Category: low-footprint living

Highly recommended: Listen to this talk by Sid Smith: “How To Enjoy the End of the World”

I’ve posted this talk for you guys before, but I don’t think I have ever posted that version that’s divided up conveniently into seven segments with each segment labeled by topic.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNcGo6a-yKuIubvDb6mIyd0KHQ-7UasJH&si=9HbciHRG3jaaRGJ9

btw Many of us — including many of us here in this group, doomer circles, thrift groups, etc. — have been practising energy descent for years or even decades now, and it’s anticlimactically easy. Sacrifices and tradeoffs yes. Hard & complicated, no.

That’s actually one of the really frustrating parts for me, it’s counterintuitively hard to get people interested in doing what seems too simple and easy. I think it’s not that it seems like too much trouble; I think it’s that it doesn’t offer any sexy bells and whistles. It’s like, just get to it. And people are like meh, give me a solar-powered electric toothbrush, or an entire lawnmower made out of seaweed-based rugged plastic.

Meanwhile a lot of us are over here just quietly allowing the oak leaves to pile up, and letting the wildflowers grow. Come on over here, it’s fun and relaxing! We will help you deal with code enforcement. I’ve posted lots of tips here and this blog. And shared many tips on my deep green Facebook page, from renowned viral-level experts. Prairie-Up, Milk the Weed, Kate Frey, Kate Orff to name a few.

Ditto for household energy use. A lot of us are over here just turning off the lights and going to sleep when it gets dark. And to help those whose work schedules don’t permit, many of us who have the wherewithal to push back are out here pushing back against the capitalist norms to try to shape a different reality that’s more future-friendly.

Also: I’ve mentioned this before, but “climate doomerism is really a ‘white’ phenomenon.” An anglo/euro western capitalist society phenomenon. We don’t prioritize building community; we have a hyperindividualistic culture where we have normalized that buying more stuff and expensive services is the required solution to everything. And our culture totally blows off the power and nurturance of the collective. And so naturally we get isolated and stew in our doomy preppery anxiety. I listen to a TikTok video about this from Wagatheru some years back. If I can find the link I will share it here. Knowing me, I already shared it somewhere else on this blog, so maybe I could just search through my own blog ha ha!

During the pandemic, people were going wild scrambling for toilet paper. Some people were even buying up huge amounts and hoarding it to sell at a profit.

Meanwhile, many different cultures carried on without depending on toilet paper, the way they had been doing since ancient times, using what I and many others consider to be a superior hygiene method.

We know it as the bidet. In fact, during the pandemic, many households installed bidets. The version of bidet as we know it is relatively high tech.

The simpler version of post-toilet cleansing device is known in many countries and cultures as a lota, or tabo.

The traditional little pitcher known as a lota or tabo is a much less expensive way to get clean, as well as not requiring electricity or bells and whistles to operate.

If you do a search here on this blog for toilet paper or bidet or lota, you’ll find some good articles I’ve shared on this topic.

And now I’m adding this article that I found just the other day.

“Out of toilet paper? There’s always the lota.” https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2020/3/19/21186936/toilet-paper-lota-coronavirus-patriot-act-hasan-minhaj-hari-kondabolu-indians-asians-middle-eastern (By Rummana Hussain; Chicago Sun-Times, March 19, 2020.)

“Nothing about the coronavirus pandemic is funny. But some of us have found a sliver of levity watching panicked Americans hoarding toilet paper, awkwardly balancing 30-pack, 2-ply rolls in their arms as if they’re readying for a showdown.

“‘Americans freaking out about toilet paper & Indians are knowingly smiling & nodding,’ comic Hari Kondabolu tweeted a few days ago. Without getting too detailed, many of us with Asian, Middle Eastern and/or Muslim backgrounds use toilet paper only as reinforcement.”

Visit the link to read the entire article, which in fact provides useful tips. And have fun joining the ranks of those of us who don’t panic at the thought of not being able to buy toilet paper.

We don’t have to be in a pandemic to enjoy a more thorough hygiene method! And one that doesn’t require tons and tons of trees to be cut down.

By the way, many people still use toilet paper in addition to a water cleansing method; they just don’t depend on it utterly.

On a wider note, there are a lot of examples of things in life like this. Things we “modern” Western consumer-culture inmates have come to depend on, while other cultures have been dealing quite beautifully since ancient times without the so-called modern necessity.

Have fun experimenting, and reducing reasons to panic.

Yes, really. This is a thing I did not know existed until the other day, and I would’ve been happy to go my whole life without realizing such a thing existed.

And now I’m just torn up about it. I know that might seem silly. We have so many bigger fish to fry. But somehow all these little fish are connected to the big fish.

I heard someone commenting on having to go to the store to get a something something for the remote control for their ceiling fan, and I was thinking, I’m sorry, what? Isn’t there just a pull-cord?

There are lots of other things I need to be thinking about but somehow the ceiling fan thing just seems to pop up.

Like when someone online was sharing a post about extremely pedestrian-friendly street design in NYC.

When I read that great-news-sharing post, that ceiling fan remote control popped into my mind. And I commented on the post:

People are stubborn about their cars in most parts of the USA. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I heard that there are now ceiling fans with remote-control devices. Like really? What about just walking across the room and pulling on the cord? Geez, no wonder people in most USA cities aren’t willing to walk to a bus stop, if they’re not even willing to get up to turn a fan on and off.

(But in British colonial India, the fatcat Brits and other Euro colonizers employed “punka-wallas”, house servants tasked with manually operating the ceiling fan by working a pulley system for hours on end. I bet there were shifts around the clock. So really I shouldn’t be surprised.)

I would’ve thought we would’ve learned our lesson from TV remote controls. Probably spend more time and energy walking around looking for batteries for them, and/or troubleshooting why they’re not working properly, than we were spending back in the days when we were just getting up and changing the TV channel.

There are probably lots of other examples you can think of like this.

This past week, the topic of digital addiction came up for me. I mean, it does for all of us nowadays, right? Or at least for most of us. But it came up bigger than usual for me this week.

A person who I work with face to face on a regular basis seemed to be treating me with disrespect or contempt. Violating a boundary I thought I had been very clear about.

But after a while of seeking a thread of reason amid my intense wash of emotion, it occurred to me: This might not necessarily be about contempt; it might be about addiction to social media and online content.

And THAT is something I can strongly relate to, as someone who very much depends on social media and other online media for her work. It’s no exaggeration to say that my smartphone is my main work-tool.

But even though I legitimately need to use my phone at various times throughout the day, there are times I can feel myself crossing into compulsion. A little too much research-reading, for example, when more of what’s called for is rolling-up-my-sleeves -type actions.

And also, my sheer daily number of hours of screen-time have much room for tightening-up. I’ve been working on this with some success but then find myself falling back into scrolling, rabbit-holes, needless lingering.

In one of those cool synchronicities of life, a very dear colleague had sent me an ecological video, and underneath it on the same YouTube channel was a video about digital addiction!

It’s about an hour and 30 minutes, and although I rarely watch videos, preferring to get information by reading, I watched the whole thing,* and hope you will too. At least please watch the first 9 minutes, it’s a pretty good overview.

*Full disclosure: a few minutes in, I set the speed at 1.5x, and ended up setting it at 2x. But seriously I would have bitten the bullet and sat through the whole video even if high-speed play were not an option.

Highly recommended for everyone’s further exploration:

• “Dopamine & Addiction in the Digital Age” https://youtu.be/iksSRPpLOzQ?si=DPoAjZ08ymeHKSMa ; Anna Lemke, interviewed by Nate Hagens (The Great Simplification podcast YouTube channel).

• “Is digital detoxing an act of rebellion? How limiting your screen time can redefine you and help us arrive at the tomorrow we deserve.” https://reimaginednews.beehiiv.com/p/is-digital-detoxing-an-act-of-rebellion ; Nicole Cardoza, ReImagined news (formerly Antiracism Daily), January 15, 2026.

• Here at Starshine House / Trailhead 501, I ask residents to maintain “dark and quiet” space on our “inner sanctuary” patio area from midnight to 6am. This means no electronic audio, and no artificial lighting. I don’t try to control people watching videos, podcasts, etc., in their rooms (with headphones) during those hours. And I don’t ask people to use headphones outside of those hours even in common areas. But at least in the “sanctuary” area I can provide a space that encourages us all to unplug for a few hours. I’m considering restricting the use of screens, period, even without audio, on that patio during the dark quiet time window.

• Oh, and on a direct ecological note, do check out the video my colleague Chris of BioIntegrity initially sent me. “Why We Need Forests: Their Vital Role in Climate Dynamics, Rain, and the Biotic Pump.” https://youtu.be/GWdXCqVOFkY?si=VvNQsEpLM3NWnZ8k Nastasia Makarieva, interviewed by Nate Hagens (the great simplification podcast youtube channel). (Not up for a 2-hour video even on 2x speed? Check out this 2-minute video intro to the “biotic pump” concept. https://youtu.be/3JyaSL2Mioc?feature=shared ) “Biotic Pump and Flying Rivers.”

Great news: I’ve got a bicycle! My past few months navigating life without a bicycle have been helpful in my job, as “boots on the ground” research is part of my job. But it’s nice having wheels again. Now if we could only have a bike shop within walking distance again, as there used to be when I first moved to this neighborhood. Maybe I can encourage somebody to step up and run a business — or at least an unofficial neighborhood bicycle-repair depot. I’ve been trying for a while!

Deeply grateful to my neighbor who found a beach cruiser in great condition listed for $30 on craigslist! And who gave me a ride since the place was 9 miles away. It was hard for me to accept that help but as I pointed out in my previous post, we all need to be willing to accept help as well as being willing to give it.

And the guy who sold me the bike seems like a really nice, stand-up fellow. Told us he has been refurbishing & selling used bicycles for a long time. When I asked why he was selling a good bike so cheap, he told me that the demand for E bikes has caused the regular bicycle market to crater. I never have liked E bikes and I’m very happy to have this simple sweet one-speed bicycle.

I will also be looking into getting our single-speed fixie skinny-tire bicycle repaired (which is likely to be pretty extensive work), but at least now it’s not an urgent task.

This is definitely a case of “writing a post that I myself need to read.” Because I’m terrible at asking for help. And when I manage to ask, and the help comes, I feel guilty and unworthy.

But, trying to do everything on our own is unsustainable. It leads to all sorts of resource waste and unnecessary extra work and expense.

Yesterday I got a huge amount of help.

Housemate #1 turns out to be very experienced at installing toilet tank flush assemblies. YouTube had taken me farther than I ever dreamed possible, but it wasn’t far enough. I had to be willing to accept his kind and generous offer of help.

And, a neighbor drove me to a house that was nine miles away, to purchase a used bicycle. My neighbor had furthermore taken the initiative to find the bicycle listed for sale on Craigslist, after hearing me mention I needed a bicycle. (One of ours got stolen and the other needs major repairs.)

Help doesn’t always come from the same people I’ve extended help to. It really is a whole extended web of care as opposed to perfectly equal exchange. We have to be at peace with maybe not being able to repay help, just as we are perfectly fine with not being repaid for extending help (at least, I’m fine with that).

By definition, the stuff that other people help us with feels incredibly valuable, because it’s things that we ourselves don’t have. Items we don’t own; skills we don’t possess.

Like, I don’t have a car. So when I can’t manage a task by foot or bicycle or bus, and can’t spare the money for a cab, I feel like I’m taking a million dollars from the neighbor with a car.

Same goes for the person with skills and experience that are way out of my league or zone. Toilet repair, bicycle repair. Might as well be handing me a million dollars.

So of course I feel guilty because to me, there’s nothing I have to offer that is of equal worth.

Of course it’sgoing to feel like that though. Whatever skills or assets we ourselves possess, don’t seem as valuable as the ones we are needing from someone else.

But, sometimes the thing we have to give is simply time, or general effort or labor. That too can be incredibly valuable, to the person who doesn’t have it and needs to draw on it. Who knows, maybe to someone, it might feel lifesaving, or like a million dollars.

In permaculture we talk about “sharing surplus”. Time, talent, money, energy, labor, tools, extra clothes, extra plants … all are examples of surplus. Even just having a bit of attention to spare when someone else’s attention is exhausted, can be huge.

So, if you’re bad at asking for and accepting help, please keep working on that! And I’ll do the same. I want to live in a world where no one has to try to get by without help. And where we all get the joy of being able to feel useful.

PS. It’s great news that I’ve got a bicycle! My past few months navigating life without a bicycle have been helpful in my job, as “boots on the ground” research is part of my job. But it’s nice having wheels again. Now if we could only have a bike shop within walking distance again, as there used to be when I first moved to this neighborhood. Maybe I can encourage somebody to step up and run a business — or at least an unofficial neighborhood bicycle-repair depot. I’ve been trying for a while!

the power of … lots of things!

(Preamble: I was looking for a way to change the color of my phone flashlight to a more gentle color. I’m not a big fan of artificial light even in the deepest dark of night.)

— The power of a Google info search. Warning! I’ve been noticing that we trigger AI whether we like it or not. I’m going to start being more discerning about how much I search. Not that it’s easy, since research is a big part of my job, but I can refine things and not go down so many unnecessary rabbit holes. There is such a thing as “compulsive internet searching” in the universe of jenny lol. But in this case the Google search was useful because it quickly confirmed my suspicions that there is no way in the phone system settings to change the color of the flashlight. And instead it’s necessary to do some sort of hacked like taping something over it.

— The power of image search. Who knew what those flat little plastic bread bag clippy things were called! I never knew what those bread things were called. Not only do they have a name, but apparently there’s a whole Reddit dedicated to collecting and cataloguing them! (See “occlupanid” on reddit.com )

(Well, OK, so it’s a tongue-in-cheek name. Check HORG.com : “Occlupanids are generally found as parasitoids on bagged pastries in supermarkets, hardware stores, and other large commercial establishments.” https://www.horg.com/horg/?page_id=2 )

HORG stands for the Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group (of course)! (This page and concept is appealing to me not just for the pure silly humor in and of itself, but also because it finds a way to highlight an environmental issue (the relentless scourge of disposable plastics) without making people feel crappy in a way that might prevent us from staying motivated to work for solutions.)

As for why I was searching on bread Clippys … That started when I was trying to tone down my iPhone flashlight to a gentle orange color.

Since there did not seem to be a setting on the phone that allows that, I looked around for a hack. First I tried layers of masking tape but that didn’t do much. And then, behold! In the little kitchen miscellaneous drawer next to the masking tape was one of those orange bread clippy things. a STRAY! They usually live in a different drawer. Along with the potato chip bag clips and so on.

So, I used masking tape to tape the orange bread clippity thingee over the light on my phone. I now have a nice orange gentle phone flashlight instead of the characteristic bright white LED thing.

I would love to take a picture of it to show you, but, you know, the camera is on the phone, and I don’t have a periscope to point the camera lens to the back of the phone and take a photo of it lol.

By the way, awhile back I happened upon the ineresting language tidbit that making do with something near at hand to solve a problem is called “bricolage”.

Like, this morning, I did not go thinking to myself, “let me search for one of those orange bread bag clippy things — it’ll be perfect to turn my iPhone flashlight from malevolent screaming LED white to gentle cozy Amber or sepia like an old livingroom rug in a family photo from 1973.”

No, rather, in the process of attempting to solve my illumination challenge, I simply happened to espy the orange plastic doohickey next to the little tray in the kitchen drawer where a roll of masking tape and a permanent marker and some other useful items are kept.

And suddenly it came to me that that would be a useful item! Despite its opacity, it works well because it’s very thin. Allows just the right amount of light to pass through.

I heartily approve of my new pumpkin-toned phone flashlight! <orange heart emoticon; pumpkin emoticon>

See the post on my DEEP GREEN Facebook page here. Of course minus a photo of the actual back of my phone ha ha.

Although I was unable to take a photo, if you take the trouble to visit my Facebook post of this, you’ll get an extra fun little treat, my attempt to illustrate the before and after with a little drawing! I haven’t been drawing much lately but have been feeling nudged to do so, and happily seized this morning’s opportunity (created by the fact that ya can’t take a picture of the back of your phone when your only camera is on the back of your phone)! Great example of problem creating opportunity.

bricolage, upcycling, creative reuse, phone flashlight, gentler artificial lighting

PS. i forgot that mirrors exist LOL, someone in the nonconsumer advocate group had to remind me! I belatedly added a mirror pic — still i greatly enjoyed making that little drawing!!