Ecotopia

Tonight we are exploring the issue of population growth. Our guest will be Laurie Mazur, editor of a new book called A Pivotal Moment: Population, Justice, and the Environmental Challenge.

Background on Population Growth

We’ll start with an excerpt from a United Nations Report, from its department of Economic and Social Affairs, WORLD POPULATION TO 2300, regarded as one of the most thorough and unbiased population estimates.  It reads:

In these projections, world population peaks at 9.22 billion in 2075. Population therefore grows slightly beyond the level of 8.92 billion projected for 2050 in the 2002 [U.N. Estimates], on which these projections are based.

[A]fter reaching its maximum, world population declines slightly and then resumes increasing, slowly, to reach a level of 8.97 billion by 2300.[…] This pattern of rise, decline, and rise again results from assumptions about future trends in vital rates: that, country by country, fertility will fall below replacement level—though in some cases not for decades—and eventually return to replacement; and that, country by country, life expectancy will eventually follow a path of uninterrupted but slowing increase.

With alternative assumptions about fertility, long-range trends could be quite different. With long-range total fertility 0.3 children above replacement, projected world population in 2300 is four times as large as the main projection; with total fertility 0.2 children below replacement, world population in 2300 is one-quarter of the main projection.

[Doing the math, that gives estimates that range from a staggering 32 billion to an equally amazing 2 billion, well below the current population of 6½ billion.]

The full report is online : http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/WorldPop2300final.pdf,

Regardless of the estimates, the impact of population growth is subject to a great deal of debate.  For example, we googled “population myth” and found dozens of sites, many of them quite conservative in orientation, saying that population is not a problem.

For instance, the anti-abortion Population Research Institute  says, “get the facts,” “spread the word.”  They take the U.N. population growth estimates and argue that even if the entire projected world population were squeezed into an area the size of Texas, there would still be room for every person to have a 33 x 33 patch of ground to grow food.

In other words, they’re not worried about food or space; and, they do not take into account any other population and social justice issues.

www.overpopulationisamyth.com/

The Institute for Environment and Development says rather dramatically that it has a study that “shatters the environment/population link.”  They say:

There is at most a weak link between population growth and rising emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change and contradicts calls for population growth to be limited as part of the fight against climate change and shows that the real issue is not the growth in the number of people but the growth in the number of consumers and their consumption levels.”

Their point is that the wealthy countries generally have the lowest growth rates but are contributing the greatest amount of greenhouse gases.

Dr. David Sattherweite of the Institute nevertheless argues:

that contraception and sexual/reproductive health services are key contributors to development, health and human rights in poorer nations and communities. […But] these are not a solution to climate change — which is caused predominantly by a minority of the world’s population that has the highest levels of consumption.”

http://www.iied.org/human-settlements/media/study-shatters-myth-population-growth-major-driver-climate-change

Many reports focus primarily on people-as-capital. The Taiwan news asks “Is Taiwan Lost?,” claiming that “the dwindling birth rate has boomeranged against the country’s economy by cutting down it’s consumption, which in turn dampens its economic growth significantly.  In other words, people equal growth and growth is equated with a thriving economy, following the traditional and now suspect capitalist model of “grow or die.”

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1159138&lang=eng_news

And, according to a recent BBC report, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the Russians are celebrating the first rise in population in Russia in 15 years. The decline has traditionally been blamed on emigration, alcoholism, poor healthcare and poverty, and Putin’s worry was that without population growth, Russia would fall hopelessly behind in economic competition with countries like Japan and Germany.

Whether population growth in Russia will solve emigration, alcoholism, health care and poverty is not made clear in this report. Certainly those problems existed in Russia when it a larger population.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8468185.stm

Our Conversation with Laurie Mazur

Laurie Mazur is editor of a new book titled: A Pivotal Moment: Population, Justice & the Environmental Challenge.  She is an independent writer and consultant and is Director of the Population Justice Project in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Part I: Pivotal Issues

• Your book contains essays by some thirty global experts on population issues, who join you in arguing that we are at a “pivotal moment” in population growth. While (almost) everybody recognizes that population is a critical concern, why is it pivotal now?
  Subtopics:
  • Population projections: 8-11 billion. What’s the difference for the future of the planet?
  • 3 billion young people under 25—why do they matter (as opposed, say, to world leaders)?
  • What are the likely consequences if we/they fail to act now?
• Your book is particularly interesting because of its linking of population and environment. (As you note, population is often referenced only in passing in environmental discussions.) What do you see as the fundamental and/or ignored relationships?
• We especially appreciated the complexity of your book.  You opened our eyes to all sorts of connections, emphasizing that these relationships are reciprocal.  Let’s talk a little about one or several of these as time permits.

• • Population<>Social Justice
  • Population<>Capitalism
  • Population<>Immigration/Migration
  • Population <> Climate Change

• You and several writers talk about the 1994 Cairo population conference as a kind of watershed, leading to new thinking about population issues. But you also express some dissatisfaction with the follow-up to Cairo.  What were the achievements and disappointments growing from Cairo? Subtopic:
  • We’re guessing that you followed the Copenhagen Climate Change conference. What do you see as its implications (and disappointments) related to population and social justice issues?

Part II: Positive Directions

You and your writers do not offer simple solutions, but, rather explore avenues that you think could help the world grow closer to 8 billion than 11 billion people.

• You generally reject “population control” or top down, governmental edicts.  But there are examples—most notably China’s one-child policy—that have, in fact, dramatically decreased the rate of growth.  What’s wrong with strong governmental mandates for population control?
• You (and your authors) argue strongly that education is a key to population moderation, in particular, education for girls, and especially girls who live in poverty. Please explain that equation.
  • Do you have examples of countries where education of girls has made a difference
• If we do not have government mandates for population control, what role(s) can the government—global or U.S.—play?
  • You note that the Bush administration reversed key Cairo protocols; what’s your feeling about the Obama administration?
  • Adrienne Germaine writes in your book about “mobilizing constituencies.”  What’s the role of activists in influencing, dictating, or creating alternatives to forceful yet humane government policies?
  • What roles will religious groups, particularly the Vatican, Conservative Christians, and Progressive Christians play in the debate?
• Your final entry in the book is yours and Shira Saperstein’s concise call for action to policy makers. What are its key elements?
• How can interested listeners and activists become more involved in this project?

We really cannot do justice to this book in a thirty minute interview. It is one of the most comprehensive we’ve examined, and it’s not just about “population.” The book is A Pivotal Moment, and it’s published by Island Press. You can learn more about it at  www.popjustice.org.

Playlist for Ecotopia #73: A Pivotal Moment

1. Supernova      4:42  Liquid Blue      Supernova 2. Black Moon (Album Version)      6:59  Emerson, Lake & Palmer      Black Moon 3. Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)  5:11  Neil Young      Ragged Glory      Rock 4. Traffic Jam (Album Version)      2:13  James Taylor      James Taylor Live 5. Death Of Mother Nature Suite (Album Version)     7:54        Kansas    Kansas 6. Weave Me the Sunshine    4:28  Peter, Paul And Mary    The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary 7. Doctor My Eyes (LP Version)      3:20  Jackson Browne     Jackson Browne 8. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)  3:16  Marvin Gaye   What’s Going On

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9 February 2010

Tonight we are going to depart from our usual format to focus on the literature of place, specifically, Calfornia’s beloved Route 99. We’ll be drawing primarily on a wonderful anthology edited by Stan Yogi for the California Council for the Humanities.  It’s called Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California’s Great Central Valley.

Background on Highway 99

We’ve put together a brief history of this historic highway, drawing on a number sources, including amateur and professional historians and hobbyists who just like to collect information about highways and byways.

For instance, Patrick R. Frank, Founding member of the Route 99 Association of California, writes on the Clark Travel Center website that:

The historic route 99 began as a horse and stagecoach trail extending from Mexico to Canada. Originally, it was called the Pacific Highway, the Golden Chain Route and the Highway of Three Nations, linking from Mexicali (Baja California), Mexico, through the States of California, Oregon, Washington, and ending in Vancouver (British Columbia), Canada.

As automobiles were being mass produced during the early 1920’s, a definitive United States Highway system was needed for the promotion of commerce and tourism.

The year was 1926, when the Pacific Highway was designated to become US No. 99, a part of the U.S. road network. However the U.S. highway shields didn’t occur in California, until January of 1928. The division of Highways assigned the signing responsibility to the Automobile Clubs, at the organizations’ expense, until 1934.

http://www.clarkstravelcenter.com/history.htmlHistoric Route 99 Association of California

Wikipedia explains that in the northern part of California:

The first state highway bond issue, approved by the state’s voters in 1910, included a north–south highway through the central part of the state,  through the Sacramento Valley from the Oregon state line south to Sacramento (replacing the Siskiyou Trail). In addition, a second route followed the west side of the Sacramento Valley from Red Bluff south to Davis and the Yolo Causeway to Sacramento. In mid-1929, this split was renumbered, with US 99W replacing the original western route via Davis, and US 99E following the East Side Highway via Roseville.

We were also interested to learn that:

A third highway heading north from Sacramento was constructed along the Sacramento River levee and Feather Rivers to Yuba City, which was dedicated in October 1924 as the Garden Highway and still exists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Route_99

Casey Cooper explains on his U.S. highways website:

[As a United States highway] US 99 was completely decommissioned by 1968 with the completion of I-5, but it had gradually been phased out beginning July 1, 1964.

[As this happened, many parts of 99 were given other numbers, but in our part of the world the number 99 was retained as state route], and any portions of US 99 remain, though mostly as frontage roads. This includes 99W, which was replaced by I-5 and remains as frontage road known as 99W.

[And from Red Bluff to Sacramento, State Route 99W is a mainstay of local traffic.  You can see it passing through towns like Corning, Orland, Willows, Williams, and Dunnigan.]

http://www.gbcnet.com/ushighways/US99/US99.html

Chico Wiki details the history of 99 East from Red Bluff on down to Sacramento:

California State Route 99  is the main highway through Chico and the only freeway in town. The freeway in its modern form was built in the 1960s, but the highway has existed in some form since well before then.

Business 99 is the old highway prior to the building of the freeway, which can still be followed along the Esplanade and through downtown along Main and Broadway.  [Many of the motels on north Esplanade are remnants of the original 99E.]

The proposal to relocate Highway 99E through Chico, was the most single most important influence in the growth of the city of Chico. At the time it was a very controversial proposal [opposed by many environmentalists because of its encroachment on Chico’s historic and treasured Bidwell Park.] The California Highway Transportation System agreed to construct a causeway over Bidwell Park, and to beautify and improve The Esplanade which had been the old 99. The first section of the six mile stretch of freeway through Chico was dedicated September 24, 1963. The freeway was built during a time when Chico was much smaller in terms of population, and is often now seen as inadequate for current traffic volumes. The on-ramps are notoriously short within central Chico, which can lead to congestion during busy driving times. There are signs advising through traffic to use the left lanes to help alleviate this congestion and allow for easier merging for cars coming on to the highway, although this advice is not always heeded.

http://www.chicowiki.org/Highway_99

Readings from Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California’s Great Central Valley

Here’s an excerpt from a narrative by Pedro Fages, one of the first Europeans to see the Central Valley in 1773.  He writes of a village called Buena Vista above the River San Francisco:  pp. 2-3.

A century later and closer to home, here’s an excerpt from the diary of William Henry Brewer that of his trip from San Francisco to Red Bluff and return in the 1860s, plus some notes about Chico and the influence of the Bidwells:   pp.  18-19.

And here is a contemporary poem by Gary Thompson, reflecting on the Bidwells and Old Cohasset Road:  p. 24.

Here’s poet Gary Snyder’s take on the valley, “Covers the Ground.”  pp. 30-31.

There are, of course, cities in the Great Central Valley.  Here’s a view of city life, this of Sacramento in the 1920s, and it offers a perspective from an immigrant, Ernesto Galarza, from his memoir, Barrio Boy.   pp.  49-51

Here’s another view of Sacramento, by Joan Didion, including an excellent description of Highway 99.  pp 194-196

Here’s another city description, this one by William Saroyan, describing Fresno in 1934:  pp.  74-75

And a description the valley’s agricultural life and labor by Poet Roberta Spear.  pp. 175-177.

Here’s a poem by   Catherine Webster, “Child Off Highway 99.”   p. 326

George Keithley writes a poem about another Sacramento Valley tradition,    “Red Bluff Rodeo” p. 235

Susan Kelly-Dewitt writes a poem about another familiar valley scene, “Rice Fields at Dusk”   p. 307

That completes our literary view of Highway 99 and the Central Valley from Stan Yogi’s outstanding anthology, published by the California Humanities Committee and Heydey Press.  We recommend that you get a copy of the book for your own bedside reading.

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2 February 2010

Tonight we’re talking about the Education conference of the California Certified Organic Farmers which is being held this coming weekend, February 6-7,at the Chico State Campus; specifically at the University Farm Pavilion. The theme of the conference is “Healthy Soils, Healthy Food.”

We’ll be talking with two organic farmers who are on a panel entitled “Why Soil Is Crucial:”

Stephen Bird, owner Celtic Gardens Organic Farm and Education Center, and longtime organic farmer Amigo Cantisano, of Organic Ag Advisors. Other members of the panel include Lee Altier from Chico State and Jeff Mitchell from the UC Cooperative Extension Service.

Background on Organic Certification

This coming weekend—February 6-7–the California Certified Organic Farmers  are sponsoring an Education Conference ‘Healthy Soils, Healthy Food’  at The University Farm Pavilion at Chico State.

Their website describes the conference this way:

CCOF’s 2010 Education Conference will include an exciting opportunity for participants to learn about the role that soil health plays in climate change policies, and how improving soil leads to further opportunities for organic growers, processors, retailers and consumers to help mitigate for climate change. Noted researcher and organic spokesman, Tim LaSalle, Executive Director of The Rodale Institute will be the keynote speaker. Participants will also hear from other presenters about farming, processing and consumer practices that can lead to a healthier environment and improved food system, through things like carbon sequestration, water conservation and activism. Attendees will have the opportunity to interact with speakers, to learn hands’ on solutions, to find out what policies are being developed and how to influence those policies, and to take away valuable knowledge and solutions that can be implemented on your farm, in your operation or through your food dollars.

http://www.ccof.org/educationconference.php

You might like to check out the CCOF Website– www.ccof.org–which contains a good deal of information about the process of certification, the history of certification in California, and farms and food producers who have been certified through CCOF. The organization has been around since 1973 and was one of the first organizations to perform organic certification in North America. The organization also provides trade and marketing support and engages in political advocacy. CCOF also provides certification services to processors, restaurants and retailers, and certifies to both the USDA National Organic Program standards and CCOF international standards. They claim to certify over 1300 different crops and products, including livestock.

The organization has grown in scope over the years. Their website says that “In 1990, CCOF founded the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) to fund research related to organic farming practices. In 1997, CCOF helped launch the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) to research and distribute information about materials allowed and prohibited for use in organic production.”

Not all farmers who grow naturally—without chemical pesticides and herbicides—are certified organic, and some resist participation because of the cost of certifying or because of the complex bureaucracy of the USDA National Organic Program. An alternative to national certification is Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS), which is an “international movement to decentralize and simplify certification so that it is available to small farms and poor farmers selling directly to consumers. Most PGS farms have an educational visit from a mixed group of fellow farmers and consumers rather than an inspection. The guarantee is connected with developing local markets and empowering farmers. If you want to learn more about this, you can contact Elizabeth Henderson, lzbthhenderson@yahoo.com.” We learned about this in the Fedco Seed catalogue, which in addition to having an amazing array of seeds also provides great resources and a farming primer.

As we’ve talked to and learned gardening practices from various farmers, we’ve learned that there are many philosophies of farming and many ways of being successful as a gardener. We missed the gardening class conducted by David Grau at the Chico Grange last Sunday, but evidently some of those divergent practices were discussed there. David Grau’s newsletter thanks Carl Rosato of Woodleaf Farm and Marc Kessler of California Organic Flowers for providing alternative methods for creating soil fertility. And we quote from Grau’s newsletter,

“Carl advocates regular soil testing and compost applications along with recommended supplements, while Marc rarely does soil testing and adds no compost. He emphasizes using frequent cover crops (also known as green manures) to supply the nitrogen, organic matter and beneficial organisms that produce abundant crops. Both of these farmers produce excellent crops and work to keep a natural balance on their farms”

For more information about how Marc uses cover crops, you can go to californiaorganicflowers.com. Click on the link in the lower left hand corner entitled “see our farm” and on that page scroll down to the video at the bottom of that page and play the youtube video where Marc shows and describes cover crops. This video is a lucid explanation of the myriad benefits of cover cropping, something we backyard gardeners should be doing more of.

To learn more about soil testing and soil nutrients, you can go to woodleaffarm.net and click on the link on the left entitled “organic soil fertility.” Carl describes in detail how to take a soil sample and a detailed yet clear system for understanding and improving your soil fertility.”

Our Questions for Stephen Bird

http://www.sierraorganicgrowers.com/index.php/gold/grower_page/celtic_gardens_organic_farm_learning_center

1. You’re involved with the Education Conference of CCOF entitled “Healthy Soils, Healthy Food.” Can you tell us a little more about the conference?
2. Tell us a little bit about your farm, the Celtic Gardens Organic Farm and Learning Center? What do you grow? What else goes on there? Where is your farm?
3. The farm is also an education center. What sort of education do you do?
4. What does it mean to be certified organic? Who does the certifying? What does certifying involve?
5. There are lots of farmers who use natural processes in their farming but aren’t certified. Why do you certify? What are the advantages?
6. You’re talking about soils at the CCOF conference.  Why is soil important? We’re familiar with the organic farmer’s commitment to feed the soil, not the plant. What does that mean?
7. What’s the relationship between healthy soil and healthy food?
8. What are some ways that on both a large scale and a small scale farmers and gardeners can improve the quality of their soil?

Our Questions for Amigo Cantisano:

Amigo has worked in organic olive production for more than 25 years. He is the owner of Organic Ag Advisors. Amigo provides organic olive production consulting to more than 20 farms in Northern and Central California. Consulting includes site selection, organic fertilization, organic pest and disease management, variety selection, irrigation, harvesting, pruning, marketing.

1. You’ve been involved in farming for a long time, long before it became a significant alternative. What prompted you to farm organically?
2. Have you always farmed organically? Has organic certification changed over the years you’ve been farming? Why do you certify?
3. You’re doing consulting now. Are you still farming? What do you grow?
4. At the CCOF convention, you’re talking about soil. What is your advice to farmers who want to create healthy soils?
5. What are your arguments for farmers who may be thinking of moving from conventional farming to organic farming?
6. The convention theme is Healthy Soils/Healthy Food. What’s the relationship between healthy soil and healthy food?

Playlist for Ecotopia #71

1. Rain On The Scarecrow    3:46  John Mellencamp Scarecrow

2. Mr. Soil’s Song        1:45  Singin’ Steve      Billy the Bean

3. Garden Song   5:34  MaMuse     All The Way

4. Poor Old Dirt Farmer        3:53  Levon Helm        Dirt Farmer

5. Dirt Made My Lunch 2:25  Banana Slug String Band      Dirt Made My Lunch

6. Weave Me the Sunshine    4:28  Peter, Paul And Mary   The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary

7. Zemelya-Chernozem. Black Soil. (Variations )      3:35  Andrei Krylov      Russian Classical Guitar Music. Vol 2. Romance, Folk Songs.

7. Good Health    3:37                 The Dixie Hummingbirds       In Good Health

8. Dirt        4:20  Mary Mary         The Sound

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Tonight we’ll be talking with Duane Elgin, author of a new edition of Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich. We’ll learn how this movement has changed and developed almost 30 years since he wrote this book.

Background on the Voluntary Simplicity Movement

The concept of voluntary simplicity is as old as human recorded history. The roots of simplicity are often seen in the philosophies of asceticism which is associated with a variety of religious practices, according to Wikipedia, in the Shramana traditions of Iron Age India, in Buddhism, and in biblical Nazirites (notably John the Baptist).

Wikipedia claims that “Simple living has traditions that stretch back to the Orient, resonating with leaders such as Zarathustra, Buddha, Lao-Tse and Confucius and was heavily stressed in both Greco-Roman culture and Judeo-Christian ethics.”

The definition of “Epicureanism, based on the teachings of the Athens-based philosopher Epicurus, flourished from about the fourth century BC to the third century AD” is similar to the descriptions of voluntary simplicity one hears today. Its founder, “Epicurus[,] pointed out that troubles entailed by maintaining an extravagant lifestyle tend to outweigh the pleasure of partaking in it. He therefore concluded that what is necessary for happiness, bodily comfort, and life itself should be maintained at minimal cost, while all things beyond what is necessary for these should either be tempered by moderation or completely avoided.”

This tradition has also been carried on by a number of religions and philosophies–Shakers, Mennonites, Amish, Harmony Society, and Quakers. And this philosophical orientation is familiar to many Americans through the writings of Henry David Thoreau, a naturalist and author, who advocated a life of simplicity in his book Walden (1854).

In England, a number of advocates followed the philosophy of simple living–Henry Stephens Salt, Edward Carpenter, William Morris, and the members of “The Fellowship of the New Life.”[7] “C.R. Ashbee and his followers linked simplicity with the Arts and Crafts Movement[8].  In the 1930s John Middleton Murry and Max Plowman practised a simple lifestyle at their Aldephi Centre in Essex.

During the 1920s and 1930s in the United States, the Vanderbilt Agrarians of the Southern United States advocated a lifestyle and culture centered upon traditional and sustainable agrarian values as opposed to the progressive urban industrialism which dominated the Western world at that time.

From the 1920s to the 1960s, a number of modern authors articulated both the theory and practice of living simply, among them Gandhian Richard Gregg, economists Ralph Borsodi and Scott Nearing, anthropologist-poet Gary Snyder, and utopian fiction writer Ernest Callenbach,” who wrote the book Ecotopia, [for which our program has been named.]

[Our guest tonight, Duane Elgin wrote what is considered to be the most highly influential book in the current movement, Voluntary Simplicity, in 1981.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_living#History

In September of 1995, Carey Goldberg wrote “Choosing the Joys of a Simplified Life”  for the New York Times. Goldberg reports that in the summer of 1995,

“pollsters announced the striking results of a survey measuring patterns of consumption. From a nationwide cross section of Americans, 28 percent said they had downshifted and had voluntarily cut back on their income in some way over the last five years to reflect changes in priorities.”

“Commissioners of the poll, the Merck Family Fund . . .  said the 800-person focus group and telephone sample also indicated that 82 percent of Americans agreed with the statement ‘We buy and consume far more than we need.’. . .

Many of the downshifters were parents who had cut their consumption to reduce working hours, thereby gaining time with their children. But many were also just responding to the yearning “to reduce stress, get more balance, get a saner life,” said Juliet B. Schor, a Harvard economist who wrote the “The Overworked American” (Basic Books, 1993)

Voluntary Simplicity is an idea more ancient than Ecclesiastes, with stops at Buddha, Jesus, the Puritans and Henry David Thoreau. What is different these days, say those who are charting the trend, is that the seemingly unnatural choice to slow down and cut down shows signs of going broadly mainstream, across age groups and class lines. And, they say, it is taking on new power in light of Americans’ growing environmental awareness.[…]

The Trends Research Institute of Rhinebeck, N.Y., [chose] Voluntary Simplicity as one of its top 10 trends of the 90’s. It predict[ed] that by the end of the decade, 15 percent of America’s 77 million baby boomers [would] be part of a “simplicity” market for things like low-priced durable gardening and home products that are short on slickness and status.[…] Gerald Celente, the director of the institute, [predicted that] youngsters . . . in their early teens . . . [were] going to buy into the idea that we’re overconsuming,” he added. “This is the first group that’s been indoctrinated green.”

Since the end of the conspicuously consuming 80’s, a striving for simplicity and thrift has been showing up in fields as wide-ranging as construction (architects note a tendency to renovate rather than to build) and physical fitness (witness the growing popularity of walking, a sport that requires nothing but a pair of shoes).”

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/21/garden/choosing-the-joys-of-a-simplified-life.html

Our Discussion with Duane Elgin

Duane Elgin, is author of Voluntary Simplicity. The book was first published in 1981 and a revision has recently been released. He’s also author of Promise Ahead, Awakening Earth, and The Living Universe.

1. As we were researching the world of voluntary simplicity, we found references to you all over the web. You’ve been involved in thinking about this for about 30 years. What got you interested in voluntary simplicity?

2. You frequently use the term a “garden of simplicity” to represent the many faces of this movement. What are some of the manifestations of simple living?

3. One of the things we associate with the history of this movement is from some of our friends in the 60s—people who decided to “drop out” or those who decided to move “back to nature.” But you emphasize that simplicity doesn’t mean living in poverty or apart from society. Do people have to give up creature comforts to live simply?

4. How has the movement changed over the past 30 years?

5. Your characterization of voluntary simplicity includes a strong spiritual element. How central is spirituality to voluntary simplicity?

6. In our opening we described forms of simple living over millennia—including Greek philosophers, religious groups in Europe and America, and Henry David Thoreau.. How does our unique moment in time shape new notions of voluntary simplicity?

Voluntary Simplicity in Practice

1. Tell us about some of the inward riches that people discover when they seek voluntary simplicity.

2. You also emphasize community throughout the book. Describe how community and voluntary simplicity work hand in hand.

3. You distinguish between regressive, cosmetic, and deep simple living. Can you explain those?

4. Can you give us more examples of voluntary simplicity? What can we do to get started? And if we have listeners who already have ideas, but need to take that next step toward living simply, what suggests do you have?

Duane Elgin is the author of the recently revised and re-released Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich. It’s published by Harper.

Do-It-Yourself Voluntary Simplicity
(Can there be any other kind?)

We want to recommend several websites for those who would like to learn more and DO more (or less)!

One of the most useful websites we found was SimpleLiving.net. Our guest tonight Duane Elgin is a “partner” in this group, which is celebrating its 14^th Anniversary. In addition to a list of resources in simple living, green living, gardening, country living, and cooking and food, the site offers  various ways of interacting–Discussion Forums, Study Groups & Circles, Blogs, and Listings for events, workshops, speeches, appearances, announcements, on-line classes, gatherings and more from authors and organizations in the simplicity and sustainability movements.

SimpleLiving.net also has an informative newsletter. It includes suggestions and testimonials, as well as guidance on the various issues those who want to live simply can make use of.  A testimonial by Dan Ryan, a former Mad Man Ad Executive who now works as a full-time artist, discusses his ‘Journey To Financial Integrity.” It began in 1994 after he read, Your Money Or Your Life in 1994. He says:

At the time, I was buried in a large mortgage, credit card debts, student loans, car loan, and house down payment loan to Dad. Needless to say, I was receptive to a new way of thinking and living.

I should have known better — I was part of the whole problem! I was a Senior Creative in the advertising machine. I created the ads which seduced people into a lifestyle of endless consumption. I hated the industry, my job, the hours, and the whole mess!” . . . . Now, he says, “I’m avowed cheapskate and proud of it! My cars are ten years old and will run for another ten if I can make them..” . . . .

There are thousands of people out there living like I was in the ’90s. They are up to their eyeballs in debt, trapped in a lifestyle they resent. They have done nothing wrong. Heck, they were seduced into the idea that Bigger is Better! . . . .

It’s like I tell my son: You can have whatever you like…just pay cash and buy it used.”

A weblogger, Katy Wolk-Stanley writes daily as  “The Non-Consumer Advocate.” In the LivingSimply.net newsletter she writes:

Want to start living the green life?

Retailers would have you believe green living is all about organically grown hemp sheets and sustainably harvested bamboo living room sets.

Wrong!

The best green purchase you can make is the one not taken.”

She is part of  “world wide non-consumer group called The Compact. (Buy nothing new.) Since joining in January 2007, “I’ve only bought a few new items here and there.”[…] She advocates that the

next time you’re about to buy a brand-new product, pause a moment to think whether it could be found used.

Or maybe even not bought at all.”

Ann Haebig looks through the sites discussion forums to report on what people are doing in the “do-it-yourself” realm. She says she

was struck by how active our members are. We do a lot of things for ourselves, whether for reasons of frugality, self-sufficiency, or the simple pleasure of a task well done. Here’s a sample of some of the things we’re doing:

* We’re helping the environment by switching from disposable sanitary pads.

* We’re getting healthier by making our own energy bars, granola, and yogurt.

* We’re building our community by figuring out how to meet other simple livers and how to talk to them once we do.

* We’re becoming more self-sufficient by raising chickens for meat, building our own seed starting setups, and growing much of our own food.

• We’re also cutting our water bills by reusing greywater and making rain barrels.

She concludes: “What a fascinating and dynamic bunch of people! These folks truly are making the changes the world needs. This collection of topics demonstrates how many things we can do that benefit our finances, our health, and the environment.”

If you’re looking for ways to live more simply, you might want to check out this website: LivingSimply.net

Playlist for Ecotopia #70: Voluntary Simplicity

1. Hallelujah       2:57  MaMuse       All The Way

2. Give Me the Simple Life (Live At the Crescendo)   1:54  Ella Fitzgerald      Twelve Nights In Hollywood

3. Life Uncommon       4:57  Jewel       Spirit

4. Simplicity       4:48  Shawn Pander      Memories 4 Sale

5. Rag & Bone    3:48 The White Stripes       Icky Thump

6. Weave Me the Sunshine    4:28  Peter, Paul And Mary       The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary

7. Bridge Over Troubled Water      4:51  Simon & Garfunkel       Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits

8. This Life 4:30  Bruce Springsteen      Working On A Dream

9. Life Is a Song Worth Singing      6:03  Johnny Mathis     The Essential Johnny Mathis

11. Garden Song 5:34  MaMuse   All The Way

12. You’ve Got a Friend        4:33  James Taylor     Mud Slide Slim & The Blue Horizon Rock

13. Sunshine On My Shoulders (Digitally Remastered)       5:11  John Denver       Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits

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Tonight we’ll be talking with Scott Slovic, professor of English at University of Nevada, Reno. He’ll be talking with us about his field of study—literature and the environment, as well as describing a new project he’s been working on, “The Literature of Sustainability.”

Our Discussion with Scott Slovic

On the phone with us is Scott Slovic, professor of literature and the environment at the University of Nevada, Reno. Thanks for joining us, Scott.

1A. You are a professor of literature and environment. Can you tell us a little more about your field? How long has it been around? What do you study?

1B.  In a recent conversation we had, you argued that the humanities must be seen as an integral part of the world, not as a decorative bauble or mere entertainment.  How does environmental literature engage what some call “the real world?”

2. What approach do you take in teaching literature about the environment? Are courses political? historical? cultural?

3. What is ecocriticism? How does that function in the field of literature and environment?

4. You’re currently teaching, lecturing, and writing a book on the Literature of Sustainability? Could you tell us what your focus is there?

Recommended Readings from Scott Slovic

The Literature of Sustainability

Gore, Al. An Inconvenient Truth. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2006.

Hersey, John. My Petition for More Space. New York: Knopf, 1974.

Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. 1957. New York: Viking, 1997.

Meloy, Ellen. Raven’s Exile: A Season on the Green River. 1994. Tucson: U of Arizona     P,

2003.

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. 2006. New York: Penguin, 2007.

Powers, Richard. Gain. New York: Picador USA, 1998.

Quammen, David. The Song of the Dodo: Island Biography in an Age of Extinction. 1996. New

York: Pimlico, 1997.

Steingraber, Sandra. Living Downstream: A Scientist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer    and the

Environment. 1997. New York: Vintage, 1998.

Stafford, William. “Maybe Alone on My Bike.” 1964. Smoke’s Way. Minneapolis: Graywolf,

1983. 29.

Susanka, Sarah. The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live. Newtown, CT:

Taunton, 2001.

The Literature of Energy

Bergon, Frank. The Temptations of St. Ed and Brother S. Reno: U of Nevada P, 1993.

Brower, Kenneth. The Starship and the Canoe. 1978. New York: Harper Perennial, 1983.

Gaines, Susan. Carbon Dreams. Berkeley, CA: The Creative Arts Book Company, 2001. Gelbspan, Ross. Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists

Have Fueled the Climate Crisis—and What We Can Do to Avert Disaster. 2004. New        York: Basic Books, 2005.

McKibben, Bill. The End of Nature. 1989. New York: Anchor, 1997.

McPhee, John. The Curve of Binding Energy. 1973. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994.

Smil, Vaclav. Energy at the Crossroads: Global Perspectives and Uncertainties. 2004.

Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005.

Weisman, Alan. Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea

Green Publishing, 1998.

Food, Sustainability, and American Culture

Andrews, William L., ed. Classic American Autobiographies. New York: Signet Classics, 1992.

Berry, Wendell. Remembering: A Novel. 1990. Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 2008.

Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation. 1993. Fifth Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2008.

Crevecoeur, Hector St. John de. Letters from an American Farmer and Sketches of

Eighteenth-Century America. 1782. New York: Penguin Classics, 1981.

Klindienst, Patricia. The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the

Gardens of Ethnic Americans. Boston: Beacon, 2006.

Ozeki, Ruth. All Over Creation. New York: Penguin, 2004.

Nabhan, Gary Paul. Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods. New York: Norton, 2009.

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. 2006. New York:

Penguin, 2007.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Harper Perennial, 2005.

Steingraber, Sandra. Having Faith. New York: Berkley, 2003.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. 1854. New York: Dover, 1995.

Ecocriticism and Theory (with selected samples of environmental literature)

Adamson, Joni, Mei Mei Evans, and Rachel Stein, eds., The Environmental Justice

Reader. Tucson: U of Arizona P, 2002.

Adamson, Joni, and Scott Slovic, eds. Special issue of MELUS 34.2 (Summer 2009).

ISSN: 0163-755x. Contact: melus@uconn.edu

Alaimo, Stacy, and Susan Hekman, eds., Material Feminisms. Bloomington: Indiana UP,

2008.

Buell, Lawrence. The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and

Literary Imagination. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005.

DeLoughrey, Elizabeth, Renée Gosson, and George Handley, Caribbean Literature and

the Environment: Between Nature and Culture. Charlottesville: U of Virginia P,

2005.

Dobrin, Sidney, and Sean Morey, eds., Ecosee: Image, Rhetoric, Nature. Albany: SUNY

P, 2009.

Glotfelty, Cheryll, and Harold Fromm, eds., The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in

Literary Ecology. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1996.

Gore, Al. An Inconvenient Truth. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2006. ISBN: 1-59486-567-1.

Heise, Ursula. Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the

Global. New York: Oxford UP, 2008.

Hogan, Linda. People of the Whale. New York: Norton, 2008.

Ihimaera, Witi. The Whale Rider. Orlando: Harcourt, 2003.

Lynch, Tom. Xerophilia: Ecocritical Explorations in Southwestern Literature. Lubbock:

Texas Tech UP, 2008.

Nabhan, Gary Paul. Arab/American: Landscape, Culture, and Cuisine in Two Great

Deserts. Tucson: U of Arizona P, 2008.

Sturgeon, Noël. Environmentalism in Popular Culture: Gender, Race, Sexuality, and the

Politics of the Natural. Tucson: U of Arizona P, 2009.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. 1854. Boston: Beacon, 1997.

Williams, Terry Tempest. Finding Beauty in a Broken World. New York: Vintage, 2008.

Wolfe, Cary. Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and

Posthumanist Theory. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2003.

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