Sustainability Group - what's the purpose?

Recently, I've had second thoughts about starting and establishing a new sustainability group in Seattle - after realizing the amount of work that is involved. Also, I have noticed that when I share with people the idea of creating such a group, that many people do not get it. Some people probably think I have nothing better to do. Others think issues to do with sustainability is what I am most passionate about. And I suspect that others think I just don't know what other "better" things I could be doing with my time.

So in this post I hope to quickly explains where I am coming from, and why the idea to start another sustainability group.

First of all, I'd like to suggest that striving to make your and my lifestyle a sustainable one is about responsibility. If you don't understand this, then please read on. But let me tell you right now that having actions that promote sustainability is not what gives me pleasure or what I love to do in life. I love doing activities that are energy-intensive. For example, I love driving; always have. I love snowboarding, and the long drive that it takes to get to the mountain each time. I also enjoy jet-skiing and snowmobiling. These are very fun activities, but with the current technology we have (which is centered around the Internal Combustion Engine) make is it very improbable that we will be able do these things in generations to come. Now, I say that based on what premise???

I say that based on the "theory" that fossil fuels are finite. It is that simple. It is the "belief" or understanding of a particular process: that a gasoline car will not go up if the tank is empty of gasoline, and that gasoline comes from an oil field, and that an oil field gets empty after the oil is extracted, and that the number of oil fields that on planet earth that we can tap into to extract the oil is finite, that is, it gets used up and there's no more. If you can follow this much logic, then you understand that oil gets used up and then there's no more. So a lifestyle that is dependent on petroleum is not sustainable, which is to say that when there's no more oil those activities will come to an end. This includes everything that depends on petroleum, and petroleum is pretty much on everything around us - not just in the form of liquid fuels.

I'd like to suggest that one reason why people don't easily and readily understand this connection is because we have been living in a delusional society that pretends that we will forever have fossil fuels to burn. Of course this is not the case. And one thing that has contributed to that is language: the fact that oil companies claim they "produce" oil. But we humans - thanks to the great work of oil geologists - understand that no one can make petroleum. There's no formula for making petroleum. We have a grasp of what this formula is, but it takes millions of years and the right "cooking" conditions of the planet for dead matter to be converted to oil. In short, oil companies simply extract oil from underground, but they do not produce oil. Yet the term "oil production" subliminally tells us that there will always be oil, and as a result the way our fossil fuel based societies function and our lifestyles will never have to change. But we humans who are doing some thinking know that this is not the case.

So, once you understand this logic of resources being finite, which introduces the topic of unsustainability, a question inevitably arises. The question is "how much oil (in our case) do we have left?", which is another way of asking "for how much longer can we carry on our current lifestyle?"

Well, some people have already tried to come up with the answer to this question. Being that there's so much secrecy around the numbers that indicate the amount of oil reserves that each country has, it's virtually impossible to come up with an answer that is accurate. But I trust that we can come close. If economic activity continued to increase as well as the world oil consumption which has grown steadily at 2% per year, then we should have about 90 years left before petroleum completely ran out; give or take some years.

If I look at it this way, then my lifestyle of driving is irresponsible because if I have children and grandchildren, I am contributing to a world where in their lifetime there is no oil left. It is hard to imagine what that world will be like, but it will be a very different world.

I have written this just so people can understand that building and promoting a sustainability group is not what I like to do. It's not even in my comfort zone. But it is what I consider the responsible thing to do. I still love driving. But what future will I build for myself and future generations if my actions remain the same? What future will you build if you make no contributions to building a lifestyle that is sustainable.

If the earth's resources - and we're focusing on fossil fuels here - are finite, then we can use the analogy of a pie. The pie represents resources. With an ever-increasing world population and a pie that gets smaller by the day, you can start having an idea of what the future holds for humanity: more people competing for less pie, or fewer resources. This is not a pretty picture. But if we learn to live sustainably, then it can be. There's hope, but it lies in how much we can and are willing to adapt so that we do not rely on finite resources for our sustenance. How to achieve such lifestyle will be the focus of our sustainability group: in the form of discussions that will provide solutions, and actions to implement those solutions and make them part of our lives.

Lastly, I want to say that I am still open to the idea of new technologies that will allow us to have a particular standard of living. But I am taking no responsibility for inventing those technologies, and I don't trust that anyone else will. Notice that when these technologies for "free energy" are mentioned by someone, they are always referring to "someone else or company out there" coming up with such solution and not themselves. Because I don't believe that I can come up with or participate in inventing such solutions, I am choosing to promote actions that are sustainable that can be part of our lifestyle now and in the future.

Thank you for reading.

Building Sustainable Homes

Recently I had the great opportunity of meeting Ianto Evans who is the pioneer of cob house construction in the US.


He is also the author of the book The Hand-Sculpted House, which is an excellent book that can teach you the techniques to build a cob house. You can order this book directly from Cob Cottage Company, or you can get it through Amazon:

Being in the presence of Ianto Evans was awesome. His lifestyle represents the true definition of sustainability. The discussions we had were enlightening and thought-provoking. I recommend his workshop to anyone who is interested in sustainability.

If you are interested in what cob houses look like, you can see some of the photos I took here:

I can't emphasize how impressed I was with Ianto Evans and his wife Linda Smiley. His business, the Cob Cottage Company, organizes carpooling to make sure that every car that arrives for the workshop is full of people. Also, the cost of the workshop is proportional to the amount of fossil fuel you use to get there. So the cost of the workshop will be higher for you if you are flying fromt the Eastcoast than say, if you are driving from Seattle.

Ianto Evans is the real deal when it comes to sustainability. If you don't believe me, please check it out for yourself by taking one of his workshops. You can sign up here.

Building Sustainable Homes

Recently I had the great opportunity of meeting Ianto Evans who is the pioneer of cob house construction in the US.


He is also the author of the book The Hand-Sculpted House, which is an excellent book that can teach you the techniques to build a cob house. You can order this book directly from Cob Cottage Company, or you can get it through Amazon:

Being in the presence of Ianto Evans was awesome. His lifestyle represents the true definition of sustainability. The discussions we had were enlightening and thought-provoking. I recommend his workshop to anyone who is interested in sustainability.

If you are interested in what cob houses look like, you can see some of the photos I took here:

I can't emphasize how impressed I was with Ianto Evans and his wife Linda Smiley. His business, the Cob Cottage Company, organizes carpooling to make sure that every car that arrives for the workshop is full of people. Also, the cost of the workshop is proportional to the amount of fossil fuel you use to get there. So the cost of the workshop will be higher for you if you are flying fromt the Eastcoast than say, if you are driving from Seattle.

Ianto Evans is the real deal when it comes to sustainability. If you don't believe me, please check it out for yourself by taking one of his workshops. You can sign up here.

What is happening

This blog has had minor activitity despite the large amount of material that I could have posted here. So I wanted to do a recap of events and let people know what is coming in the future.

This blog started as a blog about electric vehicles. Then the Seattle P-I started featuring the blog on their site (and all posts went on that site for about 6 months). During that period I lost interest in saving the personal car, and got more educated on Peak Oil issues which made me interested in promoting mass transportation instead of electric cars.

These two are distinct: promoting electric cars is about keeping our current lifestyle (which is about exponential growth) whereas promoting mass transportation is about conservation and changing our lifestyle of "overconsumption".

My lack of interest in electric cars caused the Seattle P-I to cancel the Electric Vehicle Blog on their site. This one remained, but without the same enthusiasm. I have continued to research and study Peak Oil.

Recently I have decided to start a sustainability community in Seattle. So we're in the process of forming a group. More will be annnounced soon. If you have any interest in joining us, please contact me. And if you know of a good place where we can meet in the Seattle area, please let us know.

Regards,

- Ricardo Parker

What is happening

This blog has had minor activitity despite the large amount of material that I could have posted here. So I wanted to do a recap of events and let people know what is coming in the future.

This blog started as a blog about electric vehicles. Then the Seattle P-I started featuring the blog on their site (and all posts went on that site for about 6 months). During that period I lost interest in saving the personal car, and got more educated on Peak Oil issues which made me interested in promoting mass transportation instead of electric cars.

These two are distinct: promoting electric cars is about keeping our current lifestyle (which is about exponential growth) whereas promoting mass transportation is about conservation and changing our lifestyle of "overconsumption".

My lack of interest in electric cars caused the Seattle P-I to cancel the Electric Vehicle Blog on their site. This one remained, but without the same enthusiasm. I have continued to research and study Peak Oil.

Recently I have decided to start a sustainability community in Seattle. So we're in the process of forming a group. More will be annnounced soon. If you have any interest in joining us, please contact me. And if you know of a good place where we can meet in the Seattle area, please let us know.

Regards,

- Ricardo Parker

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute film that takes viewers on a provocative and eye-opening tour of the real costs of our consumer driven culture—from resource extraction to iPod incineration.

Annie Leonard, an activist who has spent the past 10 years traveling the globe fighting environmental threats, narrates the Story of Stuff, delivering a rapid-fire, often humorous and always engaging story about “all our stuff—where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.” Leonard examines the real costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal, and she isolates the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. The Story of Stuff examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of “planned obsolescence” and “perceived obsolescence” —and how these notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today.

Leonard’s inspiration for the film began as a personal musing over the question, “Where does all the stuff we buy come from, and where does it go when we throw it out?” She traveled the world in pursuit of the answer to this seemingly innocent question, and what she found along the way were some very guilty participants and their unfortunate victims.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute film that takes viewers on a provocative and eye-opening tour of the real costs of our consumer driven culture—from resource extraction to iPod incineration.

Annie Leonard, an activist who has spent the past 10 years traveling the globe fighting environmental threats, narrates the Story of Stuff, delivering a rapid-fire, often humorous and always engaging story about “all our stuff—where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.” Leonard examines the real costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal, and she isolates the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. The Story of Stuff examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of “planned obsolescence” and “perceived obsolescence” —and how these notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today.

Leonard’s inspiration for the film began as a personal musing over the question, “Where does all the stuff we buy come from, and where does it go when we throw it out?” She traveled the world in pursuit of the answer to this seemingly innocent question, and what she found along the way were some very guilty participants and their unfortunate victims.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/