SMOG . . . cough . . .cough

Ahh, Today I must smog my car. What a wonderful word Smog is. Not quite FOG, not quite SMOKE, but SMOG. Isn't it a nice reminder of the unintended consequences of getting from point A to point B. Auto companies are definitely striving to increase their competitive advantage by lowering their emissions. Just look at Toyota's goal of increasing 40% of it's Hybrid sales for 2007 (courtesy of Treehugger.com).

Drive around town though and look at all those cars. If we all buy Hybrids what happens to all the SUV's, Datsun's, and Chargers? Crushed? Stripped? Well . . . Peak Oil News and Message Boards has your answer with a 101 uses for a dead car. While "Use as prop in a theater production called 'road warrior,'" sounds interesting and fun, perhaps the design of the internals can actually be useful in our other energy needs:

"The transmission and driveshaft might be of use in a water powered, makeshift machine shop. The possibilities for using engine parts are probably endless if a person is creative." -BastardSquad

With oil getting closer and closer to $10/ gallon. Cough. And with Biofuels not providing the answer we are looking for. At what point does taking the bus sound attractive? National gas averages

For all those people that want to support their current lifestyle of driving down to the shopping center and loading up for their weekend on the powerboat. You would think that at some point those consumers would want to concentrate on saving our fuel for trucking durable goods. But I think that awareness will come only when they experience the actual scarcity.

I think biking down the freeway sound fun, but thats just me.

Permaculture Tour- What is it?

On Saturday I went on a Permaculture tour in Point Reyes and Bolinas. It was one of the most beautiful places I have every been.

I have heard a lot of talk about permaculture recently and when an email came to me from Daily Acts, featuring a sustainability tour of permaculture sites I jumped on it. For $30 We had some of the greatest examples show and explained to us.

So what is permaculture? Being a word dissector, we have perm which links to perm-anent. From Dictionary.com:
Permanent: Intended to exist or function for a long, indefinite period without regard to unforeseeable conditions.
Then we have culture. Dictionary.com gives this definition:
Culture: Development or improvement of the mind by education or training.

Essentially we know permaculture as effective gardening. But most gardens create a lot of waste and energy loss because of poor design. It is about asking questions and closing loops. For example our guide gave the example of how when they first started out they decided to plant strawberries (because they liked them; an important factor to consider if your a beginning gardener, and I most definitely am!). They noticed bugs eating the strawberries, so they asked how do we get rid of the strawberries? Instead of going with a toxic chemical they chose ducks! Then they had to get the ducks to stay on their property so they asked that question and decided to build a pond. Then they had a lot of top soil (precious top soil! . . .because), so they decided to build a cob office hut. It is beautiful.

Nature is so elegant and complex. Permaculture is playing in nature. It is supporting your livelihood by producing abundant food. It is creating a living fence that supplies you with food to eat, trade or sell, instead of cutting down trees to make a dead one. It is about collecting chicken poop on cardboard and using it as a mulch that blocks weeds. It is about learning and problem solving.

Our guide described permaculture as creating a human habitat.

I rent, but I am allowed to plant a garden in my shared backyard. I don't really have the cash to start a garden and then leave in a couple years, but I think I'll take action and do it anyways!

I think I will plant some strawberries.

Regenerative Design Institute

Drink up

Plastic Water Bottles-

Plastic water bottles are a major energy sink and resource killer. Read more how here. Its deceiving because we are led to think that they are RE-cycled, but in reality they are DOWN-cycled as the material looses strength, not to mention the energy it takes to transport, process the material.

Fortunately, there is an easy switch. I bought a tap filter from PUR which will save me money (see money saving charts). Next I choose a Klean Kanteen as my carrying source. But there are lots of different stylish aluminum bottles. Just check out Sigg bottles!

From Social Justice to Environmental Sustainability

I started my education as an advocate for social justice. My education and experiences caused me to want to help people live happy healthier lives through recognizing and embracing opportunity. My path led me to the Green MBA at Dominican University of California. Soon I was surrounded by individuals who shared unique experiences and points of view, both from the social justice AND environmental framework.

I am beginning to see where we are going as a society and as an ecological organism. What I see demands a new paradigm. I have developed one part to my paradigm (social- seeing every human as an equally equipped valuable person), but I have been lagging in my environmental modeling.

So I am on a journey to change my paradigm like most people will eventually have to. This blog is a shared vision of my thoughts, views, and expanding choices. Created with, "Faith that I will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties while at the same time confronting the brutal facts of my current reality, whatever they might be" -Good to Great by Jim Collins (2004)