In my previous blog post I reviewed the book, Building a Better World in your Backyard Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys, by Paul Wheaton and Shawn Klassen-Koop. As part of that review I noted that I thought this would be an excellent selection for book discussion groups. It is relatively short, easy, and entertaining to read. The authors prime intended audience are those with little to no experience with ecological/environmental matters though I feel it would of useful interest to those more versed in the subject too. This should help make it appropriate for all that might be a part of such book groups. The material covers a wide range of subject matter offering many ways for everyone to connect to it. I would anticipate lively conversations sparked by the book.
Continue reading “Book Group Discussion Questions for Building a Better World in your Backyard Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys”Category: Environment
Posts related to environmental issues.
Building a Better World in Your Backyard Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys – Book Review
Sometime in my childhood I seem to have taken on an environmentalist bent. I’m not sure quite when or why. It just seemed like the right thing to do and support, and still does. Thus, in my time I’ve read a lot of books, and watched hours upon hours of movies relating to this general genre. Despite all this information that has been out in the public sphere these past decades I’ve also watched things continue to decline. Who remembers the days when any sort of serious car trip involved stopping occasionally to scrape bug guts off the windshield so you could see out? When was the last time you REALLY needed to do that, and what does that say about the health of insect populations? If you’ve got enough years under your belt I imagine you can think of plenty of other similar examples yourself. So it would seem that all these past books and materials promoting environmental ideas haven’t been effective enough to overcome the increasing tides of destruction. Now here I am looking to review another book. Is yet one more going to be any different?
Continue reading “Building a Better World in Your Backyard Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys – Book Review”Being a Chimney Sweep with a Rocket Mass Heater
The leaves have turned color and the air has become cool. This also means the house is getting chilly, needing some heat for comfort. During these edge seasons when the skies are not overcast and the sun is shining bright I’m generally able to take advantage of all the excess electric power my off grid solar system generates and heat my place with a couple electric space heaters. Once my battery bank is full this surplus power just goes to waste otherwise, so I might as well utilize it. However, the days are going to be getting cloudy and overcast in my region due to the proximity of Lake Michigan and the effect it has on the weather. It’s also going to get much colder. So I’ll soon be feeding the small dragon in my living room that is my rocket mass heater.
Continue reading “Being a Chimney Sweep with a Rocket Mass Heater”The 3 E’s part two: the micro/personal level view
In my last post I explored the 3 E’s (the Economy, Energy, and the Environment) from a wide scale macro viewpoint. This time I want to look at them a bit from the micro view, or that of my own personal household. It might not be a bad idea to reread the previous post, but as a brief recap we have economic systems that require continuous exponential growth to function well. Continuous exponential growth requires a continuous exponential extraction and consumption of energy resources, in particular fossil fuels, as well as a continuous exponential consumption of environmental resources. In other words, endless growth on a finite planet. There are strong indications we are at peak extraction rates for our planetary fossil energy and environmental resources.
Continue reading “The 3 E’s part two: the micro/personal level view”The 3 E’s: Economy, Energy, Environment
This afternoon I was outside splitting firewood in preparation for winter heating. As my body worked my mind got some exercise as well thinking about how to approach this post about the 3E’s, those being the economy, energy, and the environment. I’ve been promising to write more about this pretty much since I started this blog a few months ago because it is such an important framework I use to understand what is really going on around me and to help guide my decisions. The aim is to better take advantage of the opportunities available to me now and leave me better positioned for our likely future.
Continue reading “The 3 E’s: Economy, Energy, Environment”Building a Better World in your Backyard instead of being angry at bad guys
Final Update (I think). The book is now done and available in print, ebook, and as an audiobook. If you are interested in purchasing a copy you can do so here.
Update. The campaign just ended with phenomenal success! A total of 2768 people supported it with $153,983.05! Thanks to all of you who joined me in helping make it all happen. If you missed out I’ll be sure to make one more update to this post when the book has gone through the final editing processes, been printed, and is available for anyone to purchase. Odds are good I’ll do another blog post too reviewing the book after I’ve got my copy and read the whole thing.
So I’ve known the Kickstarter campaign to get this book printed was coming up for months now. I’m excited to see it finally happen! Paul Wheaton and Shawn Klassen-Koop have been working on this for over a year. I’ve read a few sections they’ve shared in various threads on the Permies.com forums and it looks like it should be an excellent book that is essentially right along the lines of what I’m aiming to do with this blog.
Continue reading “Building a Better World in your Backyard instead of being angry at bad guys”Rocket Mass Heaters – increase your wood burning efficiencies 50 to 90 percent
In the last post I mentioned the three Es. I really need to write more about these soon, but that is something of a conceptual post. Mind you I have nothing against conceptual writings. I expect to engaging in a fair amount of that here with this blog project. In fact, as an artist my personal experience has been that the written word is probably the best avenue to try and convey complex concepts. Maybe it’s just me, but conceptual art trying to communicate its ideas through visuals alone often seems lacking, usually requiring a written statement to go with it that actually explains the concepts.
Continue reading “Rocket Mass Heaters – increase your wood burning efficiencies 50 to 90 percent”