocosm of the planet.
per. ma. cul. ture \ˈpər-mə-ˌkəl-chər\ Etymology: permanent + agriculture
A method for designing human habitats so that all elements integrate to form a simple, non-wasteful, harmless, self sustaining, productive, highly functional system.
The idea of permaculture was developed at the University of Tasmania by environmental psychology professor Bill Mollison and his environmental design student, David Holmgren. In response to the extreme drought conditions of Australia and global dependence on fossil fuels, the two men developed a model that created much needed balance. Inputs equaled outputs and the only “waste” the model created, easily broke down into simple elements that added to the health of their environment. Though the basis of their design has existed in many aboriginal and native cultures for centuries, Mollison and Holmgren devised a way to communicate it to a much broader audience. Continue reading Permaculture 101: Designing A Life Beyond Sustainability…
Posted on August 14, 2008 |
BALLE: Creating A Community-Based Global Economy
By Jenna Kirkman
Filed Under Conscious Commerce | 2 Comments
After reading last month’s article on food miles, it is clear that the corporate centralization of global food supply means ‘efficient’ mass production that works against all standards of environmental responsibility and health. Without an alternative, eating a fresh, healthy diet would be a hard fought battle, yet thankfully, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) has a firm grasp on the issue.
BALLE is a network that inter-connects sustainable businesses throughout the world. The businesses involved share a common desire to reduce energy use, produce less waste, support localized economies, and explore new green opportunities including fair trade, fair wages, and healthy work environments for an integrated, sustainable economy. Continue reading BALLE: Creating A Community-Based Global Economy…
Posted on August 4, 2008 |
Good As Gold: Alkemie Jewelry Transforms An Industry
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Conscious Commerce, Sustainable Style | 12 Comments
Baubles, bands, and beads have been crafted, bartered, sold, and stolen for thousands of years. The oldest jewelry ever discovered was a collection of mollusk shell beads from South Africa dating back more than 75,000 years. As it turns out, self-adornment is virtually as old as the human race. The word “jewelry” comes from the Latin word jocale, meaning “plaything.” And though we may think of these trinkets as lighthearted and amorous “playthings,” the negative impact from jewelry production has become surprisingly colossal in more recent years.
Jewelry designers Ashley Lowengrub and Dara Gerson were appalled to discover the disastrous effects of open pit mining, a common method of gold extraction. Open pit mining first razes the virgin forest of an area, then systematically strips the land, layer by layer, in search of suspected gold. The mined earth is broken into small pieces, then treated with cyanide and sulphuric acid to separate gold from rock. Like black magic, this process transforms a pristine natural habitat into a barren wasteland of toxic waste dumps and chemical cesspools.
Once they understood the massive impact their work could potentially have, Dara and Ashley were compelled to change their own relationships with the precious metal and gem industry. They launched Alkemie Jewelry in January of this year, transforming bullet casings collected from shooting ranges into positively enchanting art nouveau pieces. Alkemie is already sold in chic boutiques from Fred Segal to ABC Home, to cutting edge e-tailers like eConscious Market and ShopBop. The couple has recently expanded to include sterling, gold, nickel, and copper in their recycled metal blends, and makes most of their collection to order.
Continue reading Good As Gold: Alkemie Jewelry Transforms An Industry…
Posted on July 28, 2008 |
Reware Vs. Voltaic: Battle Of The Solar Messenger Bags
By Jillian Polaski
Filed Under Sustainable Style | 3 Comments
It’s a real bummer to have your iPod die mid-anthem in the middle of your morning run. Or your cellphone mid-conference call, or your digital camera mid-mountain climb. Unless of course, you’ve purchased a solar powered messenger bag from either Voltaic or Reware. With one of these cutting edge carriers, you can charge your 12 volt handheld electronic devices (sorry-no laptops yet) without a problem. The only question is, are all solar bags created equal? Reware and Voltaic, the two leading solar bag makers, don’t seem to think so. Continue reading Reware Vs. Voltaic: Battle Of The Solar Messenger Bags…
Posted on July 7, 2008 |
A Creative Citizen Is Born
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under News & Reviews | 2 Comments
When you talk to Scott Badenoch about his newly launched dot com, you get the sense that this one is going to go big time. He is smart, articulate, and self-assured as he runs you through the ways CreativeCitizen.com is going to bridge the disaggregated actions of the exploding Green Movement. Scott and partner Argam DerHartunian are driven by the mission to help everyone conserve 5 important elements: water, electricity, waste, emissions, and money. Badenoch explains his take on conservation, “No one is going to throw away their lifestyle and start wearing loin cloths and walking everywhere. It’s vital that the green movement find a place in people’s lives that saves them time, resources and money, rather than the other way around.” Continue reading A Creative Citizen Is Born…
Posted on June 12, 2008 |
Free Range Studios: The Story Of Stuff
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Conscious Commerce, The Big Picture, eCo TV | Leave a Comment
The Story Of Stuff has spread like wildfire through YouTube, Google videos, and inboxes all over the country and the world. What explains the millions of views of this little video by Free Range Productions? Well, everyone’s got stuff and will probably acquire some more of it in the immediate future. If you really want to know where your stuff comes from and what the effect of it all is, Annie Leonard breaks down the facts in a sweet and easy-to-understand way while weaving a tale you will never forget. And you might as well watch it, because stuff happens-and let’s admit it, those little cartoons make it so much easier to deal with…
Inspired by The Story Of Stuff? Take action!
- Order the DVD or download a free copy and host a screening at your house
- If you have a website or social network profile, you can share The Story Of Stuff on your site by embedding video or images from the film and linking to their site
- Donate to The Story Of Stuff and help Annie grow her mission
Posted on June 11, 2008 |
Carrotmob: The Art Of The Buycott Continued
By Greg Berry
Filed Under Conscious Commerce, eCo TV | Leave a Comment
You may have read about The Art Of The Buycott last month on eCo Times. If not, the basic idea is about using the buying power of the masses to make positive changes in the world, rather than boycotts, marches, and sit-ins (which can be effective too, but much less enjoyable.)
We found a choice example of the art of the buycott by an emerging organization called aptly, Carrotmob. You can probably tell by the name, Carrotmob is leading with humor. They dangle the carrot of fun, finance, and positivity to lead business to make the right environmental decisions. Carrotmob organized a hugely successful buycott in April at San Francisco’s K & D Market. Check out the hilarious video…
Posted on June 6, 2008 |
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