Earth-Friendlier Shelter, Food, and Transportation

by Ruah Swennerfelt

THE REVEREND DR. RODNEY ROMNEY (retired senior pastor of Seattle First Baptist Church) writes in his book, Wilderness Spirituality: Finding Your Way in an Unsettled World: “I believe we can achieve the Promised Land, not by railing against or destroying our various wildernesses but by moving through them in joyful and deep concern for the health and welfare for our planet and all its life-forms and with a personal resolve to take individual responsibility for our own strength and growth.”

Trying to make decisions about how we travel, how we heat our houses and our water, how we use our water, or how to make responsible purchases has become almost a full time job. At times I feel inundated with information. I just want to close my eyes and hope it all goes away! But it’s not going to go away. With each decision that involves the use of fossil fuels, I must ask myself whether I am acting in accordance with Quaker Testimonies or other sources of my faith. Most petroleum geologists are predicting that global oil production will peak by 2012. As supply declines, demand will continue rising, resulting in sharply increasing prices. How will we function as a society when energy is no longer so cheap and abundant? What are my responsibilities to help make a peaceful and orderly transition?

I’d like to begin with where I am now and think how I might change to be living more lightly. In many ways my husband and I are modeling practices that would greatly reduce humanity's burden on the environment if everyone lived as frugally and carefully. But we know that even this is not enough to secure a sustainable, fulfilling future for our children and grandchildren. There are many tough questions that we must face for their sakes.

We live in the country, in a beautiful, serene place where we enjoy being close to nature. Hey, we can see the stars at night! We are grateful for this privilege, but it is a mixed blessing. We watch with dismay as the countryside fills up with large, expensive houses that don't even make use of passive solar gain. Many of their occupants commute in SUVs to distant jobs in pursuit of their version of the American Dream. At least our work is at home, so we don’t have to commute. But we are still dependent on an automobile (a 1988 Honda Accord with 240,000 miles) for shopping, occasional meetings, Sunday worship, etc. We live in a solar-electric house, but we use propane for cooking, refrigeration, and heating water. (Natural gas and propane burn cleaner and therefore create less greenhouse gas emissions than oil or electricity which comes from oil or coal burning plants. We still resort to a gasoline-powered generator to recharge the batteries in the winter, when there is often no sun for many days in a row. We heat with wood that we harvest from this land (mostly old or fallen trees), and we grow some of our own food organically. But we still rely on many purchased goods that come at a cost to the environment. We are living far more lightly on the earth than the average North American family, but when we take the "Ecological Footprint Quiz" below we learn that we are still far from living sustainably and equitably.

SO WHAT ARE SOME OF THE NEXT STEPS that we can take? We know we can use our car a lot less (this means planning more carefully our trips to town and using bicycles to get groceries from the market five miles away). We can make less use of the backup generator by adjusting our activities more to the amount of sunlight being captured by the photovoltaic panels. We can finish installing those solar hot water panels we bought used a few years ago, to reduce our use of propane for heating water. We can even use our wood cook stove. We can grow more of our own food and buy more locally grown produce. This will involve inconveniences, but the point is, we need to do it, and we know we can do it.

So there you have it—my public confession of what I've known for a long time I could be doing, but have found excuse after excuse for putting off. Now I have another motivation, besides caring about the future of my grandchildren, to start turning this long list of "should-dos" into "have-dones"!

I share this example to portray some of the many ways our lives have slipped steadily into dependence on fossil fuels. In fact I read an article in a magazine recently that talked of “eating our fossil fuels.” The author explained that large-scale farming relies so heavily on fossil fuels for all the machinery and for the fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides that a lot of food today could be considered a petroleum by-product. And when we buy food that has traveled to us by planes, ships, trains, and/or trucks, even more fossil fuel has been used in our name. One way to look at this is the number of calories of energy in the food we eat in proportion to the calories of energy required to produce it. In pre-industrial agriculture it typically took about one calorie of human and animal energy to produce about ten calories of food energy. The other nine calories came from the sun. In today's industrialized agriculture, it now takes an average of ten calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce one calorie of food energy! (This is not a misprint!) The contribution of the sun now becomes almost negligible. For some specialty food items that are flown to us from halfway around the world, the calorie ratio must go through the roof! And yet we hear agriculture experts brag about how efficient our country's food production system is.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has identified transportation as the most significant, consumer-related environmental problem. Cars and light trucks generate almost 30 percent of all greenhouse gases, which are a significant contributor to global warming (see other articles on climate change). Food production ranks second in environmentally harmful activities (see Chapter 7). Then the UCS ranks “home heating, hot water, air conditioning, and household appliances and lighting” as the third most harmful of consumer activities. We begin to understand that our own, individual actions do make a difference.

Okay, now that you've heard some of the drawbacks of country living. What about life in the city? We have city friends who were able to give up their cars and now get around nicely on bicycles and public transportation. In cities many facilities seem to be used more efficiently. But cities still have huge ecological footprints, because they tend to consume more resources than they produce. So we each must take an inventory of where we are as city, suburban, and country dwellers and look at what changes we can make that make the most ecological sense in our situations. There are no quick and easy solutions. But the longer we wait the harder it becomes to make a difference. New technologies, such as hybrid or electric cars, will play an important role, although if we all traded in our existing cars, somebody else would end up driving them. The most important advance, I believe, will be what happens to our thinking and attitudes.

I ENCOURAGE YOU TO JOIN OTHERS in your faith community or in your neighborhood to form a support group We are swimming upstream in a culture which tells us that “more is better” and that “growing the economy” is our biggest and greatest task. We need each other every step of the way.

One example of group work is the Household EcoTeam Project. From their website: “Neighbors are getting to know one another and are making a difference—and Global Action Plan's Sustainable Lifestyle Campaign has a lot to do with it! Block by block, people are getting involved with the program which aims to change consumptive behavior to reduce resource use and its impact on the environment. And it works! With the help of a trained coach and a user-friendly guidebook, household team members choose practical actions and support one another in reducing: their garbage on an average of 42 percent, water usage by 25 percent, transportation fuel and CO2 output by 15 percent. Another valuable by-product is saving money. Households on average experience annual savings from their reduction practices of $300.” Contact them at www.envirocenter.org/groups/ecoteams/ecoteams.html.

Another example of a support network that is available is the "What Would Jesus Drive" (WWJDrive) campaign. WWJDrive is organized and sponsored by the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), a biblically orthodox Christian environmental organization. “The question, ‘What Would Jesus Drive?’ is a more specific version of the well- known question, ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ Christians ask themselves ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ to help guide them in their daily decisions as disciples (or followers) of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns in their hearts. As followers, the question actually becomes, ‘Lord, what would you have me do?’ So our specific question then becomes, ‘Lord, what would you have me drive?’ We believe the Risen Lord Jesus cares about what we drive. Pollution from vehicles has a major impact on human health and the rest of God's creation. It contributes significantly to the threat of global warming. Our reliance on imported oil from unstable regions threatens peace and security.” Their website is www.whatwouldjesusdrive.org.

Many environmentally-friendly options are available today. In some communities, consumers can purchase “green” electricity, (produced by small hydro dams, wind, or solar) through their suppliers. There may be several attractive options for efficient cars when it’s time to replace your fuel guzzler. Did you know that buses and trains use about one-eighth of the resources that airplanes do? Buses are considered the most Earth-friendly mode of long-distance travel, with automobiles being the worst. In an article in BeFriending Creation (November-December 2000), Kim Carlyle noted that “John Woolman walked much of the time. He was uncomfortable traveling by coach because the horses were driven too hard and the post boys were overworked and mistreated.” When Kim explored these ideas in a workshop, the participants came to the conclusion that John Woolman would travel today by Greyhound bus, with the common people. We do have choices and we just need to feel motivated to take advantage of them.

So, by now I've gotten you fired up to join a support group, then hopefully start making some changes in your life. Where do you begin? Much has been written about energy use as it relates to our homes and transportation. Look in the resources appendix for suggested books and web sites. I would like to call special attention to the Living Lightly on the Earth—In the City leaflet (which we have included in the back pocket of this book) and the Walking Gently on the Earth booklet, both published by Quaker Earthcare Witness. The list is not exhaustive and most likely no one person can comply with all suggestions, but give it some worshipful thought and see what you can do!

In your home

• Install energy-efficient lighting like compact flourescents. Your local utility may provide helpful information and services. Turn off lights when not in use.
  
• Install water-saving shower heads and faucet aerators.
  
• Keep your appliances in good working condition. Periodically vacuum the condenser coils
• of your refrigerator.
  When replacing appliances, purchase those marked with the “Energy Star” logo.
  
• Set you water heater thermostat at no more than 140°F.
  
• Fix leaks promptly. Use water conservatively. Save rinse water and use it to flush the toilet.
  
• In cold weather, plug air leaks around windows and doors. Check door seals. If your apartment is overheated, rather than opening windows, ask the building superintendent to adjust the heat. If the thermostat is under your control, turn it down at night or when you leave the apartment. using sweaters indoors also saves energy since you can keep the rooms cooler.
  
• In the summer block sunlight and use fans instead of air conditioners whenever possible.
  
• If you live in a multi-story building, use stairs rather than the elevator; if there are too many flights, take the elevator part way and walk the rest.
  
• Shade south and west windows to reduce heat loads.
  
• Use electricity sparingly in lights, range, TV, and radios.
  
• Avoid using clothes dryers except for “solar dryers” (the old fashioned clothes line).
  
• Practice low-maintenance lawn/yard care. Get exercise and use a motorless push mower.
  
• If the option is available, purchase “green” electricity.
  
• Recycle 100 percent of what is possible.

How you get around

• Use public transportation as much as possible.
  
• Use ground transportation (trains and buses) instead of airplanes for long distance travel whenever possible.
• Drive the most fuel-efficient vehicle you can for the size/type car you need and consider purchasing a new fuel-efficient type car when it is time for a replacement.
• Keep your car well-tuned.
  
• Keep tires properly inflated.
  maintain efficient exhaust emission controls.
  
• Consider leasing or sharing ownership of a car.
  
• Walk or ride a bicycle for short trips.
  
• Consider moving closer to your job.
  
• Consolidate or combine car trips. Eliminate unnecessary trips.
  
• Carpool when feasible.
  
• Avoid unnecessary engine idling.
  
• Recycle used motor oil and tires.
  
  

Questions for reflection

• Do I seek to avoid destruction of the environment by conserving energy and relying on renewable forms of energy?
  
• Have I made an energy audit of my home, to determine how I might use less energy?
  If I am from an energy-wasteful home, am I willing to commit myself to a 25 percent reduction in energy use during the next year, and further reduction in future years?
  
• Am I aware of ways to help those in my community who may struggle to meet their most basic energy needs?
  
• Am I encouraging my legislators--at both the state and federal levels--to initiate programs and laws mandating efficient energy policies in our states and country?
  
• In encouraging myself and others to reduce their energy consumption, am I clear about the reasons for doing so? [for example: air pollution and global warming; the seeds of war within the misuse of “natural resources” (as in Kuwait, Iraq); spiritual clarity in not supporting activities which harm others.
  
• Do we treat with reverence the natural resources of the Earth which all living things share interdependently?
  
• Am I aware of what happens to the waste products that I generate? Do I dispose of that waste in ways that are regenerative, or at least that do no harm?
  
• Do I accept that there is no “away” to which to throw unwanted items and therefore try to find the best way to recycle everything I no longer need?
  
• Am I careful to avoid spending and investing money in ways that result in others doing things in the world that I would not do myself?
  
• Do I try to reduce my use of my automobile by walking, biking, or taking public transportation whenever possible?
  
• Am I encouraging my legislators—county, state, city or town, and federal levels—to enact legislation which protects natural resources?
  
• Am I helping to create recycling opportunities where there are none or to help educate about these issues in the schools?

Illustrative activities

Calculate Your Ecological Footprint:

12 Simple Questions to Assess Your Use of Nature

by Ritik Dholakia and Mathis Wackernagel

©2002 Redefining Progress. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint the Ecological Footprint Quiz was granted by Redefining Progress, 1904 Franklin St., 6th Floor, Oakland CA 94612, Telephone: 510/444-3041. Website: www.redefiningprogress.org.

THIS BASIC QUESTIONNAIRE calculates a relatively accurate Ecological Footprint for a person living in the United States.

Answer all 12 questions as honestly and accurately as possible. For a more detailed analysis of individual ecological footprints or to learn more about the ecological footprint methodology and applications, go to the Redefining Progress website.

Instructions

Step 1. Circle your response and the number in each column that corresponds to your answer.
Step 2. Enter the circled number from each column into the “subtotal” boxes below each column.
Step 3. Calculate the footprint for each section by multiplying your numbers as shown.
Step 4. Enter the subtotals from each section on the reverse side under “Quiz Results.”
Step 5. Add up your subtotals to get your Total Footprint.

Food

Your Food Footprint is Q1 ______ x Q2 _____ x 5.5 = ______ acres. (Multiply your answer to Question 1 by your answer to Question 2 by 5.5.)
Shelter

Your Total Shelter Footprint is Q4 ______ x Q5 ______ x Q6 / Q3 _____ = acres (Multiply answer to Question 4 by answer to Question 5 by answer to Question 6. Then divide by answer to Question 3.)

Transportation

Your Public Transit Footprint is ________acres. (Enter the circled number in this subtotal box.)

If your answer is 0–10 miles for Question 7, enter 0 in the subtotal box and skip Questions 9 and 10.

Your Car Footprint is Q8 _____ x Q9 _____ x Q10 x 4 = _________ acres.

Your Air Travel Footprint is _______ acres (enter the circled number in the box).
Transportation Footprint = _______ acres (add public transit, car, and air travel totals).

Goods

Your Goods Footprint is = _________ acres
Quiz results:

Your Total Footprint (add 1 + 2 + 3 +6) =  _________ acres