One Green Generation

One of the beauties of The Growing Challenge is that we are able to see what’s growing all around the world. This month it has been snowing in parts of Australia, at the same time temperatures reached 100F in the southwestern United States. And soon, our roles will switch. In a few months, we in the US and Europe will be looking longingly at Australia’s summer gardens….

But don’t despair - I have seen an awful lot of winter gardens still going in Australia. So I say it’s time for the rest of us to begin preparing for our own winter gardens!

Winter Gardening Inspiration

It’s snowing at the Tin House (below), but Lisa’s wombok seems to be taking the cold ok. Also, funny enough her asparagus made a surprisingly early appearance!  Lisa is also growing spinach, carrots, lettuce, rocket, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, leeks, garlic, and onions.

Belinda is eating 1-2 meals straight from the garden each week. She’s harvesting broccoli and mini cauliflower, and awaiting brussels sprouts, broad beans (which just flowered), spinach, and a whole bunch of seedlings. Did I mention that it has been snowing there, too?

Belinda’s Beautiful Cabbage

Leanne is sick of her wet weather, but her broad beans are flowering beautifully, and her garlic and spinach have sprouted and are soon to be transplanted.

Leanne’s Broad Beans

Kate examines her square square foot gardening.  Check out the square foot below:  peas, coriander and leeks.  She’s also growing broad beans, chicory, fennel, broccoli, oregano, mizuna, kale, silver beets, lettuces, bok choy, garlic, and more.

Tags: garden, sustainable living, The Growing Challenge

After reading a post at Earth First, I thought I’d seek out and share some bicycle inspiration. The following photos were taken at train stations around the world:

Malmo, Sweden

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Tokyo, Japan

Leuven, Belgium

Niigata, Japan

Too Cold?

Scandanavia

So… What are we waiting for?!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote Is Your Neighborhood Bikeable? to see if we couldn’t get ourselves out of this biker’s block. There are some resources there to peruse. And there were also some amazing comments. I’m going to reproduce one from LHT Rider here, because I think it’s very useful.

If You Have Biker’s Block.

by LHT Rider

It is a sad commentary on the culture we live in that so many of us are afraid to exercise our right to use the public roads in a non-polluting manner. Believe me, I know how you feel. I went from not riding my bicycle for many, many years and have since become a 4-season rider in the northern midwest. Here are some things that have helped me make the transition.

1. Set small, achievable, progressive challenges for yourself. Baby steps are important. See for yourself what you’re truly capable of and question your assumptions. If you are willing to test your preconceived notions, you might be surprised at the results.

2. Allow yourself to do what you need to in order to feel more comfortable. For example if the road immediately adjacent to your house is too scary, allow yourself to ride on the sidewalk for a short distance until you can get somewhere safer. This is legal in many communities. Just remember to: be nice - yield to pedestrians, be careful crossing driveways especially if you do not have a clear line of sight, and do not under any circumstances shoot out into intersections from the sidewalk as car drivers do not expect you to be there.

2. Get a mirror & learn how to use it. It’s much less scary if you know what’s coming up behind you. While some people have no problem just turning around to see what’s behind them while still maintaining a razor sharp straight line, a mirror allows you to check things out more quickly and without the risk of weaving (into traffic, the curb, a pothole etc.)

3. Plan your route. On a bicycle you would almost never take the exact same route as you would in a car (because that’s where all the cars are!). Your city may have a map of official bicycle routes (maybe even online!). This can be extremely helpful and make for a much more pleasant ride.

4. Educate yourself. Read up on how to ride in traffic or refresh your memory on the rules of the road. Learn how to use your gears. A bicycle should give you a mechanical advantage over walking. It doesn’t have to be hard (or racing fast). In addition, as Heather @ SGF says, think about what you’re afraid of happening & figure out what you would do if it actually happened. There’s lots of good advice out there on everything from gear to how to change a tire. (By the way, riding a bicycle really does not require spandex or lycra).

5. Be sure your bicycle fits you. (This is getting easier, but can be difficult for many women.) Also make sure it works properly. There may be adjustments or changes in equipment that can make your ride much more comfortable and enjoyable. I have only recently come to appreciate what an amazing difference tires can make in the of your ride. Think about getting a basket or pannier so that your bicycle can haul more than just you!

6. Demand cycling (and pedestrian) improvements and safety in your community. The only way it will get easier/better for cyclists is if we stand up and say that this is something we care about and should be a priority for where we live.

Maybe Your Neighborhood Isn’t Bikeable Yet.

For many of us, I think it all has to begin with #6 above. Some of our neighborhoods just aren’t bikeable. Some aren’t even walkable. So while you are growing your own food and greening your indoors, please think about how we can make our communities more bikeable and walkable.

And when you come up with an idea, act on it. When you see an opportunity to do something about it, act on it. That opportunity could be big or small - a community meeting, someone who might listen via email or phone, a local election, even just a chat with a neighbor to start. And if someone else organizes a great, safe bicycling event, make sure you turn out in droves with friends and family.

Make these free and green transportation options possible in your neighborhood!

Need More Inspiration?

Ciclovia in Bogota is inspiring - 2 million people ride 70 miles of car-free streets, take exercise and dance classes, walk and join together every week. New York just shut down Park Avenue for bicycles. Portland closed streets for its “Sunday Parkways”, and has a website to help you get around the city car-free. It’s happening around the world.

In Seattle, Bicycle Sunday has been going on for as long as I can remember: all day traffic is closed to cars and trucks along the Lake Washington Waterfront. Now it has turned into Saturdays as well, and more are in the works! There’s even a Pro Walk Pro Bike Conference here in September. It’s not all we need, but it’s a start - it raises awareness, it allows people to exercise for free, and it gives us hope for more. The Liveable Streets Network has more inspiring stories and ideas.

Let’s work on it!

Tags: Community-building, energy & climate, sustainable living, transportation, urban living

This weekend I am madly rushing toward a deadline on Monday. And Monday I am going out with Matt for our second anniversary! So bear with me through these next couple of days - the posts may be a bit light. In the meantime, though, I want to ask you your thoughts about something….

Community Building. This is something that I believe is very important as we face a volatile economy, agricultural and environmental issues, climate change, peak energy, and a whole host of other issues facing us today and in the future. I believe we must work to make our communities more resilient, more adaptable, and more sustainable. But how do we do it??!! That’s the real question, isn’t it?

Below is what I’ve written from the Building Communities page here - some of you may have already read it, others may not have. I just realized I’d missed Kate’s great comment there, so I guess this is a page I’ve been putting on the backburner a bit myself. But it’s time to revisit it. What I’ve written needs to be expanded (I’m embarrassed by it)! So read what little I have written, if you will, and then let me know what your thoughts are. Maybe together we can make some sense of this next stage. Thank you.

Building Community

The idea of community building is a growing interest of mine. I believe many of us sustainability bloggers are beginning to write and read about this. I suppose the reason for that is very simple. Once you become aware of your impact on the planet’s health, your health, and your children’s futures, you take steps to create a sustainable lifestyle for yourself and your family. And after a year or a few of doing this, of learning ways of living simply, frugally, and sustainably, you begin to realize that you’re happier. And healthier. And you feel good.

And then the realization hits. You’re pretty nearly alone, others around you are not living this same lifestyle. And wait, if others aren’t doing it, how is the planet going to be saved? How are we going to fight climate change, and save that finite amount of oil left on the planet, and live in communities that can adapt to changing economies and weather patterns and … and … and … sigh.

Maybe what we’re doing is not enough. It’s good, but we have to shout out to others to come along with us. We have help them also feel happier and healthier plus save the planet, our children, and our communities in the process. We can’t do it alone!

How do we do that?

I think we start by living locally, and becoming an active part of our communities. And we can work on our family and friends, carefully raising their awareness about issues we care about, showing them how we live our lives and how happy we are.

The blog world here is a great community. We all push one another to do more, go further, learn and grow. And we share resources and even meet with one another in the real world, too. So we learn here, we are pushed here, and then we go out into our neighborhoods and do what we write about!

Each person we affect will affect others, so it multiplies. Slowly but surely, we will change the world. It’s an over-used quote, but one I’m very fond of:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

Resources.

Here are a few links to get you started thinking about these ideas.

• The Community is the Solution
• The Relocalization Network
• Transition Culture
  

A Film to Watch.

• The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

And a couple of books I’ve read, with more on the way from my local library.

• Deep Economy (don’t forget to check out the giveaway!)
  

• Fight Global Warming Now: the Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community

• Fostering Sustainable Behavior

As I said, clearly that is not enough! So how do we build our communities to make them more sustainable and resilient? How do we convince others that we need to change our lifestyles, to redefine normal? And what areas should we work on first? Please also feel free to share anything you’ve read that the rest of us should read.

Tags: Community-building, local living, sustainable living

Vinegar

Did you guess it?

The Many Uses of Vinegar

With all of these uses below, there will be a faint scent of vinegar. Remember when I wrote about Redefining Normal? This is normal! The vinegar scent will go away quickly, pretty much as soon as the vinegar dries. And it is a lot better than the smell of artificial chemicals and fragrances that just aren’t good for you to be breathing. If you truly hate the smell (it’s not that bad!), try adding a few drops of lemon juice to your vinegar solutions.

1. Washing Windows and Mirrors. I have a small spray bottle, bought in a drug store, that I fill at about 1 part vinegar to three parts water. Just good old-fashioned white vinegar you can buy in any store, or make yourself. With that, I spray windows and mirrors with the vinegar solution, and wipe with a soft, clean towel. Others use newsprint and swear by it - that has just never worked for me, but give it a go if you have newspapers lying around.

2. Washing Kitchen and Bathroom Surfaces. When cleaning my bathroom or kitchen, I use Bon Ami and a rag to really wash the surfaces. Then I spray all surfaces with that same spray bottle of 1:3 (vinegar:water), and wipe with a rag. The vinegar gives a shine to the surfaces, gets rid of soap scum, and also kills most germs and molds.

According to a Heinz spokesperson in this article, repeated studies have shown that their vinegar kills 99% of bacteria, 82% of mold, and 80% of viruses. Quite frankly, we are as a society far too focused on antibacterial everything - we need a few of them around for our children’s immune systems to develop fully, for our immune systems to adapt, and to ensure that we’re not creating monster super-viruses.

If you cook with meat and want to be extra safe, you can always wash cutting board surfaces with hydrogen peroxide to kill the other 1% of bacteria (I do not clean with chlorine bleach as I think it is awful stuff - more on that later).

3. Toilet Bowl Cleaner. Pour 1/2 cup straight vinegar into the bowl, let stand for 20 minutes, and scrub clean. You can do this with hydrogen peroxide as well.

4. Mopping Unwaxed Floors. Add 1 cup vinegar to 1 gallon hot water. This makes them shine nicely, too. On some wood floors, the vinegar will actually strip the wax. Ours are so old and have so many layers of wax on them, that it works great.

5. Dusting. I don’t use this mixture on wood (I use a pure oil instead). But I do use it on other hard surfaces. The same way I use it in the kitchen: spray with the 1:3 solution, and wipe with a rag. Alternatively, spray on the rag and then wipe the surface clean.

6. Cleaning the coffee machine, coffee and tea pot, coffee filter, and tea strainer. If your coffee machine is not making as good of coffee as it used to, chances are that there is a buildup of minerals, coffee oils, and other residue. Fill your coffee pot or espresso reservoir up to the full level, with 1 part vinegar to two parts water, and run that through the machine. If you haven’t done this in a while, you may want to repeat the process. Then run just pure water through the machine to clear it out. And you can soak coffee and tea pots, coffee filters, and tea strainers in the same solution to remove residue and stains.

7. Cleaning the refrigerator. That same 1:3 solution works perfectly. I usually make a fresh batch with warm water, as that seems to work better inside the cold refrigerator.

8. Unclogging Drains. If water hasn’t yet backed up, pour 1 cup of baking soda down, followed by 3 cups boiling water. Repeat if the drain doesn’t clear. If the drain still doesn’t clear, follow with 1 cup of vinegar. This makes it bubble, fizz and usually that does the trick! If this does not work, we usually buy enzymes from the local health food store.

9. Cleaning the Iron. I have only done this once, because I so rarely use my iron (I spray clothing with a fine water mist to get wrinkles out), but this does work! When an iron needs to be cleaned, you’ll see white or murky residue inside the water reservoir. Fill the reservoir with 1 part vinegar to two parts water, and then run the iron on steam mode until it’s out of water (you can do this in the air or onto a rag). If the residue isn’t gone, you may need to repeat the process. Then run straight water through and do the same thing.

10. Fabric Softener. Add 1/2 cup vinegar to the rinse water. Note: Most natural fibers do not cling very much, so don’t worry about fabric softeners at all if your load is all cotton. And make sure you don’t over-dry. Or better yet, line dry your clothing and you don’t have to worry about it!

11. Alternative to color-safe bleach. Yes, you can have two-in-one power! Vinegar doubles as a color-safe bleach and fabric softener: let the washer fill up before putting clothing in, and adding 1/2 cup vinegar to the water. If you’re also looking for a fabric softener, you probably won’t have to add more vinegar during the rinse cycle (above), but try both ways and see what works.

12. Vinegar Hair Rinse. I have gone through phases where I’ve used a vinegar solution for a hair conditioning rinse - you’ll find several bloggers doing it. Use a 1:4 ratio of vinegar to warm water, and pour it into your hair. You can mix it in any water bottle you have around the house - it’s just vinegar, so no need to worry about damaging the bottle. It does soften your hair. I will admit I’ve gotten out of the habit, but I encourage you to try it and see what you think! You can also steep a bag of herbal tea in the warm water, to add a bit of fragrance.

13. Denture Cleaner. Obviously I haven’t had to try this yet, but I’ve read that you can soak them overnight in pure vinegar, and rinse in the morning.

14. Kill Weeds. Yes, it’s true! My mom taught me this. Pour vinegar full strength onto weeds in sidewalk cracks, and along the edges of the yard, and presto - they die! She’s been doing it for years. Gardening aficionados, do you know what it’s doing? It’s neutralizing the nitrogen, so it’s essentially starving the weeds.

15. Ant Deterrent. It’s not perfect, but it will help. Clean the surfaces with a 1:3 vinegar solution. Then make your own - or purchase - a natural cleaning solution that contains orange oil and spray it on the ant paths. Leave for at least a few days, until the ants find another place to go. Then clean it up with the vinegar solution. This has worked for me all over the country: north, south, east, and west.

16. Increase soil acidity. If you’ve tested your soil and found it to be not quite acidic enough, you can add a cup of vinegar to a gallon of water when watering acid-loving plants, or when preparing the soil to be planted. (I’d wait a few days before planting seeds or fragile seedlings, but hardier plants will be fine.

17. Cat urine. Yes, this is where we really discovered the magic of vinegar. If a cat pees on something that you can throw in the washing machine: wash it in hot water with a cup of vinegar (if it’s really bad, it doesn’t hurt to put a more vinegar in). If a cat pees on furniture (eg, sofa, bed, plush chair): first blot up as much pee as you can with a towel. Then you want to really douse the area with vinegar, full strength, making sure that it gets deep into the cushions as far as the cat urine had. After several minutes, dab the area with a towel (or two), to get up as much vinegar as you can. And then cover the area with a doubled-up towel, and top with a couple of heavy books to help get up the rest of the liquid. Leave that for several hours.

This works because the main ingredient in urine is ammonia (like the nitrogen discussed above, when killing weeds). Ammonia is a base, so vinegar, an acid, neutralizes it.

Note: We have used this method on a couple of furniture items that we really cared about, and it did not stain them. But do use with caution. At the same time, generally the cat pee has a greater chance of staining than the vinegar (so at that point, what do you have to loose).

18. Cleaning Gold Jewelry and Tarnished Brass. Ok, I haven’t done it (because when I wear jewelry it’s generally silver), but I know many people that swear by it. Submerge jewelry in apple cider vinegar for 15 minutes. Then remove the jewelry and dry with a towel. For tarnished brass, simply pour a bit of vinegar on a rag and rub off the tarnish. For super sticky tarnish you may need to soak it a bit in the vinegar.

19. Pickling and Canning. This topic is for another post, but of course in addition to all of the above uses, vinegar is incredibly useful for preserving food!

20. There Are Many More. If you have another use for vinegar, please share it with us in the comments!!

Save Money, Time, and Anguish!

Ok so, with this list, you can now stop buying a whole lot of other products that you don’t need and save a ton of money! Also, there is no need to worry about trying to find natural products in the grocery store, because now you can make them with vinegar and water (and sometimes one other ingredient).

Update: Anyone wanting to make their own vinegar, check out Rhonda Jean’s great instructions (with more here) - it’s surprisingly easy.

What Is The Green Your Insides Challenge?

To start greening your own home.

First, start paying attention to what you put on your body, in your body, and around your body. Right now.

And then over the next few months, put it all into practice: take solid steps to green your indoor environment.

If you don’t know where to start, follow my articles as I talk about what we’ve done over the next several weeks!

To add the button to your blog, right-click on the image and save it to your desktop. Then upload it to your blog as you would any other image, with a link to:

http://1greengeneration.elementsintime.com/?page_id=184

Once you’ve uploaded the image, check to make sure the link works and the image loads correctly. Feel free to email me if you have any problems and I’ll see if I can help. And for those of you who don’t have blogs (which is about 80% of the readership here, no worries), I’m working on some alternatives for you, to remind you about the challenge!

What Are You Struggling To Learn?

I received emails and comments from some of you were anxious for me to begin writing tips I’ve learned. What areas would you like me to make sure I cover? What matters to you most? What are you finding the least amount of information about? Oh, and don’t forget to take the poll!

Tags: About Us, green, I'm Green Inside, Redefining Normal, sustainable living

You know, there is just not enough time in the day! I wanted to post a video today. I know a lot of you are waiting patiently for videos! But alas, it just isn’t going to happen. So… next week. I am telling you right now: Next Thursday, you will see a video here. That’s my promise to you.

Today I’m sitting down to write about how to Green Your Insides, and it should be up later this evening. I know some of you have been waiting anxiously for that as well! (There really isn’t enough time in the day, boy oh boy.)

In the meantime…

Book Giveaway!

I have read and cherished Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy. I think it speaks to a lot of what we discuss here. It sets up the basic problems we face, and - something extremely important to me - it offers tangible solutions. I’m not very good at book reviews, but there are several at The Blogging Bookworm. Essentially, while this book was not perfect, I truly enjoyed it and felt inspired by it. It’s one of my favorite books, and I’d like to pass it on to you.

Two conditions: 1. That you respond to the polls below, and then leave a comment below. 2. That after you’re finished reading the book, you consider passing it on to someone else. It doesn’t have to be on your blog, you don’t even have to have a blog. You can give it to a neighbor, a friend, a coworker, a family member, or a lover. That’s it!

The winner will be drawn from a hat next Wednesday at noon.

Reader Poll!

Please let me know what you’d like to see here at One Green Generation - your likes, dislikes, wishes, hopes, and ideas to make it better and more enjoyable. I’d really, really like to know what you all think!

And if you don’t want the book, please do chime in and just let me know in the comments that you aren’t interested in the book.

You can choose more than one answer for the first two polls.

Note: Changed polling services due to several emails saying people weren’t able to see the polls. Transferred all data to the new polls. Sorry all!

Don’t forget to comment! Please let me know what you like here, what you could do without, what you wish you saw here, and anything else you can think of that might help make this site better. Thank you.

Tags: Green Reading

I believe we could.

The idea of sustainability is extremely important to this site and what we discuss here, so here’s my take on it…

What Is Sustainability?

The word comes from sustain, as in to support, hold, or bear, to supply with food, drink, and other necessities of life, to endure without yielding, and at the most basic level, to keep in existence (perpetuate).

So to be sustainable is to be able to support, endure, perpetuate, and to supply the necessities of life. Sustainability is the act of supporting, enduring, perpetuating, and supplying the necessities of life.

Why Live Sustainably?

Right now and throughout our lifetime, the reasons to live sustainably involve climate change, energy costs and problems of supply, personal happiness and contentedness, species extinction, disastrous environmental destruction, our family’s health and safety, adaptability (to awful direct experiences like the ones to which Revkin refers below), karma if you believe in it, food and water supply issues, waste, social problems like homelessness and a working wage, … The reasons are many, and I’m sure you all could add several more here (feel free to do so in the comments).

The reasons are many, but the lifestyle is the same. Sustainability is by its very nature a system that heals itself, perpetuates itself, supports itself. If we all lived sustainably, we would be a part of a positive-feedback system. The state of the world and our future would change immensely.

The other day Andrew Revkin wrote, “Only direct experience seems to trigger change.” By that he meant disasters, deaths, destruction, home loss, looming gas prices, … imminent experiences that make you change your lifestyle right now because you have no other choice. I have no other way of saying this other than that really sucks. Let’s prove him wrong. Let’s change our lifestyles before things get awful. Now.

Here’s a little game you can play from American Public Media, to find out how sustainably you’re living. It’s not perfect - they never are! - but maybe it will help give you an indication of what areas to focus on as you work to live more sustainably. (My score was 1.1, for what it’s worth.)

What Does Sustainability Mean To Me?

I hope I don’t come across too strongly here, but it means everything to me. With big and small decisions in my life, I always try to think about sustainability. And a lot of this has to do with questioning myself before I make a decision, and working to find a perfect balance in life.

Sustainable Relationships. Without them, I am not as functional and effective. I need to be loved, I need to love, I need to have a shoulder to cry on, a pet to make a funny face at me, a friend to drag me to the farmer’s market when I just don’t want to go, groups of friends to help me relax and enjoy life, readers to push me harder and help me learn and grow, husband to support me in numerous ways. Sustainable family and work relationships, sustainable friendships, and most important for me, a sustainable marriage.

Sustainable Food. As most of you know, we have worked hard to grow a lot of our own food. Last year, it was somewhere around 75% of our total food. This year, we don’t have that giant garden so we’ve had to find local food at the farmer’s market and in grocery stores. It’s more difficult, sure, but doable. I go back and forth about whether local or organic is more sustainable, but I purchase local organic food whenever possible. Biodynamic methods are also sustainable. Here’s a good resource for more information.

Finally, I believe that the most sustainable food of all is a vegetarian diet composed mostly of organic fruits and vegetables grown from seed in the garden, supplemented with some milk and eggs from a couple of backyard animals. That is our goal as a family.

Sustainable Products. There are a lot of products in our lives, from cleaning products to dishes and kitchen supplies, to furniture and books and vehicles and appliances and … oh boy, the list goes on and on. It’s a lot to think about.

Essentially, I stated my mantra in an article last week: Don’t buy things that will hurt you. Don’t buy things that will hurt others. Don’t buy things that will hurt the planet. And don’t buy things that will set you back financially unless it helps you, others, or the planet. I have researched and researched to find products that are safe for us, safe for the environment, and safe for our budget. It’s not easy and it takes more time to find sustainable products, but it is worth it and it is necessary.

Sustainable Body. I exercise regularly, by walking to and from the grocery store, the library, and most everywhere else I need to go. Places that used to seem too far to walk now seem a normal walking distance. My phone has a pedometer on it, and so far in Seattle I have averaged 1.3 miles/day on foot (some days I don’t walk at all, while others I walk quite a lot). We are also lucky to have medical insurance through Matt’s work, so I have annual check-ups and keep in top maintenance health. I also take some supplemental vitamins and I eat three to four small, well-balanced meals per day. And I avoid putting toxins in my body, on my body, or around my body.

Sustainable City & Community. We researched long and hard about where we were going to move, once we decided Geyserville was not sustainable for us. If you are planning to move in the future, please research as we did! I feel very good about our choice - it is exactly the right (sustainable) place for this point in our lives. And now that we are here, we are working to support our local infrastructure, and help make our community more sustainable.

Sustainable Change. On a personal level, sustainable change is deliberate change made slowly but steadily over time. On a larger level, I’ve been studying how to create sustained change in our communities and in our society as a whole.

Sustainable Lifestyle. Our lifestyle encompasses all of these things and more. I have to enjoy my living space in order to be productive, and so that is a part of a sustainable life. A sustainable budget is a necessity. I have to breathe clean air, drink clean water. I am constantly aware of the importance of a sustainable planet, full of sustainable systems including sustainable agriculture and urban planning, so I support those every chance I get (even if I can only do that with Armchair Activism).

And in the midst of it all, it is important to me to sustain my sanity, have fun, and be happy.

I’m not perfect by any means. I’m still learning. I’m still taking new steps. I wish I made more of my own cleaning products, I wish I made clothing, I wish I rode my bike more, I wish I had a bigger garden, I wish we didn’t live in an apartment with white linoleum in the kitchen (!), I wish sometimes I wasn’t so tired that I throw a frozen pizza in the oven (organic but not local), I wish we could afford to put up solar panels or a windmill, and I wish we had a yard to keep a couple of ducks and chickens and goats. But I do the best I can, without becoming overwhelmed, and I’ve come a long way. Even when I look back at our lives just a year ago, that is clear.

What Does Sustainability Mean To You?

Do you think about this often? Is my definition too broad? What sorts of sustainable changes are you making in your lifestyle? If we all began living a sustainable lifestyle, would this solve our biggest problems? Could we change the state of the world?

To see what other bloggers are writing about sustainability, please visit the APLS Carnival on August 15th at Better Living.

Tags: Community-building, Eating Locally, local living, Redefining Normal, Simple Living, sustainable living

Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Safeway, Whole Foods, Macy’s, BJ’s, Sam’s Club, REI… They’re all racing to put up solar panels. Why are they racing? Well, of course there’s a very good financial incentive to do it now: energy costs are rising, and oh yeah, the deadline for a tax break is December 31st! Read more here.

Is it “Solar’s Time” for the rest of us? Well, installing solar isn’t cheap, and some even wonder if it’s a worthwhile endeavor due to its high initial cost, low efficiency (using approximately 40% of the energy input), and the fragility of the equipment (panels have to be cleaned regularly, and since the panels are fragile they often need to be replaced).

Having said that, if I could afford it, I would probably install solar panels or a windmill or a micro-hydro turbine simply because it is so far the best option to reduce a family’s carbon -and overall environmental- footprint. Unfortunately as of yet, there is not perfect green power:

Here in Seattle our electricity mainly comes from hydroelectric power, which is technically “green” power, but has all sorts of problems attached. Aside from violating treaties, the many Columbia River dams have decimated the salmon population and have significantly altered major ecosystems. Environmentalists and Native Americans fought hard to tear down some of Washington state’s 200 dams, but most are left standing.

Hydroelectric power generates around 10% of total US electricity.

In Geyserville, the geothermal plants - once upon a time a resort where the wealthy flocked to take steam baths - are now a mess of truly ugly piping and buildings spanning the one-beautiful hills. Interestingly, by opening the power plant, they increased the amount of seismic activity in the area - we felt them frequently. Plus apparently there was extreme controversy over the fresh water pumped from hundreds of miles away to help generate the power.

This year 103 new geothermal projects are underway in the US. However, geothermal still generates less than 1% of total US electricity.

Wind power also generates just 1% of total US electricity, though this number is much higher in other countries. In Germany, for instance, 40% of power comes from wind. All in all, wind is a very clean energy source, but it is not perfect. In the US, wind turbines kill approximately 70,000 birds per year. Fortunately this is a problem that could be mitigated somewhat by placing turbines outside of migration patterns; and studies have shown the larger turbines are not as likely to kill birds.

It looks like PG&E will be building floating wind turbines off the coast of Northern California, despite much controversy surrounding them. Offshore ocean turbines like these cause severe ocean noise that may cause serious harm to marine mammals such as porpoises, seals, and whales, by increasing their stress levels and decreasing their ability to communicate.

Other Options

There are a few new solar technologies in the works that sound promising:

• 80% Efficient Solar Panel That Works At Night (Ecogeek)
• Major Discovery: Simple, Inexpensive, Highly Efficient Solar (MIT News)
  

Next to our local composting facility, a new biogas generator will be creating power from the excess methane.

But ultimately, I don’t know the answer for the long-term. My instinct is that generating power as close to home as possible will allow the least amount of overall impact because you can control the potential damages that could be created. Certainly micro-power (micro-hydro, micro-solar, micro-wind) is spreading as a solution for remote villages all over the world - in the Dominican Republic I was able to see some ingenious and fairly cheap solutions. But I wonder if that’s really an option for a country as big and as consuming as the U.S.?

While home solar, wind, and carefully placed micro-hydro may not be perfect solutions (yet..?), they certainly look better from here. Unfortunately many of us cannot afford those options, or we don’t live in areas where they are possible.

So until we find that perfect solution for the rest of us, we have to buy into green power whenever we can:

• Pressure local, state, and national politicians to find good alternative forms of energy - don’t let them choose coal, natural gas, or other non-sustainable sources.
• Most local power companies offer green power for a very slightly higher cost - that extra $0.02 makes a huge difference to the environment, but probably doesn’t affect your budget too much.
• If you can, support research on alternative forms of energy.
• But most importantly, remember that conservation is an extremely powerful part of the solution!

What Do You Think?

Do you have solar panels, windmills, or micro-hydro turbines? Would you if you could? Any hopes for a long-term energy solution that reduces our environmental impact and carbon output, and is cheap to produce?

Tags: energy & climate, sustainable living