Limestone Fabrication

What sustainability is, in my view.   Visualising a better Future     How we live at home,part of "Should one work hard?",

 We may retire to an autonomous house; I now have the PVelectrical system.    Discussing some details of my life.    our family travels in Malaysia and India;  ( what we learnt )            

I believe the human race passed a comfortably sustainable population in about 1950, at 2.5 billion, but now there's twice as many of us, and three times as many in twenty years, with a most influential minority using FAR too much. The middle-class and rich have the wrong goals (largely induced by Big Corporates' advertising), if the world is to remain as civilised as it was between '55 and '77 (not including Stalin and Amin).

      __ The more-than-1-billion car-using, meat-eating destructive people (CuMeDs) will need to drastically reduce both their consumption and what they do! Doing too much, while there are too many people, should be reduced since this is the origin of most of our excess consumption.  Job-and-income-sharing would be a major step in the right direction.

I have reduced my demands on the Earth to a bare minimum by spending US$950 p.a. TOTAL; including no more than US$450 a year, or $8.65 per week, on food (all of it bought at the supermarket).  I buy as close as I can to nothing from Big Corporates.   I pay for my share of the rates on our mortgage-free house, and I walk or (occasionally) take the bus, e.g. to buy the groceries. I walk barefoot year-round (at latitude 37, maritime climate), wearing thongs/jandals if the road is rough or my pack is heavy. I haven't thrown out clothes for a couple of decades, and I'm now gradually using up that capital investment.  __ I am now free, from the boss's pressure to produce more and from "keeping up with the Jones's"! It's not exactly a religious decision, but it's based on some of the same basic impulses.    

defining the Green vision: a decent standard of living  The rational process of figuring out how out to achieve a sustainable world must begin with a nonrational act of imagination. As Donella Meadows has pointed out, most discussions of sustainability focus on implementation and ignore the critical questions of what the world of our dreams would actually look, feel, and smell like. The trouble is, the  sustainable world generally offered by environmentalists is based on 'restriction, prohibition, regulation and sacrifice. ... Hardly anyone seems to envision a sustainable world that would be nice to live in.' This is a self-defeating lapse of imagination that could dim the prospects for achieving sustainability. There seem to be only two visions on the table. In the conventional vision, the human economy and population keep growing vigorously, and everyone eagerly chases the dream of greater consumption. The environmentalist point of view rightly denies the workability of this vision but offers in its place a kind of lifelong global celery diet. It is hardly surprising that most people choose the first path." Though I don't agree with this analysis completely — it's a bit glib for starters — it does give some plausible reasons for the difficulty of convincing more people of the need for change. We've been talking about what constitutes a "decent standard of living" (see below). I think this means we're on the way to describing a sustainable world that would also be "nice to live in". The above quote would suggest that this is an extremely important step.

Any more contributions to defining the "decent standard of living"? regards

Three pairs of shoes: winter, sneakers, >summer; plus a pair of thongs (shoes). Obviously, this >would change for people living in different kinds of climates. Along with >that, two sets of bedding, extra blankets and other such linens, a table >setting, a teakettle and assorted crockery. > >Decent, healthy food (not sure how to measure this) — plus access to the >niceties of life: shampoo, soap, toothpaste, sanitary pads, toilet paper, >razors for those who want them, and other toiletry items. > >a way to cook and preserve food > >Public libraries in all their glory — > thank goodness we have achieved that here. > >Access to organized recreation for those who want it — in other words, >no-fee team sports > >Winter heating when necessary, fans in the summer when necessary > >One comfortable chair to sit in, a comfortable place to lie > >A radio > >Running, clean water piped to your house > >A bathroom > >21st C. version of a hope chest, with all your personal mementoes (- I later gave my minimum household necessities list :   important subject and worth the effort to try to get the Green movement to think on it. ... the "global celery diet" remark ... could be irritating (or worse), especially out of the context of the entire book. However, when I read the piece it resonated instantly with Diane's idea of a decent standard of living. What Diane sees as the simple necessities of living comfortably, help map out a sustainable world "that would be nice to live in". Personally I have reached no definite conclusions on where the threshold of sustainability lies and it might well be lower than Diane's list would demand. At the moment, the significant thing seems to be that anyone is giving any thought to this issue. If someone like Donella Meadows (as quoted within the piece by Prugh) thinks this matter has not been properly addressed, and if it is as serious an omission from the Green political programme as Prugh suggests, then what you and Diane are doing here is very significant. It is, I think, fundamental practical politics for the following reason. What Greens are saying to millions of people in the developed world is that we must all give up our way of life in favour of something much more modest. The only way we can convince them to do so is with a convincing critique of present-day society — which I think we possess — and, hand in hand with that, a convincing vision of our alternative. The Green vision is hard enough to grasp at the best of times, and it becomes even more difficult when people start asking practical questions, like "what will my life be like in your sustainable Green future?" I titled my posting "defining the Green vision" because that is what you are helping to do. It is indeed important.

 Herpetology of Indonesia         Since 1988 or so the trade in live reptiles for the 'pet' trade has grown exponentially and then stabilized at the present level. However, there seems to be a lack of information regarding these beautiful creatures. With this page I will try to present some information which may be trivial to some but important to others. My apologies for not updating this site in last few years. I have not been involved with reptiles since 2000.     Don't forget to add this page to your list of Bookmarks/Favorites!      Varanus indicusSorong (Vogelkop/Bird's Head Peninsula, New Guinea/Irian Jaya) type Photo by Frank Yuwono.    

 Indonesian Reptiles on CITES Appendices: Indonesian Reptiles NOT listed on any CITES Appendices:  Crocodiles Snakes ( still empty )  Monitor lizards (under construction) Lizards ( still empty )  Pythons and Boas (under construction) Turtles (under construction)  Cobras ( still empty ) Amphibians ( Under construction )  Turtles and Tortoises (under construction)    Topics:      

The Trade of Live Reptiles from Indonesia my paper (no pictures yet)       Indonesian Herps in Traditional Medicine    Indonesian Herp Photo Gallery  (Fixed!)    Herps in the Indonesian news