Sunday, March 13, 2011

"Mahayana" Sustainability?

My environmental footprint is that of the thousands of people who contribute to me being where I am.... no matter how "green" I am, what my community is and does is the measure of what is done to the world in order for me to live.
So it is better to do something as a community than to do it for myself.
Trade - even globalisation - has a part to play in the building of the new world because what we do for each other and how we do it counts so much in the measure of a full life.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Asking Questions: Self Sufficiency vs Sustainability

Sometimes we ask questions to find out how people think about things - the answers are enlightening and there is no absolute right one:

I remember "Where is cyberspace?" - the best answer to me was "I dunno - where's Heaven?"

So this week's question is "What is the difference between self-sufficiency and sustainability?" The best answer so far: "One is looking inwards, the other outwards" All about think globally and act locally......

Everywhere people seem to be disillusioned with the political process that they have inherited. A process where possession is nine tenths of the law, where the loudest voice carries the day and where abuse is preferred to reasoned discussion. The process seems to be about looking inward and taking care of one's own carefully constructed bailiwick rather than the environmental and cultural foundations on which our house is built.

Why would a person spend so much putting photovoltaic panels on their own roof and not invest in community infrastructure that will save that amount of energy or produce that much renewable energy? How much more bang for our buck when we pool our resources - not only our financial resources, but intellectual and emotional, our capacity to imagine the way things might work indeed would work if we not only work together but can trust each other.