Thinking Out Loud in Print

This is continuing the previous post, and is me thinking about my novel.

What is required to create a sustainable planet?

1. Eliminating the private car. Relying on bicycles, trolleys, trains and boats for moving people. A slower world.

2. Eliminating urban sprawl, whether it be suburbs or barrios. People are going to have to live more densely, in multistory buildings, though probably not too high. Modern skyscrapers are expensive to heat and cool. People will have to move out of urban areas and back on the land, since sustainable agriculture is labor intensive. Instead of huge industrial farms, we will be looking at many, many small farms.

3. Recycling all waste, including human waste. Nightsoil is a very good fertilizer, and landfills take up too much land.

4. Reducing livestock farming, maybe eliminating it. We will not longer be able to feed grains to animals, rather than people. The exception will be areas where the animals live off the land, and the land cannot be used for crops.

5. Major water conservation. This means drip irrigation or no irrigation. No lawns that need to be watered. Monitors on all water lines. Either the water shuts off, or you pay a water surcharge for excessive use. Americans may not be quite as clean as they are now.

6. Following the example of Cuba and planting every available foot of land in urban areas. Instead of lawns, we will have gardens.

7. Wind power, solar power, hydrolectric power, energy conservation.

8. A lot less plastic.