Just to begin, here’s a story of a small village in the north-eastern Indian state of Meghalaya that has become the envy of its neighbours.
India’s ‘clean and green’ village:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8259789.stm

Great point and great post. As they say, why is common sense so uncommon?

Another truth missile hits the bulls eye: consumerism is the problem. I think the answer lies in making a virtue of the simple life (rather than the GQ life). Let’s substitute possessions with ideas. It makes for a richer planet. Great post, as always.

The sad truth is we have had more than a couple millenia of the evolution of the capitalistic system, and along with imperialism it seems to have dominated most other systems globally.

It is up to countries like India, who still are in touch with their rich heritage, where we are not distinct from nature but we are merely a strand in this amazing fabric.

It is only when we change our mindset will we be able to change paradigms.

Good work as always Hemant Hopefully we can get more people to zoom out and look at the macro picture.

Good post. To quote Walt Kelly’s Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” (From a cartoon published on Earth Day back in 1971.)

So what is it that stops us from doing simple things like these?

Convenience. And because it’s easier to pretend the environment is somebody else’s responsibility—the government’s or that of big business—rather than admit that everyone‘s actions carry consequences.

It shook Nestle from ignoring them to answering them.

Well, not really, the captions under the last three photographs tell the dismal tale:

Nestle showed no interest in listening to their customers.

Products sent in by many Nestle consumers didn’t seem to move the company to change their policy.

Instead the police were brought in to get rid of consumer pressure!

Nor did the Greenpeace activism even make the headlines. Shashi Tharoor’s “cattle class” tweet was all that interested the media just then.

Great post, as always!

I felt immediately better after reading the BBC article about the Indian village. Small everyday changes can really change a lot.

I really hope the internet can help us to live simple, while think highly.

I look forward to read more examples like this,and one of my favourite Swedish projects:Smaka på Skåne, a search engine for ecologically produced food. The site is run by the regional authorities.

The site is entirely in Swedish, but I have written about it in English before, this is my own review:

Food is important. In the interconnected world it is very easy to forget that the coffe you drink actually come from a plantation, dependent on water and sun etc… Sometimes I feel the internet has only alienated us even further from this basic reality. That’s why I was really happy to see the homepage of Smaka på Skåne.

Skåne is the southernmost region in Sweden, whereto I will soon move. If you write “potato” in the search field, you will get results where in Skåne you can buy potatoes produced on local farms. Food that has not travelled all over the world letting out CO2 and poison. It is just genius, a combination of internet technology and local farming.

This one is only in Swedish for obvious(?) reasons. But I guess it could be easily translated.

Great post!
And as always, so right on the spot. Individual actions matter much more than we think. Everything we do counts.

It’s just sad that, more often than not, the greenest option is also the most expensive. It doesn’t make much sense but a lot of times, buying fruit grown locally is more expensive than buying fruit grown in another continent.

But there must be something we can do about it, too.
Little by little, we’ll change the way things are done.

Tarun Bharat Sangh (http://www.tarunbharatsangh.org/) has brought together people in many villages to work for community development and water conservation since 1975. It’s projects are community specific, based on traditional knowledge and proof of the fact that those who directly depend on a resource have a greater interest in conserving it.

You can find information on some of India’s most well known rural jal yodhas (water warriors) here: http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/people/Ruraljy.htm

Shree Padre, a ‘farmer by profession and a journalist by obsession’ has been documenting success stories of water harvesting you can read some of them here: http://www.indiawaterportal.org/node/6869

Often when buying local is mentioned the cost of organic food comes up. Yes, in the west organic food is expensive and to understand why we’ll have to get into farm subsidies, the cost of transition from chemical to organic farming and also whether the food being sold as organic in the supermarkets is really sustainable: http://www.choosebritish.co.uk/WhyOrganicFoodCostsMore.html

However these concerns don’t come into play if 1) you don’t live in the developed world. In India for example haat bazaar are still places where you can get reasonably priced vegetables though if you live in a city chances are even if organic they will have high fertilizer content as the groundwater is contaminated 2) you don’t go looking for winter crops in summer and vice versa that is eat what is in season 3)grow your own vegetables.

Also I suppose the blog post is not only talking about vegetables. Do you really need to drive to the super market if you only have to buy some toothpaste? Or milk and eggs?

As far as Greenpeace India’s initiative regarding GM crops is concerned, going by the queries on their site at least they have started a conversation. From being a nation of consumers hardly concerned about what we eat, some of us have joined the debate surrounding GM crops. And that is a good start.

In France, REPORTERS D’ESPOIR (“reporters of hope”) is a media agency that reports about… positive stories and example of people… acting! I too have many stories, and we have many examples around us I am sure!
However, if people get more and more concerned, many do not act. Climat Change is a scary topic in fact, and people feel some fear, with is a brake for action…
SO, We, convinced, have to be an example for other. BUT for people to really change, we need to educate them a lot, and to have some couragous politicians.

I have a better idea.

Time is money. Let’s say I spent 30 minutes walking to and from my local vegetable store 3 times a week instead of 10 minutes by car once a week (since you can carry more in a car than by hand, fewer trips are needed). I earn $30/hour, so the hour and 20 minutes lost each week translates to $40. Let’s estimate the 10 minutes travelled in my car released 1kg of CO2.

Now let’s pretend there was a carbon tax of $1000 per tonne (an extreme scenario). This puts the carbon cost of my 10 minutes on the road at $1.00 plus $0.50 for the petrol consumed ($1/litre basis). Meanwhile, walking has cost me $40, plus an hour and 20 minutes of my life.

No matter which way you argue it, driving is greener than walking.

You environuts need to stop trying to control my life.

@Mike Interesting. Though you have totally missed the HUGE COST of health and environment that comes with driving cars.
From what I know you will never be able to reach your shop in 10 minutes. Unless you live in the 70s. There are things called traffic jams. In Delhi, you spend an hour on the road to drive 2 kms.
Pollution is causing asthma. Asthma needs medicines. Medicines are expensive.
You propound a theory set in a bubble.
Like most of the economics which was based on the fact that resources are ‘inexhaustible’. We found out that they aren’t, didn’t we.

You cannot measure the cost of happiness, health and most importantly the planet.

But it’s your choice. Noone is trying to control your life.  If you want to measure everything by cold, hard cash, that’s your personal call.

And since you are so interested in economics, a recommendation. A book called - Small is Beautiful by SF Schumacher, the famous economist.
It will give you an interesting perspective on economics, and why we are better off not measuring everything in money terms.
As for the carbon tax, let me point you to a nice humorous link: http://www.indecisionforever.com/2009/10/06/jon-stewart-nails-dems-on-cap-trade/

@Ajit Thanks.
Yes, it’s the convenience issue. Hope we realize that a planet affected by climate change will be very inconvenient.
@Anvita Great Stories. Rajendra Singh is a legend we can all learn from.
@Anne Yes, I think it’s the job of everyone of us to spread the awareness. It may be tough in the beginning, but humans have won against tougher challenges.
@Daniel. Thank you for your links and as always bringing interesting ideas to the table. Skane sounds amazing. And I will be posting more examples. Watch this space.

Might want to check twice where you are posting your completely irrelevant arguments.

I know you environuts love to exaggerate, but it’s still useless.

“In Delhi, you spend an hour on the road to drive 2 kms.”

Disregarding the fact that I obviously don’t live in Dehli:

One hour once a week is still 20 minutes less than the time I spent walking. This is $10 lost productivity. Now the hour spent idling in my car has increased my CO2 emissions to 6kg and the cost of my trip to $9 ($6 tax plus $3.00 in petrol).

On the contrary, it is absolutely unnecessary for me to talk economics. There is no physical mechanism linking anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions to observed rises in global mean average temperature in the 20th century.

@Mike In your calculation you don’t account for buying and producing the car, and you assume that you would take 1,5 hour off from work every week to go shopping.

Moreover,all you prove is that driving is cheaper, not greener.

I pity you if you don’t have the time to walk 30 minutes 3 times a week on your free time. If this ,5 hour would be spent in front of the TV in stead, i don’t see how you lose money.

Do you earn $30 per hour 24/7? In this case you might consider working less and living more.

“In your calculation you don’t account for buying and producing the car”

Are you seriously that much of a fool to think we should be aiming to live without any independant mode of transport?

“You assume that you would take 1,5 hour off from work every week to go shopping.”

Incorrect, I am assigning an arbitrary value to my personal time (ie. my wage) and comparing which mode of transport is more efficient. It would take 3 trips to the shops in order to carry back by hand a week’s worth of groceries (this is not an assumption). Assuming I can offset my carbon “sin”, I have clearly demonstrated it is much more efficient, and by extension more “green”, to drive. I now have the choice of what to do with my remaining hour and 20 minutes a week and “done my bit” for the environment.

But that’s not good enough for you environuts, since I must consider the “huge” impact on human health and the environment from producing/using the car.

How about the “huge” impact on my life expectancy, sacraficing 1 year of my life just walking to and from the store over 70 years. Or long before then the “huge” impact on my back and arms from carrying those groceries 3 times a week? Or the “huge” impact on my mental health, having 1 hour 20 minutes less time a week to myself to unwind from the stress of life.

All of this from just one “small” sacrafice. The writer of this article is correct when he says “it all adds up”.

@Mike
Walking is good for your overall health.
Write it down as exercise.

And you could use a bike instead of using a car.

Nobody is talking about sacrificing your entire life to being “green”.

The point is to make as much as you can to help. Because everything “ads up”... even small contributions.

If walking to the store is too much of a sacrifice to you, then don’t do it. If not driving your car is going to make you miserable because of lack of time to unwind (although walking is good for mental stress too)... then drive your car.

But c’mon… common sense… walking is greener than taking your car. Even public transport could be a better option.

Still, if it’s too much for you… then drive your car.

If you live in a house in the middle of nowhere, where not even public transport is an option… then drive your car.

If you have to buy groceries for a group of people and you only have like 40 minutes a week to do so… then drive your car.

Just don’t say that driving has a smaller impact on the enviroment than walking. Because that’s, simply, not true.

@Mike What I mean is that car-ownership includes many “hidden” expenses, that walking by foot doesn’t.

What I think is that driving our own cars is unstainable, yes. I’m sorry about that. I don’t consider electirc vehicles the best alternative - I prefer bikes and public transport, but if it is really important for you, go for a Tesla or something.

Of course the relevant way to consider this is weighing walking to the store agains what you would do otherwise. Would you asign an arbitrary value of $30 also to the hours when you eat dinner, sleep, etc.? Nice… I have been up five hours today, at a value of $150… whome should I ask to pay me for this? In deed, I went to the store, and I can’t see how I lost any money doing that…

Moreover, if we didn’t use cars, we wouldn’t have large Wal-marts outside the city centers, but food shops would be located within walking distance. So let’s presume you are right - it is the car-society that makes walking inprofitable, wich is worriesome from an ecological and economical perspective alike.

“Nobody is talking about sacrificing your entire life to being ‘green’.”

On the contrary, that is exactly what curtailing CO2 emissions would quite literally entail. About 4 billion people would be killed if we actually cut our emissions by 80%.
And before they die, you can bet they will rape and pillage their surrounding environment.

“The point is to make as much as you can to help.”

Help what? There is no physical mechanism linking anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions to observed rises in global mean average temperature during the 20th century.

“But c’mon… common sense… walking is greener than taking your car. Even public transport could be a better option.”

So I can’t offset my emissions? From here on you can never, EVER, try to tax me for my CO2… ever.

“Would you asign an arbitrary value of $30 also to the hours when you eat dinner, sleep, etc.?”

Invalid argument. There is no lost value since I always eat and sleep. Nothing changes.

“Moreover, if we didn’t use cars, we wouldn’t have large Wal-marts outside the city centers, but food shops would be located within walking distance.”

Explain how the food gets to all those food shops. It’s ok, I already know the answer.

As for bicycles, I’m assuming you are taking into account the “hidden-costs” of producing that? Not to mention how I can’t carry as much on a bike, unless I seriously decked it out with all manner of basket attachments. But you’re right, that might be more efficient than walking, or bicycles would be useless. Doesn’t make it more efficient than a car.

While on people’s action how can one not mention Bundanoon that became the first town in Australia, and possibly the world, that voted to ban the sale of bottled water.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/09/australian-bottled-water-ban

Hence proving that while politicians struggle to deal with the issue of climate change, each and every one of us can make a real difference at the very local level.

Here’s the Green School from Indonesia: Delivering a generation of global citizens who are knowledgeable about and inspired to take responsibility for the sustainability of the world.
http://www.greenschool.org/index.html

There is no physical mechanism linking anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions to observed rises in global mean average temperature during the 20th century.

How is banning bottled water not a prime example of environuts trying to control every minute details of our lives?

There is nothing responsible or efficient about killing 2/3’s of the world’s population and forcing the remaining 1/3 into poverty.

Green school. Like catholic school? Do they pray to Al Gore in the morning? I believe I read somewhere here about someone committing an “eco-sin”. We have pennance in the form of “carbon-offsets”. WELCOME TO THE NEW GLOBAL RELIGION.

@Anvita
Wow, the Bundanoon initiative is very impressive.

I would like to ad that sometimes, politicians and governments do take positive actions.

Maybe it’s out of necessity, but they do act.

There’s a huge problem of lack of water in Spain. It’s really bad in some areas.

This: http://www.elretodelagua.com/ is an initiative by the regional government to encourage people to save as much water as possible.

Of course there is still a lot left to do and very irresponsible people and companies left. But it really helps that everybody is basically agreeing on the fact that we need to save water.

All my life I dreamed to be Nobel Prize of peace; I would like to offer my dream to you!

Awesome post.

Witty, fun and yet straight to the point!

Reducing everyone’s carbon footprint is essential in rebuilding the damage to the earth.

Composting everyone’s waste alone can massively help with methane emmissions from landfil and other sites.

Cheers!