Solutions

SOLUTIONS

FOUNDATION FOR A RESILIENT WORLD
  • A conscientious public discourse is necessary for people to participate in governing themselves
  • The conservancy of earth is central to human continuance
  • Cultural expression is fundamental to human joy
  • Compassion is the root of individual uniqueness and strengthens our collaboration
  • Healthy local food production and distribution is significant to the quality of life
  • Lifting people up is essential to a functioning society that benefits everyone
  • A thoughtfully planned infrastructure creates thriving communities of activity and beauty




FOOD: Know Your Food;
  • Support Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), local farms, farmer’s markets, and co-ops
  • Aim for organic options
  • Avoid foods treated with pesticides, fertilizer, antibiotics, hormones, and harmful additives
  • Try to eat with the local seasonal harvest to avoid force-ripened and wastefully imported produce
  • Read ingredients lists on products, not just nutritional labels
  • Buy fair-trade when selecting coffees and chocolates
  • Grow your own vegetables and herbs
  • Learn to create ethnic flavors and the world of spice

DIET: Eat Wisely
  • Make produce (fruit and veggies) and grains the main part of your diet
  • Learn about homemade green smoothies and juicing
  • Keep a list of healthy foods VS. carcinogenic, processed foods
  • Avoid high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils whenever possible
  • Avoid toxic and nutritionally bankrupt (empty calories) foods, such as sodas
  • Cook from the essential basics
  • Learn about biodynamic foods and raw foods with active cultures
  • Serve smaller portions and eat everything on your plate
  • Cut back on flesh protein (meats)


KITCHEN: Use Everything
  • Collect the discards of vegetables and accumulate them in the freezer to boil and make a stock
  • Pick at least one night a week to make a meal from items in your freezer or cupboards
  • Make breads, jams, and compote from overripe and bruised fruits instead of tossing them
  • Instead of trashing it, use stale bread for things like French toast, crust, and bread pudding
  • Use all parts of citrus fruits; zest can be frozen to use in pasta and desserts, rinds add flavor in oven roasted dishes
  • Learn about in-home composting and compost the scraps that you cannot eat or use
  • Plan meals ahead of time to eliminate waste

HOUSEHOLD: Keep It Simple
  • Learn about the Minimalist Movement and reduce the amount of things you own.
  • When purging, keep things that are useful, beautiful, or provide a loving memory.
  • Conserve time by knowing everything has a place. Handling things once allows for more time.
  • Learn about your carbon footprint and take steps to minimize it
  • Learn to sew and mend and repair your own clothing
  • Swap old clothes with friends; it’s new to you!
  • Be cautious and curious about items entering your home that come into contact with your skin
  • Switch to natural cleansers like vinegar, baking soda, lemon, teas, borax
  • Recycling all plastic, metal, cardboard, glass
  • Use cloth napkins, dish cloths and towels
  • Locate your recycling center for electronics, light bulbs, batteries etc.


HEALTH: Peace and Calm
  • Avoid personal care and household cleaning products with harsh chemicals and carcinogens
  • Try breathing techniques, meditation
  • Exercise your body and practice preventative nutrition
  • Take care of your physical, spiritual & moral health
  • Practice kindness for a healthy attitude


COMMUNITY: We’re All In This Together
  • Meet your neighbors, know their names, share a meal
  • Start small groups to recycle and share big items together
  • Be an emergency responder
  • Strive for unity
  • Help the less fortunate
  • Help the elderly
  • Advocate for peace and nonviolence
  • Speak out against injustice! Racism, bullying, prejudice, inequality
  • Take time to learn about cultures and ethnicities outside your own
  • Find organizations with causes you believe in and promote them locally
  • Attend to the spiritual health of yourself, your family & friends
  • Support attainable healthcare for all people
  • Mentor youth to instill confidence in their dreams

EDUCATION: We Are All Teachers
  • Read, read, read!
  • Study maps to understand geography and the nations in the global news
  • Stay informed about the different habitats and the creatures that depend on them
  • Learn more about the primordial elements; earth, air, water, and fire and how they sustain life
  • Research geology to better understand our natural resources and the minerals used to make things
  • Take advantage of free online learning resources
  • Expand and develop your world view beyond the city or the country you live in
  • Understanding the difference between what you should know instead of what the media promotes

CREATIVITY: The Creative Spark
  • Recycle cards, cereal boxes, and packaging to make your own cards, gifts, and gift wrap
  • Turn off the TV and do some puzzles or go outside
  • Explore the visual arts
  • Read creative writing and poetry
  • Seek out new and different music from independent artists and musicians
  • Go see live theatre performances and live music
  • Do creative meditations by freely drawing, writing, or assembling with no goal in mind and no pressure to make something perfect, let your right-brain move you

ANIMALS: Unconditional Love
  • Adopt unwanted pets from shelters
  • Protect pets in extreme weather conditions
  • Limit discarded trash, plastic, and chewed gum that endangers birds
  • Don’t support factory farming that commit animals to abusive conditions
  • Report questionable activity concerning the abuse of an animal
  • Support free-range, grass grazing, and decent environments for all animals

OCEANS: Protecting Marine Life
  • Cut down on fish consumption due to dwindling size and shrinking numbers
  • Never thrown plastic trash into bodies of water!
  • Learn about the plastic gyres that are endangering oceanic habitats
  • Advocate for a non-toxic approach to food production to end chemical runoff that pollutes our wild oceans
  • Buy local to avoid supporting ocean transport which pollutes and endangers

WATER: Essential Element
  • Drink tap water! Research water filters that work and last.
  • Be aware of waste, turn the faucet off while brushing teeth
  • Be mindful of how often you flush the toilets in your home
  • Visit your local wastewater treatment facility and learn about the process
  • Know what not to flush because public filtration doesn't work on all things
  • Collect rainwater from your gutters, or greywater for reviving plants
  • No need to shower every day! It is actually better for you.

ENERGY: Conserve!
  • Locate your recycling center for electronics, light bulbs, batteries, etc
  • Turn off lights when not in use and switch to energy efficient light bulbs
  • Use cold water washing and hang clothes to dry
  • Insulate your home, especially your water heater to keep water hot
  • Assure that your clothing includes weather appropriate items easy to layer
  • Learn about fossil fuels and the oil crisis
  • Advocate for the use of in solar, thermal, wind and wave energy
  • Follow the sunlight (when it is out) and work on capturing with curtains as it moves.
  • Carpool and use public transportation whenever possible
  • Use power strips to keep multiple items plugged in, yet off
  • Programmable thermostats for temperatures that are comfortable rather than extreme

THE GREAT OUTDOORS: This Land Is Our Land
  • Plant for diversity, learn the difference between heirloom, hybrid, and GMO seeds
  • Choose native plants that will welcome pollinators
  • Visit national and state parks and forest preserves
  • Go bird watching and learn the different species in your region
  • Find an orchard to pick your own blueberries and strawberries
  • Ride a bike, climb a tree
  • Help legalize industrial hemp for healing our soil, providing new jobs, and healthy products

PLASTICS: Time To End It
  • Bring your own “doggy” container if you dine out
  • Encourage the use of bio-plastics and plant-plastics
  • Learn about plastic toxicity and avoid using BPA plastics for food and drink
  • Bring cloth bags to transport groceries and other purchases (Give them as gifts.)
  • Put small purchases in your backpack or purse, you don’t need a bag!
  • Advocate for the eradication of plastic bags, reuse existing ones
  • Plastic products are chemically composed to last for centuries, do not discard them after only one use!
  • Look into reusable, eco-friendly water bottles with built in filters
  • Learn about the process of recycling plastics
  • Wash and clean out plastic containers and reuse them for storage or crafting



URBAN PLANNING: Smart & Efficient
  • Speak out in favor of small gardens in abandoned lots
  • Plant flowers for pollinators, support local beehives and honey production
  • Pick up litter
  • Support the upkeep of existing infrastructure
  • Be aware of food deserts
  • Learn about rooftop and indoor gardening
  • Advocate for ‘green’ and LEED certified building processes and energy use
  • Find a cause, live it, and promote it.

PRODUCTS: The World Of Stuff
  • Buy necessities not junk; do you really need what you’re buying?
  • Learn about the modes of capitalist production
  • Spend more for quality items made to last and pass them on
  • Support indigenous craft over cheaply produced items made under abusive labor practices
  • Check labels on imports to assure that items are made and purchased justly
  • Plan DIY projects to create household decorations and gifts
  • Buy less and discard less
  • Fight against planned obsolescence (things designed to wear out quickly)
  • Shop used and vintage
  • Support handmade and professional craftwork

CLOTHING: We've got you covered
  • Know your clothing! Learn about materials and how they are manufactured
  • Wear natural fibers; cotton, hemp, linen, silk, wool, bamboo, etc
  • For cold weather assure that your clothing includes items to layer
  • Learn to sew and mend and repair your own clothing
  • Develop a unique style as oppose to follow swift fashion trends
  • Purchase quality items that don't fall apart
  • Care for your clothing when wearing, cleaning, and storing.

MONEY: Just a Concept
  • Bank at small banks or credit unions
  • Prioritize getting out of debt
  • Make a budget and stick to it
  • Spend less than you make
  • Use cash over credit
  • Make a list of things that you are able to barter with; skills, crafts, goods, food
  • Learn about gift and barter economies


POLITICS: Let’s Clean It Up!
  • Don’t listen to fear mongers on the right or left, find real news reported by citizen
  • Vote outside the 2-party system
  • Listen to people of all politic belief-systems, point out the principles you agree on, shake hands and drop the labels!
  • Make up your own mind; find your own moral compass and stick to it
  • Question what you learn and what you hear
  • Do your own research
  • Work towards reform by collective participation
  • Harness the power in numbers
  • Be a citizen watchdog to shout out corrupt practices
  • Join a petition network
  • Set up a time to make one phone call a month to your local politician

INSPIRATION: Hope
  • Change from within on a personal level and move outwards
  • Create more peace in the world by first fostering peace in your own life
  • Take time to listen to others about their spiritual beliefs and ideas
  • Resolve to plant the “seeds” for a better life for yourself and others
  • Empower others by commenting on the good you see around you

Photos and Art by Lee Tracy