Consumerism

A documentary about consumerism worth watching. It's not very sophisticated and doesn't provide any new information but that may be just about the right dose for contemporary consumers...

Big beans for busy people

I planted sora-mame (broad beans) last November and without any noteworthy maintenance (I just hat to fight some nasty little insects for a short while), we received loads of beans from mother nature. Beans that taste far better than the ones from the grocery store – not to mention the ones from the supermarket which have kind of a sulphury smell to them.

City II

Another interesting lecture on the city – this time by William Mcdonough. I like his idea of transfering the principle of metabolism to industrial processes.
However, I have doubts whether his city planning project in China will be successful. Though brilliantly planned in terms of sustainability and use of energy it is lacking two fundamental components:

1. history
2. culture

It's a problem all planned cities have and even though his plans are without a doubt far superiour to the original ones by the Chinese officials the buildings are shaped by industrial ideals rather than human ones. And what's more, there seems to be no room for natural growth or change within the city. Instead of trying to hide huge rectangular buildings under elevated nature it would be better to make the city itself a pleasant sight. I hope to be proven wrong, but I fear the farmers on the roofs will give up their fields pretty soon for jobs underneath.
Nevertheless, if the plans were applied to existing cities (e.g. Tokyo) they could boost the quality of life there. Only the fear remains that we have reached the point in history where even Chinese officials are more open-minded and innovative than Japan's stuck bureaucrats...

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Another resource for this topic.

Less, lesser, Ghandi

Though Mahatma Ghandi is predominantly known for his struggle for the poor and suppressed he was also very concious about natural resources. In fact he exercised de-consumption to the ascetic extreme.
I absolutely share his belief that "we have to be the change that we want to see in the world", though I don't think asceticism is either neccesary or particulary helpful. Quite the contrary, while saving the world* one should keep in mind/heart what makes it worth saving. And so an epicureanism in the true sense might be worth considering.

Or is it? That's the very point of my experiment.

*Because "saving" can mean any forced change towards personal ideals the urge to save the world usually ends up in either frustration or dictatorship. Another argument for "beeing the change yourself".

PET Bottles and Vending Machines

Small sized PET bottles are probably more popular in Japan than anywhere else in the world. Reason for or consequence of this is an incredible amount of vending machines, not only in crowded city centers but also in front of quiet temple gardens or in virtually uninhabited mountain villages.

About PET bottles:
1. Why do we need French water in Japan?
2. Why do we need Rocky Mountains water in Japan?
3. Why do we need Hawaiian water in Japan?
4. Why do we need 150ml water bottles?
5. Enormous amounts of oil and energy are used to produce all those little bottles of which the least find their way to the recycle bin (even in refund-crazy Germany only 2/3 of all bottles get returned).

About vending machines:
1. An outdoor vending machine in the heat of the sun has to keep dozens of bottles cool 24/7 for the very short moment somebody uses it's service. It's a mystery to me how they keep these energy-gluttons profitable thinking of the contribution the refrigerator makes to my electricity-bill.
2. They are a source of noise pollution (doesn't sound very harmful but is in fact one of the severest forms of pollution).
3. They are a source of light pollution (ditto)
4. They destroy just about every scenery (don't even think of arguing for the stylishness of a manga-like apocalyptic Tokyo or Bladerunner-romanticism.)

Monoculture

I operate a mimi-monoculture of tiny red radishes. In no time all the leafs got occupied by an army of pitch black caterpillars. They had already eaten up about 60% of the leafs when I took action and removed them one by one by hand. I think the timing was still alright as the radishes are soon ready to get harvested.
I wonder if the caterpillars had been less if I had planted the radishes farer away from each other or put other plants in between.

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Two days later:
The population recovered. Maybe it's not just the monoculture but also the weakness of easy-to-grow seed.
I wonder what little pitch black caterpillars make a living from when there's no red-radish-monoculture around.
Nevertheless, the radishes are still alive and obliviously producing new leafs. Just a week, buddies, hang on!

City

I found an interesting lecture by James Howard Kunstler on dead vs. vibrant urban spaces. Though I don't agree on his rather martial "a place worth defending"-reasoning, I do share his belief in the need for general de-consumption.
The theories of Chris Alexander might help to cure some of the calamities he adresses.

Shelter

Yes, Tokyo is a concrete desert. In fact, most of Japan is. And like their sandy counterparts, concrete deserts slowly eat up the last oasises.
Nevertheless, when looking for a house in Tokyo we insisted on a garden and after five weekends of investigation we actually found an oasis - with a tiny garden at the edge of a bamboo grove and a commuting time far below the average.
Most people seem to have surrendered to the construction intustry or even think that reputable people nowadays have to reside in either concrete towers or plastic models of American white suburbia.
Consequences:
1. massive soil sealing
2. detachment of the younger generation from living creatures other than humans and excessively petted poodles
3. food has to be grown far away from where people live

I'd like to demonstrate that even with a full time job you can create a nice environment around your house and even grow some food for yourself.

No car

You really don't need a car in Japan, at least not for self-transportation. That saves a lot of oil but the trains one uses instead require:
1. nuclear power plants, which are alarmingly unsafe in earthquake-prone "hi-tec Japan"*
2. space. Transportation companies in Japan create their own customers by expanding their networks far into the countryside which then gets paved with concrete and turned into new chaotic suburbs. The farmers who happen to live where suddenly a new city appears are always mysteriously willing to sell their land to the transportation companies. Who operates the train lines controles the developement of the city.

* apart form Play Stations and hybrid cars Japan is less hi-tec than you might think. Read about it in "Dogs and Demons" by Alex Kerr