How to Thrive in the Next Economy – Book Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

How to Thrive in the Next Economy: Designing Tomorrow's World Today
by John Thackara
First published by Thames & Hudson, August 2015
192 pages, Hardback, 23.40 x 15.60 cm
£18.95
ISBN 9780500518083

A visionary yet practical guide to building a more sustainable future, by one of the leading voices of the environmental movement today. Marvelling at the power of small actions to transform the bigger picture, Thackara believes that a great transition is under way. It’s the end of one civilization – but the birth of another

Is there no escape from an economy that devours nature in the name of endless growth? John Thackara’s answer is a rousing ‘yes, there is!’ Drawing on a lifetime of travel in search of real-world alternatives that work, he describes in this book how communities the world over are creating a replacement economy from the ground up.

Are there practical solutions to the many global challenges – climate change, poverty, insufficient healthcare – that threaten our way of life? Author John Thackara has spent a lifetime roving the globe in search of design that serves human needs. In this clear-eyed but ultimately optimistic book, he argues that, in our eagerness to find big technological solutions, we have all too often ignored the astonishing creativity generated when people work together and in harmony with the world around them.

Each chapter is devoted to the creative ways people in diverse contexts tackle timeless needs: restoring the land, sharing water, making homes, journeying, growing food, designing clothes, caring for each other. From Bali to Brazil, as well as Delhi, London, and California, Thackara writes of soil restorers and river keepers, seed savers and de-pavers, cloud commuters and e-bike couriers, care farmers, food system curators, watershed stewards, citizen foresters, money designers and more.

Drawing on an inspiring range of examples, from a temple-led water management system in Bali that dates back hundreds of years to an innovative e-bike collective in Vienna, the author shows that below the radar of the mainstream media there are global communities creating a replacement economy – one that nurtures the earth and its inhabitants rather than jeopardizing its future – from the ground up. Each chapter is devoted to a concern all humans share – land and water management, housing, what we eat, what we wear, our health, how and why we travel – and demonstrates that it is possible to live a rich and fulfilling life based on stewardship rather than exploitation of the natural environment.

Read together, these encounters add up to a joyful new story about what an economy is actually for. In place of an obsession with stuff, money and endless growth, this book describes social practices that cherish all-of-life, not just human life.

“How to Thrive in the Next Economy: Designing Tomorrow's World Today” is a most interesting book with lots of examples of positive changes already afoot of the next, the new, economy and of the new society. It is a good guide to understanding that we are not alone in our endeavors as often we feel rather alone in what we do in our small efforts to change the world for a better one. But, hey, we are not alone and if we but all knew that we existed and found a way of sharing ideas and cooperating things indeed would change.

However, what is missing are the true grassroots projects, the small ones, and happenings, including the Russian dacha system and especially that of the Familienlandsitz Movement based on the Anastasia books; plus others. But then again it is not really possible to list everything that is happening in a book unless one intends to create a large volume that no one is going to really read.

Government is not going to give us the changes that we need to bring about the new society that is needed, we must do it ourselves and create the framework that can take over when the old is dismantled.

On the other hand this is one of the few books only that tells me that I am no delusional when I say, for instance, that renewables are not going to cut it as far as the growth economy and the way we do things presently are concerned. We need a serious reevaluation of how we do things if we want to keep the lights on and when we have to – as we will – rely on renewables only for our electricity needs we best learn to reduce our consumption now.

The author must be commended for his diligence in putting together #the gathered information as to the moves afoot with regards to creating the new economy and new society which must be brought forth out of the ruins of the old. And if you do not realize that the old one is dead, both economy and society, or at least dying, then I am not sure what Planet you are living on.

The perpetual growth economy and society of today where only money, possessions and ego count are both not sustainable; they never have been, in fact, sustainable and that is why our Planet is in such a dire straight that it is in and I am not just talking about carbon emissions, the only thing that everyone seems to be talking about almost exclusively. There is general pollution and it would be better to consider them all rather than just CO2, and then there is loss of species and loss of habitat and even loss of soil.

But, back to the book...

John Thackara is a writer and event producer who has spent a lifetime searching for live examples of what a sustainable future can be like. He writes about these stories at his blog, Doors of Perception, and organizes festivals that bring the project leaders he has met together. His ten previous books include Design After Modernism: Beyond the Object and In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World.

A definite 5 out of 5.

© 2015

To Become 21st Century City, Los Angeles Plan Aims To Curb Car Culture

"The car capital of America is officially changing its tune."

Marking a major departure for a city known for its over-reliance on cars, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday evening approved a 20-year transportation plan that aims to encourage walking, biking, and public transit over automobiles.

"The car capital of America is officially changing its tune," wrote LA Weekly.

The 'Mobility Plan 2035,' described in the LA Times as "a sweeping policy shift," calls for hundreds of miles of new bicycle lanes, bus-only lanes, and other road redesigns throughout the city. It targets about 10 percent of the city's major streets for lane reductions.

ABC 7-Los Angeles reports that about 47 percent of trips taken in the city are less than 3 miles, and of those trips, 84 percent are taken by car. The city's Environmental Impact Report suggested the plan, which passed the council 12-2, would reduce the amount of car travel by 1.7 million miles a day.

Read more here.

Get Fresher-Smelling Clothes By Line-Drying Them

You'll save money, cut carbon emissions, and extend the life of your duds in the process.

Line drying is back! True, electric clothes dryers aren’t going to disappear anytime soon. But, as you may find simply by strolling around your neighborhood on the next sunny Saturday, it seems like more people than ever are returning to the tried-and-true combination of sun, wind, and clothesline to dry their clothing and linens. The Los Angeles Times recently reported that the trend was becoming popular among celebrities, even as some ordinary folks had to battle with local home owner associations that banned the practice as “unattractive.” Hanging your laundry out to dry instead of firing up your dryer reduces your electric or gas bill, lowers carbon emissions, helps your clothing and linens last longer by eliminating some wear and tear on the fabric (saving you more money), is a great excuse to get outside, and gives your fabrics that natural, fresh outdoor smell (no need to use chemical fragrances that claim to mimic it). Even if you don’t hang every wash load, each time you do, you save yourself money and help protect the environment.

The Line
There are all sorts of drying line setups, but all you really need is a length of clean, strong rope that you can tie between two trees or poles. Having a tightening mechanism of some sort is a good idea, as every type of line I’ve used has stretched over time. You can buy tighteners at a hardware or home improvement store; they attach to the line and make it easy to take up any slack without having to untie and retie the rope. Be sure you hang your line high enough so heavy washed items won’t brush the ground. Pick a site where no one will run into the drying laundry and also consider how far you will need to carry your laundry. Avoid putting your line under trees that drip sap or where birds tend to perch. If you are short on space, you can buy a retractable clothesline, which attaches to a wall and lets you extend the line when needed, or an umbrella-style clothesline, which is like a patio umbrella but has clotheslines in place of umbrella fabric. These options require a bigger up-front investment, but you’ll recoup the costs.

Read more here.

Choosing Freedom

“If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down.”

When I tell people I’ve lived out of my suitcase for the last 4 years and that I’m homeless and happy, they usually stare in disbelief.

They either think my life as a digital nomad and suitcase entrepreneur on a quest for freedom is the coolest thing ever. Or they think I’m mad as a hatter and wonder why on earth anyone would want to live that way.

I’m a minimalist and I love it that way. I have just enough in my suitcase to suit my lifestyle of travel and business and get me through almost any occasion and not look like a vagabond.

I can pack up my whole life in 14 minutes flat—it all fits in one medium-sized suitcase and a mini carry-on.

Read more here.

Surprise: The Wall Street Journal doesn't understand that bikes are transportation

Rachel Berman of the Wall Street Journal appears to be surprised that people actually ride bikes for other than mad racing in spandex. She speaks to one Austin rider who says:

“I ride my bike purely to get from one place to another—not, ‘I’m going to take this out for exercise for like 20 miles,’ ” says Cassie Rae DuBay, a 28-year-old law librarian in Dallas. She says she aims to “add a little exercise to my day by riding 2 miles, as opposed to driving.”

She goes on to compare the growth of running as a sport to that of cycling, and finds that cycling is lagging running, showing a graph that compares "people in the US ages 6 and up who bicycled on pavement or went running at least once during the calendar year." She then compares running events to cycling, and speaks to a bike dealer:

“When you look at a marathon or half-marathon, you will see people walking, and they’re not ashamed,” says Fred Clements, executive director of the National Bicycle Dealers Association. “They’re not made to feel embarrassed. And that’s something that you won’t really see at a bicycling event. I don’t think we’re as far along as running is in making events that appeal to everyone.”

I wonder what planet these people are on. There's been an explosion in the use of bikes as transportation in cities across North America, with a 61.6 percent increase in bicycle commuting since 2000. It's growing at about 10 percent per year.

Read more here.

Labour's demise in British 2015 General Election

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The reason Labour did so badly is down to at least three reasons.

One being that they made a mistake backing the No Campaign in Scotland

Two that they have moved so far away from the true values of the original Labour party that the working class no longer feels them to be their home

Three that they have refused to entertain a referendum on UK membership in the EU (NO2EU has been part of some of the Trade Union message for some time now and Labour has completely lost it there) claiming that – and openly saying that – that the people of the UK cannot be trusted with that question and that it is up to politicians to make that decision.

But there are also a number of other reasons and one of those is that people are selfish in the extreme in Britain nowadays, ever since the Thatcher era.

Time and again I hear some people say “What has Labour ever done for me?” or when one suggests to them to join a Trade Union “What have the Unions ever done for me?” without stopping once to think what Labour under Clement Attlee did in creating the welfare state, the National Health service, and the unions by bringing them the five-day working week, paid holidays, and such like. Some even go as far as to say “Oh well, I get those benefits even if I am not in a union”.

The problem is selfishness in the extreme and people also vote according to which party promises them personal benefits. But in the words of J F Kennedy we should not ask what our country can do for us but what we can do for our country. Instead of looking out for only what we can gain from this or that personally it is time that we looked out also for those less fortunate for we could be the next one losing out job and thus our home and be dependent on the no longer existent, if the Tories get their way, welfare state.

However, the truth be told, the Labour Party no longer is the party of the working class even though, unfortunately, many of the working class still seem to believe that. There is almost not a single MP left from that party who has ever done an honest day's work at the coal face, in a factory, a shipyard, or in the fields and forests.

Those that are now being put forward for leadership are also no better in that respect. None of them have a clue as to the working class and its problems, coming from privileged backgrounds and in the main having been privately educated. Furthermore they are drifting further and further to “the right” and are becoming just pink Tories.

The British working class (and in all honesty not only the working class of Britain) needs new leadership and the Labour Party or the Social Democratic Party (in the case of Germany, etc.) does not cut the mustard.

It is also time that the Unions cut their ties with the Labour Party. The Unions do not need Labour but Labour the Unions. Without the Unions the Labour party is nothing. Labour, however, has forgotten that and the very fact that the Unions gave it life.

To the majority of the working class in Britain the Labour Party is but the other side of the Tory coin and that seems to be a fact, unfortunately, which can also be seen in that they were prepared to use basically the same austerity measures proposed by the Tories and also were hellbent to continue the British Independent Nuclear Deterrent (may I laugh) in the form of the Trident submarines. The cost for the renewal of those alone could pay is more than the proposed austerity measures but no, it has to be kept. Sure it has to be kept because the master, the USA, who actually command that “independent” nuclear deterrent, says so.

It is time for the British working class to wake up and – one – understand that they are not millionaires or even billionaires in waiting but simple wage slaves as long as they do not have control over the means of production and – two – that the Labour Party was only intent on creating capitalism with a human face and no socialism, where the workers do own the means of productions, etc. And today Labour does not even want to know the word socialism in any shape or form. They have become a party for the bourgeoisie and now longer – if ever they did – represent the proletariat.

Furthermore it is time for the British working class to take matters into their hands and to rise from their prisons of starvation into which the Tory “masters” intend to toss them, once again, and overturn the tables of the moneychangers.

But, alas, the British working class has been lulled to sleep by promises of being able to aspire. Aspire to what? We can all aspire but getting there in the current climate to fulfill our aspirations, whatever they may be, is all but a dream.

The Labour Party is dead and has been on its deathbed for some time and now it is time for the working class and with the Trade Unions in the lead, maybe, to bury the poor thing and give birth to a proper organization of the working class, by the working class, for the working class, and bring about a system where all will be the winners, including the Planet.

© 2015

Back to school: R2 Certified refurbished computers save money and resources

Instead of buying a new computer or mobile device for your kids going back to school, consider purchasing a certified refurbished one.

While the pull to buy the latest and greatest device for yourself or your children may be strong, a far better choice, both for your wallet and the environment, might be to purchase an older model that's been refurbished, which can save you money and be a better use of resources.

The market for used previously owned electronics is quite large, and that may be good for consumers in some aspects, as there is a lot of choice, it can also be quite the minefield to navigate, because not only is there a big difference between a used device and a refurbished one, there is also quite a big gray area when it comes to the quality of the refurbishing. A used device sold directly by the original owner to another owner comes with no guarantees of any kind, and any assurances given by the seller that the device works great and has been well taken care of have to be taken with a grain of salt - after all, who's going to be able to sell you a gadget after telling you that it's basically been rode hard and put away wet?

Read more here.

The number of bike commuters in London, UK, has doubled in the past 10 years

n urban areas, commuting in a car doesn't make much sense. When a majority of the population tries to move back and forth between the residential areas and the work areas, all at the same time, every day, there's got to be a better way to do that than 1 person per vehicle... That's why we're always happy to see the numbers go up for public transportation and cycling.

A new census in the U.K. is revealing that London is doing really well in that regard. Statistics compiled and analyzed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for the decade between 2001 and 2011 puts the capital well ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to bike commuting progress.

Read more here.

Bucket crops: Mississippi man takes container gardening to another level

Some people are happy with a patio tomato on the porch.

Willie Anderson, 82, took container gardening to another level; he planted tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, okra, squash, peppers and eggplants in five-gallon plastic buckets in his yard in Red Banks, Mississippi. He now has plants in more than 1,000 buckets.

It’s easier to grow an entire garden if you’re planting everything in buckets, Anderson said. “There’s no hoe on the place,” he said. “We don’t need one.”

“You don’t have to have any equipment,” said his son, Ron Anderson. “You don’t have to have any utensils to farm with as far as hoes and shovels. You don’t have to have a tiller. All you do is plant, water and harvest.”

The garden is totally organic. “I use grass clippings, soybean stalks, cotton hulls — that’s the waste that comes out when they gin the cotton,” Willie said.

Read more here.

Collecting and saving seed

Collecting and growing seed is a cheap way to get new plants. It’s also easier than you might think and few activities bring more pleasure than raising your own flowers at home.

The key to seed saving is to emulate nature as far as possible. Collect your seeds just before the plant is about to shed them. This doesn't involve hanging around decaying plants and waiting for seed heads to pop, but just keeping an eye on things.

As the plant begins to dry and turn brown, the seeds will be ripening so you should place a paper bag over the top of a flower head, cut the stem and invert the whole thing.

Tie the bag at the top before putting it somewhere to dry – hung from a the roof of a garage with good ventilation, for example. Check the bag after a few weeks and you should find seeds in the bottom of the bag. If not, you can give them a helping hand by rubbing or shaking the seeds out of the dry pods or seed heads.

Read more here.