Greenseniors

Globalchange: A Resource For Understanding The New Reality

2009-07-02T06:14:30-07:00

Global warming was supposed to be a threat to our grandchildren. Now the science tells us it is underway and has been for decades--while we burned increasing quantities of fossil fuel. It is changing our world in many ways, and unless we act now, catastrophe lies ahead, if not for us, then surely for our children's generation. It isn't only about our grandchildren anymore.

A new report has been published about the impact of global warming on the United States and the probable impacts by 2050 and 2100 under two scenarios of emissions levels. This report explains what is happening region by region, in details everyone can understand. You can access this information at www.globalchange.gov. At this site you may directly view information in the report, print specific pages of the report, or download the entire report as a pdf file.

Under "Resources" you will find a photo gallery that you may download and use in your environmental campaign work. We like this image of earth, a reminder of what we stand to lose if we are unable to make the necessary changes in energy, natural resources, and pollution.

This site is in the resources listed in the right hand column of this web page.

Green Hero...Morag Parnell

2009-06-18T08:37:11-07:00

Green Seniors began as an idea nearly three years ago, which seems like a long time when you consider the amount of Amazonion and Indonesian rainforest that has been removed in that time; the number of frog species that have become extinct; the rate at which the marine ecosystem has changed...and that is not even taking into account the direct effects of climate change. As a very eminent climate scientist recently stated: "By the time we see the real impacts of climate change, it will be too late to do anything about them".

So much change and so little time. Which makes you wonder what must be going through the mind of our latest Green Hero, Morag Parnell from West Lothian, Scotland, who has been campaigning on environmental issues for the last 37 years. It was upon reading the Club of Rome's 1972 report, "The Limits to Growth" that Morag decided that she needed to act, so spent much of the 1970s and 1980s campaigning on many issues including nuclear weapons, exposures to asbestos, and industrial chemicals in local microelectromics and clothing factories. In 1990, she joined the Women's Environmental Network in order to work on her key interest as a medical doctor -- the impact of toxic chemicals on the environment and in all aspects of human life.

Morag says: "Climate change is the most urgent and publicly acknowledged campaign. However, I think it is difficult to disassociate the many other aspects of what threatens us from this. They are all related. In particular, our campaigning against the effects of exposures to toxic chemicals has a particularly strong link to climate change. Most of the suspect substances are derived from fossil fuels- mainly petroleum. While climate change is concerned about pollution of our external environment , our health campaigns are concerned about our internal pollution -- largely from the same sources. And our internal pollution is killing and maiming millions worldwide now."

Her 82 years shows no sign of slowing her down, and she continues to lobby heavily in the Scottish Parliament and campaign widely.

We asked Dr Parnell a few questions, which she kindly answered:

What motivates you to keep campaigning?

I think that everyone has the right to live in a clean and uncontaminated environment.

What makes toxic chemicals in the environment such an important subject?

Most, if not all, of the illnesses caused by exposures to such substances are preventable. Most of the substances are synthetics and were invented by human beings who are perfectly capable of inventing substances that do not kill or maim.

Do you consider your work to have been successful and, if so, in what ways?

I think what we have done in the communities has been well supported. Most "ordinary" people are receptive -- they already have some knowledge or have suspicions about this topic -- they know someone who has, or have themselves experienced adverse health effects from what they suspect may have been environmental or occupational exposures. In the political arena we have had a small amount of success, but still a very long way to go before real primary prevention and precautionary action are accepted as public policy.

What advice do you have for people who don't think it is worth trying to make a difference?

Never give up. It is only by the small cumulative efforts of people like us that differences are made!

Thank you, Morag, our latest Green Hero.

If you know someone who you think should be a Green Hero, please write to us at heroes@greenseniors.org and we will contact you to find out more.

Green Seniors revisits the Great Old Broads for Wilderness

2009-05-30T20:05:00-07:00

Green Seniors helps seniors take action and find networks. We're about planting the seeds of new ideas, of motivating and encouraging, of building communications among diverse environmental entities. We're not an organization "on the ground" so to speak. But it takes organizations whose members engage with the earth itself, to tackle certain missions. "Great Old Broads for Wilderness" is one of those organizations.

Photo: Veronica Egan, Executive Director of Great Old Broads for Wilderness

A year ago Green Seniors was delighted to learn about Great Old Broads for Wilderness, an organization truly "on the ground," whose members hike out, camp out, and work out in the wilderness repairing damage others have done. It boasts chapters in various states of the USA involving some 3,500 members, including some men*.

Recently our friends at Great Old Broads for Wilderness were featured in an article in the AARP Bulletin Earth Works: Why Mature Activism May Save the Planet.

Take a look, then pay their website a visit at www.greatoldbroads.org

Even if wilderness preservation is not the mission for you personally, it will brighten your day just to see what this group is accomplishing and how it is growing.

Great Old Broads was started 20 years ago. As a non-profit organization, it now boasts a high degree of sophistication. In the "About Us" section of their website you'll meet the paid staff who are helping the membership to make a difference.

Green Seniors featured this group in a post on May 28, 2008 as a part of our promotion of environmental networking. Executive Director Veronica Egan answered some questions put to her by Green Seniors' Keith Farnish. Green Seniors is thrilled to see this organization growing and thriving, and wishes them continued success.

*Note for non-US readers: "broad" is a colloquial term for a woman.

Meet New Green Senior David Hearne

2009-04-29T13:53:48-07:00

Last year the urgency of addressing global warming and climate change came home to David Hearne. He jump-started his activism by taking part in 2008 Climate Ride, a five day, 300 mile bicycle ride from New York City to Washington, DC. Four of the 100 riders, pictured below and facing the camera, were age 59 or over. David is on the far right. On the far left is Jim Rucquoi who was the oldest rider at age 72. They are on a ferry taking them from Manhattan to Atlantic Heights.

David has been kind enough to provide Green Seniors with a detailed commentary on his experience.

"The two women who initiated and organized the ride did an outstanding job. We were very well supported and fed, and each night we had guests who spoke to various aspects of climate change or specific actions of theirs to mitigate climate change...."

"As well organized as the ride was, it was the fellow riders that left the biggest impression on me. Take Alan Tinker of Focus the Nation as an example, who arranged for over 50 congressional meetings with climate riders right after the ride. Or David Kroodsma who rode solo for 17 months from Palo Alto, CA to the tip of South America to call attention to climate change. One of the older riders was also one of the lowest carbon footprint riders. He rode the entire trip carrying all of his gear and a guitar with which he serenaded us at night."

"Some of the riders were well conditioned and some had not ridden very much at all. But everyone who started, finished with determination. And I left feeling very good about the next generation of leadership arising. As typical for an event such as this we began the ride with many different backgrounds and experiences. But after numerous conversations, both on and off the bike, we arrived in DC all united in a common objective of encouraging more to be done about climate change."

Ride, Baby, Ride!

"The trip culminated in an exhilarating bike ride down Constitution Avenue, escorted by Capitol Police. The presidential campaign was well underway with one party rallying around the cry "Drill, Baby, Drill." We rode up Constitution Avenue declaring "Ride, Baby, Ride!"

Green Seniors asked David how his sense of urgency about global warming came about.

"I have had a long standing concern about global warming/climate change but until last year not a sense of urgency. I probably was representative of most Americans in that I really had never tried to understand the issue. Last summer I received an email from the Rails to Trails Conservancy inviting members to join their team on the inaugural Climate Ride from New York City to Washington, DC. I became intrigued and signed up.

"Of course, now I had to raise money and I felt compelled to learn more about climate change. I blogged to my contributors and shared my thoughts which meant a little research. I explored a variety of websites and read Wally Broecker's book, Fixing Climate.

"A big eye opener was to do a carbon footprint analysis at several of the various on-line sites that have calculators. I was chastened to realize the size of my personal footprint. From this two drivers for my sense of urgency arose:

1) data was being collected that indicated climate change could be accelerating; and

2) the data indicated that significant climate change was already inevitable at current emissions levels."

David Hearne summed up his message to all of you, the readers of the Green Seniors website:

"If you care about the world in which your grandchildren will live, take global climate change seriously now and demand action."

Green Seniors/Small Homes: Ara's "Doll's House" in France

2009-04-28T18:48:00-07:00

Ara (short for Arabella) is a retired American teacher living in a small village outside of Carcassonne, France. Several years ago she fell in love with and purchased her "Little House" of only 50 square meters, with a small courtyard and a substantial open shelter at the back of the lot. "Houses of this size are often referred to as a Maison de Poupee, a Doll's house," she told Green Seniors.  Ara generously sent Green Seniors some photographs and her personal narrative of living in her small home.

That's Ara's front door outlined in red and just above, the shuttered window of a bedroom.

Ara talks about her street and neighbors:

"The house is on a quiet street where several related families have their houses. I feel safe in a clan-like neighborhood where the women sweep the streets and pick up dog poop if necessary. They take care of stray cats and have flower boxes.  Best of all, my little house is between two other stone village houses which provide insulation and protection from the famous winds that drive people crazy in this area."

"My idea was to live simply in a house that reminded me of a summer house on a Greek island."

Ara explained the floor plan:

"The house has two small bedrooms on the top floor. The bottom floor has the entrance, a tiny airplane-sized bathroom with a shower under the stairs, and a lovely kitchen with a fireplace. My small rooms are very cozy and have doors that can be shut to conserve heat. The kitchen and top floor bedroom/office have windows that look out onto the lovely south-facing courtyard which provides beautiful light and extends the sense of the house. The courtyard is like another room. The southern view from the top floor window looks toward a sea of tiled roofs."

Of course there were some challenges:

"I had no idea what problems one would encounter when moving into a 300 year old house. I needed to ground the electricity (!) and rewire the house. Next I needed a new roof. Recently I had two double paned windows installed. The window surrounds literally had to be sculpted to fit the standard sized windows. I wanted to replace the front and back doors but I realized the openings are not a standard size, where I can just go out and buy a new door. At the moment I can't face that. Also I can't face the cracks in the ceiling on the top floor which indicate the ceiling might just cave in and need to be replaced. I am assured that won't happen for a few years."

"We (Ken my savior handyman) and I just finished painting the kitchen yellow and blue a la Monet's Giverney kitchen. We took out an old stone sink which was a mess and bought a unit with a stainless steel sink, which I love. (I never thought I would love a sink!) We reconfigured the work surfaces and storage, and installed a washing machine. Washing machines are quite usual for a French kitchen."

"Since I really hate to cook, all I have is a microwave/convection oven and an electric kettle. The gas burner for friends who like to cook will be outside in the shed, which will be a summer kitchen.

"I can comfortably entertain three or four guests in my kitchen. Once the courtyard is ready I can entertain about eight people. For larger parties I will plan picnics in beautiful places."

"After living in the little house for a while I am becoming aware that it would be difficult for me to live here with another person. It's a house for just one person. Having a guest here for more than four days would be a problem. Even a large man might take up too much space. This brings me to another awareness: most French women over 55 do not want a man in the house!"

Probably Ara's beloved house cat Lulu would agree with that.

Thank you, Ara for sharing your home with us. We can see that in such a small space you can't own very much beyond what is essential for your needs. Your ecological footprint must be quite small. It's also apparent that you take great pleasure in your charming dwelling and find life there filled with beauty and meaning.

Green Seniors/Small Homes: Don's Desert Villa

2009-04-27T11:32:00-07:00

Don LeCouteur was "green" long before he became a green senior, following a vegetarian diet and living in a small home in Oregon--a "fifth wheel" type of trailer, to be exact. Don needed a winter getaway from the cold and damp, so he renovated an even smaller home--a tiny travel trailer in an RV park in Southern California. Don gave us some before and after photographs to show what he had accomplished.

This little trailer had seen better days. When Don completed the exterior work, it looked like this:

By renovating instead of buying new, Don kept the bulk of the material in the trailer from ending up in a land fill or abandoned in the desert as a eyesore. But Don didn't stop with the exterior. The worn interior was remodeled to suit his needs. The bed was moved to where an eating booth had been, freeing up one end of the trailer for an office with a computer and a regular office chair.

Don's computer keeps him linked to his many friends and is his means of continuing an active and rich intellectual life. When he learned about Green Seniors via the Internet, he volunteered to pass out Green Senior buttons wherever he found people who would appreciate them.

The Desert Villa is so small, it doesn't include a shower in the little bathroom. For that, Don uses the facilities at his RV campground.

Don's more active winter lifestyle led to quite a change in his physique. This "after" shot shows how regular desert hiking can improve a person. No belly bulge here!

Don's love for the desert grew as he noticed the beauty that could be found there, and he shares photos like these with friends:

Thank you, Don, for sharing your life with us, and making us all that much richer by it. Thanks too for taking care of the environment and making the world better for your grandchildren and the grandchildren of all Green Seniors.

After some severe illness this past winter, Don decided he was better off staying in the desert year round.  His desert RV park is fairly close to a major health center where he has gotten good care. His son brought Don's fifth wheel down from Oregon to be his year-round desert home.

Something tells us that even if Don and the little Desert Villa go their separate ways, that new adventures lie ahead for each of them.

Green Seniors/Small Homes: The Small House Movement

2009-02-28T22:53:17-08:00

That's right, there is such a thing as the small house movement, kindled from the desire of people of all ages, from many walks of life, to live more gently on the earth. We can only bring you a few highlights of this movement today, and as time goes on, we can share how green seniors participate in this movement.

To start things off, in this photo Greengranny (center) and her husband (the photographer) are hosting a dinner party for three guests in their 23-foot travel trailer, a part-time home that doesn't move. Greengranny (Joyce) has written several posts in her blog www.greengranny.org about her life in this small home.

Little House on a Small Planet (Shay Salomon; The Lyons Press; 2006; 265 pages) describes a wide variety of small homes and the people who live in them. Many photographs, including 14 pages in full color, bring this volume to life, highlighting the diversity and creativity that is possible. Shay and her photographer Nigel Valdez visited more than a hundred unique homes is researching this book.  The owners span all age groups.

A different approach is taken in Put Your Life On a Diet - Lessons Learned from Living in 140 Square Feet by Gregory Paul Johnson (Gibbs Smith; 2008; 144 pages).  It's a slim paperback with a how-to approach on downsizing ones dwelling and ones consumption in general. The last chapter, "Resources for Simple Living," includes books, communities, education and workshops, designers and builders, publications, small house plans (websites), and online tools for smaller living.

Gregory says of living in his very small home:

"I find that I am still using about two thousand square feet of space, just as I had in the past. The difference is that the other 1,860 square feet that comprise my office, the gym, the laundromat, restaurants, and other spaces are not mine to maintain anymore--they are shared with others."

Seniors, even the green ones, may not wish to copy what Gregory and other young people do so easily--crawl up ladders to sleeping lofts or shower only at the gym. However, there are alternatives for those a bit up in years. At http://sustain.ca/ one can find "Rapid Rooms" with dimensions of just 4 by 5 meters manufactured for use in the UK. These small houses, one room plus a bathroom, are designed as handicapped- accessible pre-fab units and could be placed behind a home to accommodate an older relative's needs.

Small homes are "green" by their size alone, requiring less land, less building materials, less furniture, and less energy to heat and cool. However, the pre-fab home industry is developing a variety of small homes that are so "green" they can be used as off-grid dwellings. Some of them need no foundation and therefore do not disturb the earth, and can be moved into place by being towed on the highway from the point of manufacture.

Just how green do you want your small home to go? It seems as though there are options for everyone's pocketbook, lifestyle, and taste. If you like the sleek modern look or prefer cottage charm, there are options for you. If you want to live off-grid in the mountains or in a village hundreds of years old, there are small home options around the world that fit your fantasy.  Most of us just want to find options possible in the communities we live in today, and those options are expanding.

In future posts we hope to show you more examples of how green seniors actually live. Meanwhile, please contact us if you have an example you'd like to submit with a photograph. Send your small home examples to joyce@greenseniors.org.  Only send examples that you are willing to have published on this blog, please.

Look for future posts that begin with "Green Seniors/Small Homes" in the title.

Retirement Income Falling? Five Green Actions That Help.

2009-02-24T12:56:03-08:00

Around the globe, seniors are seeing their retirement incomes drop as the value of their investments falls. Seniors still in the work force may be losing jobs or having to compete with younger workers for the jobs that used to be readily available to older workers. Adult children who might have helped their elders are having their own financial challenges. Such changes bring stress as people adjust to an unwelcome reality and try to find ways of living on less income.

Some people have been caught by surprise, and because they were living merrily along, they have more potential to change their lifestyle than they realize.  Others were just getting by, and now having even less creates real hardship. No matter which group you fall into, or somewhere in-between, try these five green steps to taking charge of your life. No one can do it as well as you can do it for yourself!

Five Green Steps to Help You Cope

1. Learn something new. Knowledge is an extremely useful tool, and it can be acquired in a great many ways, many of them free.  Choose a topic you are highly motivated to learn more about. Then go to your public library to start finding the resources you need.  Remember, knowledge is power.

2. Improve your health and fitness.  This is a good time to quit smoking, or lose weight, or get more fit by walking.   You might decide to eat less meat or to improve your diet in other ways. There are many ways to achieve these, of course. One person will buy new walking shoes and an electric treadmill, while another will just go walking. One person will buy new cookbooks, a food processor, and expensive groceries, while another will enjoy a peanut butter sandwich for lunch and bean tacos for supper.  Obviously, to be green, and to be good advice for hard times, we advocate the no cost/lower cost option.

3. Do It Yourself (DIY). Even staunch DIY folks probably have some things they haven't thought of trying, to save money during hard times. Just the very suggestion of doing something new will have them going in a new direction--a strong DIY inclination is a joy and a blessing.  You may not have grown up in a family of do-it-yourself-ers but you can still give it a try. It's a wonderful way to feel a sense of accomplishment when the outside world is saying you don't have value. Besides, almost anything you do yourself at home is greener than the alternative. Growing food is one of the most popular DIY areas.

4. Save, repair, and re-purpose. Reduced buying power forces people to do what they could have done all along--stop the endless cycle of buying, using carelessly, and throwing away.   The value of an object is not its cost in money, but its cost in a degraded and polluted environment.

5. Help someone else in need. If we think about the resources we still have, we see that we can contribute to the well-being of others, just as they contribute to ours. You may have specialized knowledge or skills to share, or you have retained your health and vigor, or you have some possession (spare furniture, a big sunny backyard, garden or woodworking tools) that could be shared, loaned or donated.

These five action steps are interrelated. If you decide to start your own backyard garden (#3-DIY), you probably need to learn how (#1). In the course of doing it, you will improve your health and fitness (#2). Your garden might inspire you to compost your suitable kitchen waste (#4) while giving some surplus food to a neighbor (#5).

The new morality of Thrift. Thrift is suddenly respectable again. But, thrift today is not just a matter of living within one's financial means. It's a matter of living within the earth's means.

Green Seniors can redefine the admirable lifestyle. We know these five action steps are the way most green seniors have always lived. Now, it's time to be proud of that lifestyle.

It's time to show the world that a lifestyle of consumption and waste, disregarding earth and all its forms of life including our own, is more disgusting than glamorous.

Happiness and security are not as money-dependent as you think. Happiness is really a state of mind, and security is a larger concept than just financial security.  Knowledge, life skills, self-reliance, strong ties of family, friends, and community, all matter.  If financial problems are thwarting you now, the five action steps will help you shore up the areas you can strengthen.

The world is full of opportunities and unexpected pleasures. When change is forced upon us, that is when real personal growth can occur. No matter how old we may be, we can keep growing in love, wisdom, and charity towards others. Those virtues are the very foundation of living Green.

Hypothermia: A Cold Weather Risk for Older People Including Green Seniors

2009-01-30T08:49:07-08:00

As Green Seniors strive to lower their heat to save energy and reduce heating bills, they need to be aware of a cold weather risk: hypothermia. The information below is quoted from the National Institute of Aging (USA).

Almost everyone knows about winter dangers such as broken bones from falls on icy steps, sidewalks or streets. But cold weather also can cause an important, less obvious danger that can affect older people. Older adults are especially vulnerable to hypothermia, which can be deadly if not treated quickly. The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has some advice to help older people avoid hypothermia.

Hypothermia occurs when a person's body temperature drops below normal and stays low for a prolonged period of time. With advancing age, the body's ability to endure long periods of exposure to cold is lowered.

Older people also are at risk for hypothermia because their body's response to cold can be diminished by certain illnesses such as diabetes and some medicines, including over-the-counter cold remedies. In addition, older adults may be less active and generate less body heat. As a result, they can develop hypothermia even after exposure to relatively mild cold weather or a small drop in temperature.

The best way to identify someone with hypothermia is to look for confusion or sleepiness, slowed or slurred speech, shivering or stiffness in the arms and legs, weak pulse, poor control over body movements or slow reactions. If you suspect that someone is suffering from the cold and you have a thermometer available, take his or her temperature. If it’s 96 degrees or lower, call 911 for emergency help.

The NIA has information to help you prevent hypothermia. Here are a few tips:

Wear several layers of loose clothing when it is cold. The layers will trap warm air between them. Tight clothing can keep blood from flowing freely and lead to loss of body heat.
Wear a hat, scarf, gloves or mittens, and warm clothes when you go outside in cold weather. A significant amount of your body heat can be lost through your head, and hands and feet are the first body parts to get cold.
To keep warm at home, wear long underwear under your clothes, along with socks and slippers. Use a blanket or afghan to keep legs and shoulders warm and wear a hat or cap indoors.
Make sure your home is warm enough. Set your thermostat to at least 68 to 70 degrees. Even mildly cool homes with temperatures from 60 to 65 degrees can trigger hypothermia in older people.
Check with your doctor to see if any medications (prescription or over the counter) you are taking may increase your risk for hypothermia.

Because heating costs are high, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has funds to help low-income families pay their heating bills. For more information, contact the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (1-866-674-6327) or the Eldercare Locator (1-800-677-1116).

The NIA has free information about hypothermia. To order the fact sheet, Hypothermia: A Cold Weather Hazard, or the brochure, Stay Safe in Cold Weather, call toll free 1-800-222-2225. Hipotermia: El Peligro de las Bajas Temperaturasis also available. These and other free publications on healthy aging can be downloaded from the NIA Web site at www.nia.nih.gov.

GREEN SENIORS are keeping warm during cold weather in various ways. Some are able to close off the room they are in from the rest of their house and heat that room to a safe and comfortable level. Some stay warm at night with electric blankets or electric mattress pads. They find that they can turn down the heat, reduce total energy used for heating, and yet remain comfortable.

If you are experimenting with your household heat source and trying to find more energy efficient means to stay warm, do it with great care. People have burned their homes down when an animal knocked over a portable electric heater. If you have any medical conditions such as diabetes, be sure to consult your doctor about safe ways for you to keep warm.

Green Seniors co-founder Joyce has a common condition, Raynauds, in which blood vessels in her hands and feet sometimes react to cold by constricting, making them feel very cold or even turn white. This is not hypothermia because the core body temperature is maintained, but it is still a reaction that she must avoid if possible.  If this occurs outdoors, it could easily lead to frostbite.  The more a Raynauds person experiences the constriction response, the more likely it will become frequent and severe.

The same tips given by the NIA to prevent hypothermia help Joyce prevent her fingers and toes from turning white and feeling icy.  During cold months she needs to move about at frequent intervals, since exercise is the best antidote for her. If she wishes to sit and read, it's usually on the bed, wrapped in an afghan, with a microwave heat pack near her feet. Needless to say, she dresses in layered clothing and wool socks even in the house.  Though she's had the condition most of her life, she is glad that there are ways to stay warm without using huge amounts of energy.

Green Community Exhibit at the National Building Museum, USA

2009-01-23T08:38:04-08:00

A Museum Takes on a Green Mission

Museums are about the past rather than the future, aren't they? Not always, the National Building Museum in Washington, DC shows www.nbm.org. The Museum is an advocate of sustainable design and has created exhibits to educate and inspire people to consider their impact upon the planet and how to lessen the harm we cause through building.

The Green House Exhibit was an actual structure people could walk through and was used to teach sustainable building techniques.  The current exhibit Green Community shows how various communities throughout the world (although primarily in the USA) are addressing the challenges of brownfields, transit, land and water conservation, and waste. While few of the featured communities were addressing all these issues, each was achieving success in at least one aspect.

The displays for each featured community include large photographs of before and after the "green" intervention. Each display also used floor-to-ceiling clear cylinders of perhaps a foot in diameter, filled to a level showing the magnitude of the challenge nationwide and comparing that to the progress made by the community.

After looking through the exhibit, Green Senior Joyce Emery said,

I laud the National Building Museum's proactive stance on the environment and its leadership in educating the public. The Museum could have said its mission was not to foster any particular type of future building but only to document what has been built. Instead, it treated the prevention of environmental degradation from building as a vitally important part of the institutional mission, shaping public concepts towards that goal.

Video on Community Activism

The exhibit included a video of ways that people strive to make their communities better. Three global environmental movements were featured: Guerrilla Gardening featuring UK's Richard Reynolds, Freegans, and Critical Mass. Green Seniors has already posted on Guerrilla Gardening, but what are Freegans and Critical Mass? And what are they doing in a Building Museum display?

Freegans are a form of "dumpster divers:" people scavenging the garbage of groceries, restaurants, and other places for free food. They find a great deal of food that is healthful and enjoyable, though likely past its sale date, and they pool their findings and cook group meals. They also help feed the hungry while highlighting the waste that takes place in society.

Critical Mass are bicyclists who wish to make a statement on behalf of their legitimate rights as roadway users by organizing (hastily and unofficially) a mass grouping for a particular day. By achieving a "critical mass" that authorities are not expecting, they can cause other traffic to yield to them--for a change.

Freegans and Critical Mass are both found in Wikipedia, which paints a more complete picture of them than does the Green Community Exhibit.  Since these groups form spontaneously and have no organization beyond the local group, their actions can vary with the locale and range from the heroic to the annoying, depending on your point of view.

The appearance of this video presentation in the Museum Exhibit is remarkable. For one thing, it involves forms of human behavior other than how people build structures, demonstrating the broad embrace of "greening" by this institution. For another, it casts yesterday's radical behavior as today's valued community spirit that will improve the quality of life in communities. (Taking the naughtiness out of it may disappoint some of the guerrilla gardeners, freegans, and cyclists, but they will surely find new challenges to address in unconventional ways.)

The National Building Museum is an example that we can expand the mission of our place of work, or any institution or organization where we have influence, to include consideration for the environment.  The planet needs no less.