It is interesting that with all the talk about global warming and new technologies to reduce energy use, the real saver, conservation is avoided like the plague. Reduce speed by 5 miles per hour and significantly reduce fuel use. Use better planning to cut out unnecessary trips, and reduce the impulse to go shopping as entertainment, and you will have significantly reduced our carbon footprint, and saved a lot of money, too!

But politicians avoid the subject of conservation for a very good reason. If you reduce the impulsiveness of the American shopper, you'll have had a major impact on the American economy. If people were making things and growing things and cooking things themselves instead of shopping for Chinese made products, factory processed foodstuffs, and calorie laden fast foods, we would have a crisis. Jobs would be lost, and the political establishment would be shaken.

Perhaps we have a crisis anyway, one that politicians prefer because it keeps them in power. The crisis is this: global warming, combined with massive waste of the earth's resources, declining nutritional value in our foodstuffs, declining access to affordable health services, and an epidemic of depression, anxiety, and related mental health problems. You notice I still haven't mentioned terrorism, and a variety of international problems that are associated with our dependence on foreign oil, or the strategic loss of manufacturing in the US or our balance of trade deficit. It gets scary, right?

I'll repeat a short story I've told before that comes from the history of educational sloyd.

In mid 19th century Sweden, villagers practiced various crafts in their homes during the long dark winter months. By doing so, they kept seasonal affective disorder at bay, kept alive a sense of creativity and competence while producing hem sloyd -- crafts that they were able to barter and sell to their neighbors to produce some income during the months that weather conditions made farming impossible.

At that point, a huge influx of well-made and inexpensive German and English manufactured goods entered the Swedish marketplace, and greatly diminished the value of their home-crafted products. As a result, the Swedes turned to the making and sales of alcoholic beverages. They could sell it, and they could drink it, providing a small amount of revenue and temporarily alleviating the effects of winter. It had disastrous effects on the Swedish culture and economy.

The same thing happened with the American Indian, the cultures of Africa, Asia and South America. When the values of individual involvement in the making of things and the shaping of personal lives are lost; when access to the traditional sources of self-esteem and empowerment are lost, the effects are tragic. Educational Sloyd was supported and encouraged in Swedish schools by the Lutheran Church as a means to restore and preserve the traditional values.

So, here we are now. When we make something ourselves instead of buying it from China, it may involve an economic loss for the world's trading and political conglomerates. When we grow food ourselves, and prepare it for our own tables, it may involve loss for the multinationals and their economy. But these activities involve renewal of self-esteem and restoration of dignity and power for those who who engage in them. It is radical. It is what happens when we begin to look at the dangerous concept of conservation.

Change is certain. It is one of those inevitable facts of life. It can be good if you know it's coming and you have taken steps to prepare. It can be disastrous if it catches you unaware. Make plans for yourself. Learn to do things with your own hands. Plant a garden, or plan and cook dinner tonight. Make something from wood. Share that pleasure with your child. Your partial withdrawal from the economy, taking life into your own hands, will prepare you for change and for the better.