Composting our lives

As I walked out to the compost bin last night in my gumboots, loaded with vegetable scraps, past a long row of food plants, I couldn't help but think how much I've changed.

And how fast - and slow - the process has been.

When you first realised that we all needed to learn sustainability, if you were like me you went into a state of shock. Did you? I sure did.

The movie "A Crude Awakening" scared the hell out of me.

"An Inconvenient Truth" finished the job off.

I remember being frightened at what I might have to do, and learn.

I remember being afraid of failure.

I remember being angry at people who seemed intent on not changing, and on maintaining their current, unsustainable ways.

Most of all, I remember feeling helpless at my inability to change government policy, inspire others, and create transformation - even in my own parents!

Time to absorb: think, learn, grow, transform

But time has passed, and I have got older. I'm staring at the first grey hairs in my temples. I'm looking at the first few lines around my eyes. I'm finding unexpected beauty in these things.

In my life, I've been faced with challenges I never expected to face. A son with autism. A challenging daughter.

Moving to a different country, and having to learn different cultural norms, and different modes of behaviour.

Leaving my friends and family behind. I miss them so much.

But here I am, half a decade after first learning about finite resources and sustainability. And I barely recognise the person I was when I return to my old diaries from that earlier time.

You can't buy green

I used to think you could buy green. I thought that if you only bought the right products - sustainably harvested this, ethically produced that, everything would be fine.

I used to figure that all we had to do was live in funky eco-homes and wear the latest bamboo fibre fashion and drive electric cars around, and - hey presto! - problem solved.

But the hole we've dug for ourselves with our consumerism can't be solved by simply spending more, despite what any bailout supporters might think.

Composting our lives

I'm starting to learn that sustainability comes from an open mind, and the willingness to power down, challenge authority, and challenge ourselves.

Power down: Powering down by reshaping our resource use.

Growing our own food, and supporting locally produced food.

Living lower on the food chain with fewer animal foods in our diets.

Living in smaller, more efficient, better designed homes that are cheaper to heat, cool and maintain.

Living within cycling and walking distances of our workplaces, schools and parks.

Challenge authority: Speaking out against companies, corporations and governments that destroy our world.

Being strong enough to take a stand against what we believe is wrong.

Fighting for what we believe in, even when we don't think we can win, or when we know we will lose.

Speaking out loud for those who cannot speak, and being strong for those who are weak.

Challenge ourselves: Learn that politics is a tool that divides people on the areas where we all need to see our similarities. The way that "green" issues have become partisan in the USA is a striking example of this.

Learn that inside our most hated enemy is a person in whom we may, if we are patient and willing enough, find a friend.

Learn that many, many disagreements are based in foolishness and an unwillingness to back down, rather than anything actually worth fighting over.

Learn that there are two sides to every story, and sometimes we are actually wrong!

Learn that labels for people, ideologies, religions and groups are divisive rather than helpful. A person may be gay, Muslim, right-wing or extremist - but they're a person first - and if we see them as a person rather than the label, maybe we'll understand who they are, rather than hate what they are not.

Challenge ourselves to clean up messes that we didn't make, extend a hand of friendship to people who never extended it to us, build community in places where no community exists, and love those who have no one to love them.

Being green isn't just about compost, but the compost is a big part of green!

Over the coming years, I think we'll see a hard sell on green. We'll see it modelled and styled, and packaged to us in "designer green" forms.

We'll see more and more "greenwash", with every product from "clean coal" to "clean nuclear" being hailed as the latest planet-saving miracle must-have.

In the end, to see the truth, all we need to do is look at the compost! If a product creates mess - especially mess that is talked of in half-lives and millions of years - we're not talking ethical or green.

There's nothing fair about fouling the world for future generations, millions of years into the future. And there's nothing clean about coal.

I'd be happy to have a wind farm or solar cell in my backyard, but I think I'd say no to mountaintop removal or a nuclear storage facility. Wouldn't you?

Taking out the compost in our lives

So I'm starting with the compost.

Getting our waste down, just as others have before me. It has taken me years to reach a point at which I "grok" sustainability.

And I understand now that if I want my world to be beautiful, I need to take care of my own backyard. And my own compost pile.

And when I start to see worms writhing in happiness, and smell fresh, rich earth instead of decaying food scraps, then I know I'll be doing okay!

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