Deep Economy

[ZeroG]

Deep Economy by Bill McKibben looks like an interesting book. I heard him on the radio yesterday, and he touched on some points made in the current book I am reading, The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

Here is a New York Times Article about the book.

Here is his website. Michael Pollan even reviews his book on the site.

[Ginafish]

I was in a discussion along these same lines the other day. We were talking about how our 'Wal-mart" lifestyle is having negative consequences on the earth. One focus was our need for oil. I mentioned that I think sometimes, it'd be nice to go back to the horse and buggy type transportation and it might help those Californian's who travel for 3 hours to get 5 miles. He! Now I don't seriously think horse and buggy's are the answer, but alternative fuel sources couldn't hurt.

I also brought up the point, that somethings are too modern. (What?!?!) When the power went out while my mom was grocery shopping a few weeks ago, due to someone hitting a pole, she had to leave her groceries at the store, because the cashiers don't have access to calculators, they don't know the taxes, and besides that, all the items are barcoded so there was no way to know the price without walking all through the store again. Would this happen at a Farmer's Market?? I think not!

During the discussion, it was interesting to me that the older (over 60 crowd) were offended at the idea of a simpler lifestyle, because they remember simple as a hard hard life. To me, simpler doesn't mean lets forget all we've learned in the way of computers, medicine, engineering...it means let us use these things in a smarter way, rather than us be 'used' by them.

I read an article the other day that posed an interesting question:
If your family was regulated to only 5 gallons of gas a week, how would your life change?

(It hasn't even been a hundred years since people had limits on sugar, so I think that question is very relevant and realistic).

Thanks for letting me vent.

[ZeroG]

It is not just the gas used to dart around town, it is the fuel needed to move food and products around the world in our global economy. On the radio he said that the average distance traveled by the food we consume in the US is 2000 miles! Something like it takes 35 calories of fuel to move 1 calorie of food.

That is the basis of his local economy plan. You eat food that is grown near you, and if lettuce and tomatoes are not grown near you then you get creative with what IS grown near you.

Local economies drastically improve the efficiency of human life.