Recall the old jingle: “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” Power Down is the kind of Reduce that no one today likes to think about: reducing our energy consumption. It’s the ultimate global warming solution. And it’s our very real future.

As mainstream media begins to pick up the story of global warming, we’re becoming aware that somehow we’ll magically have to reduce that intangible, distant, amorphous concept called “greenhouse gas emissions.” But what does lower carbon emissions really mean? As in, how is it going to affect my life?

(more…)

An excerpt from our forthcoming book: Environmental Change-Making …

In the end, self-limitation is the only answer that counts, but that is the answer that no one wants to hear.
–Richard Heinberg, PowerDown

In keeping with our present-day love for the pat jingle, environmental educators crafted the familiar Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. National environmental groups now offer “Ten Things You Can Do,” “Twelve Things You Can Do.” The number keeps changing. Yet our journey toward the future won’t be accomplished with a specific number of simple things. You can’t put the next century of transformation into a neat sound bite.

(more…)

Last night we held a “Greener House Cleaning” meeting at the Environmental Change-Makers. I’d read about Green Cleaning Parties through Women’s Voices for the Earth. I contemplated signing up for one of those, but after reviewing their materials I decided I could do better, and reach further, by simply sharing my own experiences.

My journey to Greener House Cleaning began when my son was a baby. As I watched him crawl across carpets we’d previously bug-bombed for the cat’s fleas, and teethe on tables I’d “cleaned” with Endust, I worried about the chemicals he might be ingesting. I knew there had to be a better way. Of I went to the local healthy foods store (appropriately named Mothers) to get “greener” house cleaning bottled sprays and products. But are these really greener?

(more…)

For years I’ve followed the “Transition Towns” movement in the U.K. via the blog of its founder, Rob Hopkins. Now, finally, I feel it is time to try out some of these ideas here in Los Angeles.

(more…)

If I’ve been a bit sporadic in my posts here, there are a few reasons why. Here’s one:
The Community Garden

The little church in my neighborhood where we hold our Environmental Change-Makers meetings decided last fall to rip out their side yard and convert it into an edible landscape. Guess who jumped in to design the garden layout? The construction effort took most of the spring as we ripped out 1,250 square foot of lawn and replaced it with artistically shaped raised beds (Peter had seen a photo of the gardens at Villandry). I designed a garden rotation and tried to lay out the vegetables in a symmetrical, aesthetically-pleasing fashion.

The Community Garden at Holy Nativity serves a charitable and social justice purpose in that most of the produce will go to feed the hungry through the local food pantry and similar distribution organizations.

Additionally, this garden serves tremendous environmental purpose. In the midst of a neighborhood of manicured chem-lawns and ornamental yards, this garden proclaims that front yard vegetables can be beautiful. Its corner location places the issue of local food sources right out in public view. It represents a return to functionality for city land which had been nonfunctional for several decades. Through our workdays (and a series of gardening classes) we are helping to educate people about what it really means to “work the soil” plus the basics of organic and edibles gardening. Future additions such as rainwater collection barrels will highlight other environmental solutions. And the garden creates a focus around which to rally a community, when healthy and vital communities are such an important part of our journey toward Sustainability.

Plus, we’re having a lot of fun!

Yesterday, we went to the garden and participated in the first major harvest. It seemed like a “light” harvest, in that many of the plants are just coming into their first produce. But when we began to weigh it, boy, did the numbers add up. We harvested 35 pounds of food!
You can read more about the garden on the Community Garden blog here.

Our May meeting at Environmental Change-Makers was about water: “Water Wisdom for a year of drought and beyond.”

(more…)

Our community is located within mere blocks of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).  As individuals aware of the issues of global warming and peak oil, as well as being aware of the local flow of airport expansion Environmental Impact Reports, we felt it was up to us to make sure global warming and peak oil issues were addressed in the airport expansion environmental review process. (more…)

— In Urban-Permaculture@yahoogroups.com, MH wrote:
… may be a kind of “fatal flaw” in the Permaculture movement, which implies that the solution lies only in the 3-D world ( gardens, ecologial houses etc.) while the world crisis is one of values, of connection and spirituality, of our definition of what happiness is ( which is quickly being redefined from “more is better” to ” quality of life and connection”).

Here in my local corner of Los Angeles, we have experienced something a bit similar to the phenomenon you described.  (more…)

As the holiday season approaches, with it comes a well-meaning outpouring of affection and recognition, also known as holiday gift-giving.  We’re sure that you, like us, have been trying to Simplify your life.  As we Simplify, we become acutely aware of the burden that excess consumption of consumer goods is placing on our planet and on people in third world nations. 

This holiday season, we invite you to join us in a different, more meaningful approach.  Rather than giving physical gifts of consumer items, please consider making a charitable donation in honor of the person for whom you would ordinarily buy a gift.  We recommend the following worthy causes: (more…)

“The best strategy for keeping a dwelling cool is to keep it from getting hot in the first place.”
– Real Goods Solar Living Sourcebook

Abandon conventional air conditioning … We don’t use conventional air conditioning and we encourage everybody else to abandon it too. There is an art to living without air conditioning that has largely been lost. People used to know how (and when) to open their houses at night for ventilation, and when to close them up in the day time to keep out the heat of the days. - Robert Waldrop, Oklahoma City http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/retrofit.htm

Apply these weatherization , insulation, shading and alternative cooling tips … and your need for
energy–intensive mechanical cooling will be eliminated in all but the most severe climates. (more…)