Introduction
The drive from Auckland to Wanggeri in Northland, 160 km north, was a scenic one reminding me of the calm and quiet green farmland of North Wales punctuated with hills of primary forest and windy roads lined by well cropped grass on the kerb. Watching the flowering dandelions on the edges with wild white lilies kept me away from dropping asleep after the 10 hour flight. The air was fresh as it whiffed through the slightly wound down quarter glass of the car, air conditioning was not needed; it was spring time. Although rain was forecast we were surprised by the sunlight and brightness of the sky with periodic shut out as the cloud laden with rain drop passed through. After two hours we were at our destination, again taken up by the cleanliness of the place and the general concern for civic mindedness.
The city council must have been efficient in upkeep of the surroundings as the grass along the roads were no longer than six inches. This was fern country and one could count numerous types of ferns ranging from bushes to trees mimicking palms. The pattern of the leaves gave way to the nomenclature, whether they we single lobed or multilobed leave, if the branches tapered as they drew towards the terminal edges and if they were flat or filmy in character.
People in the city were all aware of the ozone layer and kept reminding us to apply sun lotion to protect our skins. The winds were strong and chilly from time to time as the east coast was open to the Antarctic. Cycling is encouraged and pollution is to be kept to a minimum. Home prepared bread, celery and lettuce came from the back garden. Fried food and takeaways are frowned upon and children are encouraged to stop snacking. Milk is expensive although produced in the country as there is little subsidy from the government.
The Kyoto Protocol
I needed to update myself, but I am not sure if the US and Australia have signed the Kyoto Protocol as climate change is real and our Mother Earth will inevitably become barren devoid of humans and plants by the next century if conservation of energy is not put in place, war and destruction are not stopped, when oil as a source of energy runs out and food production does not increase. We have ourselves to blame as we take the environment for granted and many make little effort in moving away from depending on liquid petroleum and don’t educate ourselves and the young how we should correct the inequity in resource allocation and utilization worldwide.
The Transition Initiatives
‘The age of STUPID’ portrays the reality of pending disaster as Pete Postlethwaite’s documentary film (which was nominated for an academy award) rapidly dashes across the globe bringing up valid points that is destroying the planet. We were made to watch this movie borrowed from the city library. You could borrow almost everything from toys for children, magazines and periodicals large print books for the elderly and fiction novels. The archivist in Pete (the movie) brings us to the year 2055 and relents as to why we did not see the warning signs of destruction and why we did not change our current consumption of both energy and food practices. The minuscule steps taken reluctantly by governments in the right direction in attempting to save the planet are marred by greed and corrupt practices in the name of progress and development. Huge housing development and industrialization are clear testimony of deforestation (without reforestation) and environmental destruction. China is apparently draining resources and energy of the world at a rapid rate and much of this is related to relocation of Western industry hoping to make huge profits from low costs of production. When we hear about businessman stating he has made his money from being a developer, cynicism relates to the activities of such people, ‘are they developers or destroyers?’
Picking up a book entitled ‘The Transition Handbook’ by Rob Hopkins in Wanggeri (pronounced Fangarey) in Northland (New Zealand); I found it a hard book to read. There were so much revealing facts that lay the forum straight, the way to doomsday. But there is so much sense in it that I could not resist putting it down. Two terms comes out clearly i.e peak oil and climate change. Would you believe that almost everything we touch or feel converges on oil, let it be cosmetics, furniture, food or cooking. The historical origin of oil is worth repeating. Formed from zooplankton and algae, both of which are found on the ocean floors millions of years ago got deeper and deeper surviving the effects of global warming over millions of years. Buried so deep down chemical transformation caused them to become what we now know as oil. Natural gases, on the other hand, though formed through similar processes had their origin from the remains of vegetation. It was formed as a result of excess heat forming as a result of its proximity to the Earth’s core –crust. This brings in the concept of fossil fuel. Hopkins provides so much practical information that I feel should be part of everyday life, we need to share such information with our children who would be clearly be throttled by 2055, devoid of clean air, oxygen, vegetation, global warming and a lack of food supply!
The bare facts
A tank full of petrol (40 Litres) is said to be equivalent to four years human manual labour. Hopkins continues to give us simple facts like the energy to maintain a US citizen is equivalent to 50 people continuously cycling back and forth in the backyard, day and night! Jonathan Porritt has succinctly put his views on state governance as ‘What is remarkable is the failure of politicians to start planning in any way for this inevitable transition, or even to start preparing their electorates for this transition’. Our reliance on oil will spell disaster if we do not make a concerted effort to address its expected natural depletion by 2050.
The thought that climate change is for real is not realised in Malaysia where the rat race is on and children are taught to take up politics and business if they want to be progressive and to get their Porsche and get jet setting. The lifestyle change is apparent as eating out is fashionable and food stalls are open 24 hours a day. We hang out, so to say, and having a drink at all times is on. Throw in the new breed who don’t’ mind departing with RM 15 for a cup of coffee or RM 11++ for a mee Bandung in a Kopitiam outlet. We do not feel that there is food shortage worldwide and many thrive (or don’t thrive) for less than US$1/- a day!
The Green Book
The expressed feelings of wanting to do something for the community and the environment appear to be left to a few activists who seldom get into the limelight. Few know that talcum powder should be banned but the industry has too much to lose so we advise citizens to avoid using it even though linkage to cancer and lung disease has been known for over three decades. Self-reliance is not new to us as the second Prime Minister; Tun Abdul Razak introduced the ‘Green Book Plan’ in the early seventies when households were encouraged to grow their own green vegetables. This was indeed a wonderful plan, but it fell by the wayside not long after. Today we import vegetables from Thailand and China and worry about the use of pesticide. Tons of food we consume are imported which tells us a story, a story of a lack of resilience, the lack of wanting to be self-sufficient and the need for oil to grind the system.
Winston Churchill (quoted by Hopkins)) had this timely statement, when the internal combustion engine was introduced, ‘I have always thought that the substitution of the internal combustion engine for the horse marked a gloomy milestone in the progress of mankind’ (1954). Machine and computers have taken on several tasks and contribute to pollution endangering the environment. Transport is by far one of the largest consumers of oil and contributes to enormous amount of pollutants. It is an undeniable truth that development has paved the way to the threatening effects seen today to climate and environment. We have been party to this destruction by seeking more funds to build faster lanes and improved urban transport. Walking to school is a no go as the roads are not safe and parents are fearful of child kidnapping! We look for school buses to send our children, vehicles which have seen better days. It is perplexing how such old junks have been permitted to ply the roads emitting enough carbon monoxide to maim a few thousand persons a year.
Getting children and youths involved
How do we educate our children about ways and means to save this planet? Should we permit educationists to draw new curricular to ensure children of today are well versant in maintaining a sustainable environment. Focussing on conventional curricular which sets our children to obtain high marks would not create much awareness.
It has been said that Governments of the day do not lead but respond, in other words they are reactive and not proactive. Is this true? If this is true, it appears that the local community needs to take the lead in creating communities that care. Care about the ill effects of globalization of industry and economy, care about the carbon emission and care about why children in Africa and the war torn countries must suffer hunger and death while obesity is an issue in developed countries. Pete Postlethwaite’s ‘Age of the STUPID’ has an animated cartoon which diminishes the wealth and eases access to energy and luxury in Western countries and increases that for those in need in Africa and Asia so as to establish equity in all aspects of life.
It would be futile not initiating the positive approaches that are in vogue in UK, Australia and New Zealand. Having read Hopkins’s book ‘The Transition Handbook’ I thought it is worthwhile incorporating much of what is written in this column. In Chapter 8 he addresses Transport, Energy and Housing briefly. Private car ownership should be reviewed so as to give way to pedestrians and cyclists with a re-prioritization of trams and buses using biofuel and alternative sources of energy. Car clubs have been introduced so that no one owns a car. Rural communities are re-organizing themselves to be self-sufficient in both employment and production. This would curtail immigrant labour and would lead to increased productivity of human capital within the nation. Can we see that age limits for employment should not be the order of the day.Grandads would be employable in McDonalds if they are active and willing? Supermarkets need not depend on foreign cheap labour if the senior citizen can work or permitted to take on jobs.
We have always been complaining of increasing fuel prices and air travel. Hopkins’ positively impresses on that cheap air travel is not cheap. We need to review our perceptions of what a holiday should be, flying off to Bali and Aurora or to curtail fuel costs by visiting the local resort or go hiking up a hill in the vicinity? He aptly includes H.G Well’s comment, ‘When I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the human race’. The UK apparently has been able to reduce energy consumption by 50% with an equal increase in renewables through carbon rationing based on Tradable Energy Quotas since 2010. Each citizen and business is assigned a carbon allowance with a yearly reduction in the quota. This has literally made citizens live within their assignment. Solar power and wind turbines have led to better fuel use in the domestic front since 2010. Tidal power and biomass fuel have both contributed to reduction of domestic fuel consumption.
Energy efficient houses are now in vogue. The PassivHaus concept is used where locally sourced biomaterials are used in construction. Solar heat and even occupants’ body heat are used as renewable energy. New buildings are designed to use such locally sourced materials including energy conserving concepts. Communal building would not be too far in the future where facilities would need to be shared rather than have dedicated sites. Can we imagine that you will need to use the communal cooking facilities using your carbon quota should you want to cook a meal in future? Condominiums have adopted concepts of shared entertainment outlets and swimming pools with acceptance. It would not be long before one placed restrictions on villas and extravagant living if carbon quotas come into vogue. John Ruskin’s states (Hopkins) ‘when we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for the present use alone, let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for.’
Reminiscing the past
When I was in early secondary school we were taught the usefulness of the coconut trees in that every part of the palm could be utilized. Apart from the coconut used for extracting cooking oil, we could use the husk for fuel and for cushion. The coconut shell could be made into a container or used for fuel. The trunk could be used for fuel and the leaves were dried for making brooms. Nothing was wasted. A similar role for the oil palm plant was explained.
Menkuang leaves were used to pack our mee goring as plastic paper and Styrofoam were not available then. We used kerosene for our oil lights and the empty cans were used as ‘metal pails’ to carry water from the village well which never went dry.
However, two years later, when I was in Form 5, I was made to understand that it was not profitable to grow coconut in plantations because of the difficulty of plucking the coconuts. There were no workers willing to take on this job. They were also not as profitable as oil palm. That breathed the death knell for coconut in Malaysia. Plastics replaced coconut husk as cushioning materials in the furniture industry. The plastic broom replaced homemade brooms made from coconut leaves. Not long after we were paying some RM 3 for a coconut drink; largely imported!
Ironically the Lincoln hemp building company in the UK was awarded recently for innovation in building as they devised a hemp based building material. One environmentalist once wrote about the danger the water hyscene causes. This green water plant grows at a rapid rate covering most ponds and rivers like cancer. Little research I know of is focussing on this plant with succulent leaves and pink flowers cum parasite. If we could work on the use of the fibre drawn from water hyscene so as to make some biofuel, we could curtail the spread of this plant parasite!
Oddly these imperatives are being exemplified with facts and figures but prudent and responsible living would have not got us into this state of emergency where initiatives have to be in place to ensure continued survival of humans, animals and plants. Rationing is not new to me as I have gone through life when daily food on the table and a roof over the head were issues to contend with in my earlier age. We used to divide our daily food quota so that each of us gets that slice of bread or that number of cream crackers.
The day I entered medical school the May 13, 1969 racial riots broke out in Kuala Lumpur. We were all confined to the University Malaya campus. Most of us were freshies and had left home for the first time in our lives. But we had collected ourselves to adapting to the new environment and equally, to new friends. At the Fifth Residential College where I had taken residence, we were fed at the college dining hall for the first three days after the curfew and one evening were called together for an address by the Master of the College. We were told what the curfew meant, that we were not to leave the campus grounds, that classes would not begin till more news was available and how we were to take responsibility in maintaining the college premises and self as no workers were expected to come to clean the toilets except for those already in the premises. Food stock will run out if the curfew extended and we were to be prepared for food rationing of fried rice with ikan bilis. Medical students were to help out at the University Hospital as they were in need of helpers in the cleaning sector and kitchen. Blood was also needed and volunteers were requested to submit their names to the Master of the college.
Permaculture
The movie, ‘Age of the STUPID’ needs to be seen by all as it summaries the goings on that are destroying Mother Earth. Clips on abuse of energy and food by some developed countries, plight of the illiterate and the overpopulated areas, the need for access to healthcare, the ugly oil magnate and the reason for the invasion of some oil producing countries by ‘war lords’ are clearly exemplified using multiple clips of life and hardship from various parts of the world.
Permaculture is a term seen in Holkin’s book which is a ‘conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive systems which have diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is a harmonious integration of their food, energy, shelter and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way! (Graham Bell)’. David Holmgren has categorized some basic permaculture principles. These include the power of good observation so as design well for energy intensive solutions. As energy passes through our natural systems ways and means should be incorporated and developed so as to trap such energy. One principle to trap human urine for adequate nitrogen production for fertilizer. Compost and woodpiles are means of re-utilizing energy. Whatever measure taken should be productive. In one initiative, vegetable farming in UK in urban sites beside maintaining the lawn and growing flowering plants, produced gave incredible rewards.
Self-regulation and feedback permits sustenance and maintenance that is energy efficient. Using a well-designed eco-system overall where weeding, use of pest control and fertilizer would be in wanton. Renewable resources and services like soil aeration with worms and retaining soil by growing trees are welcome approaches. Reducing or producing no waste is a measure one can adopt through system design. Utilizing cycling methods rather than linear ones is the way to go. Trapping rainwater in our country should be part of housing designs. Seeing our daily chores from a wider perspective permits the design of new patterns of work. This underscores the need for diversity and creativity so that we can respond to change in a systematic way that contributes to the sustaining the environment and eco-system. A local newspaper, The Wanggeri Leader, had a movement that was educating children in school on how to manage e-waste. Reading on, there is much to be concerned about what happens to the old computers we leave with the ‘old newspaper man’. The scrap metal collector dumps them on to central collection centre and then we don’t know what happens to all the plastics and metal that goes to making the computer. Restoring old computers for use in those in need is an option that is promoted by some NGOs. Concerted efforts need to be taken that computer based gadgets last for longer periods than what appears to leach out resources today when leaders in the industry come out with new additions and modifications ever so fast to catch the eyes of the ‘trendy’. I still remember the days when my uncle used to have a Grundig radio that ran on a battery the size of a loaf of bread when electricity was not available. As the battery ran out the melodious songs became slower and eventually stopped. Then he would remove the dying battery and ‘dry’ it out in the sun for a few hours hoping to get a few more days of use!
More Initiatives
John Croft founded the ‘Gaia Foundation of Western Australia ‘developing the “Dragon Dreaming’ method. The four stages of his method are:
· Dreaming and visioning
· Planning
· Doing
· Celebrating and evaluating
Apparently only 1% of the dreamed project took on after the initiation. But it did not matter. What was important was to begin the awareness campaign, to be clear that the impetus for success comes from the two or three people who initiated this project that would contribute effecting change and reduce energy needs. We see that corporations of today have initiated CSRs but to what extent they have succeeded vary. Each project initiated by Transition Initiatives of Hopkin and John Croft emphasize that the members should make their own decision with organizations like local councils and state government only facilitating rather than driving them. The ultimate aim in all transition projects and proposals is to make them truly community led . It may seek support from local authorities but the aim is to be independent of coercion and stipulation.
Mick Winter (Hopkin), in his book Peak Oil Prep states that state governments ‘stay out of local governments’. It is the fear of initiators that such projects would be suppressed by the authorities but apparently this is not true as people in power may favour such projects and learn from initiators of such projects to influence and inspire their proposals and policies for energy conservation and various other developmental projects like housing, population growth, food production, public transport and housing.
Conclusion
The trip to New Zealand has made me read more on Sustaining the Environmental and conservation of energy through little moves and changes in life style. Mahatma Gandhi made salt from the sea when the British began rational salt in India. When one is pushed to a corner creativity and innovation begins. Climate change and the depletion of oil are both occurring and if the citizens of the day do not take heed we will commit ‘suicide’. It is our duty to educate the young and the old that we should not take things for granted and that we have to be part of Transition Initiatives in order to leave a liveable planet for the future generation. Recycle, re-use and renew today.
References
1. Hopkin R The Transition Handbook Finch Publishing, Sydney 2008
2. Croft J ‘Gaia Foundation of Western Australia ‘Four stages that any project will go through’ pp. 241-243
3. Winter M, Peak oil Prep pp. 147
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