Seeking Sustainability: Part One

Humans have amazing powers of conception, and, collectively speaking, no vision. There are individuals throughout history that have shown to be visionary, but as a group our vision is poor, at best.

Perhaps our collective consciousness needs glasses. If we had glasses, perhaps we could see that the modern civilization we've built is based on a finite resources and is therefore unsustainable.

Since that probably won't happen, building a sustainable model will be left up to individuals to design. With that in mind, let's get started, shall we?

1. Food
   

   The first thing -- one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure -- is food production. Modern society has become so far removed from it's food source that we have almost no idea how to produce our own food, were that to be required. We need to remodel our infrastructure -- and our diet -- so that we're producing food regionally, and more importantly, locally. From fruits and vegetables, to meat, eggs and dairy, to grains and legumes, the lot of it needs to be grown close to home, rather than on another continent. The benefits here are multi-fold. Food grown regionally will be more fresh, and you'll likely know the people who grew it. You'll know what went into it, and accountability would return to food production.
   
   You can start that move right at home simply by starting a garden and getting come chickens. If you don't have a place at home, see if there's a community garden close, or better yet, organize one. Re-taking control of our food supply is Step One.
   

2. Energy - Electricity and Fossil Fuels
   

   Energy consumption is the 800lb Gorilla no one wants to talk about. That would be because the core of modern industrial civilization is built around the concept of limitless, cheap energy. This was a horrible idea completely lacking in vision. The laws of Thermodynamics posit quite clearly that there is no such thing as a closed system. That is: You have to put energy (fuel) into a system, and that system, no matter how efficient, will lose energy in the form of entropy. This applies to suns, stars and planets, but applies equally to industrialized society. Hence, building a system around the idea of limitless, cheap, easily-refinable energy is a flawed premise of the highest order. It's also the by-product of allowing people who own the fuel source to create the infrastructure it powers. The carbon footprint of the average home in the US is enormous when compared to the rest of the world. Worse yet are commercial and industrial consumption rates. To date, we consume vast amounts of power gleefully, willingly, wantonly and much to our own detriment. As energy prices increase, so does the stress on those living within the infrastructure. A model built on the idea of infinite resources existing within a system of limited resources will invariably exhaust the resources in the system. This is a simple Law of Physics, or, more precisely, thermodynamics.
   
   We need to rethink everything in this regard. For example: While the 'grid' -- the patchwork of cables, towers, wires, inverters, capacitors and transformers that runs all over everywhere -- makes a nice idea on paper (and generates a very nice revenue stream for privately-owned utilities) it doesn't make sense on a practical level. Like food, we've become far removed from our own energy production. It has become abstracted to a socket on the wall or a light switch, for most. When you're in charge of your own energy, suddenly you become very aware of any given item that consumes it, what it consumes, and what the most efficient way to provide the energy required for that task would be. When I moved off the grid 8 months ago, the first thing I realized is that I was going to have to re-tool my energy usage patterns.
   
   I think by far the biggest culprit would be the compressors used by refrigerators and air conditioners, etc. Any time you attempt to change the equilibrium of a system (remove heat from it or add heat to it) you're talking about a significant about off wattage and amperage. There are other ways to cool things down without compressors. They are, perhaps, not as neat and tidy, but they take considerably less energy. If energy is a sparce commodity, then neat and tidy take a back seat. Two ways you can keep things cool:
   

   1. Hydro-cooling:
      

      Water. Using a mister, or just allowing a high pressure jet to spray into the air will create a cool area during hot days. All you need for this is a well and a pump, which uses minimal to no electricity, depending on your pump.
      

   2. Geo-thermal
      

      Using earth to maintain a consistent temperature year round, rather than trying to constantly heat or cool an inefficient structure is far more economical and requires no energy input at all.
      

   The problem with these solutions, again, is that they're not as neat and tidy as modern US cultural norms demand.
   

Ultimately, then, a sustainability shift is going to require a change in cultural norms first and foremost. Re-thinking how and where our food is grown, and how and where our energy comes from (and what it's used for) are two good places to begin.

Begin.