Sunday, December 31, 2006
Monday, October 02, 2006
Cradle to Cradle
The inaugural West Coast Green Conference took place in San Francisco on 28th-30th September 2006. 3 days of educational sessions, meeting and greeting and an Exhibit Hall with booth loads of environmentally friendly products. I registered as an individual, but most people were either Architects, Designers or Builders. I think I might have been the only 'non-professional' attendee!
Green, organic, eco, environmental - all those words and more have been niggling away internally for a long time. Reminding me constantly that something needs to be done. You see I think it's patently obvious that the life cycle we have created for ourselves is hugely separated from the Earth we inhabit. We have lost respect for the Earth.
But we ARE Earth, that's what's so whacky about all this. We are doing it to ourselves. I believe we have managed to evolve ourselves away from the very source of our existence. We have become creatures of 'stuff' - the second car, the huge SUV, the kitchen utensils that will peel, chop, grate, grind, blend, toast. The flat screen TV, the 3 TV's in a single house. More and More and MORE. With less and less happiness. Less and less personal responsibility. Less and less community and less and less family.
I heard the phrase 'Cradle to Cradle' at the Conference. And it made so much sense to me. Basically big business has trained us to be a throw away society. If it's broken then don't fix it, don't re-use it, throw it away - buy a new one! Go head, be a sheep, follow the crowd blindly, line the pockets of the rich and wealthy. Does big business care about you? Sure, for as long as it can hood-wink you into thinking you need more 'stuff', and your old stuff should be replaced. With, of course, their latest version, newest colors, trendiest trend... for now.
With the Cradle to Cradle philosophy, yes create 'stuff'. But create environmentally friendly stuff. Re-use, fix and repair broken things or equipment. Make them continue to last. Produce quality long-lasting products! Our grandparents knew the value of quality, long-lasting products. And the value of maintaining and repairing them. In a Cradle to Cradle philosophy once something reaches it's end of life take it apart, re-use it and make it into something new. How smart is that? How Earth friendly is that? How resource conscious is that? How proudly would we be able to hand the Earth onto our children in a state they could actually enjoy and use without fear of chemical contamination or termination of resources? How much more ethically responsible and happier children would we be raising? We would be raising a generation that cared!!!
Think about this number 200,000,000,000 (200 billion).
What we create from the Earth and it's resources will eventually go back into the Earth. The TV's, the SUV's the peel, chop, grate, grind, blend and toast utensils. Apply that to every object in your house, then mutiply it by 200 million people. My house has probably 1,000 (conservatively) household and personal items. 1,000* 200 million = 200,000,000,000. Given our current life-style choices, that translates into 200 billion pieces of debris that will eventually go into landfill. And that's just today. What about when China and the other 3rd world developing countries come on-line? That's another 1 billion people who will be collecting 'stuff'.
If we could just manage to follow the Cradle to Cradle philosophy we would have an Earth to be proud of. Instead, we fight about whether or not there is global warming, who's to blame. The political manoeuvering is destroying our Earth.
Over time, reading books, thinking about eco-toursim, thinking about objects and their impact on our Earth and even begun gardening a very barren and bland concrete back yard to bring more Earth into my life. I am trying to make myself more Earth friendly. And for me Earth friendly means thinking about those every day objects and events in my life and trying to make them more 'Cradle to Cradle' rather than Cradle to Grave.
At first I thought what a lofty goal - give the Earth back in a useable state to our children. After all our current human nature is to buy, use, throw away-buy, use throw away-buy, use throw away. But it's not a lofty goal, it's a responsibility. And each and everyone of us has our piece of the responsibility pie. What are you doing with your piece?
I'm by no means a 'good' Earth citizen, but I'm making efforts. One of which is to educate myself about Green stuff. Hence I paid a whopping fee to go to the 3 days of a very professional conference where I was probably the only individual among bundles of Architects, Designers and Builders.
It was very gratifying to see that what I had believed inside for many years was in fact true. That people DO care about the Earth, and people in places of responsibility care. The Architects and the Builders - the people we trust to tell us 'how to' do this green stuff. The people who actually use the materials and create green homes in which we wish to live.
The first two days were filled with sessions that opened my eyes on what takes place in the designing and building process.
There are many, many systems and processes that go into building a single house. Not only that, there are teams of people working in the background that all have to understand the green goals for a building and implement them properly. As with anything, it's always possible for rogue individuals to say they are following the green goals but that cheat and use non-green in the building process. Educate yourself, be vigilant, ask questions, visit your building site regularly.
But I too have an ulterior motive. I'm learning about green building so that the cabinas and house I plan to build in Costa Rica will be Earth friendly, will be community conscious, will do as little damage to the surrounds and its peoples as is possible.
Costa Rica is an awesome place for many reasons. But my mileage is different to yours. I like knowing that 25% of Costa Rica's land is National Parks and preserves. I like the fact it has no army! I like the life-style that pays attention to the important things in life, family, community and friends.
Here's a thought. Imagine the US with no Army. Better still - imagine the whole world with no Army. A world where we finally get it. Where we finally realize the Earth doesn't belong to us, we belong to the Earth. No one man or Nation can 'own' land. We can allot it's use for the good of it's local social communities and sustaining life, but we can't own it. We are shepherds with a responsibility to return the Earth in the state we found it. Right now we are failing, we are not shepherding it, and we will be returning it in an unusable state to the next generation. Our children will not have the same use of the Earth as we did. We will be handing them a used-up, chemically altered and dangerous place to live.
If I can reduce my payload on the Earth, so can you. And one by one we can make a difference, we can hand down an Earth that is less depleted, less chemically altered and more capable of supporting our children. But only if we chose to make that difference. A one by one difference adds up to a whole lot of people - eventually damaging the bottom line of corporations to such an extent that it will be economically viable for them to 'care' about the Earth. To change their destructive use of resources and to give us what we want, a Clean Well Cared For Place to live.
Green, organic, eco, environmental - all those words and more have been niggling away internally for a long time. Reminding me constantly that something needs to be done. You see I think it's patently obvious that the life cycle we have created for ourselves is hugely separated from the Earth we inhabit. We have lost respect for the Earth.
But we ARE Earth, that's what's so whacky about all this. We are doing it to ourselves. I believe we have managed to evolve ourselves away from the very source of our existence. We have become creatures of 'stuff' - the second car, the huge SUV, the kitchen utensils that will peel, chop, grate, grind, blend, toast. The flat screen TV, the 3 TV's in a single house. More and More and MORE. With less and less happiness. Less and less personal responsibility. Less and less community and less and less family.
I heard the phrase 'Cradle to Cradle' at the Conference. And it made so much sense to me. Basically big business has trained us to be a throw away society. If it's broken then don't fix it, don't re-use it, throw it away - buy a new one! Go head, be a sheep, follow the crowd blindly, line the pockets of the rich and wealthy. Does big business care about you? Sure, for as long as it can hood-wink you into thinking you need more 'stuff', and your old stuff should be replaced. With, of course, their latest version, newest colors, trendiest trend... for now.
With the Cradle to Cradle philosophy, yes create 'stuff'. But create environmentally friendly stuff. Re-use, fix and repair broken things or equipment. Make them continue to last. Produce quality long-lasting products! Our grandparents knew the value of quality, long-lasting products. And the value of maintaining and repairing them. In a Cradle to Cradle philosophy once something reaches it's end of life take it apart, re-use it and make it into something new. How smart is that? How Earth friendly is that? How resource conscious is that? How proudly would we be able to hand the Earth onto our children in a state they could actually enjoy and use without fear of chemical contamination or termination of resources? How much more ethically responsible and happier children would we be raising? We would be raising a generation that cared!!!
Think about this number 200,000,000,000 (200 billion).
What we create from the Earth and it's resources will eventually go back into the Earth. The TV's, the SUV's the peel, chop, grate, grind, blend and toast utensils. Apply that to every object in your house, then mutiply it by 200 million people. My house has probably 1,000 (conservatively) household and personal items. 1,000* 200 million = 200,000,000,000. Given our current life-style choices, that translates into 200 billion pieces of debris that will eventually go into landfill. And that's just today. What about when China and the other 3rd world developing countries come on-line? That's another 1 billion people who will be collecting 'stuff'.
If we could just manage to follow the Cradle to Cradle philosophy we would have an Earth to be proud of. Instead, we fight about whether or not there is global warming, who's to blame. The political manoeuvering is destroying our Earth.
Over time, reading books, thinking about eco-toursim, thinking about objects and their impact on our Earth and even begun gardening a very barren and bland concrete back yard to bring more Earth into my life. I am trying to make myself more Earth friendly. And for me Earth friendly means thinking about those every day objects and events in my life and trying to make them more 'Cradle to Cradle' rather than Cradle to Grave.
At first I thought what a lofty goal - give the Earth back in a useable state to our children. After all our current human nature is to buy, use, throw away-buy, use throw away-buy, use throw away. But it's not a lofty goal, it's a responsibility. And each and everyone of us has our piece of the responsibility pie. What are you doing with your piece?
I'm by no means a 'good' Earth citizen, but I'm making efforts. One of which is to educate myself about Green stuff. Hence I paid a whopping fee to go to the 3 days of a very professional conference where I was probably the only individual among bundles of Architects, Designers and Builders.
It was very gratifying to see that what I had believed inside for many years was in fact true. That people DO care about the Earth, and people in places of responsibility care. The Architects and the Builders - the people we trust to tell us 'how to' do this green stuff. The people who actually use the materials and create green homes in which we wish to live.
The first two days were filled with sessions that opened my eyes on what takes place in the designing and building process.
There are many, many systems and processes that go into building a single house. Not only that, there are teams of people working in the background that all have to understand the green goals for a building and implement them properly. As with anything, it's always possible for rogue individuals to say they are following the green goals but that cheat and use non-green in the building process. Educate yourself, be vigilant, ask questions, visit your building site regularly.
But I too have an ulterior motive. I'm learning about green building so that the cabinas and house I plan to build in Costa Rica will be Earth friendly, will be community conscious, will do as little damage to the surrounds and its peoples as is possible.
Costa Rica is an awesome place for many reasons. But my mileage is different to yours. I like knowing that 25% of Costa Rica's land is National Parks and preserves. I like the fact it has no army! I like the life-style that pays attention to the important things in life, family, community and friends.
Here's a thought. Imagine the US with no Army. Better still - imagine the whole world with no Army. A world where we finally get it. Where we finally realize the Earth doesn't belong to us, we belong to the Earth. No one man or Nation can 'own' land. We can allot it's use for the good of it's local social communities and sustaining life, but we can't own it. We are shepherds with a responsibility to return the Earth in the state we found it. Right now we are failing, we are not shepherding it, and we will be returning it in an unusable state to the next generation. Our children will not have the same use of the Earth as we did. We will be handing them a used-up, chemically altered and dangerous place to live.
If I can reduce my payload on the Earth, so can you. And one by one we can make a difference, we can hand down an Earth that is less depleted, less chemically altered and more capable of supporting our children. But only if we chose to make that difference. A one by one difference adds up to a whole lot of people - eventually damaging the bottom line of corporations to such an extent that it will be economically viable for them to 'care' about the Earth. To change their destructive use of resources and to give us what we want, a Clean Well Cared For Place to live.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
It takes 20 minutes to buy Vitamin C
Monday 21st March 2006
Breakfast at Ricky’s, yum. Banana, dragon fruit, pineapple smothered in home made yoghurt. Yum, the best in the world.
I hadn’t heard from the Novel Resident apartments all day so I called late in the afternoon and they had a place for us. Cool.
Earlier in the afternoon I went to Watsons to get a certain kind of Vitamin C and Calcium combination dissolving tablet I love. One pack is 89 baht, the three pack is 216 baht. Taking the 3 pack version to the cashier a lady, who was doing inventory checking, called to the guy who I guess did the money thing. He took the 3 pack and rung up 216 baht 3 times!!! I told him it was incorrect, he asked the inventory lady to go check the price. She asked me to go with her. I showed her the 1 pack for 89 baht and the 3 pack for 216. We returned to the cashier. He didn’t understand what she was saying. She went back to the shelf and took the tag for the price off the counter. Finally he understood. As he tried and failed to negate the 3 times price, his supervisor came over. She negated it and I waited for her to ring up the 3 pack for 216 baht once. And waited. And waited. He’d failed to tell her I still wanted the 3 pack. She continued to serve the line behind me, so I interrupted her gently and finally got my 3 pack!!! I’m definitely back in Thailand. I wonder what will happen when I go to buy several 3 packs to take back to the US?
Breakfast at Ricky’s, yum. Banana, dragon fruit, pineapple smothered in home made yoghurt. Yum, the best in the world.
I hadn’t heard from the Novel Resident apartments all day so I called late in the afternoon and they had a place for us. Cool.
Earlier in the afternoon I went to Watsons to get a certain kind of Vitamin C and Calcium combination dissolving tablet I love. One pack is 89 baht, the three pack is 216 baht. Taking the 3 pack version to the cashier a lady, who was doing inventory checking, called to the guy who I guess did the money thing. He took the 3 pack and rung up 216 baht 3 times!!! I told him it was incorrect, he asked the inventory lady to go check the price. She asked me to go with her. I showed her the 1 pack for 89 baht and the 3 pack for 216. We returned to the cashier. He didn’t understand what she was saying. She went back to the shelf and took the tag for the price off the counter. Finally he understood. As he tried and failed to negate the 3 times price, his supervisor came over. She negated it and I waited for her to ring up the 3 pack for 216 baht once. And waited. And waited. He’d failed to tell her I still wanted the 3 pack. She continued to serve the line behind me, so I interrupted her gently and finally got my 3 pack!!! I’m definitely back in Thailand. I wonder what will happen when I go to buy several 3 packs to take back to the US?
2.5 months in San Francisco
From December 25th to March 16th our life revolved around San Francisco. The weather was a huge change from living in warm Thailand. I wrapped myself in layer after layer and felt I looked like the Michelin Man. I'm sure I didn't look quite as bad as that but it's just I wasn't used to wearing much clothes at all, and to put 4 layers on to keep warm made me feel bloated. And the shoes. As I'd lived in flip flops/thongs for at least a year they felt like alien objects to my feet. I found myself tripping myself up on a fairly regular basis. Luckily I didn't trip too badly, mostly I managed to catch myself before either falling or making a complete idiot of myself.
The best part of being back in San Francisco was seeing and being with friends. It's great to be in email communication with everyone and it is absolutely a life saver to be able to reach out that way, but nothing can replace the presence of a warm body. Physical gesticulations, characteristics associated with each individual, I miss that part of interacting. It's just not possible to do it in email, even with emoticons or exclamations/smileys.
Early in January our Shanti sisters group set out for 3 days of getting away from it all in Carmel. It was a very special time. The 4 of us had last been together in Thailand at the beginning of the NATR days. To reunite in San Francisco a year later was something none of us ever thought of, or would have believed possible. Together we walked the beaches, visited the surrounding countryside, had picnic's on high cliffs while drinking Nicole's delicious wines. Stayed by the fire in the evenings cooking Thai food and reading Tarot cards. It was a cocoon time for us all. Shortly afterwards Lucy would head back to Botswana, Bonnie and Nicole would head back to their work and I'd head back to start classes at the Small Business Administration organization in San Francisco.
In February I happily took a day out with Scotia in Rockridge and we headed to the spa for a unique birthday celebration together. Her birthday is the day after mine. We treated ourselves to a massage and a body scrub. It felt so delicious. Afterwards we enjoyed lunch on the verenda looking out towards the city of San Francisco. What a great view.
Most days I was pretty busy attending classes. Learning how to write a Business Plan, how to understand company financials, how to prepare Financial Cash Flow projections, about marketing, sales, running a small business. I never thought I'd understand Schedule C taxes, but now I do! The goal in the end is to be able to run a small business. The classes showed me where my weak points are/were. I still have so much to learn.
I met a lot of people at class, some will stay in my world as they too are interested in what will happen in Costa Rica. My mentor will be watching over my shoulder as we progress through this wild idea. But the eco-resort in Costa Rica is a good while out yet. With building not possible in the wet season we have to wait until at least November. In the mean time I'm hoping to visit the area in May or June to suss out competition, what it will take to get an architect, talk with other people who've built there.
Leaving San Francisco on 16th March was easy and hard. I'll miss my friends once again, yet I come to Bangkok and have many friends here too. How lucky am I?
The best part of being back in San Francisco was seeing and being with friends. It's great to be in email communication with everyone and it is absolutely a life saver to be able to reach out that way, but nothing can replace the presence of a warm body. Physical gesticulations, characteristics associated with each individual, I miss that part of interacting. It's just not possible to do it in email, even with emoticons or exclamations/smileys.
Early in January our Shanti sisters group set out for 3 days of getting away from it all in Carmel. It was a very special time. The 4 of us had last been together in Thailand at the beginning of the NATR days. To reunite in San Francisco a year later was something none of us ever thought of, or would have believed possible. Together we walked the beaches, visited the surrounding countryside, had picnic's on high cliffs while drinking Nicole's delicious wines. Stayed by the fire in the evenings cooking Thai food and reading Tarot cards. It was a cocoon time for us all. Shortly afterwards Lucy would head back to Botswana, Bonnie and Nicole would head back to their work and I'd head back to start classes at the Small Business Administration organization in San Francisco.
In February I happily took a day out with Scotia in Rockridge and we headed to the spa for a unique birthday celebration together. Her birthday is the day after mine. We treated ourselves to a massage and a body scrub. It felt so delicious. Afterwards we enjoyed lunch on the verenda looking out towards the city of San Francisco. What a great view.
Most days I was pretty busy attending classes. Learning how to write a Business Plan, how to understand company financials, how to prepare Financial Cash Flow projections, about marketing, sales, running a small business. I never thought I'd understand Schedule C taxes, but now I do! The goal in the end is to be able to run a small business. The classes showed me where my weak points are/were. I still have so much to learn.
I met a lot of people at class, some will stay in my world as they too are interested in what will happen in Costa Rica. My mentor will be watching over my shoulder as we progress through this wild idea. But the eco-resort in Costa Rica is a good while out yet. With building not possible in the wet season we have to wait until at least November. In the mean time I'm hoping to visit the area in May or June to suss out competition, what it will take to get an architect, talk with other people who've built there.
Leaving San Francisco on 16th March was easy and hard. I'll miss my friends once again, yet I come to Bangkok and have many friends here too. How lucky am I?
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