Now is your chance, dear subscriber, to help launch what I hope will become a popular form of “direct action” for all who believe in self-sufficiency. We have seen Extinction Rebellion and Occupy filling the streets with concerned and angry protest whilst Greta Thunberg and her cohorts of school children also make their feelings known. But the sad fact is that waiting for Government and Corporations to act is likely to be a hopeless prospect. The simple truth is that WE (our lifestyles) are the problem and WE don't need to wait for Government to fix things – WE can also be the solution IF we choose to act and IF we can persuade others to do the same.
THE EARTH CRUSADE
I would like to share with you my first ideas about how the earthcrusade.net website might look. All comments are welcome. Indeed I hope many of you may feel inspired to join the “crusade”!
Note – the website is now under construction, not yet operational
WELCOME THE WEBSITE OF THE EARTH CRUSADE
The Earth, with all her complex interconnected circles of life, is dying and we humans are the ones who are killing her. It is time for this to stop. We invite you to join our “Crusade” first by changing your own life and then by “educating” others (with good humor) to do the same.
Yes – we can protest; we can rebel; we can get arrested and make a nuisance of ourselves. But do we really expect either our politicians or our great global corporations to do anything effective about this? They are too dependent of being elected; too dependent on making bigger and bigger profits.
No – it is we who are the problem (especially those of us with lavish western lifestyles). We are talking about climate change, soil erosion, pollution, waste and species extinction. In fact we can start today to change all these things if we are prepared to accept the challenge of changing our own lives.
The central message of the Crusade is “You can act to save the Earth you love – no need to wait for orders from above!”
The dictionary says that a “Crusade” is any vigorous, aggressive movement for the defense or advancement of an idea or cause. This means us. Our crusaders are not just going to sit on their backside continuing “business as usual” whilst our entire civilization sleepwalks towards oblivion.
How does it work?
We hope our “crusaders” will welcome the excitement and challenge of changing their own lives in ways which cut carbon emissions and reduce gross consumerism. But we know change to old habits does not come easily. We expect our “crusaders” to work to support each other in local teams – where more experienced “crusaders” can advise and encourage new recruits.
How do I become a “Crusader”?
By subscribing to this website you will be put in touch with other crusaders who live near you. If there is no local group then you will advised on how to set one up. You will be able to buy the book “Earth Crusade” as well as a supply of “educational” stickers and leaflets directly via the website. The crusade will be crowd funded as necessary but each local group will be autonomous and can raise its own finances. By becoming a crusader you will make new friends, save money, have a healthier lifestyle as well as having the satisfaction (at last) of being able to “DO SOMETHING” about the problems we can see all around us.
The Options for Lifestyle Changes
Naturally we expect our “crusaders” to change their own lifestyles before they embark on the high profile and good humored “educational” campaign which will be the primary outward manifestation of “Earth Crusade”. You will need to adopt at least 4 of the options listed below:
Car Use: stop, or seriously reduce, use of your car. You can use car sharing, public transport, electric bikes or just walk
Central Heating and Insulation: make sure you turn your heating down and install high quality insulation to prevent heat loss from you home. Use wood to provide heat if you can.
Compost your Organic Waste: In the UK we dump about 10 million tons of household organic waste into landfill each year and this produces huge quantities of methane (23 times worse than CO2 for global warming). It's easy to make yourself a rat, bird and flyproof home composter – one simple way to become part of the solution.
Flush your toilet as little as possible: make yourself a compoting or dry toilet if you can. In the UK we flush our toilets about 90 billion times each year. Every gallon of water used by the toilet has an energy cost as does pumping the sewage to treatment and dumping the sludge. Using your toilet probably costs about the same as driving your car for 2500 miles/year. The flush toilet is also a major source of nutrient pollutants for rivers, lakes and oceans.
Plant Trees: Each mature tree captures about 50lb of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Every tree will make a difference.
Leave plastic packaging at your supermarket: This is an easy way to convince the supermarkets to reduce their plastic waste. Even better, stop going to supermarkets and buy locally.
Move your money from Banks to Credit Unions: Banks are one important driving force continuously working for profit by investing what was your money in big corporations. Credit Unions can only invest your money locally and are not allowed to “make money out of thin air” by use of “fractional reserve banking” (more about this in the Earth Crusade book).
Buy less “Stuff”: learn to control your urge to buy wasteful consumer goods
Don't buy from large corporations: you are only helping them destroy the Earth
Install battery wall storage units charged by solar or wind power: Ideally you should avoid using all centrally generated thermal power – at best this is about 30 percent efficient.
Don't use centrally generated electricity for heating of any kind: This is a highly wasteful use of power when gas or oil can be used to provide heat directly.
Grow your own food: modern industrial agriculture is one of the most harmful activities on our planet. It depends entirely on fossil fuels, damages the soil and poisons much of our food.
The Earth Crusade book provides more information on all these topics.
Our aggressive but good humoured “educational” campaign
This is the vigorous and high profile part of the crusade. Our crusaders, once qualified, will act in urban areas where the rich hang out. They will draw attention to the crusade in all its positive aspects by applying stickers with short punchy messages to the rear windows of expensive cars. We want to show people it is no longer “cool” or acceptable to use and display conspicuous wealth whilst the Earth is being destroyed. Very likely these stickers will be annoying – they will not be a source of danger or reduced visibility. Some sticker messages will read as follows:
THIS CAR POLLUTES
THIS SMART CAR IS STEALING OUR FUTURE
SCRAP THIS CAR AND SAVE THE EARTH
CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION – NO THANKS
YOUR KIDS WOULD RATHER YOU WENT BY BIKE
I'M TAKING LITHIUM TO LANDFILL
TIME TO STOP THE MERCHANTS OF GREED
Each sticker will show the Earth Crusade logo. Each sticker will be accompanied by a short punchy information “leaflet” which will be stuck to the front windscreen like a parking ticket. Here's an example:
IT'S ANNOYING
This annoying sticker might make you mad
but the state of Earth is extremely bad
Does it worry you or make you sad
Your kids won't enjoy the world you had?
We can make a fuss and shout and scream
And pray we escape from this big bad dream
but the powers that be just talk and puff
There's little hope they'll do enough
We are the problem – that's the truth
The heat that leaks right through your roof
Your car, your trips, your greedy banks
Always wanting more - can't say “No Thanks”
It'\s time to stop, you really can
It's not beyond the wit of man
Use less fuel, get on your bike
Enjoy the simple things you like
Ignore the driving force of greed
Make sure you buy just what you need
Together we can save the Earth we love
No need to wait for orders from above
Contact this website if you want to join the fight. We are not going to “sit pretty” waiting for the world to end. Our civilization is sleep walking towards oblivion. This madness has to stop – it's time for each one of us to take action.