Laundry, Library, Hawken - orig. 07/26/05 #2
I took a load of clothes to the laundry-mat today. I tried to do as large a load as possible. It was much heavier bringing the wet clothes home on my bike. When I borrowed clothes pins from my landlady she also loaned me a clothes drying rack so I was able to hang everything to dry. It has been a warm day so I imagine they will dry fairly quickly.
You should see me riding my bike. I look like a little old man. I expend as little energy as possible and probably only go about 7 mph, but it is too damn hot for me to over exert myself.
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I checked out, from the library, part one of a ten part series called “Race to Save the Planet”. It was produced in 1990 and hosted by Meryl Streep. It gave a brief history of human development up to the industrial revolution. It showed the development of early agriculture and the resulting decay of a particular society that’s population had outstripped the ability of the surrounding area to support it. It then went on to talk about advancements in agriculture, which allowed for a boom in population, and the development of coal, a cheap and abundant source of energy, both of which fueled the industrial revolution. The historical aspects reminded me of “Guns, Germs and Steel,” which is a series currently running on PBS.
There were a lot of generalized statements regarding the need to take responsibility, but not a whole lot of practical advice in regards to what an individual or mass thereof can do to help restore the world’s ecology. It was only the first in the series so maybe future segments will be more action oriented.
I also looked for more books by Paul Hawken, but our library only carries the one.
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I think that ideas of recycling, re-using and repurposing have been with us for a long time. In art they have been around at least since the times of Dada and collage. I do a lot of repurposing in my work. The series “Heroic Endeavors” is a good example of repurposing. I said in a previous article that I pull the images from a comic book. I was going to throw the comic books away, but the artwork was so nice that I decided I had to find a use for them.
It reminds me of what my Graphic Design instructor liked to tell us, “You’re making garbage.” He was being literal. His example was an insert that came in a pack of construction paper. It had some marketing information on it and some instructions or something. He held it up to the class and said something like that no one would ever look at it, that they would just throw it away. Then he threw it in the garbage.
Recycling is all well and good, but as Paul Hawken lets us know in The Ecology of Commerce, it is just spin. I quoted this bit before, but it is still appropriate when on Page 147 he says, “Consider this fact: If the items used in households in America were all recycled, this would reduce our solid waste by only 1 to 2 percent.” Individual households are apparently not the primary producers of solid waste. Although the argument could be made that the waste is being produced for their “benefit”???
What this means is that we need to reign in our companies. These are our companies. They were created by us and they are intended to serve us. I have an image of all these big, toxic butt holes spewing out filth. Currently, the majority of companies consume resources that are not being replenished, generate waste both traditional and in the form of products and promote environmental spin while doggedly maintaining the status quo. Any system that consumes more than replenishes is a closed loop. By any form of logic it has a limited span of viability and unfortunately because the environment is also a closed loop the current system is going to lead to a catastrophic die-off of life forms including, but not limited to humanity.
I imagine that it will be even more catastrophic than the extinction of the dinosaurs as organisms at that time only had to deal with a dust cloud that blocked out the sun. The titanic disaster that we are creating will force life to deal with a massive climate change, a comparison has been made to Venus in regards to where we are headed with the CO2 in our atmosphere, as well as an incredibly toxic environment. The thing is that species are already dropping like flies. What hubris to think that this overly consumptive culture, which has only existed for a very short, has the right to obliterate thousands of species with the high probability of extinguishing virtually all life forms Earth. What hubris.
-----
That’s enough of a diatribe for today. Here is “Heroic Endeavors #2”.
Hey, who doesn't?
-----
I have a friend that is interested in starting an online data storage business. I think this is a good idea. The pipe is getting fat enough to make it practical and disposable media, as convenient as they may be, are not practical in a restorative society.
Now if we can get the computer industry to make computers and hard drives out of soy beans we will be in business. What's the name of that daredevil billionaire who offered the million dollar carrot to whoever could get a vehicle out of the atmosphere. Richard Branson. He should offer a prize to the first company that can come up with a computer based on a restorative production chain with no waste and complete reusability. Maybe I will send him an email.
-----
I think I might start a new series of cartoons called "GreenMan".
You should see me riding my bike. I look like a little old man. I expend as little energy as possible and probably only go about 7 mph, but it is too damn hot for me to over exert myself.
-----
I checked out, from the library, part one of a ten part series called “Race to Save the Planet”. It was produced in 1990 and hosted by Meryl Streep. It gave a brief history of human development up to the industrial revolution. It showed the development of early agriculture and the resulting decay of a particular society that’s population had outstripped the ability of the surrounding area to support it. It then went on to talk about advancements in agriculture, which allowed for a boom in population, and the development of coal, a cheap and abundant source of energy, both of which fueled the industrial revolution. The historical aspects reminded me of “Guns, Germs and Steel,” which is a series currently running on PBS.
There were a lot of generalized statements regarding the need to take responsibility, but not a whole lot of practical advice in regards to what an individual or mass thereof can do to help restore the world’s ecology. It was only the first in the series so maybe future segments will be more action oriented.
I also looked for more books by Paul Hawken, but our library only carries the one.
-----
I think that ideas of recycling, re-using and repurposing have been with us for a long time. In art they have been around at least since the times of Dada and collage. I do a lot of repurposing in my work. The series “Heroic Endeavors” is a good example of repurposing. I said in a previous article that I pull the images from a comic book. I was going to throw the comic books away, but the artwork was so nice that I decided I had to find a use for them.
It reminds me of what my Graphic Design instructor liked to tell us, “You’re making garbage.” He was being literal. His example was an insert that came in a pack of construction paper. It had some marketing information on it and some instructions or something. He held it up to the class and said something like that no one would ever look at it, that they would just throw it away. Then he threw it in the garbage.
Recycling is all well and good, but as Paul Hawken lets us know in The Ecology of Commerce, it is just spin. I quoted this bit before, but it is still appropriate when on Page 147 he says, “Consider this fact: If the items used in households in America were all recycled, this would reduce our solid waste by only 1 to 2 percent.” Individual households are apparently not the primary producers of solid waste. Although the argument could be made that the waste is being produced for their “benefit”???
What this means is that we need to reign in our companies. These are our companies. They were created by us and they are intended to serve us. I have an image of all these big, toxic butt holes spewing out filth. Currently, the majority of companies consume resources that are not being replenished, generate waste both traditional and in the form of products and promote environmental spin while doggedly maintaining the status quo. Any system that consumes more than replenishes is a closed loop. By any form of logic it has a limited span of viability and unfortunately because the environment is also a closed loop the current system is going to lead to a catastrophic die-off of life forms including, but not limited to humanity.
I imagine that it will be even more catastrophic than the extinction of the dinosaurs as organisms at that time only had to deal with a dust cloud that blocked out the sun. The titanic disaster that we are creating will force life to deal with a massive climate change, a comparison has been made to Venus in regards to where we are headed with the CO2 in our atmosphere, as well as an incredibly toxic environment. The thing is that species are already dropping like flies. What hubris to think that this overly consumptive culture, which has only existed for a very short, has the right to obliterate thousands of species with the high probability of extinguishing virtually all life forms Earth. What hubris.
-----
That’s enough of a diatribe for today. Here is “Heroic Endeavors #2”.
Hey, who doesn't?
-----
I have a friend that is interested in starting an online data storage business. I think this is a good idea. The pipe is getting fat enough to make it practical and disposable media, as convenient as they may be, are not practical in a restorative society.
Now if we can get the computer industry to make computers and hard drives out of soy beans we will be in business. What's the name of that daredevil billionaire who offered the million dollar carrot to whoever could get a vehicle out of the atmosphere. Richard Branson. He should offer a prize to the first company that can come up with a computer based on a restorative production chain with no waste and complete reusability. Maybe I will send him an email.
-----
I think I might start a new series of cartoons called "GreenMan".
posted by T-Bone_Jones at 7:17 PM
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