DEFINE THE ISSUES OF SUSTAINAILITY FIRST

[Jim Mller]

DEFINE THE ISSUES OF SUSTAINAILITY FIRST
--Think, then take action: hit the Start Button
By Jim Miller
November 17, 2008

The real issues are:

1. Transportation. Our national planning has been built on the internal combustion engine which was built on cheap oil. Our society followed this model to produce a “dumbbell” layout of our cities. Dumbbell Planning versus Integrated Community Planning: http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/DUMBBELL+PLANNING+VERSUS+INTEGRATED+COMMUNITY+PLANNING
2. As need for housing grew, cheaper land in the urban fringe was developed, increasing the driving distances. The mass transit systems fail to solve the “last mile” issue. How to Get the Right Answers to the Right Questions: http://masallp.wetpaint.com/search/everything/HOW%2BTO%2BGET%2BTHE%2BRIGHT%2BANSWERS%2BTO%2BTHE%2BRIGHT%2BQUESTIONS.?contains=HOW%2BTO%2BGET%2BTHE%2BRIGHT%2BANSWERS%2BTO%2BTHE%2BRIGHT%2BQUESTIONS .
3. Job location became disjointed from living locations. Hard-Wired Traffic; http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/HARD-WIRED+TRAFFIC
4. So too have shopping, schools, health centers, financial, government, and other centers.
5. More and larger roads did not “solve” the problem of vehicles clogging the travel arteries.
6. Housing: City planners, oblivious to this trend, continued to segregate living space from the other centers. They designed cities for the benefit of vehicles and not for the benefit of people. Planning as if People Mattered: http://leaguedemorepub.wetpaint.com/page/PLANNING+AS+IF+PEOPLE+MATTERED ;
7. Rural towns died as rural wages fell, farm family’s needed second and third incomes, which meant longer commutes. More cars, more fuel, more pollution resulted. The Evisceration of Rural America: http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/THE+EVISCERATION+OF+RURAL+AMERICA
8. Farm families sent their children to college and the military, who found higher quality of life elsewhere. More farms were sold to developers.
9. Food: The food chain continues to grow longer, riding on a bed of cheap oil. The average food product travels 1500 miles from the producer to the consumer,
10. More and bigger shopping centers, big box stores selling slavery wage goods produced offshore, added to the massing of vehicle use. We became more of a ‘throwaway” society, stoking our landfills.
The solutions are:
1. Cut the number of trip miles in half.
2. Switch from internal combustion engines to electric motors.
3. Grow our own food and fuel. Algal Oil Diesel: http://algaloildiesel.wetpaint.com ; Mutual Aid Society of America, Mondragon and More: http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/MUTUAL+AID+SOCIETY+OF+AMERICA%2C+MONDRAGON+AND+MORE
4. Stop or greatly reduce importation of foreign oil.
5. Build clustered eco-villages and they will come. We will work where we live and live where we work. Cluster Development; http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/CLUSTER+DEVELOPMENT
6. Self-sufficient, sustainable eco-villages will grow most of their own food using biodynamic agriculture (permaculture). The Econo Campus: http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/THE+ECONO+CAMPUS . Most of their needs will be met on-site: food, housing, jobs, education, health care, energy production, networking in person and via the Internet, child care and elder care. A Coherent Community: http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/A+COHERENT+COMMUNITY
7. We will need good soil, good water and clean air. Instead of burning straw, we will harvest it and make syngas and biochar. A Place in the Country: http://www.ruralstrategies.org/projects/place.html
8. We will be energy independent, but will sell any of our excess energy production using as local Peoples Utility District which sponsors production of green electricity distributed locally using the MESH network technology.
9. We will build energy efficient straw bale houses: http://strawbalebuilders.wetpaint.com/
10. We will turn-in our old and worn-out gas guzzlers to the scrap yard and convert our light trucks and cars to hybrid electric-diesel plug-ins.
And the above is just some of the starters which can be accomplished inside of one year from hitting the start button.