Michael Nabert
Michael Nabert is a Canadian sustainability educator. He’s also very charismatic. His maxim, ‘help our footprint shrink to fit’ encompasses a wide range of causes, which he is more than happy to help spread the word about, for the benefit of the earth and all of its inhabitants. Nabert believes that the differences between men and women in many professions in the western world desperately need rectifying. He also looks a bit like a magician. So, is there anything not to like about Nabert?
Below he outlines a few ways we can all look at our daily impact on the planet- and live a healthier lifestyle in the process. The facts may relate to North America, but in terms of culture and ideas of ‘necessity’, Australia is in the very same boat. While some may look at this and just think ‘too hard basket’, a change in just one or two areas of the average Australian’s lifestyle is a step in the right direction.
While lists of ways to ‘go green’ abound, most of them are trivial at best: we’re not going to functionally improve tomorrow by making sure our tires are properly inflated. In terms of personal behaviours, for the typical first world citizen, there are only six basic behaviours that make a difference to reducing the size of one’s ecological footprint. For every bag at the curb on trash day, there’s another 70 or so bags from the manufacturing process that made all that stuff, so when we focus on recycling, we’re missing the point that it’s not the tail end of the snake that bites us.
Buy Fewer Nonessentials
Most of our retail purchases are completely unimportant to the goal of living sustainably, or indeed happily. We can’t eat status symbols, and research proves it isn’t our possessions that genuinely bring us joy. We need to live within our means, not only in terms of credit card debt but also in resource availability, and that requires taking a hard look at things.
Think Local
Support your local economy, frequent local craftspeople, eat local food, and get to know your neighbours. It won’t only reduce the emissions we create with long distance shipping. It also grows more skills, resources, and opportunities close to you, improving the available quality of life where you live.
Eat Lower On The Food Chain
In 1965, there were 3.3 billion humans on the planet and they ate 10 billion livestock. In 2011 the 7 billionth human being was born, but we now slaughter more than 56 billion livestock annually, so that’s the real population bomb. Livestock grazing already uses one quarter of the ice-free terrestrial surface of the planet, and India and China now want to eat meat like we do. Not to mention that lower impact diets also mean significant health gains.
Go Low Tech
High tech solutions use complex and rare materials, commonly have unexpected side effects, and are expensive. High tech gets replaced, while low tech can be repaired, with fewer parts to go wrong. Security and confidence comes from knowing that in a pinch you might be able to fix something yourself.
Don’t Fly
For the average North American, one year of driving creates 2.2 tons of emissions, and one year of eating represents 3 tons. One return airfare from Toronto to Rome can be 5.5 tons, the largest spike in emissions many of us aspire to. Road trips are greener, and the train more so. Better still, spend those dollars greening your home, which is where you’ll spend most of your time, and it will pay you back.
Give Up Your Car
Telecommute, use public transit, walk, bicycle. Bicycles are the most efficient transportation ever invented, and we could clearly use the exercise. Many cities now have car share programs you can join, so that if you have to move something heavy across town you can get wheels for the day without the ongoing expense, maintenance, temptation, and danger that car represents in your driveway.
Extra credit: Demand Collective Action
Individual changes aren’t enough by themselves. Call out climate change denial wherever you see it. Educate others about what their choices mean (no, you won’t get popular doing it, sorry, but it needs doing). Pressure local, regional and national governments with all of your might.
We’d need six planets to provide the world a North American lifestyle, and there is perpetual pressure to keep the economy growing indefinitely, but ecology is the true wealth of our planet. Today’s children have a shorter life expectancy than their parents for the first time in many centuries.
I’ve not only slashed my budget and my carbon footprint, I’m healthier, more relaxed, and having more fun in doing it. The shift to sustainability is inevitable. We will either do it voluntarily, which is difficult and inconvenient, or collapsing resources and environmental degradation are going to do it for us. When you make sustainable choices, be proud.
Tell your friends. If we genuinely want to make tomorrow a better place, that’s how we are going to do it.
Follow Michael on Twitter here https://twitter.com/SustainableSong or Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/michael.nabert.knows or his website here http://www.SustainableYou.ca
About the Author: Kim
After packing up her fashion design job in Sydney 2009 to travel the Americas, Kim has had the opportunity to experience living in London, Sevilla, and Barcelona, however still finding herself at odds with the priorities of the status quo. So she packed up (again) to start a new adventure on a permaculture research farm on the island of Ometepe, Nicaragua, armed with moderate level Andalucian Spanish, a backpack, and a vague idea of what was to come next.
In Nicaragua, Kim taught a group of local women in a year-long course in sewing, pattern making, and design at the local community centre Proyecto Mano Amiga, with a focus on re-use and waste minimisation. Alongside classes, she has helped form a local women's sewing co-operative, project managing the construction of a new workshop for the continuation and growth of the project.
Recently arriving back in Australia, Kim is trying to figure out what defines her perception of a 'normal' lifestyle, and how to reconcile the pursuit of her passions with the ability to pay rent. Related Posts
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Awesome stuff Michael (and Kim).
I have never owned a car and I have to say there is always a friend to share one with, a bus going past or (when I lived on an island with pretty much the worst transport system ever) enough time in the world to plan to be slow. It’s actually wonderful to use transit time to imagine, contemplate and dream. I love watching the world go by, whether it by foot or by bus or ferry and just think. It’s part of quietening my head. And those times when I am the passenger in traffic jams I do wonder if a lot more people would benefit emotionally and on a stress level if they gave themsevles that kind of break too, let alone the stench, smell and environmental impact!
The whole thing of having phone contracts too and their insistence to give you the latest and greatest piece of tech really bugs me. Planned obsolence, and that fashionable status of having all the latest and greatest of toys just seems so….indulgent and alien to me. We used to have such pride in things that were built to last like tables or watches or bicycles. Now it’s all about being first in line for the piece of junk we won’t care about in 12months. Beyond knowing this is the case, what practical things can we do to change people’s minds?
So frightening that 6 planets are needed for North America alone. But my question is, how do we call people out without being hit with the standard walls and reasonings they have built? How do we change people who mentally invest in “big” and “more” and “status” as their mainstay demonstrations of “success”?
A valid question Rebekah!
As for changing the perception of success in western society, I’ve found that telling people they are ‘doing it all wrong’ never goes over well, no matter how well I’ve heard it tactfully explained. I have been labelled an ‘idealistic greenie’ on a number of occasions since returning to Sydney, which makes me laugh because usually all I’m doing in the process is asking if someone has a compost bin! But I think having these points raised, and ‘out in the world’ to provoke thought and ideally change, can only be a good thing.
What I have found, is that ‘monkey see, monkey do’ really does seem to work. As many jokes as there are about hipsters with fixies taking over the place, well, it’s actually working- many more people are using their bikes as a valid mode of transport in Sydney’s CBD now. And it’s the small things that add up- I carry around my own water bottle everywhere, so I don’t have to buy and in turn discard one-use bottles; people see it and start doing the same thing. When I’m in a cafe and I ask where my food has come from, the people around me really do want to know the answer. And these kinds of small things I think are a ‘gateway’ into bigger issues- once you get the ball rolling in people’s minds, it’s human nature to want to ask more questions and delve deeper.
I believe it’s about being open to people who may be in that transition phase of being connected to having lots of ‘stuff’ as a way of showing they are successful, and knowing there’s a healthier, more sustainable alternative. Which I think can be said for pretty much everyone in an urban environment. Unfortunately, though, there are a lot of individuals and groups with good intentions- good intentions that they want to ram down people’s throats with doomsday prophecies which only serve to make people feel helpless, and in turn think ‘well, why should I bother to change then? We’re all F****d anyway!’. And I know the soft approach doesn’t yield quick results- but I think it’s about longevity in changing the way we act / create / purchase rather than hitting short-term targets that turn out to be fads and we end up back at square one, with even more resistance.
That being said, I think the biggest catalyst for humans to develop is necessity (which can also be read as catastrophe). Hopefully it won’t come to that before we bite the bullet and actively change our relationship with the environment that sustains us.