What is an Earth Institute? …. June VEI Newsletter
It’s a noun! An Institute.
A place to share and expand upon the profound learning gleaned from nature and natural systems. A place where our everyday encounters with food, with where we live, with work, with time, is looked at through Earth’s eyes, explored and questioned. It’s Mother Earth’s schoolhouse and, as such, it’s always open.
It’s a verb! To Institute.
An action ..as in to begin, to set into place, to instigate.
To institute connections and community through conversations.
To institute actions in one’s own life and in community.
It’s an experience!
The blue
heron by the Burlington Bike Path practicing patience. The dandelions blooming
in January 2007 making a case for global warming. Last year’s applesauce
made from
VEI courses and the community discussions they spark spring from and lead us back to Earth’s Institute! (See accompanying graphic included in attachment.)
Book Review:
Cradle
to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
by William McDonough and Michael Braungart
North Point Press 2002
This past winter I participated in the VEI Voluntary Simplicity Course. Just as I was reading along, not finding anything particularly new to sink my teeth into, up popped an article by William McDonough and Michael Braungart called The Next Industrial Revolution. Although I’ve considered myself an environmentalist for over 40 years, this article reawakened and challenged my thinking about some pillars of thought I had been leaning against. These pillars include concepts of efficiency and waste reduction as models of good stewardship.
Not long after reading this article, a copy of their book Cradle to Cradle came my way. Rather than being made from paper, Cradle to Cradle is made of plastic. “ This book is not a tree…it is made from plastic resins… is waterproof and durable and is the prototype for the book as “technical nutrient”, something that can be broken down and recycled infinitely in industrial cycles”.
This highlights the major tenet of the book, which is “waste equals food”. Everything should and can be manufactured with the end point of that product in mind. The product as a “nutrient” must be able to build something again and again at the same or greater level of durability without toxicity in the process. It should be able to be upcycled, not just recycled. In our current system we’ve gotten complacent with recycling.
“…when you went shopping for a carpet recently, you deliberately chose one made from recycled polyester soda bottles. Recycled? Perhaps it would be more accurate to say downcycled. Good intentions aside, your rug is made of things that were never designed with this further use in mind, and wresting them into this shape has required as much energy…and generated as much waste as producing a new carpet….the rug is still on its way to the landfill; it’s just stopping at your house en route.”
Since beginning this book I haven’t been able to wear my fleece jacket (probably made from recycled soda bottles) without speculating on whether the jacket as endpoint goes through a good process to get there. Wool is starting to sound appealing again!
These authors really use the model of “Earth Institute” as their guide. They believe that natural systems show us the way to earth-friendly design. They teach eco-effectiveness, not eco-efficiency. They are unwilling to settle for fewer toxics and greater efficiencies.
“Consider the cherry tree. It makes thousands of blossoms just so that another tree may germinate, take root and grow…. After falling to the ground the blossoms return to the soil and become nutrients for the surrounding environment. Every last particle contributes in some way to the health of a thriving ecosystem. Waste equals food. The first principle of the Next Industrial Revolution.”
Operating concepts for design in this revolution include such paradigm shifts as creating buildings that, like trees, produce more energy than they consume and purify their own wastewater, and creating factories that produce effluents that are drinking water. They talk about ideas like manufacturing cars that purify the air while they drive!
McDonough and Braungart’s hopefulness that through creative design and shifting paradigms we can create a world that is abundant and pollution-free is a beacon of light in the depressing newstream on Earth and the environment.
McDonough and Braungart also have a movie out entitled The Next Industrial Revolution which reviews much of the material in the book and talks about their work with several manufacturers including Herman Miller Chairs and Ford Motor Company.
What’s happening in courses this summer??
Not much. We assume you are all out in Earth’s institute! We’ll have a full schedule of courses coming up for fall and winter though, so stay tuned in as we’ll be getting that information to you. If you or any community group do want to sponsor a course this summer please let me know. Our Menu for the Future discussion course is certainly conducive to sitting around with a bowl of local berries and talking about food politics!
EVENTS OF INTEREST
Please check the
Tuesday June 10
Best-selling
author Michael Pollan, a vocal advocate for change in
The talk, “In Defense of Food: Connecting the Dots Between Sustainability and
Health,” will take place at
VEI’s new course book, Menu for the Future, has several readings by Michael Pollan.
.
PEAK
Meets fourth Monday
of the month
Information: gpahl
(at) sover (dot) net
WEBSITE: http://www.acornvt.org/
Plan
C! - Chittenden County Sustainability and Relocalization Group
If
you...
Reside in Chittenden County
Are concerned about Peak Oil
Want to take positive steps to prepare, and
Are interested in working with others
You are invited! Representatives in
Info: Plan_C
(at) vtpeakoil.net
Vermont Peak Oil Political Action
Group
Statewide
membership from VPON as well as the community at large. If you would like
to receive notice of peak oil action opportunities (ranging from participation
in "letters to the editor", flurries to engagement in legislative
education efforts, and more), please sign up for future mailings at: http://vtpeakoil.net/mailman/listinfo/action_vtpeakoil.net.
Vermont Earth Institute's Sustainable Living Networks Meetings
To get regular
notices of SLN activities in your area, put your name on the local e-mail list
by contacting the local representative.
For more information contact: Ron Miller at holistic@gmavt.net.
Vermont Earth Institute: living lighter, living better
Leah Wittenberg, Regional Coordinator, 802-343-1956, veicoordinator@yahoo.com