Some ideas for changing the world

This is a first version of a project which I would like to see added to by others. Please feel free to republish it as a whole or to add ideas to it. Older versions of the project will be archived and listed here as it gets updated

Version 1.1 (current) added web site locations beside the links so that people reading a printed copy will have that information. If you print out a copy of this to share with others who aren’t reading it online, I recommend using the back sides of paper which might have been recycled otherwise. But you knew that, right?

Version 1.0

1.) think of ideas which will help change the world
2.) write them down as simply as I can, so that a child can read them
3.) make a video about them?
4.) share the ideas with other people

Do you want to save money? Do you want to help fix things like global warming? Do you want to make new friends? If so, then keep reading. You may find some ideas here that will help you do all those things and more. These are just a few ideas. Add some more ideas to them. Share them. If only a few people do them, then they will only change the lives of those people. If lots of people do them, then maybe they could help fix some big problems in the world. Problems like hunger and war and global warming.

The 4 Rs. First comes Reduce. Use less stuff. Then come Reuse and Repair. Use it again and again and fix it if it breaks. Only at the very end comes Recycle. That’s for when you can’t do any of the other things first.

Reduce - use less
   *Use and buy less gas, food, water, clothes, toys, and things. How little can you be happy with?
   *If you need a thing, then buy, make, or trade for well made things which will last a long time and can be fixed if they break.
   * share with others to use less - share the use of a car, a vacuum cleaner, a blender, a refrigerator. Each person does not need one of each thing to be happy.
   * buy things in bulk - it uses less containers.
   * eat more plants and less animals. It uses less land and energy to feed people.
   * use energy only if you need to. Turn off a light if you don’t need it. Use the sun for light and heat. Use things that run on energy only when you need to.
    *Save energy. Full refrigerators use less than empty ones. Put containers filled with water in it to fill it up, if you need to. That way, every time you open the door there is less cold air that comes out, so it doesn’t need to be cooled down again.
   *low energy light bulbs
   * Buy things grown or made in your area. It uses less energy to move it if it doesn’t have to go as far.
   * Books and videos and things from the library are free to check out.

Reuse - Use it again
   * Use water for dishes again to water a plant. Use a type of dish soap that will be good for the plant first.
   * If you don’t use a toy or clothes anymore, give it to someone who will like it.
   * Clean out jars and use them to hold something else. Don’t throw away a piece of string if you can use it again for something else.

Repair-
   * make or buy things that can be fixed if something goes wrong.
   * put a patch on it if it gets a hole. Patch a tire. Patch clothes. Patch a couch or a pillow.
   * Get a new or used part for something to replace a broken one. Two broken toys can make one fixed toy. Sometimes three broken toys can make two fixed toys.
   * A car at the junk yard may have the piece you need to fix your car.

Only at the very end Recycle.

If you have to have it, then you can’t Reduce it. So you Repair it when it breaks. You Reuse it every way you can think of. Now at the end it has been all used up except for a few scraps. Now you can Recycle it to make something new. Good job!

Ten percent at a time

When people start a new diet, it can be hard to stick to it. If they try to change too quickly, a lot of times they can’t keep doing it. Some people say to make the changes ten percent at a time is the best way. If you eat meat for 20 meals a week and want to eat less, then you would  start by only eating it 18 times a week until you become used to that. Then cutting out meat a couple more meals a week until you get used to that level. If you feel comfortable with making a bigger change and feel that you can stick with it, that will make the change happen more quickly, but in the long run it works better to start slowly and stay with it than to start fast and then give it up. The same thing works for other things also, not just for a diet change. It can work with buying less and other things also. Another thing that helps is to have other people that you know who are making the same kinds of changes in their lives.

Share with other people
Share ideas. Share stories. Share your time. Share food. Share work. Share things. Don’t be afraid. You can start to share just a little bit if you only have a little bit to share. You might find that you have more to share once you start to share with other people because they might start sharing back with you.

Food
Global Food Supply Near the Breaking Point http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33268 (saved here )

The article linked to above was written in 2005 and talks about how the world had been growing less grain than it was eating in 5 out of the last 6 years at that time. The kinds of food that most Americans eat right now can’t be grown and raised enough to feed everyone in the world for much longer.  A lot of grain goes to feed animals which people are eating. If people ate that grain instead of feeding it to animals being raised for food, the grain would be able to feed a lot more people than the animals would. More protein from grains and vegetables can feed more people. But if it gets fed to animals and then they get eaten for protein, then that makes it so that fewer people will have enough food to eat. Also, cows make a lot of methane which adds to global warming.

Even the grains that we grow now are not the best way to get enough protein for everyone. Soybeans are better, but algaes like spirulina are even better than that. They will use less water and can be grown on less land because they grow  faster than other plants do.

Growing and buying food grown near where you live saves energy for shipping and gives you fresher food.

Water

There are lots of ways to use less water and reuse it. There is less and less fresh water in the world because it is getting sucked out of the ground for drinking and growing things faster than it goes back underground and then it ends up in the ocean, where it has salt in it. So, using less water is important.
   * a rain barrel can catch water from a roof and then that water can water plants.
   * only flushing a toilet when it needs it, not every single time
   * putting a closed water bottle filled with water inside a toilet tank if it is not a low water toilet will make the toilet use less water each flush
   * bath or dish water can be used on plants if the soap you use is good for the plants.
   * animals which people eat use up a lot of water while they are growing. If people eat grains and vegetables (or algaes) instead, that will save a lot of water
   * a lot of water gets used on watering lawns. If you grow a garden instead of a lawn, then that water gets used for feeding people instead of being chewed up by a lawn mower. That saves gasoline too.

Time

Lots of people say that time is money. Deciding how you want to spend your time is like deciding how you want to spend your money. If you spend your time working and playing with your neighbors instead of watching TV or playing a game on a computer, then you can probably save some time and money by cooperating and buying less. It might even make you happier. Advertisers make people think that they aren’t good enough unless they buy things, but we’re better off if we don’t buy into their game.
If only a few people start to change the way they think about buying things, then they will seem strange to other people. If lots of people buy less, then people who buy lots will seem strange. A few people changing won’t make much difference to the world, but a lot of people changing could make a big difference.

Debt

An article about how Americans have spent more than they have saved in the last two years-   2006 Personal Savings at a 74-yr. Low http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1584605,00.html (saved here )

Getting into debt is not always a good idea. Here are some reasons why-
   *if you can save your money up to buy something that you need instead of borrowing money to get it, then you don’t have to pay interest.
   *if you get in the habit of borrowing money to buy things, you can get further and further into debt because of the interest.
   *if you can borrow, you may spend more than you can afford, if you lose your job or start to earn less money
   *if you start by reducing how much you buy and saving money instead, then this will leave you with the money to buy the things that you really need when you really need them

Below are some other links and areas which I would like to see talked about and written about simply with examples

WorldChanging http://www.worldchanging.com/

Appropedia http://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia

Worm Composting http://www.wormwoman.com/acatalog/index.html
Mushrooms http://www.fungi.com/

The Dueling Loops of the Political Powerplace http://www.thwink.org/sustain/articles/005/DuelingLoops_Paper.htm

Sustainable Architecture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_architecture

Appropriate Technology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriate_Technology
Sustainability http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability
Permaculture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture

Hemp http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp

Bioremediation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioremediation

some good links for information on algae:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_algal_culture_collections http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algaculture (saved here )  

Grow Your Own Spirulina http://perso.orange.fr/petites-nouvelles/manuel/grow.htm (saved here )

How to rear a plankton menagerie http://www.sas.org/tcs/weeklyIssues/2004-10-15/feature2/ (saved here )

 Ecogenics - spirulina and tilapia http://www.discoveret.org/fgs/slp/ecogenics/index.html

information on raising tilapia http://aquanic.org/beginer/tilapia/tilapia.htm
John Todd aquaculture

http://www.oceanarks.org/agriculture

Todd water bioremediation http://www.toddecological.com/ecomachines.html

some updates

For now, I’ve decided to post updates in separate entries from my main Some ideas for changing the world entry until I have enough new information or material to justify an update. This will allow more flexibility in terms of expanding on or going into more depth on a single topic, which can then be added into the main entry as a link for those interested in more detail.

So far, I haven’t done much promotion on this project in terms of letting others know about it and trying to get others involved in spreading the word about it. I’m not going to change the world all by myself. You’ll have to help out. That includes spreading the word on this if you like the idea or coming up with what you think are better ideas instead. Let me know if you choose the second option. If I agree that your ideas are better than mine, then I’ll help you promote them!

It looks like there are some good link/resources available from an article that was published in Utne Reader magazine several months back about Permaculture and self-reliance.

Off the Grid
Magazines about permaculture and self-reliance

Sometimes I will recommend books byparticular authors when they come to my attention either because I’ve read them, reviews of them or else had them recommended to me. As part of reducing consuption, I strongly suggest sharing the books around and/or checking them out from the library. I know that recommendation won’t please some authors, but ultimately if they are serious about changing the world I think they may see my point. So, when I link to an Amazon.com or other page where a book may be ordered it will be in order to provide a bit more information on the book in terms of reviews, etc. rather than a pitch for people to go out and buy it or order from that particular source. Just so that’s clear….

As an example, Charles Long, the author of How to Survive Without a Salary says in that book (which I recommend highly):

“If you’re reading this book at the public library, you already have the idea. Go to the head of the class. If you bought the book, I thank you. The publisher thanks you. But pay attention: you have a lot to learn about guerilla economics.”

More books which may be of interest-

a book about Raw Foods recommended by a friend:

Book: ”Sunfood Diet Success System - 6th Edition, The”  by David Wolfe

Looking forward to reading this; ordered it from the library after seeing it in a bookstore:

Waking the Global Heart by Anodea Judith

I recently finished reading this one, there are a lot of interesting ideas in it. I disagree with his “age of abundance” type of thinking at least to a certain degree- that is, I think it is artificially created in America by means of relatively inexpensive oil prices and sweatshop labor conditions in other countries. Nonetheless, lots of interesting information and ideas in the book:

A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age by Daniel Pink