Things People Can Do to Save Earth

[valuesystem]

1. Plant trees; lots and lots of trees; loads and piles and forests of trees (make sure to plant indigenous trees, check with state DNR for help making selections)

2. Stop using money.

I think that about does it.

A Bit of ExplanationMaybe I should explain #2 a bit

Comments

[valuesystem]

I really like the first page of the freegan.info web site, and I agree with pretty much everything there, although since I live in the country, "urban foraging" is not much of an option for me.

I actually know personally the person who runs the freegan.info web site. He lives in NYC, but I've met him at least three separate times at the AR conference. He's a good guy, and really sees how the system works.

I think he came to the conclusion that the economic system is broken via a different route than I did. From the web site, it sounded like he was trying to do ethical purchasing of everyday goods, and realized that there is really almost nothing that is ethical to buy, and concluded from that, that our very participation in the global economic system is destroying Earth, no matter how we participate.

My route is detailed in my LiveJournal. I think what I started doing was just thinking about how my money flows forward once I spend it, and where it ends up going. I noticed that within a few transactions, it ended up paying for something that I found unethical. I also followed the money backwards from the unethical practices and realized that the people a few transactions earlier had no clue about what their money would end up motivating.

I started thinking about how laws might be able to end the unethical practices, but realized that with a global economy and with "free markets", most unethical practices will continue somewhere, and supported by my purchase, via a string of exchanges. And, that there were an infinite number of unethical practices, so no number of laws would be able to limit these practices anyway. I guess this is the problem of the Hydra.

I tackled the same problem of how to be green from various different angles and kept on coming up with the same conclusions; there is no way to "be green" within the global economic system, and further, that the measure of greenness for any individual is simply how much money they spend, no matter what they spend that money on.

I know of Freecycle and Craigs List, although I haven't tried either. We tend to stop by a lot of garage sales, share things with family and friends, pass things along that we aren't using anymore.

Doing that has really helped with the baby because the clothing and toys are only good for a few months at most, and then the kid outgrows them. So, we have a friend whose twins are about a year older, so we get all of those items, and then we're passing those to my sister who is about to have a child. Not only is it much, much better for the environment, but it is a lot cheaper.

So, yes, freeganism is definitely on target, although I think for rural families with kids, growing food is the most practical, using permaculture techniques as much as possible.