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Glad you asked!

We can change the ratio of pavement to greenery in cities. By becoming active citizen-participants in our city governments and other local governments. Many cities are reducing their road/parking area and increasing food-growing area, forest parks etc. We can reduce automobile dependency while at the same time bringing more food into cities.

Also: we can get excessively restrictive zoning and building codes changed in order to promote more sustainable housing in cities.

Another idea: we can amplify anti-consumerist fads such as the DIY clothing movement. The clothing industry has a huge footprint; although they are working on making some changes we every day people can do a lot to move the needle.

In one of my businesses, landscaping, I am working to normalize the use of quiet hand- tools and the planting of native vegetation and trees rather than huge expanses of turf grass that require machinery to maintain. The landscaping industry has a huge footprint but we can spark a beneficial shift. Actually that is already happening with things such as the rewilding movement, pollinator yards, and so on.

We can pledge to no longer own a motor vehicle. We can pledge to no longer fly in airplanes. I have done both.

We can radically reduce our electricity consumption. In our household we basically only need electricity for our phones. Although we do use it for convenience to cook, and one housemate has a TV, we do not use air conditioning or water-heater or clothes dryer or any other major energy hogs.

We can choose to share living quarters instead of living alone. We can share tools and resources instead of each of them to have our own.

We can strive to eat a more local and plant centered diet. Where I live it’s a little bit challenging but not impossible, and I am always working on it: increasing my repertoire of vegan meals, growing at least a few greens at home, etc.

Money: We can refuse to participate in the stock market, and keep as little money as possible in banks, instead investing in our homes, supporting local businesses, reskilling education, our own physical and mental wellness, mutual aid, neighborhood toolsheds, community gardens…

Work: We can limit our working hours and income to some basic minimum level needed to get our needs met. We can transition away from extractive “jobs” into regenerative occupations. I have done this for a while.

We can give indigenous people their land back. They are the best caretakers of ecosystems worldwide.

This is just a couple of things off the top of my head. None of these will by itself make a huge shift. But millions of other people all over the world are doing what I do and doing similar. Other millions and millions of people are doing other beneficial things. It all adds up and it is contagious.

UPDATE 6/19/23: Also: We can engage in visual storytelling. The power of story and image is immense. I have written about this on many occasions, and am sharing here today something wonderful that came across my feed (thanks Laura L Z!).

From The Nature Of Cities, one of my favorite organizations, this roundtable about the power of visual storytelling to address ecological crisis, social injustice:

“Although the comics landscape is dominated by superheroes doing classic superhero things, there is a growing movement of comics that have environmental and social justice aims. The Nature of Cities has launched a comic series called NBSComics — Nature to Save the World, a collaboration funded by NetworkNature and the European Commission on nature-based solutions for environmental challenges. Rewriting Extinction (with almost 2M readers on webtoon) is a remarkable series of comics with a community of over 300 artists, scientists, and storytellers. Le Monde Sans Fin (World Without End), by artist Christophe Blain and scientist Jean-Marc Jancovici, is a best-selling graphic novel exploring energy and climate change. As José Alaniz discusses in this round table, even Superman, in Superman for Earth, struggled against ecological degradation. There are an increasing number of examples.”

Here’s the link to the whole roundtable – 23 comic creators, scientists, & practitioners share their thoughts. “Visual storytelling: Can comics help us advance solutions to our social and environmental challenges? Yes.”

Another one from the “It’s not gonna work” files. (I know I bring this up a lot, but we’re all working with a lot of pushback even from our in-groups. So we need all the inspiration, encouragement, and practical talking points we can get.) This came up in one of the collapse-focused groups:

Unless you can find some large changes, or can collectivize a society into making lots of small changes, I don’t think the answers you get are going to matter.

My response:

Great, then we ARE going to find some large changes, and we ARE going to collectivize the society into making lots of small changes. Good answer!! And I love your wording.

Large changes: Pick a big sector. Food, water, shelter (include both buildings and clothing), transportation, energy, and community. And set about being a mini trim tab. Even if you only influence one or two other people, they will go on to influence others. Some of you might remember that shampoo commercial from the 1970s. “They told two friends and they told two friends and so on and so on …”

If you prefer to go to a larger stage, easy peasy! Start communicating with your local government and corporations. If you feel so inclined move on up to higher levels of government and bigger corporations. Or you could become a social media mega influencer if you are so inclined to try.

One of my big sectors where I choose to work is landscaping. It has a huge footprint the way we’re doing it right now. Although I am only a micro influencer at best, I have still made some inroads in my community.

Collectivize the society into making lots of small changes: that’s even easier! It’s actually happening right now. It happens 24 seven all around us. Just jump in anywhere you feel drawn.

Keep going! We in the rich industrialized nations, particularly those of us who are in the Boomer generation and older, have a lot of catching up to do, to set things right.

By the way, we’re allowed to have fun! In fact, I would say we have to have fun. If we’re not having fun, we won’t motivate anyone to make any changes.

Speaking of fun, one of the best ways to be a force for social change is through art and story. Go get ’em! Write that book, paint that painting, stage that play … even if it’s just for an audience of one or two or seven at first.

PS. I’m not saying it’s all of us, but it’s definitely some of us who are pretending to ask one question when we actually mean something else.

So when we ask that question, “Is it really going to work?” What we’re really saying is, “I want some assurance that it’s going to work, or else I see no point in struggling against the mainstream current.

“If it’s not going to work, I want to know, so I can take it as permission to just hang out in the cushy, consumerist, paycheck-and-401k-job, business-as-usual economy.”

But I think we all know the real answer to that, or else we wouldn’t be in these groups.

Whether it’s going to “work” or not should not be our criterion for doing the right thing.

Also “works” and “doesn’t work” is not a black-and-white thing. There’s a whole continuum. Everything you do works. Any little thing we do to dismantle the extractive consumerist economy helps reduce suffering in the world, even by a little bit.

Cool beans! The Seaside She-Shed (AKA my studio/”urban offgrid cabin”) now officially has electricity! It’s plenty to power all the essentials: phone, laptop, LED light … and of course a tiny blender (smile).

It’s great when a garage doesn’t have to be taken up by a car, and can be used for all sorts of fun and creativity. I could totally live in this garage.

The off-grid rig is a small foldable solar panel, paired with a battery unit that has multiple plugs including USB and 110v. It’s the Sidekick mini solar generator from 4Patriots. Yes, a significant investment at $500, but I had been considering it for quite some time and it’ll help with hurricane preparedness too.

The Sidekick is very convenient, weighing only 8 pounds and about the size of a small toaster.

They do have a couple of larger models, and an expansion kit as well. The big rig can even power a fridge and freezer.

If you’re not already familiar with this toxic subculture, here’s a heads-up. The following very apt description is from someone in my online circles, who gave me permission to use it without attribution:

The “trad wife” movement is deeply rooted in misogyny. It is a regressive movement that aims to dial back women’s rights.

This is just a small part of a larger movement to dial back the rights of all marginalized peoples. The “trad wife” movement is primarily aimed at white women. It offers a position of relative power within the established white supremacist and patriarchal hierarchy as help meets and brood mares to men. Not an equal, but a highly valued servant.

There is a link here with the crunchy mom to right wing pipeline. There is a lot of emphasis on “the natural way” and focus on women as primarily mothers and nurturers. These women have blogs and tiktok accounts that make it all look beautiful and wholesome. The projection of an image of a simpler time can be very appealing. It’s a slippery slope.

There is no room given in this definition of womanhood for independence, career, innovation, free thought, leadership, autonomy or true power. We are all the lesser for that.

Worse still, white women in these marriages become complicit in the furthering of bigotry and discrimination by bolstering and profiting from the established power structures.

This is dangerous stuff cloaked in a thin layer of homemade bread and wooden toys propaganda.

Further reading:

• Mothers for Germany: A look at the ideal woman in Nazi propaganda (graduate thesis by Karin Lynn Brashler).

For any of us who have ever tried to articulate the dynamics of climate change to our public officials, circles of acquaintances, relatives, neighbors and so on… or even just to understand it ourselves … New York Times offers this useful FAQ.

“The Science of Climate Change explained. Facts, Evidence, and Proof.”

#climate #FAQ

Part 1 of this post is for Daytona Beach locals. Part 2 is for everybody interested in local resilience and community economics.

PART 1:
Curb alert! 1 block south of Main St. On Harvey Avenue between South Oleander & South Hollywood. (Photos: Bike with a handwritten tag attached saying FREE! E-asst doesn’t work most of the time.)

I don’t know anybody who would know how to fix this but if someone does, it’s a free bike for you or one of your friends/neighbors. (*UPDATE! Good news, soon after I posted this in my neighborhood watch Facebook group, a neighbor said he wants it because he at least needs the parts to fix the ebike that he already has. Yay!)

PART 2:
It struck me that one measure of the social cohesion and economic resilience of a community is how long “free stuff” and “trash” sits out before someone finds potential value in it and takes it away. This ebike has been sitting out for 48 hours and counting. Apparently even the bicycle chop-shop guys don’t want it.

Another dimension of this is that being dependent on electric power is a vulnerability when it comes to personal transport. Also, being dependent on parts and machinery that are not likely to be able to be improvise-replicated DIY using duct tape, baling wire, or other good old-fashioned workarounds.

On the topic of stuff, trash, and value: Not long ago I met a woman whose husband is from a Caribbean island. She told me that the beach there is always picked clean of trash because people always find a use for even the seemingly lowliest item. People make crafts out of old bags and junk.

In some neighborhoods, such as maybe in Saint Petersburg or Austin where bicycle-repair collectives exist, there might be the neighborhood social infrastructure to know what to do with this bike.

Yet another component is the degree of affluence of a neighborhood. Our neighborhood tends to extremes: extremely wealthy — as in their house in this neighborhood is just, like, their fourth vacation cottage or something — and extremely low-income. The latter people would be more likely to want to fix up a discarded bike, if they have the skills and the physical capacity to be able to make use of it. It’s possible that if this were just a conventional bike and not an electric bike, it would’ve been picked up by now.

Well, if nothing else, the scrappers are likely to get it. They typically come around the neighborhood in their big, handy old pickup truck on Sunday afternoons or evenings.

A simple bike left at a curbside. Yet there are so many dimensions!

How long would something like this sit around in your neighborhood? Any other thoughts on curbside treasures and trash as a measure of neighborhood economics, community resilience?

*******

LATER ON, SAME DAY: Great news from my neighbor who got the bike: “Cleaned the battery terminal connections and cleaned out a bunch of sand from the battery connection box and it works great. This was a GREAT score.”

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS:

One thing worth noting is that the bike sat out for 48 hours until I posted it on Facebook. Then it was claimed within minutes. This does not always happen so quickly; I have sometimes posted some kind of request or announcement and not heard from anyone for a day, or multiple days … or at all. Still, it’s worth noting.

Social media are part of local/neighborhood resilience too, at least for the foreseeable future. The amount of time I would’ve had to spend running around my neighborhood seeing if anyone was interested in the bike would’ve been prohibitive.

Even phoning/texting around would’ve been a lot of work, and people might’ve felt pestered and singled out — as I myself often feel when somebody wants to palm off unwanted junk on me. A social-media post targeted to a relevant local group can be the best of both worlds in situations like this.

Also regarding social media: Many people in the Degrowth / collapse-aware groups, permaculture groups, low-footprint, anticonsumerist groups, etc., are prone to saying things like: “Well, the people who are really doing it right aren’t on social media. Aren’t online at all.”

I heartily must disagree. Connectivity is key to building a sustainable culture. People who choose to be offline are not necessarily more sustainable, if all they are doing is reinventing the wheel and burning up all their cognitive energy and physical energy just growing potatoes or something.

I’m not trying to shame people who choose to stay isolated from social media or not even be online at all. (And growing potatoes is a worthy endeavor!) I’m just saying that’s not on the whole what’s going to save us right now.

What might save us is sharing skills, information, opportunities, and emotional support.

Utilizing online connection is one thing that I might term — to use a permaculture design concept — appropriate technology. Human beings are technology-devising and technology-using creatures, and an appropriate technology is one that conserves the resources and creates beneficial relationships, and, over the long term, allows us collectively to make meaningful steps on the path to a regenerative society.

“Young people just don’t care about the environment.” I see various versions of this come across my feed every day.

But actually: I’m 60 and have actually been surprised at how extremely consumerist many of my fellow Boomers are. Not even trying to refuse single-use plastic or Styrofoam, accepting plastic bags at the store because it’s too “inconvenient” to remember to bring reusable bags or just do without, etc. I mean, my generation grew up knowing life without having these things all around us, totally rammed down our throats, so I would think we would be more resistant to them, but no.

Same thing with living in HOAs with aggressively anti-eco and antisocial rules; settling for homes in car-dependent environments instead of insisting on places where we can live without a car.

And flying in airplanes all over the planet even though we’ve already traveled all over the place in our youth.

I tend to think younger people are more conscious than we are on the whole. But I’m always glad to hear from my fellow Boomers who care as well. And I know there are many of you, because I talk with you every day. Thank you for caring and helping.