Author: jennynazak

This question is out there a lot. Basically some version of, “Why should I make reductions when the elites and the fatcats are jetsetting around consuming all they can buy, and we are just going to be forced to eat bugs?”

(In response to a post in one of the Facebook eco/permie groups, about solar panels covering up acres and acres of land, I commented: “Radical reduction in electricity consumption is a huge part of the equation.” Someone posted the bug question in response to my comment.)

— “Why should we make reductions when Bill Gates is flying his personal jet everywhere? All the reductions are going to be on us, and the elites are going to force us to eat bugs.” The person also commented that whatever Bill Gates does could just as easily be done by Zoom.

This is something I often hear people say. And I can understand the line of thinking.

But: Reductions can & do bring great benefits personally. Huge money savings, and huge time savings, for example. And sheer peace of mind, from being less vulnerable. For example, learning how to do without electricity for long periods of time, with no hardship, is great freedom.

Also, there are millions of us, and only a few fatcats. Even if we just count the eco activists, and just the Boomers, there are still millions of us, and we have big wallets! Our behavior en masse is what will move the needle & shape the future.

Regarding eating bugs … Well I’ve eaten a few bugs and they’re actually not that bad. Prepared properly, they can actually be nice little tasty protein nuggets, hyperlocal, and nice and low on the food chain.

But to address the bug comment in the spirit in which it is intended …

Do you know who the last people being forced to eat bugs will be?

• People who form tight community, people who reduce their dependence on large centralized institutions, people who wean themselves off of hyperconsumerism.

• People who support their local farmers, people who know how to collect rainwater and grow food. And who know how to cooperate with their neighbors.

• People who are willing to stand up to their HOA’s. People who refuse to be totally dependent on private car ownership. And people refuse to be totally dependent on running water, electricity, artificial cooling, appliances, and all the other things we modern people take for granted are necessary.

• People who refuse to keep flying in airplanes. Or at least, people who decide to stop being dependent on flying in airplanes. Especially important for those of us who love our families.

I’m not saying those conveniences aren’t nice; I’m just saying we need to train ourselves to be able to do without them for arbitrarily long periods of time, forever if necessary.

And the more we are willing to make this training an everyday thing — to strive to minimize our consumption in everyday life — the more we will make a difference in the profit margins at the top.

If it helps to remind yourself that you are supporting war every time you unnecessarily burn energy, go ahead and tell yourself that. I sometimes tell people that, when they think I’m oh so radical and extreme for refusing to own a car anymore, and for refraining from using car transportation except on occasion.

• And people who refuse to buy more computers and other technology than they absolutely need to get by. Just what we need for communication, micro commerce, and skill-sharing. If even a percentage of us were refusing constant upgrades, the fatcats would be a lot less wealthy than they are now.

• And last but not least: People who know how to constantly find joy and peace and satisfaction in their everyday life. As opposed to needing to “get away,” buy something that won’t make you happy, etc.

PS. I am so on board the zoom thing! I’m sure pretty much everything Bill Gates or any other wealthy dude does could probably be done just as easily by zoom. Or he could hire locals to be boots on the ground. And I am particularly appalled that people — corporate fatcat, politician, academic, whatever — fly to climate conferences. (As a meme from awhile back says, if there’s anything that should be done by zoom, it’s a climate conference …)

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE. Something I thought of days after writing this. Inspired by more than one fellow environmentalist friend who told me they became burned-out; got sick of making sacrifices when they realized that all of their reductions didn’t even offset one week of a rich fatcat’s life.

And that is, we are not setting out to make reductions in order to offset other people’s overconsumption. That would be physically impossible, and no wonder people are getting demoralized if they are trying to do this.

Rather, the reason why we must make reductions is to reset the norms of what has come, in our hyperconsumerist “first world,” to be defined as a good life. (Basically the norms have been sent by USA American popular culture and then gone on to infect other wealthy countries.)

It’s not about offsetting; it’s about resetting the norms. It’s about normalizing living within limits. It’s about de-normalizing entitlement.

Why?

To bring ourselves in line with the physical ecological limits of the planet. (These have been widely documented by science.) We quite simply have a moral obligation to not take more than our share. We cannot use wealthy mega consumers as a benchmark. We need to use the 2 ton benchmark.

It’s already how the global majority lives, by default. What we in the “first world” have a responsibility to do is show how living within Earth’s limits can be done comfortably, with enough to eat, safe clean water, access to healthcare, access to learning, humane livelihoods, comfortable dwellings for all.

As eco activists we pride ourselves on listening to science, and on being fair and equitable. We must live up to our own awareness of what’s right and fair. We must walk our talk! I cannot emphasize this point enough. We will never be truly happy otherwise, and of course that gnawing dissatisfaction just leads to more consumerism.

My entire mission is about helping fellow eco folks walk our talk. My book, this blog, my talks & consults. And my house, which I have turned into a low-footprint lifestyle demonstration laboratory (visible from the sidewalk, and partly open to the public!). I call it my “Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm for Humans.”

You are not alone. There are many, many more of us than you might think. Take heart! And please don’t give up. I am 100% here for you.

* * * * * * *

This blog presents topics as they occur to me. Typically in rambling fashion. If you would prefer a more focused, organized document, read my book DEEP GREEN. It’s available to read for free on this site. There are at any given time sometimes a few print copies available as well. I believe I still have 15 or so copies left from my last micro print run. It’s only available by ordering direct through me.

Also, I am available to give talks for your neighborhood association, community, church, club, or other group. My talks are by Zoom or equivalent, so I’m available to you wherever you’re located. For more information, click on “talks and appearances” in the menu for this site. Contact me and we’ll set a date!

I have a new answer. It is, simply, “The same way that people did without XYZ for hundreds of thousands of years.” (And the same way that billions of people around the world still do without XYZ today, albeit not necessarily by choice.)

It works for lots of things: car ownership; air conditioning; 401(k); washer dryer dishwasher etc.; leaf-blower; and many more.

Maybe the best article about collapse that I have ever read, overall. I don’t have time to do a whole post on it right now, but I am just sharing the link here for now because I need to clean up all my open tabs in my browser lol, I had quite a backlog.

(I may already have shared this in the “further reading” section on a previous post, but I’m sharing it here just in case. So I can reference it if needed.)

“The Collapse Is Coming. Will Humanity Adapt? An evolutionary biologist and a science fiction writer walk into a bar … and mull over survival.” By Peter Watts; May 31, 2024, in an online publication called Nautilus.

https://nautil.us/the-collapse-is-coming-will-humanity-adapt-626051/

“Well, the primary thing that we have to understand or internalize is that what we’re dealing with is what is called a no-technological-solution problem. In other words, technology is not going to save us, real or imaginary. We have to change our behavior. If we change our behavior, we have sufficient technology to save ourselves. If we don’t change our behavior, we are unlikely to come up with a magical technological fix to compensate for our bad behavior. This is why Sal and I have adopted a position that we should not be talking about sustainability, but about survival, in terms of humanity’s future.”

And, if you want a great book about navigating the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspect of collapse, I can make no higher recommendation than this book by Terry LePage. Eye of the Storm: Facing Climate and Social Chaos with Calm and Courage. Terry is a very active leader in the Deep Adaptation movement.

• About recycling: ZeroWasteChef lets us in on what actually happens after garbage day. And how we can do some simple things to help address this mountainous problem. On this topic, also read the book Junkyard Planet, by Adam Minter. Also recommended: The story of stuff; and The story of bottled water, and the whole rest of the series. By Annie Leonard, on YouTube.

• About disposable plastic straws: “Did you know that each day the US uses an estimated 500 million straws — enough disposable straws to fill over 46,400 large school buses per year?” (Read more, and find out how you can help, whether as a consumer, a business, or a community: https://ecocycle.org/eco-living/refuse-and-reduce/be-straw-free/ ) “In February of 2011, Milo Cress (then nine years old) founded the Be Straw Free Campaign project to work together with members of the straw industry, restaurants and other businesses, schools, environmental groups, and concerned citizens to reduce the use and waste of disposable plastic straws.”

• About car-dependent culture: We always hear about how everybody has a car, 90% of Americans have a car, etc. But, the truth is that many people not only don’t have a car but are actually not able to drive. It’s not even an option for them. This coming week I will be tuning into a webinar by Anna Letitia Zivarts, disability advocate and the author of a book called When Driving Is Not an Option. The following quote is from the Google books page: “One third of people living in the United States do not have a driver license. Because the majority of involuntary nondrivers are disabled, lower income, unhoused, formerly incarcerated, undocumented immigrants, kids, young people, and the elderly, they are largely invisible. The consequence of this invisibility is a mobility system designed almost exclusively for drivers. This system has human-health, environmental, and quality-of-life costs for everyone, not just for those excluded from it. If we’re serious about addressing climate change and inequality, we must address our transportation system.”

• About clothing: Many of us enjoy fashion as self-expression. And there are lots of ways to do that without trashing the planet. Unfortunately, most new clothing these days is what you would call “fast fashion”: not well-made; and wears out quickly. We love the variety of constantly buying new clothes, And our social-media feeds make it easy by showing ridiculously adorable clothes, shoes, bags, etc., for ridiculously cheap. And we feel like there’s no big problem, as long as we just donate the items to a thrift shop or church or whatever after we’re tired of them. But the reality is that unbelievable quantities of unwanted clothing have ended up turning large areas of the planet into a dumping ground. African countries get huge bales of “charity donation” clothes foisted upon them, things that are so stained and damaged that we should be embarrassed to give them to anyone. And, in the desert in Chile, I hear there is a vast pile of clothing from all over the world (probably mainly the USA though) that is visible from space. If you want to watch a really good story documentary that sums this up, I highly recommend The True Cost. https://truecostmovie.com . You could even invite a bunch of friends to join you, either virtually or in person, and then have a discussion! One out of six people in the entire world is employed in the fashion industry. Leveraging our consumer habits to make structural changes in this sector is a major way to address the planetary crisis.

All of the above may be inconvenient truths, in that they nudge us to reduce consumption in areas of our lives that we may hold near and dear. But the convenient truth is, for those of us who are extremely worried and losing sleep about the state of the planet, is that making reductions in any of these areas will yield huge benefits. Not just to the Earth, but to our own selves.

My position has always been that carbon offsets aren’t perfect, but they are better than nothing. Apparently they are even less helpful than I thought. There’s really no good way to offset extreme travel, especially plane travel. The only real choice is to go flight free, or at least pledge to stop flying for the duration of the climate crisis. However long that may be.

Yes, I know it’s an imperfect world. Some of you cannot or will not stop flying. Just like I can’t invent a time machine and retroactively on take the flights I took for the decades of my life before I stepped-up my eco/social activism.

I’m just updating the information I have been putting out there.

I trust the word that I’m hearing right now that carbon offsets really don’t help.

“We Wish Buying Carbon Offsets for Your Flight Helped. It Doesn’t.” https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/buying-carbon-offsets-for-your-flight-doesnt-help/; New York Times Wirecutter, February 22, 2023.

And in this blog, I have been sharing with you some possibly enticing ways to wean yourself off of needing long-distance travel. There are many, many benefits. To yourself and to your community, not just to the global environment. I mean, it’s all connected of course, but you know what I mean.

When I say navigating, in many cases I’m talking about even being able to emotionally deal with reading these questions from fellow environmentalists on social media.

It’s depressing when people a decade or more older than me, who are seriously committed to climate activism, are still asking what car they should buy, what their next car should be, etc.

On the other hand, me being scoldy doesn’t help. I want to say, come on, don’t we want to stop driving? I’m only 62 and I’m ready to stop driving forever, and I hope to never own a car again. And I plan on living for many decades more.

And, aren’t we eco-activists? Aren’t cars a thing of the past, don’t we want to support public transportation? Not only as eco activists, but also as seniors who don’t want to be car-dependent in our very-elder years.

But a lot of these arguments don’t really seem to reach people somehow. So when I see these questions on the social media, I’m trying to take a slightly different tack. Focusing more on the burdens of car ownership then on any environmental type stuff.

And also, it seems like lots of people don’t like to be reminded that we are getting older. Everyone wants to be 90-years-young and still driving, thank you very much. Because we have been indoctrinated to equate cars with independence. When actually it’s just the opposite.

I’m kind of an outlier in that way; I’m very happy to be a senior. I mean really, it beats the heck out of the alternative, right? And I plan on living about another 60 years. As car-free as possible. If I never had to get in another private automobile again, never mind actually own one, I would be a happy camper.

But, it’s not a perfect world, so a lot of fellow eco boomers are still going to be totally enmeshed in the transportation of yesteryear. And I have to find more constructive ways to respond, which might actually get some people thinking about alternatives. At the very least, I hope to get the Woodstock set at least questioning the whole car dominance setup. Because right now it doesn’t feel like people are even questioning it. In terms of lifestyle, the eco liberals are basically indistinguishable from the MAGAs. (Except that the eco liberals are expecting our government to somehow magic-away fossil fuels, even while we the people are totally consuming the heck out of them.)

To a fellow eco-boomer’s question on social media, regarding who do we use for auto insurance, I would say:

Blessedly, I no longer have to own a car, and I am grateful for that every day. For many many reasons.

Therefore: No car insurance. And a lot of other hassles removed as well.

Good luck, I hope you find a plan that gives you the coverage you need and doesn’t drain your wallet too much!!

Back in my various time periods of car ownership, which is probably a total of almost half of my adult life — but God/dess willing never again — I always used to use USAA. They offered good rates and were easy to communicate with.

To a fellow eco boomer asking their social feed what car they should buy:

Hope you find something that works for you and doesn’t take too much of a bite out of the wallet. I am so happy to never have to have a car again. Private car ownership was always too much of a burden for me. If I were forced to own a car, it would probably be a hybrid.

Interestingly, both of the above querents are the kind of supercitizens who have so much power, they could jerk their chin or twitch their pen (or keyboard) and command a meeting with a mayor, county commissioner, business leaders, possibly even the governor. The kind of citizens who get appointed to blue-ribbon panels and presidential commissions. Yet I can tell that they don’t feel powerful. Consumerist capitalist society disempowers us all. Hyperindividualism is the ultimate divide-and-conquer.

Interestingly, another super powerhouse mentioned having owned three different cars in the last 10 years. As in, I like XYZ type of car, I have had three of them in the last 10 years. I have to ask what is up with that? So my question would be:

You had to change cars three times in 10 years though? Are they not making cars as reliable as they were for a while there?

(Seriously, has planned obsolescence gotten bad again? It seemed like, at least for a time in the late 1990s-early 2000s, that cars seemed to be getting more reliable. I want to get people thinking, and resenting the enormous amounts of money and energy that they/we are forking out. I also want people to start seeing the connection with war.)

* Oh but wait, regarding that last example. Since I don’t have children I didn’t think of it. But it could be that one or more of the vehicles were for the person’s children, not for the person directly. Because in our car dependent society, even when people are living under the same roof it’s often the case that each person actually needs their own car. Or, even if they don’t strictly need it, it’s considered such a status symbol that it’s like a rite of passage, and even a mark of the parents’ social and economic success, for each of their children to have their own car.

There was a World War II poster that admonished citizens to not drive unnecessarily, and always share the car. It said, “When you ride alone, you ride with Hitler!” It’s still true.

PS. Added June 20: Another big energy-sucker, both fossil and human, is indoor climate control, particularly air conditioning. I lose count of everyone I know who posts about their broken AC and how many thousands of dollars it cost to repair or replace. One friend even posted that she has THREE central air conditioning units in her house! Not three window units, but three different central air conditioning units.

(BTW this person is not an eco professional per se, but definitely seems to be concerned about the environment overall.)

I posted this comment:

Yes – when the hot-hot part of the summer arrives, I usually sleep on bare tile, in the room that gets the most most breeze (half-screened porch), and this year I had to start early!

Hope yours gets fixed and stays fixed without costing a squillion dollars! <prayer emoticon x 3)

Me, I’m waaaay too cheap to pay for AC so it’s a good thing for me I just happen to prefer living without it! Yes it’s hot in the summer but I prefer open windows, just can’t deal with closed-up windows except maybe on the one or two coldest days of winter. Which obviously here in Florida never really gets all that extreme.

(BTW, in my comment, note that I didn’t say that I’m too poor to afford airconditioning. Although technically, I would not be able to afford it. The problem with saying “I’m too poor” is it makes it a negative to do without something. Whereas being cheap or thrifty is a positive. People who are thrifty enjoy the money savings they get from their thrift. Also, I have noticed that when someone says they’re too poor to do/afford XYZ, it can put other people on the defensive, as in feeling apologetic/defiant for being able to afford middle-class stuff. Not a good position to put people in, because they are not as likely to let in a different viewpoint if they are put on the defensive. On a sidenote: It’s interesting in the USA how it seems like everyone wants to be rich, but nobody wants to be thought of as rich. Other than maybe in some cases the actual ultra rich.)

For a while now, our landscaping aesthetic norms have largely been directly at odds with the mandate to mitigate heat and absorb stormwater.

A few years back, I coined a phrase “puffy landscaping,” to give a visual idea of what a more sustainable form of landscaping might look like. It should save money; save water, labor, and other resources; create more vibrant career paths for land-based professionals; and add beauty.

Following our notes from some recent presentations I’ve given. I’m going to be developing a little card or pamphlet with the various bullet-points of puffy landscaping. Feel free to use any of this that might be helpful to you in your similar endeavors.

BTW puffy landscaping can be native, edible, drought-tolerant, “adapted though not native,” or some mixture of any of these.

puffy landscaping mini-festo:

•Cut back on cutting

•Leave the leaves

•Back off blowing & edging; 80-20 rule

•Soften the shrubs

•Cherish the canopy

•Cease the ‘cides

•Wildflowers aren’t weeds; wean yourself off weeding

•Puffy can be tidy too

•Borders add beauty

•Secure the slopes

•Veto the volcanoes

•Lift livelihoods; preserve their pay

5 minutes

1 Army Corps of Engineers presentation last night at City Commission

background – childhood; enviro-/> permaculture; sust ed” umbrella

2 Big ambitions

— restore the water cycle (40% of rainfall in an area is from the small water cycle)

— We are trashing our soil and water, doesn’t matter if you believe in climate change or not

— Cool science fact number two, plants actually suck heat out of the air

— stop the flooding-drought, extreme heat

— sales funnel for existing eco businesses

— healthy career path incl from young kids to elders

— shift the aesthetic norms to respect natural vegetation; support code compliance

— help local govt optimize use of money, water, labor

— reduce noise pollution & ugliness

— quickly build up local expertise in critical areas: food, arborist, green infra

— Kill the entire evil landscaping industry. Just kidding, things work better if I’m not trying to push Niagara Falls uphill with a teaspoon. Keep from going banana-pants crazy, or at least if I’m going to be banana-pants crazy somebody’s & the planet going to get something out of it

— Local unique beauty

3 – What can your yard do for you! And what can your yard do for the planet? A lot!

4 — Local economy, rewarding careers.

ACE last night at City Comm, wants to address the flooding so ppl can live here. Also mentioned that big difficult problems can be fun to solve.

Create a vibrant ecosystem of landscaping related professionals in Daytona Beach and throughout the region. Including rainwater system setup, IT and app makers, design & planning, and yes digging in the dirt. We need armies and armies of people dedicated to landscaping & array of supporting cottage industries: tool sharpening, welding, mower repair etc.

1 Background “sustainability educator”

— childhood, environmentalist, hated yardwork

— food, permaculture

— no one was doing it

— later more urgent: noise, fumes

— Homegrown National Park

2 Carrots and sticks, big world problems and petty personal annoyances

2 Big ambitions

— restore the water cycle (40% of rainfall in an area is from the small water cycle)

— We are trashing our soil and water, doesn’t matter if you believe in climate change or not

— Cool science fact number two, plants actually suck heat out of the air

— stop the flooding-drought, extreme heat

— sales funnel for existing eco businesses

— healthy career path incl from young kids to elders

— shift the aesthetic norms to respect natural vegetation

— help local govt optimize use of money, water, labor

— reduce noise pollution & ugliness

— quickly build up local expertise in critical areas: food, arborist, green infra

— Kill the entire evil landscaping industry. Just kidding, things work better if I’m not trying to push Niagara Falls uphill with a teaspoon. Keep from going banana pants crazy, or at least if I’m going to be banana pants crazy somebody’s & the planet going to get something out of it

3 Permaculture

— unnecessary work is a form of pollution Public Works many years ago, we are fighting nature, well you are still fighting nature

— “sustainability educator” green umbrella

— franchises like papparrazzi ladies

— Extreme emotional annoyance, stupid lawns in the middle of the street, sandpaper on skin, if I’m going to go banana pants crazy somebody might as well get something out of it. When you can’t tell the difference between an edger & sawing concrete, you’ve got a problem.

4 Formation of the concept; high aspirations

— permaculture

— natives

— Florida-friendly

— art/sculpting

— “sustainability educator” umbrella

— Army Corps engineers flood study update presented last night at city commission, we have big work ahead

— Create a vibrant ecosystem of landscaping related professionals in Daytona Beach and throughout the region. Including rainwater system set up, IT and app makers, design, and yes digging in the dirt. We need armies and armies of people dedicated to landscaping.

5 Services, contact

— mini consult

— code compliance help

— coordinate w your existing service provider

— concierge/portal incl finding you arborists, landscape architects

A tiny, tiny business that is way bigger than me. Creating livelihoods and solving our main big problems, both locally and worldwide. Our little yards are a huge leverage point.