Most illogical," a favorite saying of Star Trek's Mr. Spock, blared from my instant-on, remote-controlled television with electronic tuning. It was illogical, all right. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, even when "off," my TV and others like it use more than 1/750th of U.S. electrical power. That's equivalent to the output of one coal or nuclear power plant, just to keep TVs ready for action when we're not using them. Idle TVs and VCRs alone cost us $1 billion a year, or $30 per household.
"Disposable diapers," answered my sister when I asked what to get for her new infant. Two hours on the baby and hundreds of years in the landfill – this is convenient, but also illogical.
According to David Wann, former policy analyst for the Environmental Protection Agency in Colorado, we don't need more environmental scare stories. What we need is to use our experience and imagination for new solutions. In his 1994 book, "Biologic," Wann says appropriate design simplifies our lives, while inappropriate design adds more stress. (Wann is now an adjunct professor, video producer, and public speaker, as well as author of "Deep Design: Pathways to a Livable Future" and "Affluenza," based on the PBS series of the same name.)
What is inappropriate design? It ignores the law of nature -- and the consequences. It is responsible for most of our environmental problems. It reaches into every aspect of our lives -- lawnmowers, throwaway products, and communities without bike paths. Poorly designed manufacturing processes discharge toxic waste into rivers and air.
On a grander scale, a petroleum-subsidized, poor-design spree created suburban sprawl, killed inner cities, dismantled mass transit systems and generated freeway gridlock. Cheap fuel, plus advertising hype, spawned bigger vehicles, bigger houses, bigger mortgages and bigger stress on families. As Winston Churchill noted, "First we shape our buildings, then our buildings shape us."
Are we really better off now than before?
Like the lumberjack too busy chopping wood to sharpen his dull ax, quick-hit consumption may seem convenient now but is not effective in the long-term. Threats of pollution, stress, cancer and lowered immune response lurk in the shadows.
So what is good design? Wann defines it as "bio-logic," an awareness of the processes of nature. For instance, during a summer class for earth-science teachers, I did an experiment marking the position of the sun on a small plastic dome. I discovered that the sun travels across the sky at a low angle in the winter and a high angle in the summer. This had tremendous applications for home design, I felt.
Seven years later, my husband and I built a passive solar home in Kansas using this knowledge. A two-foot overhang on the south side kept out hot summer rays, while lower-angled, direct rays of December sunshine reached 20 feet inside on our brick floor, dramatically reducing our utility bills. (Feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of living in harmony with your environment in order to enhance health, wealth, and happiness, promoted passive solar design 4,500 years ago.)
Understanding how nature works adds texture and meaning to our lives. It's also necessary to produce careful, thoughtful design. "We need," Wann says, "houses that face the sun, chemicals that decompose when their useful life is through, products specifically designed for multiple lifetimes, energy-efficient components in our appliances and industrial equipment, and transportation systems that really work."
Good design improves the quality of life. Even with Arkansas’ hot, humid summers, correct siting of homes to take advantage of natural heating and ventilation can dramatically cut utility bills.
Natural cross-ventilation dilutes the petrochemical fog outgassing from carpet, paint, plastics, pesticides, perfumes and modern building materials. The EPA calls home air quality one of the biggest ecological hazards in America. Staying indoors in tightly sealed, insulated homes may threaten more lives than toxic waste dumps. Wann and other forecast a demand for housing that is healthy as well as energy efficient.
We need more creative patterns. A friend who visited the Czech Republic commented on the compact cities and villages there. Being able to walk a short distance to work, shopping areas, museums, sports events and open-air concerts made cars unnecessary. What bliss to live, work and shop all in the same neighborhood!
We've sought convenience over sensibility for so long that our ability to think of creative solutions has been dulled. While teaching middle school science I used a film called "The Garbage Explosion." Students frequently begged me to run the projector backward at the end. Seeing garbage jump out of the dump back into the trucks fascinated them.
Let's make it happen in real life.
Here’s a link to an article on walkable communities:
http://www.walkable.org/assets/downloads/Aging%20and%20Age%20Independent%20Communities.ppt#981
I wrote this article 15 years ago for the Cleveland Plain Dealer Op-Ed page. Not much has improved!
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Monday, January 03, 2011
Passionflowers
A few years ago in North Carolina, while mowing the part of our yard next to an overgrown vacant lot, my husband discovered a small vine with a very exotic flower. He carefully trimmed around it, and it grew larger and produced green fruit about the size of a chicken's egg.
Over the next three years, the vine popped up in new places on that side of the yard. Because the foliage and flowers were so distinctive, he let them grow. At a local nursery, I saw the same vine for sale in a large trellised planter. The name: passionflower --also known as maypop or the purple passionflower.
More research revealed that maypops are a common roadside weed in the Southeast United States, common because they spread by underground runners, which "pop up" in May, hence the name.
Early Spanish explorers were impressed by the plant blossoms, which to them symbolized the nails, the hammer, and the crown of thorns of the passion of Christ in a correct numerical relationship. They took the plant back to Europe and gave it a scientific name representing Christ's crucifixion -- Passiflora incarnata. In Japan, it's called the "clock" plant because the blossom looks like a clock face.
It turns out that there are more than 600 varieties of passionflower, mostly in tropical rainforest areas of South America and Africa. A Brazilian variety produces a fruit called the purple grenadilla that is widely sold and eaten. Its juice has a calming effect on hyperactive children. In Romania, an extract from another type of passionflower plant is used in chewing gum used for soothing nervous jitters.
For centuries, Indians have used passionflower tea as a sedative or calming tonic. Leaves from the common local variety have been used to treat coughs, stress, anxiety, and insomnia.
Could passionflower be a new cash crop for small farmers? In British Columbia, Canada, the vines are organically grown for sale to the herbal remedy market, bringing a price of $10 to $15 per pound for certified organic dried leaves. Seeds of Passiflora incarnata sell for 40 cents per individual seed on some Web sites.
The vine can get up to 20 feet long and has attractive leaves, flowers and fruit. It blooms from July until frost, and the fruit turns yellow when ripe. Break one of the fruits open and you will see a multitude of seeds in a yellow gelatinous pulp. It has a pleasant smell and can be mixed with sugar and water to make drinks, jam or jelly. It also makes a fine houseplant, requiring bright light but not full sun.
The passionflower is an important host plant (food source) for several butterfly species and their larvae. Seeds planted in early spring may take a month to germinate, but plants should flower in the first year. Cuttings taken in June root easily if kept watered. Flowers bloom on new growth, so older vines benefit from pruning while the plant is dormant.
Now that we live in Arkansas, I’ve seen the vine on roadsides growing among honeysuckles. It distinctive leaves and flowers make it easy to identify. Try some in your flower garden, and the butterflies will be grateful.
Over the next three years, the vine popped up in new places on that side of the yard. Because the foliage and flowers were so distinctive, he let them grow. At a local nursery, I saw the same vine for sale in a large trellised planter. The name: passionflower --also known as maypop or the purple passionflower.
More research revealed that maypops are a common roadside weed in the Southeast United States, common because they spread by underground runners, which "pop up" in May, hence the name.
Early Spanish explorers were impressed by the plant blossoms, which to them symbolized the nails, the hammer, and the crown of thorns of the passion of Christ in a correct numerical relationship. They took the plant back to Europe and gave it a scientific name representing Christ's crucifixion -- Passiflora incarnata. In Japan, it's called the "clock" plant because the blossom looks like a clock face.
It turns out that there are more than 600 varieties of passionflower, mostly in tropical rainforest areas of South America and Africa. A Brazilian variety produces a fruit called the purple grenadilla that is widely sold and eaten. Its juice has a calming effect on hyperactive children. In Romania, an extract from another type of passionflower plant is used in chewing gum used for soothing nervous jitters.
For centuries, Indians have used passionflower tea as a sedative or calming tonic. Leaves from the common local variety have been used to treat coughs, stress, anxiety, and insomnia.
Could passionflower be a new cash crop for small farmers? In British Columbia, Canada, the vines are organically grown for sale to the herbal remedy market, bringing a price of $10 to $15 per pound for certified organic dried leaves. Seeds of Passiflora incarnata sell for 40 cents per individual seed on some Web sites.
The vine can get up to 20 feet long and has attractive leaves, flowers and fruit. It blooms from July until frost, and the fruit turns yellow when ripe. Break one of the fruits open and you will see a multitude of seeds in a yellow gelatinous pulp. It has a pleasant smell and can be mixed with sugar and water to make drinks, jam or jelly. It also makes a fine houseplant, requiring bright light but not full sun.
The passionflower is an important host plant (food source) for several butterfly species and their larvae. Seeds planted in early spring may take a month to germinate, but plants should flower in the first year. Cuttings taken in June root easily if kept watered. Flowers bloom on new growth, so older vines benefit from pruning while the plant is dormant.
Now that we live in Arkansas, I’ve seen the vine on roadsides growing among honeysuckles. It distinctive leaves and flowers make it easy to identify. Try some in your flower garden, and the butterflies will be grateful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)