Greta Thunberg Hears Your Excuses. She Is Not Impressed.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/02/magazine/greta-thunberg-interview.html

This is a great interview with Greta Thunberg, climate activist.

On my morning walk, with Rosie, I was thinking about a few things, largely in response to what I read. First off, changing our relationship with the environment and the damages human activities are causing to the global climate, thereby inflicting harm on every ecosystem and every populace, is never talked about in terms of conservation. 

We must learn to exercise thrift, even when the exercise of thrift curtails the flow of cash. Politicians want to buy our way out of the harm we inflict by investing in new stuff that's intended to allow us to consume planetary resources at an undiminished rate.

Secondly, woodworkers are sometimes thought of as being anti-environmental because we use wood as an alternative to plastic. And yet, I've always thought of myself as an environmentalist attempting to point out the beauty and value of our forests... thus hoping to awaken the urge to protect. My own efforts are certainly not enough but I've met many woodworkers who share my concerns.

Some of what's called for is a withdrawal when possible from our world's economy and a reinsertion of our resources into our local environments, asking those who can make from what grows here and there to make for us what we need. Or better yet, make for ourselves.

If you can't make it, perhaps you don't need it is a challenge none of us are capable of meeting yet. But Greta, in her clear way, uncluttered by the emotion we don't have time to indulge in, suggested that one of the most powerful tools we have comes in the comparison of ourselves with our neighbors. We need that level of competition. To be able to tell others, I only used this many kilowatts because I've chosen to limit my use of resources could help us to make real change. We live in an information age in which it is easy to be overwhelmed. But given the state of things, we need more information, not less. And this is particularly true with regard to our Covid-19 pandemic. We need more testing and more localized application of information. With that we could shut down only those parts of the economy that offer the greatest safe harbor for the deadly disease. With more localized information we would be better equipped to assess risk.

I was very pleased to have spent some time with Bill Coperthwaite a few years back, which I've mentioned in this earlier blog post. http://wisdomofhands.blogspot.com/2012/06/grit.html The photo is of Bill's 4 story yurt taken from the trail leading up to his home. Bill, a PhD from Harvard was drawn to buy his property by the potential of abundant free electric power generation. In the process, he discovered the power of his own body and opted for a simpler life.

Make, fix and create... Assist others in living likewise.