Globally Green Living

Well what better day than Inauguration Day to talk about how our new President feels about environmental issues..

In his inauguration speech this afternoon he mentioned:

* Not depending on energy sources that make our enemies stronger
* Utilizing natural energy sources like solar energy

Here are more specific issues he says he supports… (more…)

The Dervaes family has shown what a difference one family can make on the environment with their urban homestead.

Their path to sustainability and self sufficiency did not involve leaving the city and it has expanded to become an enormous organic garden in the middle of Pasadena California.

Jules Dervaes was turned off with genetically modified organisms in food and his father was a gardener so he already had the skills to grow his own produce.

Six Tons of Food on One Fifth of An Acre Homestead

The garden expanded to growing more than 400 different plants including fruit and vegetables on one fifth of an acre. They get 75% or more of their food from their own garden in the summer so they are able to live off their land.

The urban homestead has thrived and become such a successful business that in the last year, they have managed to produce 6 tons of food and the goal for this year is 8 tons. Customers include gourmet chefs, caterers and individuals.

Chickens provide the Dervaes family with fresh eggs and they also have ducks and a couple of pet goats that help supply fertilizer for the garden.

Off the Grid

Not content to simply grow organic food they decided to go off the grid and installed solar panels so they would not be dependent on mechanical electricity. Their Chevy was converted to run on biodiesel that they make from recycled vegetable oil. The fuel only costs them 70 cents a gallon.

It took some courage and a lot of work and faith to take on this unusual revolution for an urban homestead. The Path to Freedom website offers encouragement, inspiration and advice for others who are also striving for a self sufficient lifestyle.

Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx, talks about creating green jobs and improving the environment in this inspiring presentation at TED in 2006.

She’s an activist for environmental justice and breaks it down for those who don’t know what that means. “No community should be saddled with more environmental burdens and less environmental benefits than any other.”

The top polluting countries in the world have gotten together to see what they can do to address climate change. The meeting was called by the U.S., in particular by President Bush who, a few years ago, was saying that there is no global warming or effect on climate, for that matter.

Now, after Katrina, you’d better not even utter the idea that global warming is a hoax. Although, it seems that some people also take it to the other extreme, where everything you do causes global warming, but let’s move on.

To fight climate change, the U.S. has “aspirational” goals. What does that mean exactly? Because I aspire to win the lottery but since I don’t play, I don’t see it ever happening. Is that it? Are good intentions sufficient to say you’re trying to make a change?

Let’s get real people. We live in a wealthy country! If the effects of climate change are such that natural disaster will be more likely to occur then the same natural disaster in a rich country vs. a poor country will cause a greater harm in the rich country. The rich country has more infrastructure, is more integrated, contains on average more educated people, and people on average have more assets. Thus, the more you have the more you can lose. That’s what Hurricane Katrina taught us. How long is it going to take for us to learn its lesson and fix our problems?

Or, as Alan Greenspan says, are we just too dumb to learn it the first time around? Do more people have to die and does more destruction have to happen before we do something about it? How long until we adapt and how much is our adaptation going to cost in unproductive activities?