Lets go back to the 1940's!!

Absolutely 100% right. Pity the human being is so stupid and greedy and selfish for most of its life. I'd recommend replacing our species with something sensible, like dinosaurs. They lasted 150 million tears and it took a meteorite to wipe them out.

Reducing waste is the right thing to do UNLESS you do not stop population and consumption growth at the same time (i.e. no population or economic growth). If you allow population and/or economic growth to continue on the back of efficiency gains due to reduction of waste then you eventually end up at the absolute limits of your resources with no way of reducing consumption - this makes collapse a certainty. It is simply suicidal to talk of increased efficiency/reduced waste without stopping growth.

Alzo may be trying to be clever rather than helpful but we could all do with a reversion to the 1940's and wartime austerity habits. Many of us haven't found it hard to become waste conscious again and some of us have never stopped.

There are some amazing plusses in health and general well being in following just a few bits of Valerie's advice. Particularly the hand held lawn mower if one has a small enough patch of grass. Better still do away with the lawn altogether and grow veggies, in beds or stylish tubs on brick paved areas, which are easy to weed and water leisurely by hand in a few minutes of quiet contemplation, another plus for well-being, to say nothing about getting a daily helping of hand-picked, chemical free greens.

The writer says little about water. I've found my upper body strength has improved amazingly since I took to re-cycling the run-off water from my washing machine after using a cold water, phosphate-free detergent. Busy working people can simply organise to have their grey water plumbed into reticulation nowadays. By the way it's raining here in Fremantle - what a sweet sound after weeks of sweltering heat - and rainwater is running cheerfully into my gutters and down into my new water tanks. Last year it literally went down the drain while governments spent billions on re-cycling sea water.

Using the car for only essential trips to round up business like library, weekly shop and dentist etc when dress and transport requirements generally coincide saves money and energy consumption, and in saving time reduces stress. On other days a walk or bike ride to the corner shop to buy the paper and other odd items will give a minimum amount of exercise and perhaps encouragement to do more. It's not quanitifiable but I imagine there would be huge savings in hospital overheads and prescription drugs if we all had to slow down, walk more, eat home grown food and generally consume less of the planet's limited resources.

Fantastic article!

We can write it off as taking us 'back to the 1940's' but if we don't get on board with this type of approach life in the 2040's will be unbearable in many respects, and life in the 2140's as we know it now simply won't exist. We have no choice but to reduce wastage. Lots of people are adopting these ideas and it doesn't mean having to eke out some sort of Spartan existence. I live very well and wouldn't go back to the old patterns of wasteful consuming if you paid me.

Western capitalist societies are locked into a self-defeating cycle where we all have to consume madly just to provide employment and sustain living standards. And we're now taking the rest of the world with us.

There has to be another way. Ted Trainer is one economist/academic who has been advocating zero growth for years now. He ideas have usually been dismissed out of hand but in time they will eventually come into their own. Let's just hope it's not too late by then.

Meanwhile, let's take up the challenge thrown down by Valerie and share good ideas such as those she and also Patricia have offered.

One area where I'm yet to really make a difference is with the car. Unfortunately, I live in a semi-rural area where I can't easily walk anywhere much at all. I've been waiting for cars like the Prius to receive some sort of government subsidy and reduce in price, but I think I'll be waiting a while. I just heard this morning on Radio National about the availability of a conversion kit to allow cars to run on filtered cooking oil, so will now look into that I think.

Bronwyn-if you have a diesel car you can run it on diesel with mixtures of vegetable oils. Rabaul Shipping in PNG are using coconut oil mixed in with diesel for their ships. The University of Tasmania Engineering Department has developed a gadget that can bolt on the side of a standard truck/car diesel engine to inject hydrogen into the cylinders. It gives a cleaner burn, less CO2 and reduces fuel consumption.There is no reason why a similar adaptor could not be built for petrol engines. Problem with any hydrocarbon fuel is that you have to burn the carbon to get your power. And it takes a set amount of carbon to get the power to get the thing moving. Any vegetable oil will still produce CO2, as does ethanol and natural gas. Hydrogen is the only way for the future, but making the stuff still costs carbon unless you have hydro power.