Category: low-footprint living

This past Monday, September 10, I was privileged to be a guest on the Sustainable Living WMNF radio program, which is hosted with grace and skill by Jon Butts and Tanja Vidovic. I’ve been on this high-quality radio program before with fellow Florida permaculture designers, but this time I was on to talk about my book.

Synchronistically, the segments before me were 1) Tanja talking about her recent incident of being “trespassed” from her local park for (peacefully) objecting to application of toxic weed-killer; and 2) an interview with Joseph Romm, author of the book Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know.

I say “synchronistically” because both of these segments underscore very strongly the importance of reducing the human footprint, which is the core message of my book.

1) The human compulsion to label certain plants “invasive species,” and eradicate “weeds,” is ironic given that we humans are the most invasive species of all. If we would just rein ourselves in, and not insist on exercising total control over so much space on this planet, it would go a long way toward solving our problems. This is a key point of my book. Personally, I think our parks, and the planet as a whole, would be better with far more forest and far less human-maintained turf-grass.

2) Another key point of my book is that climate change (and pollution) are hard to wrap one’s brain around if we focus only on the planetary scale, and on trying to mandate behavior change on the part of corporations and government. But if we focus on our own daily actions (which, added up over the course of our lives, and multiplied by the millions and billions of other people doing those same actions each day, most assuredly add up), we will naturally influence corporations and the government through the power of demand (or removal of demand).
On “my” segment of the show, I was interviewed along with fellow guest Anni Ellis, of Anni Ellis Garden Design Inc. With a background of fine art and interior design, and drawing on feng shui and minimalist concepts, Anni creates outdoor spaces that entice people outdoors to enjoy their gardens in ways they never had before.

This is also something I emphasize in my book: Many of us humans have become so removed from nature that we are afraid of it. It’s a vicious cycle: The more afraid we get, the more removed; the more removed we get, the more afraid. Outdoor spaces that are comfortable and attractive to their intended users entice people outdoors and help break that cycle of disconnectedness with nature. Which makes people and the planet happier and healthier.

If you didn’t catch the show with me on it, don’t worry. All of WMNF’s shows are available on their show page on WMNF.org for at least a week after they air; through the WMNF app, and many are on Mixcloud. These shows are also available by podcast. Visit WMNF’s home page and podcast page to tune in.

Check out my most recent interview, by the excellent green radio show “Shades of Green.” I’m really pleased with how it turned out! This may be the most succinct overview I’ve managed to provide so far of my book and the Riot for Austerity. Thank you to John Hoffner and the other hosts for their journalistic and editing skills that produced this 20-minute segment. I tend to ramble and digress, so I’m sure it was no mean feat!

“Shades of Green” is based in Austin TX, and has been on the air since 2007. (Fun fact: I was privileged to be one of the original co-hosts, with John Hoffner and Ken McKenzie-Grant.) The current hosts are John Hoffner, Stacy Guidry, Reed Sternberg, and Amy Stansbury. You can find out more about these excellent journalists and eco-activists on the show’s website.

In case you have trouble with the uploaded mp4 I provided above, here’s a link to the podcast on Shades of Green’s website.

(Since I grew up in places where leaves change color, September still means “Fall” to me.)

Today’s finds:
– Enough additional stainless-steel ware to host a decent-sized party.
– Close-toed shoes for winter and for traveling inland. (My Minnetonka suede moccasins, purchased new in 2006, finally wore out for real; now that I live on the Atlantic coast of Florida these gently used Hush Puppies — made in USA, same as my old Minnetonkas — for $2 will do!)

All items came from Halifax Health Hospice thrift store, total $9.85 (silverware items were $.25 each). I’ve always been a fan of non-matching silverware, because then, unlike with a “proper matching set,” it doesn’t stand out if pieces are missing or different! And it fits my urban-rustic-bohemian aesthetic.

Riot for Austerity notes: Thrift-store purchases, being donated items, don’t add to one’s consumer-goods total under “Riot for Austerity” rules. According to statistics used in the Riot for Austerity, the U.S. average for consumer purchases comes to $10,000 per year per person. The Riot calls for us to reduce our footprint by 90% of the U.S. average; accordingly, the Riot target for purchases of consumer goods is $1,000 per year.

Since I mainly buy thrift (when I buy stuff rather than make it or scrounge it), and donated items do not count in the Riot total, I almost always come well under the $1,000 target without even trying. This year is an exception because I needed to get a new roof on my house. The Riot rules say to count necessary home improvements at 50% of the total ticket amount. Since the total I paid for my new roof was $7,000, I have to count $3,600 of that. So far, my Riot consumer total for the year is still under $4,000, or less than 40 percent of the U.S. average in the “consumer purchases” category.

Setting up a little outdoor dishwashing station is great for a potluck or other gathering. Plates can get scraped directly into the compost bin, a handy alternative to having to cart the plates indoors, scrape the food scraps off the plates and into a collection bucket, and then have to haul that collection bucket and the collected dishwater back outdoors.

I’m lucky to have this concrete slope (though it’s not visible in this photo, the ground slopes downward to the right of the dishpan), onto which I can dump the dishwater and it flows downward to the mini check-dam I created for irrigation. (Dishwater in my household uses the very minimum necessary detergent — or maybe just a bit of vinegar and baking soda — and is safe for many plants.)

Trash tips: For a larger gathering, I have buckets labeled “trash”, “compost”, “recycling”, and also (if people bring disposable silverware) “plastic silverware” (which I usually wash and reuse multiple times).

This past weekend’s gathering at my house was not large and the food was very simple. So, other than having one recycling bucket, I handled things on my own rather than ask guests to scrape their dishes into the compost bucket and such.

When hot dishwater is needed (for oily foods, plastic dishes etc.), I sometimes heat it in the solar oven. Yesterday I used the electric kettle to heat 1.75L of water which was plenty. Speaking of dishes, I love using china dishes at a potluck! How many times have you seen a china cabinet in someone’s dining room, jam-packed with generations of beautiful dishes that hardly ever (or never) get used? I inherited SIXTEEN china plates, and many matching bowls, from my grandmother, and I know she is smiling down from heaven to see them in daily use. On a practical note, china is much easier to clean than plastic plates and bowls (which seem to want to hang on to oil and grease).

It’s interesting how the permaculture design principles “make use of onsite resources” and “closely observe nature” in this case also included observing and utilizing a slope (natural dune) that had been paved with a manmade material (concrete).

I like my outdoor dishwashing station so much that I’ve set up a permanent outdoor dishwashing station next to the newly installed manual well-pump. It’s very convenient to wash dishes outdoors because the food can get scraped right into the compost, and the water can go right onto the plants — saves you from having to maneuver a bucketful of collected dishwater from your kitchen to outdoors.

At the potluck, the outdoor dishwashing station sparked nostalgic conversation about how fun and simple it is to do dishes (and laundry) on camping trips. People relax their fussy standards and conventional notions, and the stuff still gets clean! Under the stars, in the fresh air, a mundane task is transformed into a sweet time. And good exercise, stretching and bending!

A lot of people get stuck on their green lifestyle path because they try to be perfect, and they drown in guilt when inevitably they fail to be perfect.

This potato chip bag is here for a reason. This EMPTY potato-chip bag. Yes, I wrote a book on low-footprint living, and yet I eat potato chips and engage in other actions that are high-footprint.

Footprints fluctuate. Also, one person’s easy category will be hard for another person. For example, I may never achieve the pristine diet and low footprint of the people I know who grow most of their own food and have no cravings for processed food (or else they ignore those cravings more than I do).

Everyone’s personalities and life circumstances are different. Some of us engage in “emotional eating” at rough times, or just when we are bored and self-indulgent.

I find it easy to use almost no electricity. Other people struggle with reducing their footprint in this category. Ditto transportation, consumer goods, volume of household trash, and so on through all of the RIOT categories.

It’s OK! Just keep moving forward as best you can. And focus on the personal benefits you are gaining, rather than just focus on what you are trying to reduce or give up. I find it much easier to make progress that way.

Back on the subject of potato chips … I often make dip from local yogurt, chopped fresh veggies, and “freegan” spices. And voila, lunch or dinner. Yes, I am a big fan of what I call the “hybrid meal.” Perfectionism in the food category does not work well for me.

The empty potato-chip bag will be a perfect receptacle for cat poop, which I am scooping daily since I am taking care of a friend’s cat this week.