status and sustainability

John used to be a lawyer. A real high-flyer. He was a partner in Wilkins and Partners for 10 years, and acted as QC in many well-known cases. He was 48 when he realised that his jet-setting, profligate lifestyle was seriously compromising his children's future, and that all his money and stuff wasn't actually bringing him a fulfilling life. Over a period of 10 years, he quit his job, down-sized his house and belongings, got rid of his suits, sold his car, started gardening and generally remodeled his life in what he hoped was a sustainable way. He's never been happier. He is now 58 and works 2 days per week as a volunteer legal adviser for immigrants, and spends the rest of his time in the garden, volunteering at the local school, with his kids and grandkids. He usually wears old and simple clothes, has a utilitarian garden with clothes on the clothes line, chickens and lots of vegetables and trees.

Martha graduated with John, and was every bit his equal in the legal profession. In fact, they teamed up a lot in their legal work. She was a fantastic debater, to his methodical research. In their early career they were rivals, but they eventually realised that the legal world was big enough for them both. She was 47 when John was 48, and was also a partner at Wilkins and Partners. She could never understand why John would want to abandon his successful career to be poor go grubbing around in the dirt. She liked him, and was a quite tolerant person, but their wildly divergent lifestyles meant that they steadily lost contact as he reshaped his life. Martha continued to work hard at law, and by 58 had a string of famous legal victories, including pharmaceutical, GMOs, IT and the oil industry. She was the go-to person at Wilkins and Partners for any case involving technical content. She was rich. She and her husband drove matching BMWs and lived in a palatial house at Beverly Hills.

Generally, people who meet John like him. He is easy going and calm. People identify with his old clothes and cheap lifestyle. When people meet Martha, they generally get sidelined. She can be aloof and arrogant. In her power clothes and fancy car, people don't feel they have much in common with her. But, they respect her.

My question is: which of these people garner greater respect in our society? Who is listened to? Who influences politics? Who influences voters?

I believe the answer is: the person most successful and can demonstrate it using standard measures of success -- status

All over the world, people are slowly realising that our society cannot continue in its current trajectory -- that an attempt to do so will result in disaster. These are people from all walks of life: dentists, barbers, builders, shop assistants, lawyers, scientists, street sweepers, mechanics. Some of these people are prepared to reshape their lives so that they cause less damage to the ecological systems that support us (without which, our civilisation would not exist). In so doing, those people lose many of the status symbols (eg. cars, clothing, toys, houses, travel) they previously had, and hence have a corresponding loss of status. Loss of status means that their voice is heard less in general society.

Hence, there is a status imbalance between those who "pull-back" from the status quo that is undermining our civilisation, and those who perpetuate it.

This means that people who argue for continuing the status quo have a relatively louder voice than those arguing for change. I believe this is an actual and serious impediment for societal change, and relates to such things as our innate primate hierarchical social structure, tribalism and other such deep aspects of humanity.

This is an exploratory article, and I don't have answers here. I hope to provoke a discussion on this subject.

Progress report on water systems

Here is a brief update on how the water systems I've installed are faring.

Hot water

I have written articles about my hot water systems here and here.

The system was finalised at the beginning of September 2014, and has worked flawlessly since. We have not boosted it through Spring/Summer -- in fact, I have shaded the collectors to stop it boiling. Some things I really like about it:

• I now have shorter "runs" of pipe between the hot water system and where I use the water, which means less waste
• Because water is effectively heated instantaneously within the hot water system tank (discussed in previous articles), it has no taste, and so can be used to make tea and cook with. There is also no concern with Legionnaires' disease.

Rain water

I have written about our rainwater systems here and here.

We have been exclusively using rainwater since the beginning of September. This includes watering the garden, washing clothes and people, toilet flushing. At the beginning of September, we had ~35 kL of stored water of which I estimate about 30 kL is usable (due to the position of the tanks relative to input/output feeds, etc) -- this was not something I previously considered. Because the system was not completed until December, we did not capture the Spring rain maximally, and Spring rains were very sparse this year. It has been a relatively cool and dry Spring.

We have been very frugal with water, and have captured our washing machine grey water, and grey water from the kitchen for use on the garden (we don't keep washing machine grey water if washing nappies). Until last weekend, I estimate that we had used about 23 kL or a bit under 200 L/day.

I (very roughly)  estimate that this water is used as follows:

• 6 - 8 toilet flush/day: 50 - 70 L daily
• 1 load of washing / day: 70 L daily
• kitchen sink: 30 L daily
• garden direct watering: 50 L daily
• bath/showering: 30 L daily

Clearly, the big users are the toilet and the washing machine. 

Toilet

The toilet is a total loss, because that water goes straight to waste. I want to replace one of our flushing toilets with a composting toilet. This will save a lot of water, and also give us more compost.

Washing machine

Most of the washing machine water we use in the garden, though in a sub-optimal way. This probably seems like a lot of washing, but we have two young children, one of whom is in the process of toilet training (ie. we still wash nappies, as well as soiled clothing)

Bath/shower

I generally wash in the shower every 2 - 3 days, and sometimes use the bath after the kids. They have a bath every 2 - 3 days. My wife often showers at work.

Lessons learned

• Some water is easy to save, and grey water represents an easy saving if it displaces fresh water on the garden.
• Timer taps make it easy to waste water on the garden. Also, it is hard to measure how much water is being used. I set up a timer tap out the back on the vegetables and fruit trees (separate circuits). Given the amount of grey water we have, it is almost possible to water all our trees and vegetables with grey water only (note that there are hygiene implications of watering vegetables with grey water -- make sure you do your research if you plan on doing this). In future, I will consider watering more by hand and less by the drippers
• I accidentally let about 5000 L out of the tank via the vegetable drippers. I wanted to give the vegetables a bit of water before a very hot dry day, but forgot to turn them off until the next day. In future, I will never leave a tap running without an auto-off or an alarm to remind me.

Likely outcome for the Summer of 2014/2015

We will probably run out of water this Summer. I think we have about 5000 L (accessible) remaining in the tanks, which will last only about 25 days. I doubt we will get significant rain in that period. (We have had about 15 mm of rain in the last 4 days, which is very unseasonal, and is factored into this estimate). We are in the fortunate position to be able to switch over to town water easily.

Plans and thoughts for Summer 2015/2016

• I would like to have one toilet replaced with a composting toilet by next Summer
• I might add some extra sheeting to the pergola which will increase the rain collection area (very important for catching every drop of Spring rain)
• We now have all the tanks installed and connected, so will maximally collect the Spring rains in 2015
• I will try to do more to keep "dirty" clothes separately in the laundry, and wash them irregularly, keeping them for dirty tasks. This can hopefully ease the washing load

Conclusions

Water is one of those things that requires a whole system to perform well. Any compromises in subsystems will compromise the whole system. We are getting closer to the ideal that I modelled here, at which point I think we will operate (almost) solely on rainwater. I am hopeful that next Summer, even if we don't have a composting toilet, we will go a lot closer. Even this year we might well have made it through summer, had I not accidentally released that water. 

I think this system shows that it is possible to be self-sufficient for water with a relatively small amount of storage, however it does not leave any margin for error. In a fully off-grid scenario, I would want double the storage, even if it was rarely/never used. Of course, in such a scenario space would be less of a premium than it is in an urban environment!

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This article was written by Angus Wallace, and first appeared at guesstimatedapproximations.blogspot.com.au

 

I want to go back to the 1950s

About a decade ago, I read an essay that made the thought-experiment: "what if we decided to live with a 1950s standard-of-living, but with modern medicine?" and concluded that this could be achieved with  two days' work per week. I can't find the essay now (will keep looking), but I think it's a great thought. Let's think a little about life in the 1950s (in Australia, anyway -- this was not the case in other countries):

• One income could house and sustain a family
• Cars were rarer
• People generally ate fresh, home-cooked food
• Community was very important
• Most people grew at least some of their own food
• Public transport and cycling was common
• Lives were simpler and less hectic
• Our per-capita footprint on the environment was much lower (we weren't destroying our ecological support-systems so quickly)
• Electricity consumption was much lower, fuel consumption was much lower
• Most food was organically grown
• Market gardens and small-holder farms surrounded cities and provided much of the food
• People ate less meat and fish
• People owned less stuff, and produced less waste
• Australia had a manufacturing base, because people were prepared to pay a living wage to people who made things

I could go on.

The point, though, is that in the 1950s the average Australian lived a simple life like that advocated by many environmentalists in response to the current crises that are plaguing our society.

I think that, in many respects, we have regressed from the 50s. Yes, we currently live a much more sophisticated (and more consumptive/wasteful) lifestyle than people did then but I suggest that this will not be sustained. I think that if we keep over-reaching in this way we will end up greatly impoverished and will not even be able to sustain a lifestyle of the 1890s let alone the 1950s. If, however, we can control our consumption now, a 1950s lifestyle could be sustainable.

Why is this so rarely discussed?

I think a big reason this is not mentioned is because of the social issues prevalent in the 1950s. Yes, the 50s were relatively sexist, classist, racist and bigoted. I am in no way advocating a return to those values. But, I think we can maintain modern egalitarian* values with 1950s levels of consumption in a sustainable way.
I think another reason is that we are so obsessed with the idea of Progress, and that we are somehow better than people back then.

My vision

My goal and vision is to live, essentially, with consumption levels of people in the 1950s. I am yet to renounce many modern luxuries (eg. I have a hand-me-down mobile phone, and an old computer with broadband -- and myriad others, of course -- this is an experiment and work-in-progress!). My family owns a car, but I want to act (as much as possible) as though the car is not there. As part of this, I want to embrace the 50s aesthetic. This is not novel (the retro/vintage movement is in, ahem, full swing), but forms a component.

My challenge

Lots of people like to talk about "traditional values" -- I challenge you to embrace the traditional values of thrift, low-consumption, lack-of-pretension and simple living.


The post "I want to go back to the 1950s" was written by Angus Wallace and first appeared at guesstimatedapproximations.blogspot.com.au

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* an interesting note is that Australian society was actually more egalitarian in the 1950s than today. Today the difference between the wealthy and the poor in Australia is much greater. Like in so many areas, we are better at talking about egalitarian values today -- in the 1950s, people just got on.