Sustainability, unlike the word green, actually means something. It implies a very positive concept, that simply means you want to be able to produce a resource indefinitely. Due to influences of climate and rapid environmental shifts, nothing is ever 100% sustainable, but it is still a wonderful goal to work towards. Sustainability is also a circular use of energy and resources, instead of our current linear system of grow, consume, and throw away. If you want to change the world to become a more sustainable place, where do we begin? Many people already know what sustainability is, but they are still living as virtual slaves to the suburban linear lifestyle. Why and how do people change? I would like to start with the reason that most of us don't change.
Fear. To boil it down to the most common and subconscious reason, fear is the simplest term. We are afraid of things we can't see, hear, touch, or taste. We are afraid of revolution because of government enforced violence. We are afraid of not having food to eat. We are afraid of being ridiculed for being different. We are afraid of note having enough money. Our means to feed and shelter ourselves have been commodified into an exchange that is solely based on money. Generations of people have now been born into a world where barter no longer exists, except with worthless pieces of paper and electronic silicon switches. How did we go from being producers to consumers? How did so many of us stop being sustainable communities? How did we lose these import skills of producing our own goods?
Daniel Quinn puts it nicely in his book Story of B by calling it the Great forgetting. As little as 9,000 years ago we started to forget how we lived for most of our Human existence. We forgot how to live in harmony with our environment. We started to forget how to live as communities. We started to forget how to grow and gather our own food. Most recently with the discovery of oil and the technique of distillation, we unlocked vast amounts of quick, versatile, energy. One liter of gasoline is equal to 50 hours of hard physical labor. That kind of compact energy is like a super drug for the human population. It enabled us, as a species, to grow our population and urban metropolitan areas at an exponential rate. Now, as almost 7 billion of us on this planet move forward into the future, we have to remember and re-learn the skills most of us lost. This is what the Transition Town movement (http://transitionculture.org) has coined, The Great Re-skilling
Reskilling has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Of course, this will be no small task. People are not going to just throw their Masters in Business degree away and become master composters. A degree or career choice is a large chunk of time and money invested over a person's lifetime, so no wonder it is hard to give up. Really, how many of us ask ourselves, Is my job sustainable? The current shift in our society seems to be drawing more people than ever to the cause of sustainability. Many working class Americans are starting to feel less and less secure with their current skills, due in part to the collapsing economic situation. As more people seek groups like the Transition town movement, it will open up opportunities for creating reskilling centers. A local Santa Cruz group, FOSL (www.thefosl.org), is already preparing society for the great reskilling through education, outreach, and community meetings. Once the FOSL workshop is built, the reskilling task will become much easier by providing a center for teaching the skills necessary in a more sustainable future. So the question again is, Where do we begin? And now, maybe the answer is, With the great reskilling, starting with yourself.
Fear. To boil it down to the most common and subconscious reason, fear is the simplest term. We are afraid of things we can't see, hear, touch, or taste. We are afraid of revolution because of government enforced violence. We are afraid of not having food to eat. We are afraid of being ridiculed for being different. We are afraid of note having enough money. Our means to feed and shelter ourselves have been commodified into an exchange that is solely based on money. Generations of people have now been born into a world where barter no longer exists, except with worthless pieces of paper and electronic silicon switches. How did we go from being producers to consumers? How did so many of us stop being sustainable communities? How did we lose these import skills of producing our own goods?
Daniel Quinn puts it nicely in his book Story of B by calling it the Great forgetting. As little as 9,000 years ago we started to forget how we lived for most of our Human existence. We forgot how to live in harmony with our environment. We started to forget how to live as communities. We started to forget how to grow and gather our own food. Most recently with the discovery of oil and the technique of distillation, we unlocked vast amounts of quick, versatile, energy. One liter of gasoline is equal to 50 hours of hard physical labor. That kind of compact energy is like a super drug for the human population. It enabled us, as a species, to grow our population and urban metropolitan areas at an exponential rate. Now, as almost 7 billion of us on this planet move forward into the future, we have to remember and re-learn the skills most of us lost. This is what the Transition Town movement (http://transitionculture.org) has coined, The Great Re-skilling
Reskilling has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Of course, this will be no small task. People are not going to just throw their Masters in Business degree away and become master composters. A degree or career choice is a large chunk of time and money invested over a person's lifetime, so no wonder it is hard to give up. Really, how many of us ask ourselves, Is my job sustainable? The current shift in our society seems to be drawing more people than ever to the cause of sustainability. Many working class Americans are starting to feel less and less secure with their current skills, due in part to the collapsing economic situation. As more people seek groups like the Transition town movement, it will open up opportunities for creating reskilling centers. A local Santa Cruz group, FOSL (www.thefosl.org), is already preparing society for the great reskilling through education, outreach, and community meetings. Once the FOSL workshop is built, the reskilling task will become much easier by providing a center for teaching the skills necessary in a more sustainable future. So the question again is, Where do we begin? And now, maybe the answer is, With the great reskilling, starting with yourself.
sneeeker:
Reskilling..i like that
ferkixlll:
Over used, but...; Become the change that you want to see.