Day 270: 33 Points...

I'm too sick to work, but not too sick to e-mail a friend.

This friend asked me to pass on a utopian vision of an ecological society. Practical things we can do right now to arrest our over-development. Here are my 33 points:

1. Vast increases in wild space and animal migratory corridors. Especially in places where humans have taken over. (The Sacramento Valley floor for starters---there ain't anything wild in that valley from Redding to Bakersfield).

2. Solar panels on every roof that has decent exposure. Same goes for small and medium wind projects. Put all those unemployed folks back to work installing solar systems that you can get on loan from the government just like the student loan program (no means test).

3. An end to consumerism--how many shirts does a person really need? Bring back thrift.

4. An end to coal.

5. Labor intensive organic agriculture. Put humans back to work on the farm. Right now we mostly eat oil (10 calories of oil to make 1 calorie of food).

6. No more "always on" appliances.

7. Real conservation.

8. Take out the damned Dams and bring back the salmon.

9. The socialization of benefits (health care, social security etc.)

10. A 20 hour work week.

11. National Forests that put wildlife first. If you log on it, it must be sustainable without terrible run off into trout streams. More labor intensive. Use horses!

12. A change in consciousness so that humans don't think they are the most important species on the planet.

13. Tax the snot out of houses over 1,200 square feet. Have a goal of having 300 square feet of living space per human.

14. Permaculture.

15. No more yards; up with gardens!

16. A speed limit of 40 mph on country roads (at night) would reduce deer and critter assassination.

17. No more fences, with the exception of garden spaces and some animal husbandry. We need wildlife to be able to migrate.

18. A moratorium on all new land development.

19. Vegetarianism, or at the very least, greatly reduced meat consumption (an end to grain fed beef and factory farms).

20. Only one child for every other woman to reduce the human population down to 1 billion within 80 years.

21. Communities you can walk in.

22. More walks!

23. Home canning!

24, An end to Global Trade (with the exception of coffee!).

25. A tax on goods that are shipped more than 500 miles.

26. Protectionism and Tariffs.

27. An end to militarism (nothing can happen until we end the empire).

28. A consciousness that understands that an item need not be mined, milled, dug, eaten or killed in order to have value.

29. A zero waste society. Have the cost of recycling a product built into the product on the front end.

30. Co-housing.

31. Trains!

32. Localvores.

33. Local economies...

Oh, the Green agenda goes on and on...