Grandpa, Obie Crockett, lived a sustainable lifestyle. His carbon footprint was not very large, in spite of his having an old gas car. I’m sure it belched out plenty of those ozone killers that will end up getting us all fried. He didn’t start out with that car. It was something he bought after he had been a working man for awhile.
Originally, Grandpa came out to Arizona after he mustered out of the army back in 1919. He didn’t have a car then. He had a horse and a wagon. In that era, the horse did more damage, according to those climate change con artists, um, experts, by pooping along the road.
I wonder, whatever happed to that horse? Grandpa never said.
Grandpa didn’t have a cell phone either. Nor did he stop to make calls at any gas stations or stores from a pay phone. He wrote cards and letters to his family and friends.
There’s a concept, eh? Writing a letter, sticking it in an envelope, and mailing it. It won’t get there for a few days, but eventually, one’s family learns about one’s whereabouts.
Writing a letter has a very low carbon print. It’s a sustainable way to keep the environment clean. No batteries, or charging station, needed.
I thought about my grandparents as I mulled over the word, sustainable. The word is an adjective, that means, to be maintained at a certain level. For example, if you have a swimming pool, with a leak, until that leak is fixed, the pool’s water level is not sustainable.
Sustain, the verb, means to strengthen or support, physically or mentally. An example would be, how long can you sustain a plank?
People like using that word. It signals that they are green. Meaning, they would buy a Tesla if they could afford it.
A Tesla, or any EV for that matter, will not fix the Earth, and its climate change issues. Filling up the deserts with huge, ugly windmills, the “renewables” will not fix the climate. Mining the Earth for the chemicals needed for the batteries, will not fix the climate. Thousands of acres of solar panels will not fix the climate.
What will fix the climate? Grandpa will. And Grandma. They didn’t use batterie powered anything. Except for the starter on their car.
Have you thought about the batteries we use? Phones, laptops, cameras, all rechargeable, all need electricity for their recharging. Eventually, those batteries will die. New batteries will then have to be inserted. The old one’s get to be buried somewhere.
Go ahead, ask the question? How many dead batteries does it take to fill up the Earth? How many dead windmills? Have we traded polluting the sky with polluting the dirt?
Without any battery stuff, Grandpa made it through life. He’s not alone. Billions of people made it through life without constantly looking at a phone, or stopping to recharge their vehicle. Recharging for those billions meant taking a nap. Indeed, maybe it’s time to reassess our modern lifestyle?
Have you tried taking naps?
Isn’t that what climate change promoters want us to do? Think about it. Living a more sustainable lifestyle is so much, well, cheaper than buying a Tesla and looking for a charging station. And waiting for the charge to happen, etc.
Of course you could write a letter home whilst you are waiting for that charge. In fact, you could write several letters, and cards, in those two hours it takes for your car to have enough power to get back on the road. Indeed, we can give letter writing a Renaissance. A rebirth. Let’s make that item number one of a list I will present to you on how to lower your carbon footprint. These are all tried and true methods. They have sustained life on this planet for thousands of years. Including your grandparents as well.
Here we go…
Communications. Learn to write a letter. People love receiving letters, and they are way better than texts. Handwritten letters allow one to have time to think, to rephrase, to decide what to say, instead of letting the fingers fly over a keyboard to write something they can regret 5 seconds later. So instead of taking an hour to text back and forth, take an hour to gather your thought to write it down, and send it. People cherish letters. I have yet to hear anyone say they cherish someone’s texts.
Transportation. Try walking more. Anything under 5 miles can be walked. As Maureen O’Hara said in the film, The Quiet Man, five miles is a good stretch of the legs. Grandma never learned to drive, so she walked places. Grandma was not overweight. More walking means less obese people. So don’t drive to the gym. Walk. Or ride a bike. That takes care of your cardio, which means less time spent in the gym.
Live with others. No more depressed, lonely people! Right now, 30% of Americans, mostly city dwellers, are single. Some have roommates, most do not. Some cities are bringing back the boarding house, which is an excellent idea. The old idea of boarding houses for females, or males only, is also a good idea. This means less housing is needed overall. And there will be less mental illness. Less homeless.
Move out of the cities. I encourage businesses, of more than 50 employees, to get out of town. Most cities don’t want manufacturing in their backyard anyway. So if you make stuff, get out! If you are someone who can do their work in the home, why live in the big city? There are small cities that have everything one needs. Many prepper types have moved out. They grow their own food, have livestock, and so forth. One doesn’t have to go that far, but reducing the city sizes is reducing the carbon. Too much asphalt means hotter cities.
Grow some of your own food. If you have a yard, put in a fruit tree or two. Lettuce and strawberry patches don’t take up a huge amount of space. You can also grow tomatoes in pots. Indeed, most of those veggies you eat, you can grow. Go to a butcher for your animal protein. If you can keep chickens, do so. Bring as much of the country life into the city as possible. If folks give you an issue, just say it’s a green thing.
Form a co-op of neighbors to bulk-buy foods. Instead of five families running to the store every week, get together with others so that only one takes the drive, to purchase for everyone. Instead of five freezers in five houses, one of the co-op members can host a large freezer. It can be a side gig for someone; renting out space in a freezer.
Wear, and use, natural fibers. Which means, stop buying cheap clothes. Cotton, hemp, linen, wools, all are recyclable. Like anything natural, when thrown out, they will decompose, ashes to ashes like. Polyester, nylon and acrylic are plastic. DO NOT BUY. Rayon, whilst made from natural sources, has some nasty processing issues. The more expensive rayon, lyocell, is made from a much cleaner process, but is too expensive for that average consumer, who wants to fill up the closet with clothes. People, you must learn to do more with less. Plastic is plastic, whether it is a shopping bag, or a shirt on your back. Whilst we are at it, what is your reusable shopping bag made of?
Trains and sailing ships are the best way to travel long distances. Sure, they take more time, but those modes of travel turn the trip into an adventure as soon as you leave the station, or dock. Think like Grandma on this one. Dress up, be a bit formal, but witty. Who knows? Perhaps a lady vanishes from the train, and you run into Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes. See what I mean? You will have time to get acquainted with your fellow travelers. Especially aboard a ship.
Cook your own meals. One of my favorite TV shows is a witty cop show, titled, Magellan. It’s a French show. One of the things I noticed is that there are rarely any fat people involved in the murders. (Yes I know I’m not supposed to use the word, fat. But overweight? Obese? Means the same thing.) Magellan himself, a middle aged gent, is a bit plump, but everyone around him is slim and trim, or plump because they too, are middled aged. No one eats processed food in the Magellan household. Much of the business outside of solving the crime, is about food. And wine. And love. Hey, it’s a French show! Generally speaking, the French shows I watch depict a culture of fit people. But I love Magellan because of its emphasis on good food. All that to say, learn to cook. Grandma always cooked meals.
Speaking of wine, yes, you can find organic wines, beers, gins and vodka. It’s not about being snobbish, it’s about buying quality. The vineyards I buy from are small companies that control their product. Central and Northern California have many such vintners. New Jersey also has small wineries that pay attention to their quality, not quantity. And those wonderful brewers of fine beer, are everywhere. You don’t need the big conglomerate’s beers with their tin cans, and awful marketing schemes. Plus, many of these brewers are local.
Number ten leads to eleven because buying local in anything, is about buying from smaller manufacturers. Like everyone did back in Grandpa’s day.
Right, these suggestions on sustainable living, are not easy to adopt. Living like Obie and Anna is like visiting a strange country, which the past is. On the other hand, as I researched for the class I teach on the history of clothing, I found out there are hunter-gatherers out there, once upon a time city dwellers, who truly reduced their carbon footprint by giving it all up. Now that is radical, this going back to a past that is thousands of year old. But I like the idea.
Once again, life on this Earth proves to be wondrously fascinating. Now, I have to find some of those modern, hunter-gatherers
.
1. Home postal delivery is efficient in densely populated areas. In rural areas, it is grossly inefficient for the most part. Definitely far LESS efficient than communicating via cell phone. Yes, the act of writing letters is efficient. Transporting them is far less efficient than sending bytes of data via radio waves. I live in a spread out rural, offgrid, neighborhood. Terrain dictates that no one is driving faster than about 20mph. If I had to physically take messages every time I needed to talk to a neighbor, it would get real unworkable real fast, even with the ability to send a kid on an atv with the message. Coms up here are generally via text, where there is cell service or satellite internet on both ends, walkie talkie or send a kid where there is not.
(I have both texts and emails that I cherish)
6. Good idea, in general. There are plenty of companies willing to supply such co-ops. Azure Standard is the one we use. I facilitate our neighborhood's order, and we cooperate on meeting the truck and bringing stuff back. For us, most shopping is 75 miles, which takes 2 hours. There is NO "run to the store". Being willing to grab something from a store for your neighbor, pick up someone's mail, etc, is also huge. It reduces trips, makes everyone's life easier, and builds community.
8. Trains and ships are the best way to transport cargo long distances. For passenger transit, they are only efficient if schedules are sufficiently convenient and passengers within walking distance. If I have to drive 50 miles, take a train 100 miles, and then have someone pick me up at the other end, trains get real inefficient real fast. When it comes to transporting people quickly over long distance, trains require much more infrastructure than planes, and that infrastructure must be impeccably maintained, every mile of it. Passenger rail only approaches being self supporting where population densities are very high.