Diamond Cut Life

Seven Easy Ways To Conserve Water

Alison — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:59:27 +0000

Did you know that a seven dollar gadget can reduce both your home water use and your water heating bill by as much as 50%? How many of us know how to make every drop of water that we use count, the way that most people in human history knew how to do because they carried it by hand, and water is bleeping heavy?

Our ancestors had strong backs and mighty careful water habits, and people in the developing world still do. I doubt my back muscles can compare with theirs, but I’ve been practicing water conservation for years, long before the current drought disasters being declared in much of the West.

Here are my household’s water conservation methods, good for both our bank accounts and our environment’s falling water tables. Feel free to add your own water conservation methods under comments.

We have low-flow showerheads, also known as aerators, which create the same water pressure with sharply less water. They cost just $5-$10 and pay for themselves in a few months with lower energy bills (less hot water used) as well as lower water bills. The Energy Trust of Oregon gave us ours — even installed them — at no cost. Check with your local water and/or power utility for free conservation resources.
We have no lawn, but rather, plants — vibrant, colorful ones — that need little water. See Top Ten Tips On Xeroscape Gardening. When we used to have a lawn, we let it go brown in the summertime. (OK, I’ll admit that the fact our lawn sported more weeds than grass was one of the motivators to replace it with drought-tolerant plants).

Our toilets are low-flow, using 1.6 gallons per flush, rather than the 3.5 gallons of water that standard toilets use. While we flush ’solid waste’ immediately, we let our toilets gather several rounds of liquid waste before flushing. Our low-flow toilets and low-flush habits save at least two thousand gallons of water annually. More info here.

I take sponge baths rather than showers. While my husband and our guests make good use of our low-flow showerheads, I bathe by rubbing myself all over with a moist washcloth. My skin and body feel great afterward, and air-drying is simpler and more pleasing to me than getting dripping wet, dealing with towels, and then having to squee-gee the shower walls to prevent mildew. While I love an occasional hot bath, especially in winter, I keep the water level in the tub low when I have a bath.
Our washing machine is Energy Star, using minimal amounts of water as well as energy. It almost seems to splash the clothes it washes, rather than immerse them. They come out at the end clean yet not very wet, needing little drying.
I leave the water faucet turned off when washing my hands, except to wet them at the beginning, and rinse them at the end. The washing is all about the soap and my energetic hand motions. And the only water I use when brushing my teeth is to rinse the toothbrush at the end. I estimate these habits save more than 500 gallons of water annually (based on conservative assumptions of six hand-washings daily that each save one-quarter gallon).
We hang and re-wear clothes until they truly need washing, rather than tossing them into the laundry basket just because we’ve worn them. After using washcloths and bath towels, we hang them to dry, using them again and again before we wash them. While underwear gets washed after every use, running socks don’t — rather, I shake them vigorously in the air for half a minute to evaporate the sweat. The fewer loads of laundry we need to do, the less water we use — and the more time we have for fun things like friends, writing, etc.

Most of the Western United States is arid, and always will be. Common sense tells us to live within our water means, just as a household is wise to live within its financial means. Click here for my report on desalination plants, which use enormous amounts of energy to render ocean water drinkable.

photo courtesy of Tanya Puntti

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My Favorite Summer Entertainment

Alison — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:18:37 +0000

“Pause — are they the things on the dog’s feet?” Mahamudi asked me last night. We were doing our twice-weekly reading lesson here at my house. He arrived in the U.S. from Somalia three years ago. Now he is 14, and like his parents, he never learned to read or write in his native language.

“No, those are paws,” I explained. “Pause is, ah, when you . . . stop for a minute.”

Mahamudi frowned. “Oh, like on the DVD, when I press ‘pause’ so I can get a drink.”

“YES!” I said excitedly. These little breakthroughs can mean so much to a tutor.

“But these words sound just the same! Paws and pause!” he said, laughing even as he complained about the strangeness of English. His animation is contagious, and I burst out laughing, too. He is so much less predictable, and therefore more entertaining, than TV or movies. Maybe it sounds bad to see a student as part of one’s entertainment life. But there you have it: tutoring Mahamudi is entertaining.

Tutoring is also more important then ever in the summer. Studies show that low-income students learn at the same rate as higher-income students during the school year. But in the summertime, they fall behind — further and further each summer. So, my friend Colleen and I have also been tutoring Mahamudi’s younger siblings when we can.

photos courtesy of Hanmi Meyer.

Note: besides being a gifted photographer and website designer, Hanmi is also a good rock singer. She and I and her husband Jim — an amazing musician and singer himself — are practicing music every Monday night for my 50th birthday party/concert coming up in November. I’m totally jazzed.

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Portland Sustainability Experts Name ‘Behavior Change’ As Top Pick

Alison — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:50:15 +0000

This is a guest post by Thor Hinckley, who manages the nation’s leading renewable energy program at Portland General Electric. Thor is also my husband.

At a meeting yesterday held at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, I was very encouraged to see a room full of sustainability experts endorse “behavior change” as a key strategy for forming a sustainable economy in Portland. During the meeting’s comment period, I had suggested that along with all of the other policy and economic considerations being considered, that creating a regional center for behavior change in a green economy was critically important to Portland’s sustainability efforts.

Some examples of behavior change would be: using less electricity in the home; driving less often and more efficiently; eating tasty yet meatless meals; and slowing our pace during summer heat waves instead of cranking up the air-conditioning.

The comments from the audience including my own were dutifully transcribed by the event’s organizers on poster paper that was affixed to the wall along with other expert recommendations. Later, during a audience participation session where attendees used colored dots to vote for what they believed to be the key elements in creating this new economy, I was humbled to see my “behavior change” comment receive the most support by way of dots.

I was attending a Climate Prosperity listening session hosted by the Climate Prosperity Work Group, operating under the auspices of the Portland Sustainability Institute, on its new draft plan, called a Greenprint. This new plan calls for a concerted drive toward climate-sensitive economic development that will require the united efforts of both the business and government sectors.

The full document, available for download here, lists six recommendations for integrating economic development and climate protection for the Portland metro region. The one missing recommendation for me and others in the room was creating and promoting the types of human behavior change needed to transition away from our current “take, make, waste” economy.

For many planners and policy types these behavioral considerations are often much too soft and squishy to receive serious attention especially in the context of a regional economic development plan. Others, including myself see creating and promoting human behavioral changes as one of the key elements in the emergence of a truly sustainable economy.

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Grabbing Back Our Lost Opportunities

Alison — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:12:25 +0000

I’m inspired today by a good piece at Get Rich Slowly by Robert Brokamp on the high cost of modern gadgets. Mr. Brokamp points out that his iPhone, alone, costs him $1,251 per year, counting in the taxes he has to earn and pay beyond the $876 he’s paying to the iPhone folks, themselves.

I like the way he drills down into the whole cost of his iPhone rather than just its surface cost. However, I’d drill down deeper, into the lost opportunities for physical activity the iPhone or any gadget represents, and the lost opportunities for face-to-face sociability and community.

Let’s take an example. I’ve never had cable television. I’m almost 50. Averaging the cost of cable to about $40/mo, it looks like being cable-free has saved me about $12,000 over 25 years. Or, using Robert Brokamp’s pre-tax formula, more like $15,000 (I was in a low tax bracket when I was a self-employed artist). But that $15,000 is only where the costs of cable start, in my view.

If I had had cable television I’d likely have been watching close to the daily average of four hours of TV per day that Americans are reported to watch. That would be four hours a day spent sitting passively, not spent on running, hiking or doing Nia dancing, all of which make me physically fit and healthy, as well as happy. It would be four hours a day not spent interacting with friends and family and building my community, which community makes me happy. While there do exist some good TV shows on cable, getting involved with TV in general could set me up for a lot of lost opportunities.

Because I’m greedy for the best opportunities that life has to offer, I like to put my time and energy into people, rather than things, and into physical activities rather than electronic activities. For example, my husband and I spent last weekend helping our friends Colleen and Thad with projects around their house in the Gorge. Colleen and I painted her kitchen with a water-based, eco-friendly paint, and Thad and Thor manfully moved a huge load of bark chips around in the barn. The paint was a cheerful red called Empower. Periodically the men would wander in to get a beer, the brand on hand being called Simpler Times. We had so much fun being productive together (the kitchen looks beautiful! the barn is blanketed with sweet-smelling wood chips!) that we laughingly called our weekend “Being Empowered By Simpler Times”. And the weekend was electronics-free beyond the occasional cell phone call.

To be honest, I’m one of the happiest people I know. A number of people have told me I have an unusual amount of energy. I think a large part of my happiness and energy comes from limiting my use of technology. I blog with a laptop because I love to connect with people via writing, but I don’t need an iPhone or a Blackberry. I’m not compelled to follow the crowd or get distracted by the latest shiny object. Doing that would make me lose opportunities for the physical and social activities that drive my real happiness.

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Transportation’s Version Of The San Diego Padres

Alison — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:51:23 +0000

I grew up near Los Angeles in a baseball-loving family. We bled Dodger blue, went to games at Chavez Ravine and thrilled to Tommy LaSorda’s passionate leadership of his team. Like most people in the L.A. basin, I drove everywhere, usually by myself, on congested freeways. I hated the way congestion wasted my time, and the thick smog the millions of cars caused, but I saw no other way to get to college and work.

I moved to Oregon in 1989 (less congestion! whew!) and eventually entered the field of transportation options. My work funds and encourages bicycling, walking, teleworking, vanpooling and carpooling, and using public transit. My work helps reduce congestion and air pollution, the things I most disliked in California. Now, I can’t say I still follow the Dodgers. Rather, I’ve started liking the San Diego Padres, who at the time of this writing are leading their division, have the smallest payroll in the National League and the best record in the National League. That’s an unusual configuration of accomplishments. How do they pull it off?

Rather than hiring spectacular, homerun-slugging celebrities, the Padres do a lot of little things that score runs and win games. For example, they have excellent base-running, and timely hitting rather than power hitting. Their team has talented but young (read: low-cost) pitchers with one of the lowest team ERA’s in baseball. They typically sacrifice one runner to advance another into scoring position. The Padres brilliantly exemplify ‘small ball’ strategy.

Back to transportation, I wonder if the tradition of building more lanes and roads is something like the baseball strategy of hiring the homerun hitters and hotshot pitchers. Both the roads and the big-name players are high-profile, tangible, and produce concrete results (no pun intended). They please the crowds, at least some of the time. It’s easy to depend heavily on them because they seem like obvious solutions. They’re charismatic and attention-getting. At the same time, both road-building and celebrity players can be prone to controversies and criticisms. They’re high-maintenance, needing repairs (roads) and coddling (celebrities). And the costs of building new roads and hiring celebrity players, always high, can range into the stratosphere — as our economy is shrinking.

Transportation options (TO), in contrast, is a cheap date. I once heard someone term my desk’s budget a rounding error, in the context of multimillion dollar road construction budgets. But TO helps people make travel choices that reduce car trips. Fewer car trips build road capacity — at much lower cost than building new lanes and roads. TravelSmart programs, for example, have consistently and measurably gotten travelers to voluntarily switch their car trips to bike, walk and transit trips. Bicyclists, public transit users, pedestrians and people who carpool aren’t glamorous, and neither am I or my TO colleagues. Rather, the TO world is sort of the transportation version of the Padres’ small-ball strategy. We do little things that add up to big things. And some top-level leaders in transportation have declared recently they are moving to a multimodal emphasis. “We can’t build our way out of this,” I’ve heard them say. That’s good for transportation options, and the carbon emissions reductions linked to TO.

How do I get to work these days? I alternate between vanpooling in to Salem and teleworking from Portland. By the way, vanpoolers get free parking in Salem while people driving alone pay $40-$60/month . . . . and we build capacity for freight by taking 6-10 cars off the road daily. At peak rush hour, reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the same time. But transportation options people are humble, low-profile folks, not celebrities or anything. Like the San Diego Padres.

photo courtesy of ryan lejbak

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My New Approach To Climate Change

Alison — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:33:47 +0000

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced there will be no climate change bill this year. Many of us are disappointed, and outrage better describes the reaction of many who’d let themselves hold hope of responsible leadership concerning climate. I just read the Grist article and comments on this topic.

I respect those willing to keep working with the system on climate change (Congress, the EPA, etc.). I want them to keep working within the system, and even outside of it with civil disobedience, challenging the status quo and pushing for change. My own day job in transportation options pushes for change (carbon emission reduction), by helping people bike, walk, use transit and carpools rather than drive alone.

I have a different perspective. I think humankind, particularly the U.S., isn’t mature enough, or willing on any level, to face up to climate change. The solutions involve too much change on our parts, from the structure and scale of our economy and energy grids, to our personal lifestyles and rates of consumption. We don’t have the aggregate inner strength to pull it off. But please read to the end, because I have a different kind of hope.

When I started this blog in late 2007 I thought and hoped we (humans in general) might deal effectively with climate change. I saw reduced consumption, especially reduced energy consumption, as pivotal to controlling climate change, along with renewable energy sources like wind and solar replacing most fossil fuel use. Now, in mid 2010, there’s so much scientific evidence that temperatures are rising faster than earlier thought (prime example: the new sea lanes opened by the melting Arctic ice) that I think we’re on a runaway train. The feedback loops of climactic warming are too dramatic and self-perpetuating. The blanket of atmospheric warmth started with the Industrial Revolution in the mid 1800’s. We can’t unweave that blanket fast enough to avert flooded coastlines and other startling disruptions. I’d love to be wrong about that. But I don’t think I am.

About my hope: everything we can keep alive for future generations makes a difference. Skills like knowing how to grow food, make and repair clothes, use water and energy sparingly, ride and fix bicycles, build and maintain good relationships and especially how to behave civilly under stress and constrained resources will, in my view, define the world of the mid- and distant future. It will make the difference between civilized communities rising from the ashes of our own current, hyperconsumptive society, or situations much more chaotic and compromised than that.

I would write more, but I have to head out, via light rail, to lead a meeting on expanding the transportation options program in my fair state. Wish me luck. I wish all of us not just luck, but strength and hope.

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We’re Seeking A Housemate!

Alison — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:50:37 +0000

I’ve have had so many good experiences with housemates that I’ve never understood why the practice isn’t more common among people who are post-college — even here in Portland, Oregon, where reducing your carbon footprint is a fairly normal conversation topic.

Our house is:

Newly built, spacious, with lots of light
Highly energy-efficient
Housemate’s bedroom is 12′ x 16.5′ with bathroom across hall
On a quiet street that’s walking distance from Mt. Tabor Park
Beautiful hardwood oak floor downstairs; bedrooms (upstairs) are carpeted
On TriMet frequent bus line #4
Ten minute bike ride to Montavilla — restaurants, Academy Theater, Farmers Market
Full of lyrical touches such as outdoor dining on deck, two fireplaces, front porch, etc.
Smoke-free, drug-free (social drinking is fine)
Wifi-equipped

My husband and I

Love to talk, laugh and play games
Have had housemates in the past and enjoyed them
Compost, recycle and practice energy conservation
Enjoy vegetarian cooking and dinner parties
Like to read (we don’t watch television)
Cannot have cats due to cat allergy (sorry)

We’re seeking a housemate who:

Has successfully lived with others
Is stably employed
Might share one or more of our interests, i.e. gardening, vegetarian cooking, running, renewable energy, singing, dancing, writing, progressive politics
Can supply references (both employment and renting)
Is fairly free of drama (quirks are welcome, we’re quirky too)

Cost is $585/month plus one-third utilities.

If you’re interested and the housemate description sounds like you, please post a comment telling about yourself and your lifestyle, and please include your phone number (nobody will see your phone number but me). Thank you kindly, and best wishes on your search!

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Better Than Disneyland

Alison — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:30:40 +0000

I’m still glowing from our long Fourth of July weekend, spent camping on a ‘wild and scenic’ portion of the Klamath River with friends including three children.The kids, five of us adults plus a water-loving dog named Bernie were all thrilled by swimming down a peaceful portion of the river in the hot, golden sunlight, feet first when it got shallow and our bodies every which way when it got deep again, the water initially cold but then feeling like a second skin as it carried us down the tree-lined canyon.

We agreed the river — created by God, in my view, was better than any Disneyland ride.

Mahamudi, our 14 year old friend from Somalia, (Thor and I bought bikes for him and his siblings last year) came over to the house last night for his twice-weekly reading lesson. He read a much more advanced book than usual, sounded out new words better than I’ve ever seen him do before, and as when swimming in the river, I was fairly beside myself with joy. A year ago when we met him he was struggling with two and three letter words.

We showed Mahamudi the point system we devised while on our camping trip, in which he earns a trip to the coast if he keeps up with his reading all summer. He is on board, determined to earn his points and his trip — he has never been to the coast. His younger brother and sister get to come, too.

I notice that the common thread to all these sources of happiness and satisfaction is that they are woven of nature and community, rather than spending and consumption. Certainly we have to spend and consume in order to live. But it’s possible to put living things, including relationships and rivers, ahead of money and objects. That’s what my pursuit of the Diamond-Cut Life is all about.

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A Different Take On “We Deserve It”

Alison — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 14:52:11 +0000

I’m happy, even ecstatic in our new home, on the east flank of Mount Tabor here in Portland, Oregon. Our house is newer than our former home (one week old versus 70 years old) and larger (2250 square feet versus 1290 sf). And most importantly to me, it has an open floor plan that promotes interaction and community, unlike our former domicile.

I’ve often heard people say in relation to expensive possessions, “You deserve it” or “We deserve it”. Sometimes they seem to be shoring up their self-esteem, i.e. we’re good people and therefore are entitled to good things. Other times they seem to be noting that they worked and earned the money to buy the luxury items.

I personally will never say of our beautiful new home “We deserve it”. I will never think or believe we are entitled to this house, despite my husband Thor and I being, I would hope, as good of people as most, and despite the fact we worked and earned the money with which to buy it.

I see our wonderful new house as a blessing, rather than something we deserve. I think this because a great many of the six billion people in the world work harder, longer, and under much worse conditions, than Thor and I will ever work, and due to low wages and lack of opportunities will never get to live in or own a home like this one. If we want to talk about deserving, then people from all corners of the world who are harder working and/or kinder than I am would be more deserving than I am of this lovely house. So, I say Thor’s and my lovely domicile is a matter of grace, a gift from God, and also a function of luck (we were born in the U.S., a country rich in resources).

And I’m grateful. My prayers this past week are for our new, larger house to be something we share with others, a source of community-building. And, our first house guest arrives on Monday — my brother Mick, from California.

As Buddhism points out, everything is transient. All of this could go away — the house in a fire or earthquake, Thor’s and my jobs in a yet deeper recession — and Thor and I would still be the same people. Both of us were poor when we were younger, long before meeting each other, struggling to pay monthly rent. Now we’re relatively affluent. But whether poor or well off, we are human, no more or less ‘deserving’. It doesn’t pay to get too attached to any particular thing, whether a home or a label or status we have in the world.

More friends are coming over this weekend to help us unpack, and share meals, and celebrate Thor’s birthday. Mahamudi, our 14 year old friend from Somalia, arrives at 2 this afternoon for his regular reading lesson with us; his light-hearted, playful approach to life helps offset our Type A, first-world tendencies. All of these sources of our happiness are not entitlements, but blessings.

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Having Enough — Whether Oil Or Time

Alison — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:09:13 +0000

What does President Obama’s suggestion we curb our national oil addiction share in common with the premise of the cool book I’ve just now added to my book recommendations? The belief that change and transformation are possible. And, the underlying belief that we can cultivate happiness, a sense of sufficiency and ‘enoughness’, without always chasing after more.

The ‘more’ addiction looks different in different people. While I would feel no sense of suffering if I could never again fly to a foreign country (uses a great deal of oil), and I’ve never been plagued by cravings for expensive jewelry or designer clothes (here is my general take on Sex And The City) I do the time poverty thing.

For instance, this morning I would love to go running, work on my novel, write my mom and sign up with Northwest Natural Gas for their Smart Energy program for our new house (we’re moving in tomorrow). All that, plus getting dressed and eating breakfast, before I start my work-day. In addition to having already spent 90 minutes on the new book review and this post. Clearly, unrealistic. Compulsive, if I were to insist on it all. I have to let go of some of those things, at least for this morning. More is not necessarily better. In many cases, it’s crazymaking.

OK. I worked on my novel, Revelle, last night, so tomorrow is soon enough to work on it again. The other items can probably all fit if I make it a short run. But I’ll need to be flexible, because I can’t control what might arise unexpectedly. I’ll keep cultivating that crucial faith in the ‘enoughness’ of my time.

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