Bucking the Industrial Trend pt 3

Dawn the Sustainable Revolution

photo courtesy of Kevin

Part 1 of Bucking the Industrial Trend took a glance at the environmental and economic impact of the social revolution. Part 2 reinforced the failures of the industrial system by examining its’ impact on individuals and community. We are at the tipping point in which the quality of life for future generations will rapid deteriorate. The competition for resources is already accelerating with minimal regard for the environment. Multinational corporations are manipulating government and media to control the population while they advance a self-serving agenda. Short-sighted, unbridled, greed is the cause, control is the device, while oppression and victimization are the effect. The Industrial Revolution has failed. It has failed to alleviate suffering, it has failed to deliver a better quality of life, it has failed our children, and it has failed our planet.

For as long as the industrial revolution has been happening there have been people fighting against it. During the 19th century the Luddites fought to preserve their crafts as industrial economics forced them to trade in their tools for a life-shorting spot on the factory floor. They gave birth to the unions who used the power of the masses to fight for worker rights for almost two hundred years only to be hijacked by greed. Young people rose up in protest during the 70′s challenging the status quo and spreading new ideas. Unfortunately, without a clear plan forward, the movement was fractured, and defeated. For almost forty years the industrial system has run rampant, spreading its influence around the world. In every country, people have been displaced, blood has been shed,and the environment has been raped, all in the name of progress. Those who believe in the industrial system, operate under the guise of democracy, freedom, and capitalism, but simple greed is the motivation. They support any government that supports them and all other principles, philosophies, and beliefs, are readily cast aside.

As bleak as this picture may be, there is a clear movement for change. The industrialists are an aging, shrinking, minority. Those replacing them are increasingly adopting extremist views as the failures in the industrial system become impossible to rationally defend. While the industrialists waged their silent war on our future, many of the visionaries from the 70′s have been quietly advancing solid sustainable systems that reconnect humans to the systemic system we are part of. Through years of research and practice, they have demonstrated that we do not have to sacrifice our environment in order to improve the quality of life for all people. Nor do people have to blindly consume, to have a better quality of life. We cannot buy our personal paradise, nor can we use violence to fight our way there. In order to achieve the quality of life each of us is looking for, we must work together, as a community of global communities. Life is ours to experience and enjoy but we must do our part to leave the world a healthier place for our future generations. Each of us must assume our portion of responsibility for the gift we share by being here. That is what many people are already doing by leading the Sustainable Revolution. Conservation, sustainable waste management, reclamation, and renewable energy are leading the charge in replacing old industry.

While the old global economy is crumbling, green technologies are surging ahead, bringing a fresh approach and new ideas which may be able to rehabilitate much of our environment. Conservation efforts have long been our first defense against environmental disaster but they can only offer a band-aid solution. The continuing evolution in waste reduction, composting, and recycling has not only diverted millions of tonnes of material from landfill but it has also turned waste into renewable resources decreasing our dependence on resource harvesting. Rehabilitation of our natural space is another important effort. Experts are finding new ways to clean poisoned soil, breathe new life into polluted, oxygen-choked, waters, and improve our air quality. The biggest strides however, have been in renewable energy. Renewable energy is not advanced enough yet to solve our energy crisis, but it can palliate our dependance from unsustainable sources. Where renewable energy is having its largest, immediate,impact, is in developing nations. For years green energy professionals have been working tirelessly to help bring the most marginalized people clean, affordable energy, which has improved the quality of life for thousands while relieving pressure on the environment. Communities are also being given access to knowledge which has allowed them to not only become more self-sufficient but often experts in sustainable systems.

Also making enormous strides towards a sustainable future is architecture and design. The Green Building movement gained popularity during the oil crisis of the 70′s. Today it is one of the fastest growing sectors in world. Using intelligent design and cutting edge technologies, green building has lowered the temperature of cities, diverted millions of tonnes of construction waste from landfill, reduced energy consumption and created a healthier environment for residents and workers.

Over the past decade thousands of people, disillusioned by the dysfunction of corporate lifestyle, left their careers behind to seek a life that was more fulfilling. Combining the lost knowledge of craftsmanship, with innovative, sustainable, technology they have carved out a niche as artisans, once again producing quality, small-batch, goods. The new craft-shops do more than just provide quality products, they also build a strong community and revitalize neighbourhoods as residents gather to connect with their local producers.

Even the definitions of capitalism are being redefined as social entrepreneurs shift the fundamentals that fed individual greed to strengthen society and feed communities.
Social entrepreneurship is founded on the triple bottom line principle, which uses profits from enterprise to solve social problems. Since the early 80′s, while most capitalists were acting out their own personal version of The Fountainhead, social entrepreneurs have been working to rehabilitate the planet and strengthen local and global communities.

Big business, responding to the competition and demand from their customers, has attempted to adopt several new approaches to preserve their position in the marketplace. While any effort to relieve pressure on the environment should be welcome, big business seems to be playing to a trend rather than striving to make real change. Much like dinosaurs, these large corporations lumber through their decision-making process, so caught up in self-importance and bureaucracy that they do not notice the big meteor in the sky descending to wipe them out. Large and multinational corporations are incredibly powerful, they can change the landscape of our current reality overnight if they choose to adopt principles which put planet and people ahead of profits. Until that shift occurs the best course of action for concerned citizens is make every effort to shop somewhere else. This may mean paying a bit more or being inconvenienced but it is the simplest contribution to effecting the long-term change we need.

The Sustainable Revolution is slowly building a healthier planet and offering a better quality of life, but it is still in its infancy. While the future may be getting a little brighter, the present is still looking incredibly dim. We are at the cross roads in our civilization. If we fail to act, our children will grow up in a very ugly world. Our environment will continue to deteriorate, weather will become more violent and unpredictable. Our food system will be disrupted resulting in famine and civil unrest. As resources grow scarce governments and multinational corporations will step-up their efforts to control the remaining wealth. Communities will be divided as the people try to align themselves with the winning team. War and blood shed is inevitable. Fear and extremism will overwhelm logic, compassion, and knowledge. Civilization will survive but our humanity will not. It may sound like fear-mongering, but examine our history and follow the path of our current actions and this becomes a logical end to an illogical situation. By changing our perception and making some simple sacrifices we can easily ensure this grim scenario never becomes a reality.

Inaction is no longer an acceptable option. If we continue to keep our heads buried in the sand and choose to solely focus on achieving our own happiness, we may one day look up to see a world that leaves very little to be happy about.

We can no longer allow a few, selfish, power-hungry, individuals to control our fate. Together, we can use our knowledge, resources, and influence to rehabilitate our environment and help people obtain the skills to become self-sufficient. We can work to strengthen the bond between people and build a string of strong inter-connected communities that can ensure our planet is always healthy, diverse, and capable of sustaining life. Its time to buck the industrial trend and embrace a sustainable future.

Bucking the Industrial Trend part 2

The Social Impact of Industrial Economics

Part one of Bucking the Industrial Trend examined the economic and environmental impact of the industrial revolution but the environment isn’t the only victim of the industrial model. The industrial revolution has also extracted a high social cost. We put our faith in a system which promised to alleviate poverty and suffering yet everywhere the industrial revolution has spread, people have suffered. Tradespeople, artisans, and small business, have been displaced and absorbed into the industrial system, while individuality, diversity, and freedom have been replaced with conformity, uniformity, and obedience.

From a manufacturing standpoint, the industrial process is designed to mass-produce perfectly uniform products, which can easily be manufactured, packaged and shipped anywhere in the world at the lowest possible cost. The effect of this type of production is that it strips the humanity of craftsmanship from the process, replacing skilled labour with an unskilled workforce which is easily trained and readily replaced.

Prior to industrial revolution in Britain, approximately three-quarters of the population consisted of rural tradespeople and farmers living in small towns and generating hand-crafted products for their community. The industrial revolution created a shift not only in the way people lived but also where they lived. As the industrial revolution spread, tradespeople saw their jobs disappearing and were forced to find other work or to relocate to one of the growing cities burgeoning with unskilled factory jobs, almost entirely under hazardous conditions. Even in the early days of the industrial revolution, the knowledge that skilled labour collected through generations was being lost to the blind-efficiency of industrial mechanization while people were being displaced for an inferior quality of life.

This same sad story has been repeated around the globe over the past 210 years with devastating consequences. Developed nations have seen craftspeople and artisans relegated to the fringe of society, while most of the workforce is encouraged to join and readily absorbed into the multinational food chain. The personal feel of small business has been replaced by the uniform ease of multinational chains, while the real-time innovation of craftsmen have become costly research and development for corporations. Every aspect of our lives, from the homes we live in, to the schools we go to, is designed to prepare us to become a part of the conformity of the industrial model. We have been brainwashed into surrendering our individuality and our freedom for the perfection of conformity and the ease of obedience. The irony is that we have more closely adopted the fascist principles of the Third Reich than we have the principles of democracy and freedom as enshrined in the 1948 UN Declaration of Rights and Freedoms.

The purpose of low-paid, unskilled labour is designed to reduce the cost of goods, but instead we have seen the opposite occur. Inflation has outpaced wage increase for over thirty years. Record profits, earned from producing low-cost goods and selling them at prices as high as the market will bear, have gone almost exclusively to corporate executives and shareholders. This has created a fissure between a small enclave of wealthy and a mass group of poor. Currently the whole system is reliant on credit, false money, which holds an unsustainable system precariously in place.

In the past thirty years we have seen a fundamental shift in the quality and style of education, as industrialized education is seen as the answer to the increasing costs of traditional teaching. Where once teachers passed on their specific knowledge accumulated from years of study and practice, teachers are now taught modular curriculum and standardized testing. This allows poorly paid teachers with very little experience to instruct children in subjects in which they may possess very little knowledge. Students, under this system, become unengaged, unchallenged, and increasingly bored, leading to lower marks and increased distraction from an ever-growing array of non-educational sources. While a modular curriculum and standardized testing allow for consistency in education they fail to take into account different learning styles or cultural differences. Industrialization of education only serves to further conform a developing mind to a singular way of thinking, at the lowest possible cost. The current educational trend not only fails to offer everyone quality access to education, it also directly contributes to the levels of crime, drug abuse, and the upwards trend in social decay.

Small towns traditionally known for their friendliness and community atmosphere are being rapidly absorbed by suburban sprawl or are left to slowly die. Increasingly they have suffered through businesses leaving the country for cheaper labour or relocating to suburban communities, which offer carefully planned industrialized infrastructure and a political atmosphere that puts corporations before its citizens.

For residents, the suburban life which promised an ‘urban-style’ environment without the crime, pollution, or bustle of the city, seemed like paradise to many. Unfortunately the reality has been opposite. Suburban communities are developed to be inaccessible to the main street, which has traditionally been the rally point of community. Community laws are enacted by developers to preserve the vision of perfection through conformity, while the shift from porches to backyards has created an environment where people rarely get to know their neighbours. Suburbia’s problems are compounded further as the reliance on cars has led to a massive increase in vehicle traffic, pollution, and oil consumption. Many suburbanites spend one to two hours per day in transit as they navigate overloaded highways and congested main avenues leaving less time to spend raising their family. As a result many parents spend less than 2 hours a day directly interacting with their children while their children, isolated in protected rings of well manicured lawns and conformed houses, are left without free, accessible social activities or even places to just hang out and experience the freedom of youth.

Suburbia has become the preferred dumping ground of the mass production food chain and an extension of the multinational industrial vision. Here communities are as generic and mass-produced as the products that are churned out of the two million square foot factories that literally make commercial airplane hangers look like shoe boxes. Suburban big box shopping venues are designed to stifle any competition from small independent business, they encourage people to drive short distances to buy poorly made products and consume unhealthy meals from fast-food ‘family’ restaurants. The resulting reality of suburbia has left an even darker consequence as crime, gangs, drug and alcohol abuse are now often higher in these areas than the urban atmosphere people were ‘escaping’ from. Even if all of this still sounds like progress, the bigger problem with the suburban industrial model is that we simply do not have enough land to make this model sustainable without destroying our natural environment. Currently a single big box store alone claims as much as 20 acres of farm land. Land that once could produce enough food to feed an entire community is now used for a single grocery store that imports most of its produce from heavily subsidized or underdeveloped nations, who in turn use their incoming wealth to pave farm land to build their own subdivisions and big box stores. Somewhere along the line, in an effort to make our lives easier and cheaper we lost sight of our goal, which is to give people a better quality of life.

So how did we get here? Many people want to blame someone else and often that blame falls upon the shoulders of developing nations. It’s easy to point the finger at an undereducated, impoverished, population because they are willing to work for little pay and under conditions developed nations would find unacceptable, but our fellow workers and farmers are not our enemy. The fate of many people from these nations has been even more harsh, in most cases deadly. If you look at the Free Trade Zones in Mexico and Central America, people are not even granted the basic rights or minimum wages that their own countries afford them. Here, just like in our own countries, the workers and often the government itself are held under threat to accept the terms of multinationals or lose the jobs that offer thousands a paltry wage. If we look to Africa, we see entire communities being forcefully displaced from energy rich lands and then hired to extract the resources from their own lands under extremely hazardous conditions. And what of the communities that aren’t flush with natural resources or that are located on a transcontinental trade route? Most of these people are simply forgotten and left to fend for themselves. The multinationals only care about the people who are in the radius of their economic interests and the government is encouraged to improve the services in areas that service the multinational interests.

Around the world the same story repeatedly plays itself out as the multinationals try to perfect the model of mass production at the lowest possible cost and mass consumption at the highest cost the market will bear. Just like in the beginning of the industrial revolution, few if any of the profits find their way to the governments and the people, and with our trickled down crumbs we are left to pay for the social as well as the environmental damage.

Dwindling natural resources, catastrophic environmental damage, a decline in quality of life, the shift from skilled to unskilled labour, the deterioration of community, burgeoning waste, and an unprecedented gap between rich and poor have unquestionably created a system on the verge of collapse. We have been rushing forward like lemmings following the vision of Mr. Magoo. A short-sighted man who has walked us to the edge of a cliff and bent down to tie his shoe while we all walk off the edge past him. Fortunately, enough people have looked over his bald head to notice the approaching catastrophe. Even in the 11th hour, millions of people are fighting to shift our collective mass and steer us clear. In the final chapter of this blog, I will be making the case for an investment in a sustainable future, which may not only save us but also allow us to flourish in harmony with our systemic environment.

The Solar Women of Totogalpa pt 2

Sabana Grande and The Solar Centre

The bus drove quickly along the winding road as the haze battled the sun for space in the sky. After clearing Managua’s adagiotic traffic, we raced along, passing anything that moved slower than our colourfully painted, forty-five passenger school bus. We were on a collision course with the night and no matter how fast our driver slalomed the winding road, we were losing the fight. I tried to absorb as much of the changing landscape as possible before night slid its opaque veil over our part of the world. The flat lands began to slope upwards while mounds of earth and rock began to bulge outwards as if attempting to break free of their gravity-fed prison.

The road from Managua to Sabana Grande,Totogalpa is part of the Inter-American Highway that runs, unbroken, from Panama City to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. This northern section flows through four of Nicaragua’s fifteen departamentos along the continental divide. It’s scrubby, serene, and austerely beautiful. Unfortunately, by the time we hit the region of Matagalpa, the landscape had all but vanished. Mohill mountains and vallecular valleys lay blanketed under Earth’s shadow. No street lights guided our way, no dots of light gave hint of human presence. In this rugged, rural part of Nicaragua, no power yet claimed victory over the night.

The city of Esteli announced its presence with the subtly of a lightening strike. The quiet winding road that had cradled me into a meditative slumber was suddenly bright and busy. It was a jarring juxtaposition as every casino, bar, restaurant and nightclub along this dusty section of highway blasted light and colour. Esteli, home to 190,000, is the third largest city in Nicaragua and the hub for agriculture, tobacco growing, and cigar manufacturing. There was something different here in Estelli, something I couldn’t put my finger on. Just passing through had a different feel than any of the other cities I visited in Nicaragua. As Estelli faded into the blackness behind us I couldn’t help but be reminded of some old photos of Carson City, Nevada I once saw.

It was close to eight when the bus dropped us off. Mauro, one of the few men who work at the centre was there to meet us. The air was refreshingly cool and under a sky lit by the pinpricks of a million stars we walked with the women for two kilometres along a dark dusty trail. The cool glow of compact fluorescent bulbs marked the occasional home, where we’d stop to bid farewell to one of our group. Some twenty minutes later we arrived at the home of my host family. I was greeted warmly by my host mother, Hilda, and her family, then shown to my quarters. My room was simple but comfortable, and judging by the two single-beds and pop-star pictures on the wall, I imagine it served as the kids room when they weren’t hosting a guest. A car battery sat on a chair behind one of the beds distributing stored solar energy to my overhead light and at least two others that illuminated parts of the house. After settling in to my temporary home, I joined the family on the narrow concrete porch. There wasn’t much conversation that night. The fair, the heat and the four hours of travel had taken their toll and I found it difficult to manage even the most remedial Spanish. Shortly after dinner I politely excused myself, crawled into my mosquito-meshed, single bed and crashed into a deep, undisturbed, slumber.

I awoke with the dawn and the roosters. I lay in bed listening to the sounds of life around me as exotic birds, frogs, and cicadas, seemed to celebrate the start of a new day. Feeling energized, I decided to go for a run to explore my surroundings before breakfast. Hilda’s house is tucked in a valley between high hills. After running as far as I could up the one of the steep trails, I turned around and opted for the easier trail through the village. I ran past a series of well-maintained public wells where the residents still pump their water by hand and carry it back to their homes. Throughout the community I saw a few solar ovens sitting in front of houses and single solar panels on the occasional rooftop, a symbol of achievement for the solar women’s centre.

By the time I returned back to Hilda’s home the heat was inching upwards with the rising sun. It was a bustling atmosphere as kids readied for school, the men readied for work, and Hilda rushed around making sure everyone was fed and that I was taken care of. I took a quick bucket shower and sat down to enjoy some sweetened coffee, gallo pinto, scrambled eggs and tortilla. With everyone fed and off to school or work, it was now time for us to get ready and start our twenty-minute walk to the solar centre.

A small blue sign, stuck in the dirt on the side of the road, served as the only marker that we had arrived. The white plaster facade of the solar centre sat unassumingly two hundred metres back from the Inter-American/Pan-American highway. The familiar painted solar ovens stood clustered on the scrubby grass like grazing blue sheep. Fifty metres to the right of the solar centre a large construction project was under way. I was introduced to Alejandra, one of the solar women who built the centre. Alejandra carried herself with confidence. Her strength and intelligence were evident as she surveyed the construction site and directed the workers as she moved from one area to the next. Dirt was being sifted, mixed, and formed into blocks to make Adobe bricks. The bricks were left to cure under the sun then stacked before being transported to the build site where they were layered upon the foundation of a new building. Hilda explained to me that this was the future home of their solar restaurant, an ambitious project building upon the success of the solar centre. The restaurant would serve food for passing motorists, tourists, and students of the educational programs held at the centre. It would also employ local community women and hopefully generate enough income to allow further development of the solar centre.

After introducing me to Alejandra and showing me the site Hilda took me back to the centre where I met-up with project development advisor, Lynsdey Chapman. Originally from the UK, Lyndsey had been traveling and working in Central America for the past five years. Lyndsey showed us around the centre sharing its history before introducing us to Mauro who would be giving us the tour of the solar power system here.

Construction began at the centre in 2005. Under the direction of a local female architect, nineteen women worked in shifts to clear the site, lay the foundation, and manufacture over 6,000 Adobe bricks needed to build the centre. The five-room building was capped with locally made adobe tiles supported by a series of wooden trusses and cross-ties made to withstand the weight and weather conditions. The centre provides space for an office, learning centre, workshop, meeting space, and a manufacturing area for production of solar panels. It is powered entirely by solar panels and uses recaptured rainwater to help refill two large above ground water tanks. It was impressive enough that Las Mujeres Solares built this centre with their own hands but when you factor in that they also worked as full-time mothers it almost becomes something of legend.

After the tour of the centre, it was time for the technical tour with Mauro. This part of the tour was entirely in Spanish, which I’m not at all fluent in so I did my best to follow along. We started at the solar pump house, a simple but well constructed adobe building. The women opted for a solar submersible pump, which is used to draw water from the well to two above-ground cisterns. The water is used mostly for construction of the adobe bricks and irrigation of the on-site garden. There are two 50 Watt photovoltaic panels dedicated to recharging the single car battery stored in the pump house. The low voltage requirement of the solar pump allows for a DC power supply eliminating the need for an expensive inverter. The 150 square feet of space was a bit of overkill for the slim pump but it provided some extra storage space and protection from the elements during any maintenance.

After checking out the solar pump we returned to the solar centre to look at the system that is the true power source for the centre. On the outside eight solar panels supply power to computers, lights, power-tools, chargers and anything else that shows up. Two of the panels are 50 Watt DC and are used to directly power constant low-draw devices such as the compact florescent lights. The other six panels are 60 Watts, with each panel being able to produce around 300 watt-hours per day. A Xantrex C60 charge and load controller manages the power flow through the bank of ten car batteries that feed the centres energy needs. On the wall in one of the rooms is posted a handy power usage chart that provides kilowatt-hours for each device, allowing workers and volunteers to be aware of their energy consumption.

Due to the expense of photovoltaic cell technology, the centre cannot afford to purchase the cells new. Instead used and damaged solar panels are donated or acquired through US markets and carefully deconstructed at the centre and then rebuilt into new solar panels of various sizes and wattage. The benefit of this is that the women have gained the experience in solar panel construction and a deeper understanding of photovoltaic technology. Through years of work, Susan Kinne and Groupo Fenix have given Las Mujeres Solares enough training and experience that many of the women are able to give university-level lectures on solar theory. The women continue to build upon their experience and share it with others through courses taught at the centre.

With my tour of the solar centre complete, Lyndsey took us to lunch at Doña Carmens house, one of the first women to work with Susan and Groupo Fenix. We shared a delicious meal in the shade between a large covered adobe oven and a solar oven heating up under the clear blue sky. It was a nice respite from the heat.

After lunch, Lyndsey toured us through the village and took us to the Solar Mountain. This mountain is the site of another initiative by Groupo Fenix in partnership with the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship, Chalmers University of Technology and Fono Natura. The mission of the project is to reverse the trend of deforestation. Traditionally, deforestation has been caused by clear-cutting land for additional agricultural space and by the use wood as a main source of energy, especially for cooking. Increasingly, trees are being harvested for lumber with devastating results. Exotic and indigenous species of trees are disappearing quickly from the region and in some cases forests that have been harvested slowly over generations have been virtually wiped out in the matter of months. The Solar Mountain project aims to bring community and volunteers together in an effort to plant thousands of trees, rehabilitating the land and setting an example for other communities to follow.

It was mid-afternoon by the time we returned to the centre. With the tours complete it was time to help out. Grabbing a wheel barrel, I was directed to a pile of adobe bricks that needed to be moved from where they had been stacked after curing to the build site. Under the heat of the mid-afternoon sun, I started loading the two-foot by two-foot bricks into the wheel barrel, being careful not to drop them or chip them, rendering them useless. Due to the high clay content of the soil, the forty to fifty pound adobe blocks are aerated with a local dried grass giving them a sharp texture. This restaurant required seven thousand of these bricks and after about an hour and a half we had moved just over one-hundred. As I shuttled the bricks from one pile to another, sweat pouring off me and my hands feeling quite raw, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe for the women who built that first centre. Adobe construction is one of the most physically demanding building projects, and The Solar Women of Totogalpa, small in stature but giants in determination, had worked to achieve a vision that even caught the attention of the United Nations, who declared the partnership with Groupo Fenix and their joint achievement as one of the most inspirational in the world.

It’s hard to explain the true impact of the solar centre and solar power on the lives of the women here in Sabana Grande, and the community. On the surface their lives have become a little easier thanks to the solar ovens and solar power in their homes, but the true benefit goes much deeper. Nicaragua is still a male dominated society, where machismo is celebrated, women are objectified, often harassed, and expected to be submissive to men. The Sandinista movement, born to improve the quality of lives for the poorest, now has become a political tool to keep control over the people. Even though a social club exists in almost every town I visited, I have never witnessed nor have I heard of Sandinista men collecting food to feed the hungry or embarking on a community project to improve the lives of their fellow countrymen. I think the biggest impact the solar centre has had is one of empowerment. Here in Sabana Grande women are quietly taking charge and tirelessly working to improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the quality of their community. I am inspired and humbled by their accomplishment. Visit The Solar Women of Totogalpa for a complete story on their accomplishment and their vision for the future.

I have posted some photos at Community 3P and on Facebook.

I wish to thank all the people from Salud del Sol and Groupo Fenix who allowed me to share this incredible experience. I encourage anyone who has the time to consider a volunteer vacation. Not only do you get to meet local people and experience the true culture, but the work you do will go a long way to helping improve the quality of life for so many people. Not everyone has the luxury of time to travel and volunteer but you can still make a difference. It takes a collection of individuals with different skills and experiences to make a sustainable community. Donating money, expertise, or even unwanted items can be equally beneficial to strengthening communities around the world.

Additional Information

On solar Pumps:
For residents and farmers who draw water from their wells, solar pumps offer an excellent alternative to AC or diesel pumps. They’re relatively inexpensive, silent, require little maintenance and of course use a free renewable energy source. Do It Yourself offers an overview of uses for solar water pumps. There are many pumps on the market so make sure you know what you need and shop around. Try to find a local supplier that integrates green principles throughout their own business instead of one that just sells a product.

On Solar Courses:
You can find out more about the courses here. I will be creating a Courses and Volunteer Opportunities group at Community 3P next week.

On Solar Mountain:
Read about the Solar Mountain here and if you have some time, consider volunteering on this project. Not only will you meet fantastic people, experience a rich, warm culture, and spend time in a serenely beautiful part of the world, but you’ll also get to be a part of something that will strengthen community and improve the quality of life for the people who make it unique.

The Solar Women of Totogalpa pt1

With predicted temperatures hovering around 35 Celsius (95F) I knew it was going to be hot in Nicaragua but to be honest, it sounded better than the chill of single-digit temperatures in Montreal. After 8 hours of air transit, I stepped out of the Sandino International Airport. It was just after one o’clock when I made my way along the airport walkway where I was quickly greeted by my amicable cab driver Ernesto and the crushing heat of Managua. The intensity of the late-April sun served to highlight the reason why I was here… Solar energy. More precisely, to experience how solar power was being used to improve the quality of life and build communities in a country which has struggled with both.

I first heard about Las Mujeres Solares while doing research into renewable energy projects in Nicaragua. I was already set to come down to meet a potential trading partner, who uses solar dehydrators to employ and improve the lives of less fortunate single mothers, and I couldn’t pass up the up the chance to experience another solar energy project first hand. I sent out requests to a couple of projects that I could reach during my short time in Nicaragua and I received a warm response from Lori McIlveine of Salud del Sol. Salud del Sol is a Dayton, Ohio based non-profit organization originally created in Sabana Grande de Totogalpa to help Las Mujeres Solares build solar-autoclaves for local hospitals. You can read more about Lori and Salud del Sol here. Like many grassroots projects it takes years of hard work and a dedicated community to help realize a vision. So with first contact made, Lori introduced me to Groupo Fenix led by professor Susan Kinne of Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería. Groupo Fenix has been actively involved with the women of Totogalpa since 1999 and helped form the Las Mujeres Solares Co-operative. Through International relations coordinator Erica Lim, I was kindly invited to visit the solar centre in Totogalpa and attend the Renewable Energy Fair being held by UNI to mark Earth Day.

Earth Day 2010 saw temperatures top 42 degrees (108F) in Managua. I waded through the thick heavy air of the UNI campus trying to stay dry and conscious. The outdoor fair by North American standards was small in size but it wasn’t short on results. Unlike some kitschy convention shows, which promise technology that may only be realized 20 years in the future, at UNI each booth showcased real renewable energy accomplishments, tried and tested in the field, with measurable benefits to their communities. It was at one of these booths, squeezed between a solar panel dealer and UNAN (an autonomous public university) that I was introduced to some of Las Mujeres Solares. Their story was quite inspiring to read about. For twelve years these nineteen women quietly worked toward their goal for a sustainable woman’s centre powered not only by the sun but also by their own sweat, sacrifice, and determination. In the shade of this unassuming booth the women stood jovially mixing ingredients and answering questions from the steady stream of curious attendees. On top of being full-time mothers, mentors, entrepreneurs, builders, and solar experts, the women of Totogalpa were also excellent cooks. During the development of the solar ovens at the centre they created an entire solar oven cookbook and soon those ingredients would be put into nearby solar ovens to be quickly transformed into delicious cakes, cookies, and even full meals. While I was anticipating trying a piece of freshly made banana bread I reluctantly left my small spot in the shade to tour the fair.

There are at least five different solar oven projects happening in local communities around Nicaragua. Almost all are run by women and many trained or inspired by the women in Totogalpa. Solar oven technology is being quickly developed as a low-cost, clean energy, alternative to wood burning stoves, which are known to cause long-term health problems and wide-scale deforestation. The solar ovens are made out of many different materials but usually the casing is metal or wood while the reflectors are aluminum. All of the solar ovens at the fair were made of wood. From the outside they look like simple painted boxes, lifting the lid reveals a large aluminum reflector which directs solar radiation through a plexiglass window to an insulated reflector box where the food is placed. The energy transfer is fairly efficient, depending on the time of day a solar oven will increase 100-150C every 10-15 minutes. Solar ovens do not require direct sunlight to function. Even on a cloudy day indirect radiation will pass through the window and heat a black collector plate. The heat released by the collector plate becomes trapped in the sealed box causing the temperature to steadily rise.

Solar ovens require food to be cooked in the daylight hours and sometimes need to be repositioned throughout the day, so they are not a ‘magic bullet’ solution. Another project I came across at the fair was represented by Prolena and aims to address this issue with a newly designed charcoal-burning rocket stove. Rocket stove technology works by drawing a small amount of fast-moving air through an insulated low-mass combustion chamber where it mixes with the combustible material to create a highly efficient air-to-fuel ratio. The concept was started in the 80′s in Oregon by Dr. Larry Winiarski but its efficiency and design have only been perfected within the past 10 years. While most rocket stoves are designed like traditional ovens these models, designed by MIT students are small enough to place on a table or counter but large enough to hold a 5 litre pot. These stoves can also produce highly-efficient charcoal from agricultural waste, almost eliminating the need to burn wood for cooking. These stoves have great appeal to many rural Nicaraguans because they heat-up fast, burn clean, use little fuel, and are available for as little as $15 US making them an affordable alternative to traditional open-fire stone ovens. You can view the technical details through a Power Point presentation offered by MIT.

To compliment the plethora of small-scale community projects were also a couple of larger government assisted projects. Nicaragua has some of the largest geothermal potential in the world due to its proximity to over 52 volcanoes. This potential energy bonanza has caught the attention of the Nicaraguan government and a host of global renewable energy companies, including Canadian owned Magma Energy and Polaris Geothermal. Geothermal plants are large, expensive and labour intensive, but they have the potential to replace much of the current fossil-fuel burning power plants, which currently make up over 70% of the energy grid. The investment in clean, renewable, geothermal energy could also alleviate Nicaragua’s staggering 50% unemployment rate improving the lives of thousands of people in most rural communities. There is a lot of information on various geothermal projects. My only concern with these efforts is that none of them mention any kind of community outreach, involvement or educational support. Without these efforts, which feature prominently in grassroot programs, the effects of increasing worker’s personal wealth will not necessarily translate to a better quality of life and may even damage the unique communities which give this beautiful country its character.

With my tour of the fair complete I returned to Las Mujeres del Solares booth and while they packed up for the day I was treated to some solar-baked banana bread. I can’t tell you if the sun is a better baker then an oven but I must say the bread was a real treat.

With the fair complete and the bus loaded it was time to head off on our three-and-a-half hour journey to Sabana Grande de Totogalpa where I would be given the opportunity to stay with a host family and experience the Solar Centre first hand. Catch my next post to hear all about this incredible experience!

Be sure to visit Community 3P for more photos from the renewable energy fair along with solar oven construction plans and the solar oven cookbook.

Bucking the Industrial Trend pt 1

The Industrial Revolution is one of the most significant events in modern history. What started in Britain around 1750 quickly spread throughout the western world. It has influenced every part of society and affected every country in the world. We even use it as a benchmark to civilization. For over two centuries we have been indoctrinated to believe that our industrialized nations were superior to undeveloped nations and that the industrial model held the key to end the world’s problems. We promised developing nations that the mines and factories we built would bring them in to the modern world. Now in the 21st century we are witnessing the long-term impact of the Industrial Revolution. Our planet is unique. Home to over fifteen million different species of life, it may be the only one like it in the entire universe. Yet, in just over three hundred years the industrial revolution has so greatly changed the face of our planet that our entire ecosystem faces the real possibility of collapse.

The Industrial Revolution has advanced technology and created millions of new innovations, but is it worth the cost? The logic-based industrial economic model was designed to consider profit and productivity not planet and people. There is now indisputable evidence that this revolution is failing us and is in need of some major rethinking. In order to realize the vision of a planet which is sustainable for all its inhabitants, we require a new economic model that focuses on products and industry which foster a healthy environment and build vibrant communities.

The Industrial Revolution is based upon the principle that the most effective way for business to compete is through consolidation of resources, mass production at the lowest cost, and the conformity of mechanized process via assembly line building. This model, fashioned in the early days of the Industrial Revolution, has served as the blueprint for our nations and has given rise to present day multinational corporations and oligarchies, whose power now often supersedes the will of nations. The Industrial Revolution appeared to be as certain as the theory of gravity, and on the surface it has done much to superficially elevate the quality of life for millions of people around the world. I emphasize the word ‘superficially’ because if we look at the impact of this model over the past 50 or 60 years on planet, people, and community, it becomes obvious that this business model creates short-term material wealth that has been, and will continue to be, rapidly spent on paying for the consequences of those gains. To state it simply, the current business model of multinational corporations creates an unsustainable future by continually damaging our environment, fragmenting community, and exploiting a global population while producing little, if any, long-term benefit to the planet or its inhabitants.

On an environmental front, we have witnessed a steady irreversible depletion of natural resources, a deterioration in air quality, rapidly disappearing farm land, and massive water scarcity led by contamination. The bulk of past profits have gone into the hands of a few who gave little or nothing in return. The leftover profits that were shared with our nations and our ancestors must now be squandered to clean-up and manage the aftermath. Had we been using our financial resources to research new technologies and environmental management techniques, the sustainability of our planet, not to mention the health of millions of people, would be significantly improved.

The environmental problem only gets worse if you look into the future and see billions of people successfully rising out of poverty with the belief that mass consumption is the path to salvation. History has shown us that there have been more wars fought and blood shed over a lack of resources than over any ideology, be it political, religious, or otherwise. As we welcome another billion additional consumers, with enough disposable income to spend on more than their basic needs, we cannot help but to strain and in some cases collapse, our global resources.

Global commodity trading in natural resources only compounds the problem as prices set on the world market are largely based on perceived future demand and do not factor cost of extraction, environmental management, social considerations, or clean-up and restoration. In fact, the global trading in commodity futures has had many devastating consequences on society, as witnessed during the oil crisis in the 70s and the early 2000s and during the food crisis in 2008. While many factors contributed to the price increases, speculative trading wreaked worldwide havoc by creating the illusion of a coming food shortage that never materialized.

Our environment is more than a collection of resources and commodities, it’s a living, systemic system. If we create an imbalance in one area we affect the lives of every thing and every person in that area. That imbalance, if left unchecked, will create instability in other regions, affecting us all. We don’t have to put the brakes on progress but we do have to change the formula.

Part 2 of Bucking the Industrial Trend examines the social impact of industrial economics on people and their communities.