Wai Not Go Green?

Well, I decided to take the plunge and create a website entirely devoted to Green folks in the Wairarapa - a place where folks can meet virtually to find out about all things Green going on in our region. This blog will likely suffer as a result. Visit the new website by clicking on the link below - subscribe even, that'll put a smile on my face!

Wai Not Go Green website

Ciao belle,
Janine

The Final Countdown - 100 months until runaway climate change ensues

Today I read an Andrew Simms article on why we only have 100 months left before reaching the tipping point for runaway climate change. Food for thought. It has certainly set me thinking on how I can do even more to cut down my carbon footprint. Flying from Beijing to London is certainly not much help....is planting a few trees enough to curb my conscience? I'm not sure, but Sam and I are already looking at how we can reduce our flying. Unfortunately that could mean staying in Europe longer to avoid repeat trips....get it all out of our system in one go. Considering how much we are already pining for the bush at home after only 2 months away, it doesn't bode too well! We could also cut down the leg home by catching the Trans-Siberian from Europe then flying out from the East. Now that's not a bad idea!

I found these tips on what we as individuals can do to create change from Open Space Facilitator Chris Corrigan.... thought provoking stuff.

There are levels on which we work and live as a human being. From the personal to the cosmic, we live nested in spheres of influence and connections that sustain us. So here is my thumbnail take on what we can do at different levels. While I aspire to these, and practice many of them, I’m not perfect, which is why the first one makes sense.

Personal

• Practice meditation or personal inquiry so that you have the wits to handle massive change that lies beyond your control. If you are the kind of person that completely loses it whenever the power goes off you have work to do. Meditation and inquiry also generates compassion for yourself and others, which is a key capacity.
• Erase your debt, get out of the credit economy.
• Wean yourself as much as possible off of products and services that you don’t need and that contribute to waste, carbon emissions and debt.
• Choose wisely how you spend your money. Invest in local food and food producers and in local businesses to strengthen the economy around you.
• Grow your own food, and learn how to take care of your body, your home and your things.
• Do not be a passive consumer of anything, including ideas and entertainment.
• Do what you can. ASk for help. Work with others.
• Think about your work and what you are being trained for. Euan put me on to an old George Monbiot piece on this.

Family

• If you have children in your family, don’t send them to school. Investigate alternatives that will raise them up as learners, able to adopt to change rather than fixed in old knowledge and old paradigms. Help your children participate in your community and help your community understand that the place for children and youth is ANYWHERE, not locked away for seven hours a day in schools.
• Families are an economy of scale bigger than one. It makes sense to work together in learning about your home and community, growing food and looking after one another.
• Use the family relationships as a practice ground for working with relationships. Apply what you learn there to working with others.

Community

• Work with others to meet common needs. For example, start up a community shared agriculture program to enhance food security.
• Learn how to work together well. Learn good processes, and be conscious about how you are with others.
• Offer what you can and ask for what you need.
• Participate in local affairs and in what people in your community are doing to sustain positive futures for yourselves.
• Make meetings count. Especially if you have to travel, then make sure that what you are doing is spending your time, carbon emissions and money wisely. There might come a time when meeting to set good relationships and exchange good ideas is a thing of the past.

Scales beyond

• Andrew Simms has a god line in his 100 months piece: “the government must lead.” If climate change is the issue, governments must lead in setting the kinds of targets, incentives and influence that the market needs to make alternative possible. It cannot be up to us alone to tend our victory gardens and turn off our lights. Governments at all levels must take responsibility for how the influence or don’t influence the environment that makes it possible to change. In Canada, our government is not doing anything meaningful to mitigate climate change. So either I could run for office, or vote for someone who will. In the meantime, I can continue to practice personally in defiance of the mainstream economic model that is killing us.
• Writing about and practicing these kinds of strategies does have the effect of tipping the collective consciousness. When it comes to radical changes, individuals lead, and governments follow, sometimes very far behind. Global corporations are the last to change most of the time. Local governments and local business change first. Support those shifts.

Above all, don’t lose heart. If you lose heart you become a significant part of the problem. If you withdraw, you become a burden on the system, and worse if you refuse to change, you continue to give a tacit mandate for the status quo to continue, if only to meet your needs. If anything, these doomsday scenarios are useful for throwing into relief the kinds of daily choices that we make. Above all, act with consciousness in what you are doing. Consider the consequences and actions and let people know about strategies that work.

That’s what I’m learning these days.

Great website for Eco Friendly Products

Making Eco-Living Easy - the EcoBob website has lots of great products and services. If you search under Wellington quite a bit comes up. Theres only one listing currently in the Wairarapa.....lets support them!

Insulwool NZ 2000 Ltd - Selling Wool Insulation Products 0800 377 909

The coolest thing I have found is the fuel conversion systems for Diesel vehicles by EnviroCar. For a couple of thousand you can convert a Diesel vehicle to an alternative fuel system. The vegetable oil fuel supplied by EnviroCar (Envirofuel) costs only 0.89 cents/litre, is delivered to your door and is more efficient than regular diesel. For more info see the website or click here to read a rather scientific article discussing Envirofuel.

Lets get some in the Wai eh?

Persuasive arguments for Councils to Support Bicycling

Check out this info on the benefits of getting on ya Bike. Its from the U.S but has some great arguments for why communities should be doing more to encourage and support folks on bikes. I realise I am probably preaching to the converted but it could come in use!

Benefits of Bicycling Info

Calling all Wairarapians interested in Sustainability

This blog has changed focus! We know there are lots of folks in the Wai interested in sustainability (over 45 people came from out of the blue to our Cob workshop last year, amazing!) and we want to create a fun and interactive place online where people can connect with one another and get together to make things happen. We know there is already lots of cool stuff going on....and we want to tell people about it! So please, get in touch or post if you share our passion for this work.

Sam & I are currently in China where Sam is participating in a sculpture symposium with Masterton's sister city Changchun, visit his China Blog for more pics & info. After that we head to London to work for a few months ....and we have a list of cool eco-related projects and sights to visit there before our return home. We hope to pick up some cool ideas and contacts to put into practice when we get back.

Thats all for now. Contact me (Janine) if you are keen to be more involved with this blog in some way, shape or form.The cob pizza oven Sam and I built (with the help of friends & family) at Bull Gully, our family land near Castlepoint.

photos from workshop!

Thanks to all the folks that came along & got dirty at our Cob Pizza Oven workshop on Sunday 25th! With around 40 people attending we have declared it a resounding success and look forward to the possibility of further gatherings in the future. Please don't hesitate to get in touch or post with your thoughts, reflections and ideas..... and enjoy the pics!

EMAIL FROM JAMES & USEFUL RESOURCES

James emailed yesterday to let me know what a fantastic day he had with us all at the workshop and what a great bunch he thought we all were! He is in the country for a while longer & may come through Masterton again if the opportunity comes up.....will keep you posted. Feel free to contact him yourself, his details are on the participant list .

If you are interested in the projects James has been working on you can check one of them out at:
www.pinescalyx.co.uk

James is returning to the UK to complete this project before heading to South Africa for some adventures there. James is also going to send me a copy of the time lapse photos from the workshop (he had set up his camera on the roof taking photos every 3 minutes all day!). Give me a bell if you'd like to take a look.

Other websites you may find interesting:

www.earthbuilding.org.nz website of the earth building association of nz

www.permaculture.org.nz covering a range of organic/sustainable living & building practices. Check out the 'reading materials' section for simple clear instructions for building all kinds of stuff with earth materials, posted by Aleena La\'ulu

www.adobesouth.co.nz House building using Adobe

www.ecodesign.co.nz website of Graeme North the eco-architect that James mentioned at the workshop

www.patternlanguage.com Great website & fabulous book offering a 'pattern' for creating people centred homes & communities. Fab design ideas for designing your own home....is the text book for some of the 'design your own eco-home' type workshops being held around the country