Sustainability

Yesterday I found some great links to towns within MN (Duluth specifically) which are working toward a sustainable community. I am really interested in finding how we can do something here. There were great informational links! How do I, as one person, make a change in this community? I do think there are many people here who want to live in an environmentally healthy place that can be prosperous now, but not damaging to the future generations.

What is sustainability?

Sustainability

• To meet the needs of the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Sustainable Method

• An approach to human activity that ensures the well-being of social, economic and environmental systems into the future.
• A means to envision and implement sustainability on a personal, community and worldwide level.
• Rather than a specific technology or practice, it is simply the motivation we apply to all of our endeavors.
  

Sustainable Development

• Natural environments remain healthy, vibrant and safe.
• Economies are strong, diverse and equitable.
• Every citizen shares in the benefits of a quality environment and prosperous economy.

I would love to find or develop a grassroots movement in SE MN that can have a significant impact around here. As I understand, there are more and more people who are interested in green space, organic foods, the environment.

It is interesting to me to find out how much all of this is so interlinked. I started with a pledge not to purchase new and it snowballed from there to realizing that my food travels 1500 miles (wasting gas, nutrtion, etc), so I chose to buy locally grown foods, then organic, seasonal.... I never thought of myself as a "treehugger" or environmentalist. Now I see a huge difference in myself! Okay, as an artist, I was always on the fringe, yet wow. Odd!

I know that population is a huge deal with our lives and impact on the environment. I do have 4-5 children. At times I have incredible guilt over my choice to have so many children. I do think that if I have chosen to have children, then I need to have responsibility to teach the children and choose to live in an environmentally friendly way that uses less of the world's resources. The less we use, the more is available to others elsewhere.