Cob: (cob) SEVEN-PLUS WONDERS OF SUSTAINABILITY

[crtaylor]

Charmaine says: This was so great, thought I'd share it with the
lists...came from a Y2K info email I receive.  Think of your own favorite
sustainable thing, and why. (mine is the cool box, great for a north wall)
_______________

SEVEN-PLUS WONDERS OF SUSTAINABILITY

by (Donella H. Meadows is an adjunct professor of environmental studies at
Dartmouth College and director of the Sustainability Institute, a
think/do tank that promotes sustainable systems.)
_______

A couple of years ago, while I was doing something else, I heard
snatches of a radio program in which Alan Durning, the director of
Seattle's Northwest Environment Watch, talked about the "Seven
Sustainable Wonders of the World."

Clever concept, I thought, but afterward I could only remember three of
his wonders:

The bicycle -- the most energy-efficient form of transport ever devised.
It doesn't emit pollution, it runs on renewable energy, it makes its
user healthier, it's easy to repair, it requires little in the way of
pavement or parking lot, and 80 percent of the world's people can afford
one.  (Only 10 percent of the world's people can afford a car.)

The clothesline -- even more affordable than the bicycle, runs on solar
energy, no wires, no electricity, no pollution, and your clothes come
out smelling sweet.

The ceiling fan -- the air conditioner of the tropical world, which I
fondly remember turning slowly and romantically in rooms all over India.
A fan makes a space feel 9 degrees F. cooler than it really is.  A
typical ceiling fan draws no more than 75 watts, about as much as a
single incandescent light bulb, only one-tenth as much as an air
conditioner.  And it doesn't make the air stale and clammy, the way air
conditioners do.

Now what were those other four Sustainable Wonders Alan came up with?  I
couldn't remember.  I kept meaning, and forgetting, to call him and ask.
So I was delighted to see that he passed his idea on to a colleague,
John C. Ryan, who has just put out a little book called Seven
Wonders (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco).  Here are the other four:

The condom -- protects against some of the world's worst diseases, gives
parents control over the size and timing of their families, helps
control population growth.  "Those are big jobs for a flimsy tube of
rubber," says Ryan.  One sustainability problem with this item is that
it's discarded after just one use.  But it's made from natural rubber, a
renewable resource.

The public library -- the written wisdom of the world at the fingertips
of anyone with a library card!  The average American pays $20 a year in
taxes to support public libraries and can save that much by borrowing
instead of buying just one or two books.  A book that is loaned ten
times cuts not only cost but paper use per read by a factor of ten.

Pad Thai -- the highly seasoned Asian dish made of noodles, garlic, and
vegetables, sometimes with bits of chicken or shrimp thrown in. Ryan
doesn't mean to celebrate that particular dish so much as the basic
principle of "peasant" cooking around the world: start with starch, mix
in veggies, add great seasonings, and use meat sparingly if at all.
Could as well be tortillas and beans, or curry and rice, or spaghetti
and tomato sauce.  Healthy, cheap, do-it-yourself, easy on the planet,
delicious.

The ladybug -- constantly, without charge, without environmental damage,
searching out and destroying plant pests.  Your average ladybug scarfs
up 40-75 plant-sucking aphids a day.  Multiply that by 75,000 beetles
per gallon, which farmers can order through the mail, and you've got one
heck of an efficient pesticide.  Something like 98 percent of sprayed
chemical pesticides never even hit a pest, but ladybugs zoom right in on
the aphids and nothing but the aphids.

After I finished reading Ryan's book, which is full of interesting facts
about these wonders, I started seeing Wonders of Sustainability all
around me. There's no reason to limit the list to seven.  Here are some
more:

The root cellar -- temperature controlled by the earth, a way of storing
potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, squash, turnips, beets, apples,
dahlia tubers and gladiolus corms (that's what goes in my root cellar)
without moving parts, canning jars, boiling or freezing.

The basket -- someone once told me that no one has yet succeeded in
mechanizing the making of baskets.  Whether or not that's true, baskets,
made all over the world by skillful hands out of renewable,
biodegradable material, are lightweight, strong, beautiful, and reusable
over and over.

The olive tree -- it can live hundreds or thousands of years in dry, hot
climates; like all trees it recycles carbon dioxide breathed out by us
animals and turns it back into the oxygen we need; its roots hold the
soil; its leaves break the impact of the rains; and it produces tasty,
healthful olive oil.

The sari -- and the sarong and the shawl, made of uncut, unsewn cloth
colored and patterned as gorgeously as a butterfly, gracefully draped,
comfortable, cool, adaptable.  You can suspend babies in it or melons or
firewood.  You can hitch it up for wading, tuck it around your legs for
bicycling or running, pull it over your face if you want shade or to be
modest or to flirt.  Never out of style.  Easy to wash and dry.  One
size fits all.

The compost pile.  The knitting needle.  The canoe.  This is fun.  I
could go on with this list, and so, probably, could you.

What do all these wonders have in common?  Well, their kindness to the
earth and to human health is what qualifies them for a sustainability
list.  They are accessible to anyone, inexpensive to obtain and
maintain.  Many of them serve not only practical but also esthetic
needs; they satisfy the eye, the palate, or the soul.  Most are old in
concept, though they may have modern variations. Something like them has
evolved in many different cultures.  Most are objects you can buy, but
usually from a local maker, not a multinational corporation.

Maybe that's why we don't much appreciate the humble, sustainable
wonders around us.  Their value is too obvious to need touting.  You
only have to spend billions "marketing" something if its worth is in
doubt.

(Donella H. Meadows is an adjunct professor of environmental studies at
Dartmouth College and director of the Sustainability Institute, a
think/do tank that promotes sustainable systems.)
Donella H. Meadows
P.O. Box 58
Plainfield NH 03781
603-675-2230 (home -- answering machine)
603-646-1233 (work -- secretary)
603-646-1682 or 603-675-6305 (FAX)
d.meadows at dartmouth.edu


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And now, for mine.

The Food Cooler. Every pantry used to have one, a storage cupboard where
the sun never reaches, always screened open to the outside, shady-side air
and preferably with a crossdraft. Refrigerators came along and made them
useless...But what could be more USEFUL as a winter Y2K alternative to
food spoilage. It costs nothing to run, makes no noise, needs no defrost,
and the butter in it never gets too hard, nor the olive oil too thick..

It would be fairly easy to build such a cupboard, a stand-alone model of
wood that could be kept outdoors, its vent openings secured against furry
critters by heavy mesh screen, backed by a finer mesh for flies, and its
half-foot long pedestals standing in plastic pint containers, water-filled
to keep out the rest of the bug world.

Irv


Charmaine R. Taylor
Taylor Publishing 1-888-441-1632
PO Box 6985,Eureka CA 95502
http://www.northcoast.com/~tms
Cobwood: www.northcoast.com/~tms/cobwood.html