Permaculture (other links here, here, and here). You can buy a book on permaculture gardening, or go all out and take classes on how to make your entire surrounding more sustainable. I’m not sure what I think of study abroad programs in Third World countries, like the programs in Auroville, Kerela, but I’m all for learning how to be more sustainable in your own home and community. The most important thing, in my opinion, is to stay local whenever you can, and in as many ways as you can. Have your own garden for fruits and vegetables, build green, establish cooperatives (food, energy, housing), shop at locally-owned stores and restaurants (NOT Starbucks, even if they do sell “fair trade” coffee), use locally-owned banks, etc etc. It’s all easier when, like you implied, you have a personal connection with the environment–in this case, your local environment–so invest a little in learning how to appreciate what you have right in front of you instead of striving for cosmopolitanism all the time. Dhaavak, what the hell happened to your blog?

GGK: I have read a lot of Vandana Shiva’s published work. Not that she doesn’t provide any solutions, but even if she didn’t, I think her role as a researcher and activist calling out corporations, institutions and processes is impressive in and of itself. Your over-the-top bashing (calling her a crook??) with little evidence makes it hard for me to take you seriously here. What do you want from her? Perhaps I can relay the question when I see her this weekend

well… consider the competition he was against :-/

seriously, i dont know if canada is truly more illuminated when it comes to eco-friendly practices, or we just have a larger rug under which to sneak our trash – we dont seem to have a politcal will or vision for earht friendly practices
or maybe we do – not becaause we are more illuminated, but because we live in such close proximity to nature we cant help but be touched with whatever crap we make and so are careful about making a crap.

another thought… I noticed tht jane jacobs’ wiki entry has open stubs for dark age ahead. I think i’ll oblige – if anyone wants to collaborate and do a rough-n-tumble online book club – let me know. 4 week timeline i estimate. i wouldnt midn doin’ the wealth … either… but need to check it out from the library.

Jacobs challenged assumptions she believed damaged modern cities: that neighborhoods should be isolated from each other; that an empty thoroughfare is safer than one teeming with life; that the car represents progress; and that long straight streets were better than short winding ones. Jacobs frequently wrote about the dangers of urban sprawl, and was a leader in the fight to preserve neighbourhoods and kill expressways.

I do not know whether her position will prove right in the long run. I suppose it is an article of faith to believe that we should live in neighborhoods without fences, and enjoy green space to enjoy a stroll now and then. She echoed and amplified my personal beliefs and I am glad to have been able to conduct a conversation with her thru her books.

It looks like none of you guys have not read her writing. To lump her with Amte is bordering criminal behavior. Amtes chipko amdolan(i can take you to the locations where it happened) was a truee grassroots movement dealing w/ real issues. And Amte did accomplish reasonable accomodation for tribals, collective ownership and environmnetal protection that was acceptable to all. she is nothing but a hatemonger. Read her writings about america, business environmentalism cultural impearalism. etc. She does not propose any solution let alone any acceptable solution. She is a crook.

hey, better late than ungulate.
i was going on below…

pick up an outdoor activity – running, walking, skiing, swimming, hiking, climbing, caving

and realized later that i should have put in gardening as another splendid outdoor activity one can continue into the sunset. so… i know you (Shruti) had some knowledge of this. what was the term – micro-farming? could you please post those links for general edification?

GGK: Yo, what’s with the haterade? What exactly is so “phony” about Vandana Shiva? Is there no value in publishing research and criticism and then granting requests to talk about your work? Is Rushdie a phony because all he does is write stuff and doesn’t actually do anything except oogle over supermodels half his age? What would you say about someone like Anuradha Mittal?

And I’m not defending him just because he’s Bihari but the Babu has a point. I live in Santa Barbara, and I’m all too familiar with the racism, classism and overall exclusionary logic of environmental liberalism–the stuff practiced by “rich akward green hippies.” Unfortunately, they make up a large part of the Western environmental movement. These people generally don’t have any problem with the issues brought up in Dhaavak’s comments in #15. I was at the Earth Day festival in downtown SB, and there were two booths whose environmental campaigns were both anti-immigrant and pro-population control (i.e. eugenics). And then there were hippie booths selling clothes from India, as well as a performance by white belly dancers who, at the end of their set, bowed with their hands together in a “namaste” gesture (because Middle Easterners use the “pranam” salutation and South Asians belly dance, of course).

The real phonies are upper-class greens and idiotic hippies.

If that would have been my side business i’d be selling something w/ some of these wackos drawn on the porcelelain.