1. Comment by Krishnaraj Rao @ Dec 31, 2007 12 PM

My fellow Indians & fellow world-citizens,

In the closing hours of 2007, I wish you a very Happy New Year. I sincerely pray that all of us find contentment and fulfilment in life… but there is a great deal of rethinking as to the nature of that contentment and fulfillment.

1) Let me tell you up front that I’m actively praying, in thought and action, that all our earnings and expenditures go into decline mode… and let mine be foremost in leading this trend. I do not wish PROSPERITY on any of us. Contentment, yes, but not prosperity, not richness… because each person’s richness beggars hundreds of creatures, unknown to him.

2) I wish and pray that in the year to come, we shall learn to cease the endless quest of fulfilment through ever-higher incomes and conspicuous consumption, competition with our neighbours, colleagues etc. On a personal level and other levels — social, professional, industry, national and global — we shall seek NOT TO OUTDO each other, and also not to outdo our own past economic performances. Let us get off this treadmill for three reasons: (i) It is poisoning our planet to death, and causing a wave of mass extinction (ii) It is personally meaningless, unfulfilling, unrewarding and deeply immoral (iii) Another quest patiently awaits us: an infinitely more fulfilling inward-leading quest, an ancient, ageless quest of Magellanic dimensions.

3) I pray that our economic growth ceases and indeed, declines. I pray that this happens irrespective of what the citizens or governments of USA, Pakistan or other countries do or think with their economies. I hope that this happens with a minimum of suffering all around… but as suffering is an inevitable part of this scenario of necessary decline, I pray that my family and I are among the foremost and not the hindmost in swallowing this bitter pill and smiling through our tears.

4) At some level, I find myself hoping that our NEEDS, principally food and security, are met. However, there is a problem here: while need for food can be met rather cheaply, there is no end to our need for ‘security’; it is a bottomless pit. My current savings, insurance, retirement annuities etc, may be sufficient to ensure that if I stop earning with immediate effect, my family has enough to get by for another decade or so until one of my two children to start earning a living to support our family. This is far more security than any animal would enjoy, more than EVEN ONE of my millions of ancestors may have ever enjoyed. So let my family, and yours, learn to be content with far lower levels of security; this I pray.

5) The nature of our economy and our civilization keeps us all on a perpetually moving treadmill. If we stop, we do so at risk of severe injury! Yet, in order to stop this infernal device that is poisonous to our planet, we must earnestly believe that there is indeed a life outside this treadmill. I pray for faith that is as monumental and more unshakeable than this infernal machine.

6) A word of caution: mere charity and altruism is not enough. Our love of the world must go beyond charity and philanthropy; it must manifest as something infinitely more meaningful than mere ‘purse seva’. Our economies EXPLOIT our altruism as another need, and this includes our concern for a world ravaged by global warming. We are often given the impression that by some acts of charity or philanthropy, we can ‘support’ the greening of our planet. We are offered the comfort of thinking that if we are prepared to ‘pay a tax for our sins’ – such as a carbon tax, buying carbon credits, or paying to plant trees to ‘offset’ our carbon footprint — we can continue to consume more, produce more, pursue economic growth etc. At the heart of such claims, one discerns a deep-seated cynicism and the same devices that make our economies perpetually grow. These charities and these economic devices milk us as surely as corporates manufacturing various goodies; in the end, they lull us to sleep, motivate us to grow some more, and consume the earth some more.

7) Please, I beg you, do not allow your conscience to be lulled back to sleep. Please refuse the comfort of a bed that is lined with the corpses of your fellow creatures on earth and your own descendents, both unborn and already born. Please refuse the blood-tainted pleasures of consumerism and the opium of economic-growthism. In 2008, please awaken fully and stay alert. Please be aware, and step from awareness into action.

8) What lies ahead in 2008 and the years afterwards is a steep, stony, mountain. It is not pleasant, it is not pretty, it is not fun by any stretch of imagination. But I beg you, my fellow Indians, my fellow citizens of this tiny planet… please accept this bitter pill with grace.

9) In 2008, please do the right thing by voluntarily accepting lower standards of living, cutting up your credit cards, paying up your consumer loans and refusing to all inducements to take loans. Please buy less, spend less, and despite all discomforts, use public transport instead of your private cars.

Please be visibly more frugal, austere, simple… and motivate others to the same. Please love others enough to refuse to compete with them. The time has come to stop being career-minded, business-minded, commercial-minded, consumer-minded. It is time to give back to this world without expectations. It is time to let go of the collective stranglehold that we have on this planet.

My friends, let us spend more time rediscovering the pleasures of just being with our friends, families, dogs, cats, plants, trees. Hug and kiss them more, serve them with greater humility. Be more loving and caring to strangers and casual acquaintances. And yes, let us learn to lavish on our own inner selves the love and attention that we have hitherto been giving our material possessions, our bank accounts and our portfolio of stocks. Please disinvest in the what is gross, and invest in your sublime self.

Please understand the spirit in which I offer these somewhat bitter-sounding greetings, and accept them in good grace.

With all my love
Krish
http://friendlyghost.rediffiland.com
http://globalwarming.rediffiland.com

2. Comment by Rob Ewaschuk @ Jan 2, 2008 6 AM

I dispute that all of the products in the “Energy Savers” section of your store are, in fact, energy savers — in particular the Solio charger. It may be a useful tool for people who find themselves in sunny, non-electrified, cell-covered places, but I cannot imagine that, even under intense use, it would *ever* pay back its embodied energy through solar power.

Even ideally placed, large-scale solar panels take on the order of a couple years to pay back, as I understand. They’re a large, capital investment and people take them seriously, and, relative to the Solio, they have a reasonable economy of scale. Not to mention that having people focus on the 4-8w involved in charging their cell phone is like getting people to reuse Christmas paper. It’s a nice gesture, and makes people think about their waste, but it’s completely token in the face of excessive commutes and daily newspapers.

(The SmartStrip also strikes me as dubious — I can imagine in the most extreme of cases it would make a substantial difference. But it seems to me that the right way to address “phantom power” usage is at the device(s), or at the fusebox, not at every power bar.)

-Rob

3. Comment by Pete @ Jan 2, 2008 6 AM

Well said Krish. May the Great Bird of Paradise light our path with peace and kindness.

4. Comment by Katy @ Jan 2, 2008 6 AM

Since last winter, we have been hanging our clothes to dry in the drier months (no point in hanging clothes to dry in summer—they never will here by Lake Michigan). I bought a very large rack, keep it standing in the basement, and take about five-ten minutes per load to hang stuff up. I still use the dryer, but only for maybe one load in five (sheets and towels, mostly). It also fits into my effort to SLOW DOWN and simply enjoy the quiet task here and there.
Happy New Year to all!

5. Comment by Hannah @ Jan 2, 2008 8 AM

I have a little washing up tub that I keep in the shower. I put a little water in it and shave my legs prior to turning the shower on taking a shower. I save a lot of hot water by doing this and my husband also has started filling the sink and shaving instead of doing it in the shower. Just think of all that wasted water and energy down the drain just while you shave…not a big change, easy to do and a noticeable difference in the electric bill! Sadly enough, these little tips are all things my grandparents did automatically, what has our lifestyle come to that we can waste and abuse resources so freely.

6. Comment by Anon @ Jan 2, 2008 7 PM

1) I’m planning to de-car in 2008 — even in my public transit poor city. I’ve already started testing this out — and am planning to see how many days in January and February I can go without using my car at all before I take the official plunge and sell the car altogether.

2)In general, I want to buy less in 2008.

7. Comment by Shawn @ Jan 2, 2008 10 PM

I just leased a new Civic Hybrid (was this . close to buying on old Mercedes converted to run on veggie oil), am purchasing a low-flow showerhead, am putting plastic bottles filled with water in my toilet tanks and, like the carnivore mentioned above, am cutting back on my meat intake.

Happy new year everyone!

-Shawn
sponsible.org

8. Comment by David @ Jan 3, 2008 3 PM

Last year was one of continued notable and steady forward progress toward sustainability for me. It was the first year our household offset not only our vehicle emissions but home energy use and air travel. (Thanks, Terrapass!) To reduce our net consumption of energy, we also installed 26 low-e windows for our home and I biked to work 136 days, up from 76 in 2006. I also led service efforts with a local watershed group with productivity up over 50 percent by the units of work accomplished.

I’ve really enjoyed my biking and encourage everyone to make choices about where to live and work, that enable such more-sustainable lifestyles possible. For my family, it involved deciding to live in a different city with lower housing prices, and living within 5 miles of my workplace.

I disagree that the road forward must be an arduously steep mountain (or valley of declining expectations). Yes the results at the end will be revolutionary as we look across the chasm that we have crossed, but the journey through the canyon begins with a single step, and we just need to keep taking them each day.

One daily commitment I began last year that was very empowering to me, is to pick up at least 10 pieces of litter as I am going about my daily tasks outside in my city, and to recycle as much of it as possible. Just doing this has given me a much stronger sense of ownership and stewardship of my local environmental conditions.

For 2008, I plan to do more to actively speak out to my elected officials in favor of political change for sustainability. I also want to increase the thermal insulation in my home, especially the attic and exterior walls. I hope to convert my home heating/cooling to geothermal in the next few years, although this may be costly on my urban lot. I know it can be done because a friend has set the example. I also want to get some net-metered solar electricity production started on my garage roof. This spring, I will also begin using two rain barrels in my garden. I would like to make a “rain garden” in my yard to absorb and buffer the runoff from my lot.

Most of my actions are very local, which is where I can see the most difference. It gives me the spark to keep doing more.