Environmentalists – WildernessPunk

The Top Ten Easy Ways Everyone Can Help Protect our Environment

1. Only Read Real Books.

Reading a 400 page e-book using roughly 40 times the energy as reading a printed book and printed books can be reread and shared.

2. Grow a Garden

Even vegans use 60% as much energy as the most carnivorous consumer due to transportation and growing costs. Growing a garden is the best method to combat this huge cost of food production.

3 Engage in Silence

Many of us now feel we need a podcast, music cranking from an Alexa, or a YouTube video blasting all the time. Intelligence, personality, and peace grow in silence. Also, any streamed media uses a huge amount of energy.

4. Do Whatever it Takes to Minimize Wasting Food

In the US it is estimated that some families waste up to 1/3 of the food they buy. This hurts their wallet as well as the environment. All the food the US wastes could feed Mexico and the energy used to create it could fuel 100% of the energy needs for three Tanzanias. (Also save roughly a 1000$ per person a year.)

5, Have Driving Free Days

If we all the people in the US pledged to not drive at least one day a week we would save 4 billion dollars a month and roughly 50 billion a year.

(Low ball estimate of 5 dollars a day x 4 = 20$ x 200,000,000 drivers = 4 billion$ or for you about 40$ a month and 500$ a year. No driving = sometimes as much as 3,500 a year. I didn’t drive for 19 of my adult years so 66,500$ or about 4 x what I paid for my last car.)

6. Make a Compost Pit

Any veggies you throw away have their nutrients wasted while it creates more greenhouse gases. Instead, you can make a part of your yard full of bountiful life or, of course, use this nutrient rich soil in your garden.

7. Find a Hobby Which Can Use Recycled Products

We’ve all heard of the three Rs, but what about doing these things ourselves? Preserve veggies with old jars, make art out of items once bound for the landfill, start plants in plastic containers, or my personal favorite, make Dungeons and Dragons scenery out of former trash.

8. Try to Order Things by Delivery as Seldom as Possible

I know this is a hard one for some people, but remember if you really needed something you would already have it. Plan all your future requirements so they are gathered in one trip, preferably on your way to do some other tasks and not some giant truck running 20 trips after the crap has already been shipped across the Pacific.

This goes the same for ordering food delivered. These days it costs almost twice as much as it would have if you picked it up on your way home or about 10 times as much if you made it yourself. It is also wasteful and horrible for the planet. If you shop once a week just think of each Door Dash as doubling your carbon footprint for getting food on the table.

9. Find Hobbies and Pastimes You Can Enjoy Without Wasting Resources

Not everything in life must be streamed. Social media, Netflix, online video games have huge energy costs. Our ancestors didn’t need any of this crap to be happy. Do things for fun which help the planet instead of hurt it or buy things with one and done costs, like printed books, board games, horseshoes, cooking, and bike riding. Watch out or you might even burn a few calories and get some muscle tone back.

10. Don’t Use Artificial Intelligence

AI wastes a huge amount of energy to use. Create yourself, educate yourself, come on you are better than this.

Dak is asked to hunt down renegade clones. His main problem, he’s dating one.

WildernessPunk: Time – Health = Eco-Overload

What am I talking about this time, gentle readers? For those of you who know WildernessPunk you are familiar with its style of looking at important issues from a different perspective. While most people out there have their steadfast side of an argument where they hammer against those with a different view, WildernessPunk likes to tackle an issue sideways, which is easier because no one can see you coming.

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So let’s consider industrialization for a moment. Much of it has been for the greater good. The invention of the cotton gin and vaccinations, yep, they sure make life better. But what about those innovations which improve on something we’re already capable of doing? For example, we washed clothes before we had washing machines, we cleaned dishes before we had dishwashers, hell, we even got from one place to another before we had vehicles, so why did we invent them?

To save time.

One could argue it makes our lives easier and improves the quality of our existence, but let’s focus on time, and not just because it’s in the title. You’ll see why shortly.

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Let’s just hone in on something easier to wrap our heads around than the complex use of fossil fueled vehicles. I’ll pick on washing machines. Alright, in the past, or the present if you live in the other 80% of the world, when your clothes got dirty you washed them yourself. This might seem like more of a pain, but was it?

Positive benefits from washing clothes by hand

A person got exercise
You were aware of the resources used
You were more likely to recycle the grey water
Little or no carbon waste was created
You might get some fresh air and observe nature
No noise pollution
You didn’t have to waste capital on purchasing and repairing the machine
More space within your dwelling
Clothes got cleaner

Negative consequences of using a washing machine

Creates pollution during each use
Uses resources and creates pollution mining the metals to create it, during its construction, and through transportation
Takes capital to purchase and maintain
User gets much less exercise
More water is wasted and can’t be reused
Takes up space
Does not clean clothes as well as hand washing

I find it interesting how quickly these changes become mainstream. Modern washing machines appeared in 1907 and just over a 100 years later, many people can’t imagine wearing clothes which aren’t washed by machines. How did an unneeded luxury become a necessity? Perhaps more importantly, how does this effect our interaction with the environment?

Do you need a washing machine… No

Do you need to use a washing machine to clean your clothes… No

Are you a true environmentalist if you use a washing machine… No

Did I just piss you off? Well perhaps it’s time to put your money where you mouth is, or in this case back into your pocket with all the cash you’d be saving. Or another alternative is to just not call yourself an environmentalist and get on with your life. The upside is at least you won’t be a hypocrite. And in case you’re wondering… I did blow off using a washing machine for 10 years and look at my biceps, wow.

Moving away from the WM for a minute, I think we all need to reevaluate our intentions. What are your values? If you are crying out about climate change as you toss your clothes in the dryer, crank up the television, while you order something from Amazon, before you drive to the store, YOU ARE NOT AN ENVIRONMENTALIST, I don’t care what memes you post, what music you listen to, or how many piercings you have.

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Things which were luxuries are now demanded and if you don’t use them you’re a freak. Well perhaps it is time to, as Hendrix said, wave our freak flag high. Here is just a quick list of luxuries you can not have and still be an environmentalist.

Unrequired Luxuries

Washing Machines
Dishwashers
Imported foods
Beef and Lamb
Video Games
Driving to places less than two miles away (If not further)
Daily showering
Hygienic products
Pets
Lawns

This list could certainly go on and I’m not saying you can’t have some of these things, but if you claim to be an Environmentalist at all or care about Climate Change, you need to relabel these items as luxuries and not as the necessities we think of them as.

One final note. In 2018 one in four people in the USA was considered obese. We think we have saved time with all these labor saving inventions, but what we have really done is sacrifice our environment and our bodies for the privileges of spending more money to get tasks done. So yeah we might be saving time, but you could very well be paying for this time on the backside of your life by dying earlier because you lead a more unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle. All the while the environment is also paying the price because of the greater amounts of industrial waste you continually create. Oh yeah, and you’re paying for the privilege of polluting more and being less healthy. And if you spend money at a fitness business and drive yourself there, because you don’t think you have the time to do your own calorie burning tasks by hand, you just lost more time, used more resources, and created more pollution, while decreasing your cash flow.

I’m not trying to be the ultra-downer. I’m just trying to bring up the idea that if you need to exercise to stay in shape, perhaps you can do tasks which help the environment, instead of hurting it, and save yourself money instead of wasting it. It is a long road toward being an environmentalist, but we all just got one step closer.

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You can check out some of my fiction here, where Detective Dak is placed in charge of the anti-clone task force. His main problem… He’s dating one.

Skinjumpers

WildernessPunk: Getting Rude About Food

Looks like I took another mini break from WPing after my last camping adventure. What have I been doing besides bingeing on ‘True’ Horror stories and proofing my newest novel which probably will never be published? After celebrating Patriot’s Day, I also hit one of the rare and lonely rivers which cuts through southern Arizona, the San Pedro. But enough about me, for I intend to finish something I have started. I hope my parents haven’t just fainted.

San Pedro log

What I’m talking about was addressing the list of the 6 things we can all accomplish, within our urban environments, which will help lower our Negative Environmental Impact (NEI).

Here’s a quick review of those six ideas

Minimizing Food Waste
Commuting by Bicycle, Walking, Buses
Use Energy Wisely such as high efficiency devices and keeping them unplugged
Consume less
Eating for a Climate Stable Planet
Recycle, Reduce, Reuse

And as at least three of you might know, number 1-4 have been covered bringing us to… Eating for a Climate Stable Planet. No, I’m not coming for your hamburger, but I do intend to toss some data out there. But before I do…

I’ve noticed some interesting things since I’ve begun to seriously investigate our NEI. (Some of you might want to stop reading now) Most of the people I associate with all claim to be environmentalists and interested in helping the environment. But despite their claims, they do little more than the average Trump supporter to accomplish anything to really reduce their NEI. Most people, recycle, have maybe one small pet project, post a few anti-pollution memes on Facebook and call it a done deal. Meanwhile, in this country, the average person pollutes about 200 times more a day than someone living in India. Think about it, chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re 200 times worse than someone living in a more traditional environment. If we went back 10,000 years your current lifestyle would be causing about 1000 times more damage than Rutroo the Barbarian.

rutroo

I’m not demanding you change, but unless you’re living in a tent in Alaska, I think few are the Americans who can claim to be environmentalists. “Hello, I’m part of the worst polluters the world has ever seen, but I’m an environmentalist.”

Still, what are the, would be, heroes of the Earth to do?

I hope we wish to do more than admit we’re hypocrites and wander off mumbling. Part of having to power to change is the knowledge of how things currently are and what could be done. This being said, let’s look at the environmental cost of what we eat. Buckle up people, because for most of us, this is going to hurt.

Many may remain unaware the consumption of food creates to highest NEI for humans. It beats out the resources we use for running a house and transportation. So if eating creates the highest impact on our environment, rethinking and adjusting our eating patterns might be the easiest way for each of us to lower our NEI, or is it?

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Obviously the first, but perhaps not the easiest step, would be for as many humans as possible to become vegan or at least vegetarian. Yes, this would help, but it’s really not so simple. For instance the difference between low meat eaters and vegetarians is only a 12% drop. This is great and if everyone did this, terrific, but this still doesn’t address the remaining 50% NEI vegans create. Even the difference between a guy who eats a steak every night and a vegan is only double. It seems strange you have to change your whole life, and make things rather difficult for yourself in multiple ways, just to cut this in half and then be stuck. We just can’t lose this 50% best case scenario NEI creation… or can we?

foods-carbon-footprint-7

So if we’re looking at a 50% NEI even if we’re trying our hardest with what we eat, lets looks at where this 50% comes from. It isn’t too complicated. Plants and meat cost energy and resources to produce. Then more to prepare and package. Then still even more to transport to our local store. Then a bit more to remain in a temperature controlled building until we purchase it. Still not done, even at our home we’re using energy to keep the refrigerator running and then cooking our yummies for consumption.

Since this is a lot to take in, I think we would be better tackling these one at a time. So here’s the list of

Food’s Baseline Negative Environmental Impact

Food Production
Food Preparation
Food Packaging
The Transportation of Food
Housing Food
Maintaining Food

Food Production:

We already know producing meat can up to double your NEI, depending on how much and what type you eat regularly. But whether you’re vegan or on the cowboy diet, this is still contributing to your food’s baseline NEI. Eating less meat will help this greatly but as previously stated the difference between a light meat eater and a vegetarian isn’t huge.

WildernessPunk Suggestions:

Grow your own food, raise your own animals, and reuse grey water to do so whenever possible.
Eat foods which require less resources and energy to produce.

Food Preparation:

Apparently this is considered part of the food production process, although producing food seems different than preparing it to come to us. Interesting to note, whether one’s vegan or on the Cowboy diet, this is one the highest producers of NEI through the food cycle, if you include huge amount of food waste which occurs as is mentioned in WildernessPunk: The Number One Thing. https://bit.ly/2KVVHGQ

WildernessPunk Suggestions:

Grow your own food, raise your own animals, and reuse grey water to do so whenever possible.
Do not shy away from purchasing food which appears imperfect.

Food Packaging:

There is less data available in regards to what percent of a food production of NEI is creating by its packaging. One interesting trend appears to be the more (better) food is packaged, the less food is wasted. Still part of me wonders how our dystopian ancestors will feel while walking through fields of Styrofoam when they hear “They had to make everything as perfect as possible for three generations or so and placed Styrofoam under each piece of meat. This helped people live to an older age, so they could pollute even longer, now go eat the caterpillar paste out of the communal pot and remember to share your fork with the whole village.”

WildernessPunk Suggestions:

Buy bulk when possible, but be sure not to do this if it creates food waste.
Attempt to buy food with the least amount of packaging possible.
Recycle, reduce, and reuse this packaging as much as possible.
Buy unpackaged foods.

FoodPackaging-CountriesChart

Transportation of Food:

This is where vegans create as much NEI as the biggest carnivore. It appears transporting food creates roughly 11% of its NEI and is in many ways what we might have the least control over, but let’s take a stab at it anyway.

WildernessPunk Suggestions:

Grow your own food, raise your own animals, and reuse grey water to do so whenever possible.
Research what types of food are produced near your area and try to eat these whenever possible.
Buy food at local markets.
Avoid exotic foods.

Storing Food:

This appears to be the smallest producer of NEI. Only 5% of the overall NEI is created by maintenance and storage.

WildernessPunk Suggestions:

Use energy efficient transportation when buying food.
Smaller more focused trips to the store help reduce food waste.
Research which of your local stores are more eco-friendly.

Maintaining and Preparing Food:

The average citizen of the United States’ use of electricity makes up 14% of their NEI. Refrigerators make up only 8.8% of this. So roughly 1.2% of our yearly NEI is created from refrigerator use. Which is probably one of the most reasonable uses of energy in our country. This is only increased with the knowledge the best thing we can do to lower our NEI is to limit food waste. (See WildernessPunk Number One Thing) Also interesting to note our refrigerator use alone produces twice the NEI the average man in India creates with everything he does.

Cooking food creates slightly less NEI than refrigerator use and is easier for us to avoid by purchasing more food which doesn’t need to be cooked.

WildernessPunk Suggestions:

Keep refrigerator on a higher temperature.
Be efficient when removing items.
Try to compost food which gets too old to eat or feed it to animals.
Try to avoid buying more than you can eat before the food goes bad.
In most cases, give the expiration date on food an extra week or two.
Eat food which requires less energy to prepare.
Recycle time saving products which are big energy wasters.

Food Production is one of the hardest things for the average consumer to influence. Of course, limiting your meat intake is the best way to lower your contribution to our NEI. Producing as much or your own food as possible is also a strong play.

This may seem like a hard bunch of data to take in, but if we think of things as a national effort, we would start looking at huge improvements. If as a country, we could produce 20% less NEI the effects would be staggering. And as always keep in mind all these improvements, help the environment, our country, and our personal finances. We have nothing to lose but our NEI.

I think its time to wake up and get started.

Garden

You can check out some of my fiction here, where Dak has to decide between is lover and his job, but will either choice be able to save them both?

San Pedro north

WildernessPunk: The Use of Juice

A few weeks ago, I reviewed six of the easier techniques we can use to save money, strengthen our economy, and help preserve the environment. The third of these techniques which helps minimize our Negative Environmental Impact (NEI) is:

Use Energy Wisely such as high efficiency devices and keeping them unplugged.

Makes sense right? But let’s be careful to be realistic here, because I think some of these concepts are not thought through completely and some people are getting more credit than they are due, while others have a smaller NEI and they aren’t getting the accolades they deserve.

I’ve often heard the praises of what I called Privileged Purchasers. Here was the definition I tossed out 4/17/17

Privileged Purchasers: These people feel they are ahead of the pack because their new custom made home has an energy efficient dishwasher and since they have solar power, the average person could never hope to be as cool to the environment as they are.

As I have pointed out more than once, does having an energy efficient home cancel out the larger NEI a person with a high income produces, because let’s be clear, in general the more income one has the higher their general impact. And before we consider how true this is, let’s also think about this world-wide. An individual living in a low income rural village has a very different life than say a middle class man in the USA, so let’s try to take a global perspective here.

Mount Gram

So let’s imagine two people. One is Brian Whitney, who is worth a hundred thousand dollars and just bought a new home with energy savings devices. Good for you Bri, at least you’re trying, but when we consider his life overall, is this lessening of his NEI even worth mentioning, compared to Ari Bhaat, who lives in an agricultural community near the base of the Himalayas, NEI? Could Ari be kicking Bri up and down the street just by being poor?

Let’s consider each lifestyles pros and cons.

Brian Whitney’s Negative Environmental Impact

Drives an average of 150 miles a week.
Heats or cools his home throughout the year
Uses electricity, natural gas, and water daily
Buys food transported long distances
Eats luxury food items with a higher NEI, like meat
Buys complex devices and manufactured items
Wears more intricate clothes and personal items

POSTER_bulk_carrier_1_jpg_1024x1024

Ari Baat’s Negative Environmental Impact

Eats local food, but more plants than meat
Does not drive, uses bus for long trips on rare occasions
Does not use electric heating and cooling
Uses some electric power
Wears simple clothing
Buys manufactured tools

Ari would have a household carbon imprint 0f around 200kg. https://bit.ly/2XL6A0w

The average American’s carbon footprint per person in 2014 was 21.5 metric tons CO2 or 21500 kg, so Brian creates 107.5% as much as Ari https://bit.ly/2xAdeer

Per-Capita-CO2

But wait, what about the dishwasher Brian bought?

An energy effect dishwasher saves 40$ a year over washing dishes by hand, and reduces 50% of washing dishes NEI, but since washing dishes is roughly 1% of a home’s energy output, which is 14% of Brian Whitney’s carbon footprint, this is reducing his Carbon Footprint by 15.05kg (.5 of 14% of 21500kg = 15.05kg) or about 7% of Ari total NEI. But also keep in mind this only lowered Brian from 21500 to 21,484.05 kg. Wow, those energy efficient dishwashers are so not amazing.

average-american-footprint

540g CO2e: by hand, using water sparingly and not too hot
770g CO2e: in a dishwasher at 55°C
990g CO2e: in a dishwasher at 65°C
8000g CO2e: by hand, with extravagant use of water

https://bit.ly/2XNEsKi

Let’s give Brian one more chance. Solar panels. And look, I’m a hundred percent in favor of solar panels. I wish we all had them. I’d love to flip the bird to the electric company and help withdraw our country from dependence on fascist theocracies. Electric cars, running my laptop like an anarchist, let me at it.

Utah Action

Still if roughly 14% of our NEI comes from an individual’s use of electricity, even if we fueled 100% of our home with solar, that would leave 18,490 kg a year for the average USA adult. We saved 3,100 kg or a little over 15 times what Ari produces in a year.

Look I’m not saying don’t try to do everything you can to reduce your NEI and increase your freedom against the Bills. I just want to spin the chair until we are seeing the reality of what we’re facing if we wish to lower our NEI and wish to point out again, in general, the poorer a person is, the better they treat the planet. So the next time you see a homeless guy, suck it up and admit then it comes to being an environmentalist, he’s kicking your ass.

Bone hat

You can check out some of my fiction here, where they power everything with nuclear, who knew?

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WildernessPunk: The Number One Thing

After my last adventure, I feel refreshed and ready to change the direction of WildernessPunk down a different one of its Arrows. This time diving into the issue of Climate Change. You know, the whole thing about keeping our planet alive.

Often, in this stage in human existence, we’re informed of and confronted with the ills which infect our world. Usually it becomes overwhelming and we feel powerless to have any serious impact on the situation. Yet, if it is an issue, such as Climate Change, which is caused by each one of us, couldn’t each one of us to do something to help?

a shot

It makes sense. If I contribute to a certain percent of an issue, let’s say X percent. Then my behavior should then affect X of this issue. If we all change our X percent, then we have changed the whole situation for the better.

Sure, I understand each of our contributions to Climate Change in theory runs about .000000013%, however if you multiply this number by digits which end in a lot of zeroes this can change quickly.

So, as mentioned in the title, what is the Number One Thing we can each do to reduce our contribution to global warming? The answer changes from country to country. In less industrialized countries the answer is to educate the population on reproductive options. I’m also going to mention another huge factor which would help underdeveloped nations, since it will relate to the #1Thing in the more industrialized countries.

global-warming-emissions-by-sector

The other big issue in underdeveloped countries is food waste. But unlike how food gets wasted in countries like the USA, in less developed countries a huge percentage of food goes bad before it can reach the consumer. So better preservation, along with transportation and reproductive education, are key components to lowering how underdeveloped countries contribute to Climate Change.

But things are different in the more industrialized countries such as the USA. Here, more food is wasted after purchase and is sent to rot in the landfills. This rotting food is one of the primary causes of methane which our NASA lists as the third leading greenhouse emissions on the planet. https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/ Whether it rots on the way to the store or after you toss it, the results are the same. Our titanic production and wasting of food are one of the leading causes of Climate Change.

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Yes, there are many ways we could all help lessen our Carbon Footprint. We could become vegan, ride our bikes to work, and use our cooling systems less, but each of these things have something in common. They would all involve a large change in behavior and the discomfort brought about by sacrifice.

This is why getting stricter with what food we allow to go to waste is the Number One Thing we can all do in this country to combat Climate Change. The primary reason I believe this is not only how easy it would be, but also all the positive benefits it would have for all of us. Let’s review some of these below.

The Positive Benefits of Limiting Food Waste:

Wasting less food saves money
Buying less, each visit, allows for alternative methods of transportation such as walking and biking
Using less food leaves more for other humans and animals
Wasting less food produces less methane emissions
Creates less materials to throw into landfills
Uses less resources to transport food
Requires less water to irrigate crops
Wasting food costs, the USA 165 Billion a year
The USA currently wastes 40% of the food produced

Yes, look at those last two. If the USA wastes 165 Billion on food each year https://cnn.it/1vuse8P and the USA has 119 million households https://binged.it/2sMA6EI that means each household wastes roughly 1386.55$ dollars a year or 115.54$ a month.

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Wrap you head around this for a minute. 115.54$ is enough food for a lot of families to live off for a whole week and it’s thrown away. Let’s look at this from a different angle. If 40% of the food is wasted, this means 40% of the water used to irrigate it is wasted. 40% of the gas used to ship it to us is wasted. 40% of the time used to grow, harvest, transport, stock, and sell is wasted. This is a colossal amount of resources our country is throwing on the landfill which is just helping destroy our planet faster.

I’m not asking cowboys to become vegan here. I’m just asking people to help make our country stronger while getting a little more exercise and saving yourself hundreds of dollars. If you can’t motivate to do it for your environment or your country, then just do it for yourselves. See you at the bike rack in front of Safeway.

wildernesspunk5.5

You can grab some of my fiction here, check it out.

Bone hat

Junk in the Trunk, WildernessPunk

What, am I talking about health? Trying to be trendy? I know North Americans hear so much discussion over eating habits and physical health, such things are the last issues we want to read about, or are they? Maybe we’re in a unique space in human history, where we have the means to fix and prolong our bodies, but have hordes of food and vices available to destroy it as well. Add to this our ability, for many, to earn enough to survive without using much our bodies metabolism to do so.

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I’m not going to burrow this down to how many cabs you should be shoving into your mouth, I’m looking at a more complex issue, perhaps the source of so much of our health and nutrition debates.

Why am I diving into this topic? It’s because it has some relevance in regards to my current state. If you’ll indulge me to allow myself to be an example to help explore the issue of human technology versus health, we can get started. My main point is… As technological advancements are extending life, technology has become a double-edged sword which also makes many of us some of the unhealthiest humans this world has ever seen.

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Okay, back to me. You knew it was coming. As some of you may remember, I went from living on the cusp between, nature, traveling, and urban sofa squatting for over a year, before becoming more settled into this city clinging to the Sonoran Desert. After the move, I was thin, in great shape, at least for me, and riding my mountain bike a few dozen miles a day through raging heat.

Then I got my place.

I kept up the bike riding and was making much of my cash from physical labor. Still there is a big difference riding your bike ten miles into town for groceries, and just crossing the street. Most of my more intensive jobs aren’t much harder than camping three days in a row, or putting in 14 hours days prepping for my move.

CB III

Is this how hard I have to work to keep this beer belly at bay? Because despite rounding out the year with only using the bike as transport, getting physical, and exercising every day, I’m seeing it grow.

And now I have a car.

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And… after not having wheels for so long, it sure feeling tempting to drive it around, just because I can.

Jello Biafra said, “Give me convenience or give me death,” Perhaps now, it could be stated, “Give me so much convenience it will lead me to an early death.”

Let’s draw this conversation back to one of the updated purposes of WildernessPunk, which is to explore possibilities, leading people toward a more nature based life, even when living inside an urban environment.

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As a culture, we have rejected the natural and the physical in return not only for convince, but also for time. I could ride my bike to the store, but it will save me time if I drive, I could wash my clothes in the sink, but it will be so much faster if I toss them into a washing machine. I could work on finishing the end table I was building, but I just added three more channels to my cable plan and I wanted to check out…

In each of the situations above, we have traded money, natural resources, and increased our carbon footprint, while forsaking activities which would help us burn off some calories.

Dionysus On High

Of course, other things contribute to health issues and being overweight. Diets are huge. I’m sure if I quit drinking ale and caffeine, I’d be trimmer, but I don’t want to piss Dionysus off. I might touch on such things in the future, but not today. Instead I stand here, next to my wheels. A blessing… it will help me get my children, maybe get a better job… but perhaps a curse. Will I lose another of my ideals and slip ever more into the mainstream, using more resources, and watching my gut grow?

How can we balance our desires to be an outstanding human against the ease of being accepted into a society full of assumptions, many of which are half mad?

Perhaps we could look at our bodies like a yardstick measuring how well we accomplish our goals. Sure, if you are a twenty-two-year-old, powerlifter with a high metabolism, this might not apply to you, but you’re also not reading this. But for most of us who wish to respect the Earth as much as we can, live in a healthy manner, and be productive, our body could help us measure how well we’re doing.

Maybe I can give electricity a rest and do a few things myself, ride to the store, and spend some of my free time going on a hike, but what if my positive habits slow down? If I have junk on me, it most likely means I’m making more junk for my world. If I’m doing well, my body will notice, I’ll feel better, and be treating my world with greater respect. But if I’m getting some junk in the WildernessPunk, perhaps it’s time to rethink my game and leave that car parked all weekend.

You can grab some of my fiction here, which I promise has nothing to do with this, Hell, my hero is a cop, go figure.

Dionysus Cash

WildernessPunk Pleasure

Pleasure, we all like it, sometimes maybe too much. Pleasure gives us reasons to live, but in some cases, can also hurt or even cut our lives short, if we aren’t careful. Yet, like most things in life, there are many misunderstanding on the dichotomy between Pleasure and payback, as well as what Pleasure really is and what kind we could be striving for.

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When I say Pleasure, what comes to mind… good food, relaxing, when you’re in the middle of your favorite hobby, being with people you care about, drugs, sex? For some people finding pressure can be quite an elaborate process, whether you are spending nine hours trying to score your drugs or flying all day to visit Rome. For others it could be as simple as quick leftovers, so they can enjoy the new episode of The Walking Dead.

But what is pleasure and why do we want it? Also, why are some people searching for it more than others and in so many different ways?

First let’s discuss why we feel pleasure at all. Most aspects of any animal’s existence revolve around methods of keeping them alive and continuing the species. Not to quote Bear Grylls on purpose, but the first things we need to survive are shelter and food. We might not feel like we’re having pleasure sitting under a lean-to in the rain, but we’re enjoying it a lot more than having the rain blast us. Food which tastes good is easier to eat and we’re more likely to do so. Both of these motivations for a more pleasant experience in life are likely to keep us above ground.

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Still, after a while, we rush through meals and for most of the folks reading this, you’re used to having a roof over your head to the point you don’t notice it much. It has become a given. If someone was going to ask you what you intended to do for fun this weekend, I doubt you would say, “I’m going to enjoy not being exposed to the elements and make sure I don’t become malnourished.”

As with much of life, Humanity has evolved beyond these baser animal needs, or at least us lucky privileged few have. This evolution has also affected what we desire. In the land of plenty, there are more and more options. We will do many things this weekend and most likely about 90% of your activities, if not more, will be things it would have been impossible to do a hundred years ago. We might see a movie, try some new ethnic foods, go wind surfing, fly over the Grand Canyon, or drive out to explore some place a hundred miles away.

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Let’s look at the difference between our base, perhaps Pleasure driven, survival needs and what we’ve become. Some things always make me want to laugh. We have a thousand layers of perfected manners and political correctness, but no matter how evolved we might like to imagine ourselves, sex drives us crazy. We want sex, need sex, will do anything for it… or will we? “No, I’ve risen above such base needs, I respect the opposite gender and, oh fuck it, just nail me!”

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I know, I’m crass, but am I wrong and what might evolving past such needs mean? Oh, now I can just find my splinter group of weirdness online or use phone aps for dating. I’m so advanced. Hell, back in the old days you had to go out and meet people to have sex. What fools.

We could talk about sex all night, or well I could, but let’s move on, my step mom might be reading this.

Food and shelter has lost all semblance of anything approaching reality. Some of the poorest people in this country, might have air conditioning or central heating which puts them centuries ahead of most of the wealthiest individuals who have lived for the last 6000 years. I could be close to dead dog broke, but still grab some shrimp tonight if I wanted. Could 99.9999% of humanity have done that since, err, the dawn off…humanity?

In our current state, Pleasure has been elevated to an unneeded extent. “Oh, I feel like ice cream and darn there are only 80 styles of choose from. Perhaps I’ll pick from thousands of streaming movies while I sit on my expanding ass.”

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We think about pleasure killing us. “Three people will die from opiates before this program is complete,” but despite how horrible some types of drug addictions are, can they even hold a flicking candle in the rain to how many people die from obesity related causes? I’ll just say it, if you’re dishing on meth users when you watch television over four hours a day and are fifty pounds overweight, you can eat a big fuck you sandwich. I’m not in favor of meth, but if you think you can stand on some high horse, you need to readjust your thinking.

It wouldn’t be too hard to argue our evolution in Pleasure is killing many of us and again I would think obesity more than kicks drug use in taking the most people down. But extreme sports, driving drunk, relationships, and letting a good night lead you into the wrong environment, can also become a way where the pursuit of happiness takes you out.

Dionysus, just be

Perhaps we should look toward what our real purpose in life might be. Are we like the drummer in Spinal Tap…? “Have a good time, all the time.” Should life be a Dionysian attempt to have fun each day? Well, um, yeah. Still many of us have children and responsibilities. But why have kids if they aren’t fun. You have fun with your kids, right? Yes.

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Pleasure doesn’t need to be something we build up to some grand vision. If taking your kids out for pizza is fun, then have at it. If you’re single and feel the need to get some snuggle, good luck to you. Maybe some other guy wants to eat some of those happy mushrooms and run around in the woods, just watch out for cliffs and cactus buddy. Perhaps all you want to do is watch a little Stand Up at home on a Saturday Night.

I’m certainly not going to dictate what’s right and wrong in our pursuit of Pleasure, but might have to quote a little Crowley, “Do as thou Wilt, as long as it hurts none.” Still we all need to keep in mind, to be careful when judging how others might be finding their own joy. Religion followers should not come down on gays because being with someone of the same sex is how they find fulfillment and perhaps gays shouldn’t come down on people who feel more complete and safe because they convinced themselves some deity watches over them. Who is anyone to judge another? When is really comes down to it, none of us know much about why we’re really here. Hell, maybe homosexually is a progressive evolutionary leap, but then again, maybe there could be a Christian God. Personally, I don’t think so, but I could be wrong, because, I’m just a silly human. What do I know?

Burning wine

I talk about Yig a bit on these pages, but when it comes to pleasure, Dionysus holds the cornucopia of desire on high. So, let me end with this. The other day Dionysus appeared to me in the guise of a burning wine bottle and said, “The secret of life is to have some fun and do something you like every day.” Pretty simple, but then again, simple things give me Pleasure.

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You can grab some of my fiction here, which I promise has nothing to do with this, oh wait this one does.

Skinjumpers

WildernessPunk Extravagance

So I moved from a cool mountain paradise with no humidity and mosquitoes down to a steaming desert to be blasted by the heat in the middle of the summer. One could say my choice has questionable merit and might have been unwise. Butttttt, hear me out.

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I have also moved from the most expensive place in the state to the cheapest. Tucson rent, literally less than half as much. I’m looking at two bedrooms for around 600$ a month when the last two-bedroom place I called in Flagstaff wanted 1700$ and that was with two families living in your back yard.

Gotta say, “Screw that.”

I’m not having it any more. Flagtown is one of the best places to live in the USA, but I’m at a point in my life I’m just not going to flush an extra 600$ a month away to help make someone else rich. I’m not going to go into it, but it’s time, for this guy to live smaller (Remember the mouse?).

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Which could bring up this episode of WildernessPunk’s topic, Extravagance. Some forms of extravagance are obvious. The guy spending his wages on cocaine. (Do people still do that?) The rest of humanity could look at him and say, “What a fool. I’m so much better than that.”

Still, and you knew this was coming, I think much like how we all cherry pick the ways we’re helping the world and being environmental, I think we also pick our extravagance. For the purpose of this discussion, I will consider an extravagance as something you have/do which is spiked up financially and perhaps with the use of time, much higher than the other parts of your life.

Let me give you some examples:

Having a hotrod when you live in an apartment
Spending a month of your wages on a vacation once or twice a year
Gambling frequently
Cigarettes
Any constant use of drugs from caffeine to cocaine, this includes alcohol of course.
Buying ATVs or jet skis for no legitimate use
Living in an expensive place without the job to match
Buying expensive things without the job to match

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This list could go on, but I think you get the idea. I’m not saying living large in some way is wrong. We should all choose what we want to do in life. What I am saying is more on the line with the glass house and a pile of rocks sort of thing. Is the person who is impoverished because she has a huge car payment each month so different than a guy who blows four hundred bucks a month gambling? Maybe she’ll have more to show for it, but you never know, while she’s eating rumen, he’s off having a great time for ten hours, meeting people, and developing fun memories.

Personally, I think a great vacation is much better than wasting money on cocaine. (Why is he still picking on the poor coke heads?) Yet, there could be some similarities.

When it is over, all you have are memories
You could now be quite broke for a month or more
You could have racked up more debt
No one is much interested in what happened besides you
Both wish they didn’t have to go back to the real world and could remain in that state

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And so… what’s my point, yes sometimes I have one. I believe we should each be careful judging other’s hobbies, pastimes, and motivations, when we might be living very extravagantly ourselves, but just in a different way. Whether you spend an extra 600$ a month to live in a mountain town, drive the best car at the office, or party until 2pm every Friday and Saturday night, they’re all extravagant behaviors and all wasteful in some degree.

Such things should be thought through carefully, like all important things in life. Perhaps even consider your impact on the environment. The guy dumping 6 bottles a day into the trash, is certainly hurting the eco-sphere more than the gambler flipping cards. But wait, did the gambler spend 10 bucks on gas and use a quarter tank to get to the casino…

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Until next time, be careful when you choose your poison and don’t be too quick to judge another just because their brand is different than yours.

You can grab some of my fiction here, which I promise has nothing to do with this.

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WildernessPunk 4/17/17

Oh gentle readers, I suppose I’ve been neglecting you, not that many will notice and less will care. Still, WildernessPunk, the idea one can survive without most of the mundane expectations of the day. It focuses on helping the environment by using less processes and items which destroys the land and instead living closer to it. Getting more involved with nature, while using less of what kills it. Can such a concept work? Like most things in life it is more a matter of greys as opposed to a pass/fail black/white idea.

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This explains the Wilderness, but what about the punk? Originally, I was trying to live in the wilderness, while creating the funds for doing so with my writing and internet work. High tech creating the means for living low tech. To be honest, I think some of this has dropped off, although I have gone a whole year now without the dregs of an 8 2 5 job, so I’m living some sort of ideal, now if I can just figure out what the ideal is.

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Maybe a few updates are in order for the eight of you who have followed WildernessPunk over the second half of 2016 and into 2017. Maybe just some bullet points would speed this up.

I’m seeing my kids.
For the first third of 2017, I got a job which ended up being ridiculously awesome. I only worked about one day a week at it, but made a few hundred dollars an hour while doing so. I got to travel around Arizona for free. Not great places unless you like places like Yuma and Phoenix, but what the hell.

Now however the steel teeth of reality’s beartrap is closing in on me. Boy, wouldn’t it be great to be a writer or a guy who could survive by working on the internet in the woods or at home? I’m clinging on with my toenails, but the grim figure of mundania lurks outside the door ready to kick it in.

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So what new concept are you going to discuss this time, Mr. Bone?

Environmentalists.

Unless you’re Donald Trump, or have a black heart full of hate, (wait, same thing) most people you ask, “Are you trying to help lessen your Negative Environmental Impact (NEI) on the environment?” will answer, yes. But what does it take to be really be helping or be an environmentalist? I hesitate to use the word environmentalist, because it has certain defined conditions. So just to insure we do not make any Trumpers nervous, in this one case, let’s just say Environmentalists are people trying to live in a way which creates less damage to our world.

Let’s look at a few categories. Those bullet points were fun before, let’s use them again.

End Game Recyclers: These are the folks who separate their trash, bring it to the curb, and then hop in their car to go buy a new set of lawn furniture.

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Privileged Purchasers: These people feel they are ahead of the pack because their new custom made home has an energy efficient dishwasher and since they have solar power, the average person could never hope to be as cool to the environment as they are.

Cherry Picker: These are the people that pick an item or two, usually something easier for them or what they want to do anyway, then elevate themselves above anyone who falls short in this category. Sure, every positive thing you do helps, but helping the environment does not stop because you bike commute or have become a vegetarian.

Power Shoppers: Folks who might do some of the above, but then consume and consume. They buy new things while the old items get tossed into the landfill. They recycle their plastic, but purchase so many groceries they produce five time more trash than they can recycle.

The list could go on, but I think you have the idea. Does an environmentalist complain their neighbor is not buying new yard furniture fast enough or maybe dumpster dived an old frame and uses it as a couch, for a few extra years before he burns it in his wood stove?

Quite often environmentalism isn’t pretty. A plastic covered garden instead of a water hogging green lawn, might be an eye sore to some, but we need to rethink what an Environmentalist really is. Is the inner-city professional who votes blue and has all their food transported hundreds of miles to them really better than the red voter who just hunted a deer and made himself a hundred meals without the use of chemicals or animal farms.

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Driving and spewing poison in the air, so you can take your Sunday walk through the woods, seems like a contradiction. Yet, this is so much of what we see in this country.

What am I trying to say? I am saying we need to rethink what an Environmentalist is and what it takes to be one. Again, it is all a matter of greys, but if your only making it to the 5% mark, you need to reevaluate where you stand. We also need to rethink what we can do. Is having a pristine yard and worrying over what your neighbors think more important than global warming? Are we just going to pick a few things to make us feel better and then ignore the rest of our destructive behaviors?

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No one can be perfect unless you head off into the woods and become a hunter/gatherer, but disregarding that, we need to look at our environmental impact holistically and also not judge others who live closer to the earth and have not bothered to lower the water table by keeping a perfect lawn in the middle of a drought, because, let’s face it folks, we are all in a drought.

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You can grab some of my fiction here, which I promise has nothing to do with this.

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