Watching the amazing docu-series 'A Brief History of the Future'
https://www.pbs.org/show/a-bri...
has exhilarated me to up my game to be as sustainable as possible. See my companion piece in the Sandbox.... Science can save our planet.
Episode 2 was awe inspiring! Nothing gets wasted. Native Americans teach us that. My grandmother who raised 2 kids alone during the depression taught me that. And not constantly bringing stuff into my garden from somewhere else but creating a circle of life right here that can survive and thrive. That's permaculture, not just in the garden but in every part of our lives.
The goal is to use the least amount of fossil fuels I possibly can because they are not clean or sustainable. Making one or two small changes to my lifestyle isn't going to stop our climate from changing much but making lots of small, almost insignificant changes can keep TONS of carbon from entering the atmosphere. And if we all start doing it.... We can make a huge difference! I think the young people call this crowdsourcing.
https://www.sciencenews.org/ar...
Here are just some of the things I do to reduce my carbon footprint (in no particular order) and you can do a lot of these too. Won't you join me? We can make an historic difference! And tell me what you are doing to lower your carbon footprint please. I would love to hear new suggestions.
I got rid of my dryer when I bought this house. So I don't use any gas or electric (fossil fuels) to dry clothes. I let Mother Nature dry my clothes on a clothesline. I enjoy it, it's not a burden and it's free. Even if you do it for part of the year it helps a lot.
I don't drive to the store for every little thing. I make a list and go shopping for many things in just one trip.
I buy 'used' whenever possible. No need to manufacture new whatever for me when a used one in great condition will work just as well. And if I can get it for free from Craigslist, it's even better. They say what's old can become new again. When is it my turn?
I keep my thermostat at 69* in the winter and only use my A.C. occasionally in the summer. Sitting in the shade of a tree and enjoying my beautiful garden is so much nicer than being indoors and listening to a machine blowing out cool air.
I have planted 25 trees that capture carbon on my one acre, mostly fruit trees. I need all the shade I can get which cools my vegies and helps me to use less water. If you live in a soggy wet area you could plant specific trees and shrubs that will soak up a huge amount of water and help you dry out.
I wash my dishes by hand which uses a lot less water then a dishwasher.
I mostly wash my clothes with cold water. I don't crank up the gas hot water heater unless it's necessary.
I catch and save as much rainwater as I possibly can. It keeps my water bill lower and less fossil fuels are used to pump that water to my home.
My property is all hills and troughs so I designed my gardens to capture as much rainfall as possible and to save water.
I dump the water I use to wash my vegies into a bucket and use it to water more plants.
I don't let the water run down the drain and waste it while I wait for it to get hot. I use a bucket or container to save that gallon and use it in the garden.
I don't drink bottled water, I drink my tap water. Again, no need to use fossil fuels to manufacture plastics and cardboard and then more fossil fuel to ship bottled water to me. In every area water tastes different depending on what minerals it contains. Sometimes it takes awhile to get used to it but it's so doable. And I read my water company's annual water quality report every year which shows exactly what my water contains. I have good water.
I grow most of my own fruit and vegies which is a huge carbon reduction. Think of all the plastics and cardboard and gas that are being manufactured using fossil fuels just to bring your produce to the stores. I skip that.
I also save most of my own seeds so I only occasionally order new seeds through the mail. So only a small envelope is being manufactured to ship them to me instead of lots of plastics, cardboard and gas.
I reuse, re-purpose or recycle everything I can. O.K. My neighbors think I am just hoarding lots of junk in my garage. I am! I think it's nice that the are worried about me (sort of) but it's amazing what these things can be used for.
I laughed so hard the first time I saw rich people here buying boxes of rags at our hardware store. I wear my clothes until my modesty no longer permits it and then they become my rags. No extra fossil fuels required.
I use my grass clippings and weeds and garden refuse to make my own compost. Nothing gets tossed in the trash or goes to waste. Not only is it better then commercial compost but I don't worry about getting contaminated compost and no fossil fuels were used to get it to me. Just my sore muscles.
I now compost anything cotton like my socks and my old feather pillows which don't need to go into the landfill.
I turn off all lights and computers etc. when not in use to limit the ghost electrical consumption we all deal with. And never leave water running needlessly.
I cut back a good bit on my consumption of meat, especially beef and 2 days a month I eat vegetarian. Not a big deal at all but they say it stops a huge amount of carbon and methane (flatulent cows! Oh my!) from entering the atmosphere.
I seldom use Amazon for anything. Getting one or two small items shipped to my home can be a huge part of our carbon footprint. But mostly, I think Jeff Bezos is rich enough and I'd rather give my money to my local neighbors.
I'm been trying to grow cover crops the last couple of years. It's kind of like growing my own fertilizer. It's called green manure. I still don't have a good handle on the timing and it does sort of mess up rotating my crops because many cover crops are legumes or brassicas. But I'm buying less fertilizer.
I'm always trying to learn something new or something old. Last year I tried using 'Korean Natural Farming'. The first experiment went super well. I'm now watching to see how experiments 2 and 3 will do and I will start experiment # 4 next week.
I added more insulation, weatherstripping and another overhang to make my home more energy efficient.
I'm retired and I seldom leave my garden but I walk whenever possible instead of using my truck.
I put down heavy mulch everywhere, think leaves and wood chips, to conserve moisture and keep my gardens cooler.
We had a heavy snow 2 winters ago, about 2' and I lost a lot of big and small limbs off of my juniper trees. Last summer I cut down even more limbs that would have caused a lot of damage if they had come down too. Now I am going to use them to build shade structures for my strawberry beds. I am getting ready to burn all the extra pieces that I can't use for the structures (I know... it releases carbon into the air but what can I do?) and turn them into biochar which is awesome for my gardens.
Sustainability isn't just a concept, it is a lifestyle choice. When you grow the fertilizer which grows your vegies and leaves and weeds which makes the compost which brings in the worms and fungi and good bacteria which grows the fertilizer it is called the circle of life. It is sustainability. It works well for Mother Nature and it will work well for us too.
I can probably think of more things that I do but I have to plant more seedlings and whack some more weeds and harvest some peas and wrangle some aphids. Gotta go.
