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Dennis started a wonderful thread in the Transformative Adventures group. I’ve started a new thread in the group by copy-pasting a piece of one of Mike Hoag’s comments on it here because I think it merits a separate thread about how do we make degrowth popular? How do we make it super cool and attractive?

Mike’s comment: “Transition to renewables is not possible. Degrowth and reduced consumption are the only realistic strategies, but our governments will never do this. WE must do this.”

So!! How? (I have lots of ideas, which I post about extensively on my blog & other channels. But Mike’s comment prompted me to start a thread here so we can share ideas & come up with all sorts of plans.)

We could start creating “fake ads” — cool Facebook memes promoting degrowth as a fabulous lifestyle. Get fit! Attract wonderful companions! Make your neighborhood so wonderful you will never need to go on vacation! Attain occupational freedom, tell your crap job to take a hike, experience spiritual growth & liberation! All of this and more is easy by getting on the Degrowth train!!

One older guy’s comment about how he has prepped for TSHTF, and how his kids always know they can come live at his place, prompted me to see a “facetious fake-but-real ad” visual of the type that might help
popularize degrowth. There would be two photos:

1) Typical white Boomer dude asking in a cranky voice, “Why don’t my kids and grandkids ever come visit me”?

2) Atypical white Boomer dude, in his well-equipped permie cabin, as the Zombie Apocalypse is hitting: “Ha! I never have that problem! My kids and grandkids always want to come stay at MY place!” (The images could be done in Norman Rockwell style or … ?)

And thank you Dennis for the original thread on how electric cars won’t save the world. A green lala-land myth that refuses to die because people think just buckling down and making changes is too hard. We have to show them it’s more than worth the effort.

Update: Someone in the thread just shared a great resource. Spoof Ads – www.adbusters.org “We’re in the middle of a guerrilla information war for the future of the planet. Conventional weapons are useless — all we have are ideas. Join us in the meme war.”

Dennis started an excellent thread in the FB group Permaculture in Action: Transformative Adventures, offering great detail about why electric cars are not going to save the world, as some mainstream environmentalists seem to want to persist in wishing were the case. https://www.facebook.com/groups/238637257015056/permalink/1012728632939244/

I love what Mike said in the comments, 100% concur and have felt this way for a long time: “Transition to renewables is not possible. Degrowth and reduced consumption are the only realistic strategies, but our governments will never do this. WE must do this.”

YES!!!! I have belatedly realized that my entire book and lifestyle are based on my strong belief that degrowth is the only way to go. (I didn’t know that word back in 2017 when I wrote my book. Same with “deep adaptation” — another thing I believe is essential to any possibility of human survival on earth.)

Hashtag #GettingReal

PS. Degrowth is not something we can force on people; it’s something that those of us consumerist-industrial nation folk with the awareness and the conviction and the wherewithal have to undertake, and make it attractive enough that other fellow consumerist-industrial folk will want to do it as well. Or at least will see their self-interest in doing it.

Fourteen defining characteristics of fascism

https://www.bremertonschools.org/cms/lib/WA01001541/Centricity/Domain/222/Fourteen%20Defining%20Characteristics%20of%20Fascism%20slides.pdf

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disregard for Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Widespread Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
11. Disrespect for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections

The USA doesn’t actually have fraudulent elections but at the very least the electoral system has been deeply called into question. Other than this, we are pretty much ticking all the boxes at least in an early way. Read the descriptions in the article; it reads like a snapshot of USA white mainstream culture.

Falling so deeply into despondency that we become paralyzed is not an option. As many others have commented, grassroots movements are key. Also, at the ballot box, we need to vote in some actual progressives. Fellow Boomers, you need to stop idealizing the Democrats as if they are ever really going to fix anything. They’re too deeply invested in the $tatus quo to do anything beyond tinkering.

Also, we are accountable to future generations.

My generation — the USA Baby Boomers demographic — are the most powerful generation in history, in terms of spending-power and other influence. (I’m talking about my fellow white people in this category. Black people, indigenous people, and other people of color of this generation, as of all generations, are still marginalized.) We need to use every bit of our spending-power and influence we can muster for the good now.

I have been trying to tell my fellow white people this (especially my fellow Boomers) for a long time now, that doomerism and hopelessness is privilege.

We don’t get to say that there’s no hope, or that there’s no point in taking individual action. People all over the planet are fighting for their lives; let’s get serious about making real changes in every way available to us!

“Climate doomism is a yt phenomenon” video by @wawagatheru on TikTok (UPDATE: Her video got removed as “hate speech” 20 minutes after she posted it. BUT she was able to get it back up, here is the original. Dated April 6, 2022. If it ends up getting removed again, just go directly to TikTok and search @wawagatheru to follow her; she shares lots of ways to get involved in climate action.)

I wpuld maintain that climate doomerism is a privileged white Boomer phenomenon. And we need to stop it. How did the world’s most influential generation suddenly become so powerless? Answer: We didn’t! We still have all our power. We just got co-opted by mainstream “prosperity” in the 80s; and have continued to choose to look the other way when it meant questioning our cushy lifestyles.

Also, in Europe, six young activists have launched a complaint against 33 countries for their allegedly inadequate efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Three of the activists are minors. So no, we senior adults in the world’s most privileged country don’t get to sigh and moan and say things are hopeless. (All the while enjoying our own cushy standard of living. Hopping on planes and going on luxury cruises multiple times a year just because we can; insisting we need our stock-index funds, which grow at 7% a year at the expense of literally everything and everyone else on this entire planet; pushing our kids and grandkids to join the military-industrial complex, take on college debt, and otherwise keep propping up business-as-usual etc etc etc. And this is fellow self-described environmentalists doing this; I’m not even talking about “civilians.”)

We certainly got labeled the “Me Generation” for a reason. Now we need to turn it around. Let’s reform ourselves into the “We” generation who extend our care to all people, and all other beings. We can do it! We certainly have the wallets, and the loud voices!

PS. talking here about the physical climate, but this can just as well apply to the political climate. Can we please break the pattern where rich white boomers are whining about how they’re going to have to move to Costa Rica or Michigan or wherever because things have gotten so terrible? Or how they’ve gotten so tired of politics, they can’t talk about politics anymore, they weren’t planning on this in their retirement years, yada yada yada? If we, the most resourced generation in history, do not feel empowered and obligated to change things, Houston we’ve got a problem.

Try not to get despondent about the Supreme Court ruling. if it’s any consolation, the EPA is really pretty weak compared with people and their wallets. Working for cultural shift will bring the most return on our labor.

We, the masses of everyday people, still have the best tool available to regulate emissions of power plants: Our wallets. We can shrink our power consumption to the barest possible minimum. Yes, lots of us are doing it. Also, we can stop investing in energy corporations; take our money off Wall Street. Again it takes effort but lots of us are doing it. And it’s something the Supreme Court can’t stop!

Now, in an inflationary time, is just the right moment for us to help each other minimize our dependence on stuff that keeps our financial overhead needlessly high. Excessive use of electricity, unnecessary driving, eco-unfriendly landscaping practices, etc.

Fellow white women, we should have been paying attention all that time when Black women, indigenous women, and other women of color have been denied reproductive freedom and other aspects of self-determination over their own bodies. Abortion rights are part of reproductive freedom, and self-determination over our bodies in general, but are by no means the whole equation. Now here we are. Can’t invent a time machine to go back in time and do better, so what are we going to do NOW to make sure all people with uteruses have reproductive freedom and the right to be the boss of their own bodies?

I’ve heard they are coming next for contraception. And any non-cis-het marriage. Nothing should surprise us.

When government gets more oppressive, grassroots cooperation and caring has to get stronger.

PS. Please can we all quit posting the Handmaid’s Tale memes and “camping” comments.

I would love to live in a society where all babies were loved, wanted, guaranteed access to everything they need to grow up healthy and thrive. Where mothers and motherhood were fully supported; where teen and single mothers were not shamed; where schools had daycare centers and so on. Where rape and incest did not exist. In such a society, abortion might not be needed. But we do not live in such a society.

Recommended reading: Ally Henny has published this post on her Patreon, “A white woman’s guide to not being completely insensitive in the wake of Roe being overturned“. (The post is public; you can also join her Patreon to get access to all her other content as well.)

Suggested org to support: National Network of Abortion Funds https://abortionfunds.org. I am just now finding out about this organization. It is led by Yamani Yansà Hernandez, who self-describes as a Black, queer, intersex doula who has had an abortion, miscarriage, and two kids. The NNAF network is 76 organizations deep, with 500+ other state and local leaders, and 15k volunteers. @AbortionFunds on Twitter @yamyan on Twitter “Our ability to self-determine our bodies, families, and future extends far beyond abortion.” (from NNAF Twitter feed)

(Feel free to use any of the following verbiage for your own community announcements.)

DAYTONA BEACH PERMACULTURE GUILD DECLARES STATE OF “HEIGHTENED HEAT URGENCY”; URGES IMMEDIATE SHIFT IN LANDSCAPING PRACTICES TO PRIORITIZE HEAT-MITIGATION.

Our rain chances keep receding before our eyes. In Daytona Beach we have basically had a rainless June, particularly on the beachside which tends to be more dry in general. I only have about a week of stored rainwater left and then I may be looking at which plants I need to just let go.

Note, at DBPG headquarters we are engaged in ongoing practices of only watering our yard by hand-carrying water in watering cans. This water is exclusively rainwater, captured during the previous summer’s rainy season as well as occasional rain events in winter & spring.

We only use city-water for cooking and other indoor functions, not for outdoor uses. We do catch all water from our kitchen & bathroom sinks and use it to water our shrubs, tall coastal grasses, & other nonfood plants.

In my capacity as admin of the Daytona Beach Permaculture Guild, an independent grassroots hub for community resilience, I am deeming our city and surrounding area to be in a state of heightened heat urgency. The extreme patterns that have been hitting many parts of the world are finally starting to reach us.

For several years now, I have been striving to communicate to local government bodies and neighborhood groups, and local groups on social media, the importance of putting heat mitigation as top priority of our landscaping policies, strategies, and methods. I have often sent out and/or posted on social media detailed information, including graphics and illustrations from recognized expert sources, showing how our landscaping practices are disrupting the rain cycle, and impeding stormwater mitigation and filtration when the rains do come. And how we can easily and inexpensively fix this! My shorthand catch-phrase is “puffy landscaping.”

Of course landscaping is not the only factor in the heat-island effects that are leading to drought-flood extremes. But they are a big factor, and unlike pavement and other “gray” infrastructure, landscaping practices are a leverage point that most of us have at least some access to.

In the near future DBPG will be putting out a set of suggestions which local government and residents alike should find helpful. As always, I strive to make simple suggestions that will help people save money, labor, and other resources while restoring our rain cycle and stepping-up protection of our waterways, drinking-water quality, wildlife, soil biology, and humans.

As just ONE suggestion, the easiest and most effective thing many of us can do is to back off on excessively frequent mowing of grass areas. Our default landscaping standard of scalped grass, leaving many areas of bare dirt, is a major problem. Did you know that bare dirt is nearly as hot as pavement? Also, the stunted root systems of scalped grass impede the healthy absorption of stormwater into the ground & its gradual filtration to replenish the ground-water.

Ride-on mowers set too low, and leaf-blowers used excessively, are particularly conducive to creating bare patches of earth that exacerbate heat.

Please feel free to call on your Daytona Beach Permaculture Guild admin, Jenny Nazak, for information & other support regarding landscaping, composting, sustainable water usage, community food resilience, and all other matters of retrofitting sustainable design into the human-built environment.

Photos:

1) Shaded seating area I created along my fence line this spring for people to stop and rest. Last week I added the drinking-water bowls for dogs, and an urn of water for humans. For the latter, mainly I recommend soaking a cloth with the water and putting the cloth on your face, neck, etc to cool off. Also the water is potable. Though the water is not cold, it could help in emergencies.

2) Close-up of “Hieroglyphic Stairway” poem in a corner of the seating nook. Great poem by Drew Dellinger; google it and really let it sink in.

Love you all, stay safe and hydrated, and check in on your neighbors. 💚

PS. Full disclosure:
1) Tax status: Daytona Beach Permaculture Guild is funded entirely by the income of its admin, Jenny Nazak, a self-employed author and sustainability educator. Income sources include writing, speaking, private consultations, sale of artworks, eco landscaping, and an occasional house-cleaning gig. Income is deliberately kept around the poverty line; she is not profiting from her eco landscape business or from gloomy predictions about the environment; she could make a lot easier money just by mowing lawns or cleaning houses.
2) Political affiliation: DBPG is politically independent and seeks to build bridges across all party lines. Its admin, Jenny Nazak, personally identifies herself as a libertarian with strong anarchist leanings, but places attention on finding common ground rather than emphasizing differences.