3 Simple Things You Can Do To Save Earth For Our Children

I now live in Amsterdam which enjoys one of the most *advanced* social systems in the world. 

The people here tend to be more down-to-earth and they keep it real so to speak, as you might have guessed from the expression like, "Going Dutch."

One of the things that they often do to "keep it real" is to use heavy-duty plastic shopping bags many times over as opposed to using one-time-tosser like those frail white plastic shopping bags you sometimes see catching air and flying across a four-lane freeway aimlessly before landing somewhere to be buried for eternity because plastic takes like an eon to decompose in the ecosystem.

It's mainly a foreign object to any ecological system on earth, like cancer in the human body.

Well, I know. We all depend heavily on them.

Shampoo bottles, cleaning solutions, salami packages, soda bottles and those white shopping bags!

But we can still try to *keep it real* as much as possible while receiving the convenience that plastic offers to the modern society by following the three simple things:

1) Buy less plastic products
- No ZipLock, use tapperware or better yet, glass jars from pasta sauce or other empty jars to store food. It's a good idea to re-use empty containers from pasta sauce, olive spread, or anything that can be cleaned and re-used.

2) No more plastic shopping bags
- I know this can be a habit hard to kick. So do it like the Dutch: Carry your own heavy-duty cotton bag or plastic bags from other shopping, like those big, heavy and fancy plastic bags from clothing stores. They are usually strong enough to be used for your groceries, many times over. The Dutch people do it here and so do I. You just always keep an used plastic bag nicely folded in your purse and use it when you are shopping.
- Refuse plastic bags when you are shopping for a few things, like a soap and a toothpaste. You can slip those in your bag easily.

3) Buy less packaged products
-Avoid those food products if they are over-packaged, anything that are individually packaged snacks or whatever to that extent. You know what I am talking about. Instead, why not buy bulk products? You save money and the environment at the same time!

Okay, that's it for keeping it real like Dutch.

Do it As Much As Possible, AMAP, that is.

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politics + money = a skinny dog with an endless supply of fish bones

Tim Jackson's economic reality check

This is how to make you richer while work less.

Sex + Resourceful Adult = Trade

Men want money & power.

Why?

Because they want to get laid. They want sex.
They cannot fight their biological urge, which is to leave offspring.

You can easily assume they tend to want to go over the edge on their
sexual drive --->

Go get females to have sex.

Women want security.

Why?

Because they want to save themselves and her offspring.

Yes, so they tend to go after men with money and power = *security*

What we have here is:

- Men want money and power for sex to leave offspring.
- Women want security for sex to save offspring.

*offspring* is the common word in both sexes.

We want our offspring=children to live
in happiness, in natural, clean and beautiful environment
that we have been enjoying somewhat irresponsibly,

like oil spill, earthquakes, flood and storms are just
symptoms of Mother Earth being clogged of
toxins that we humans excrete.

If we want our children and the future generations
to have the same happiness of
hiking in peaceful mountains,
swimming in a clean sea,
skiing in the real snow,
walking in a virgin forest,
looking at the golden sunset over the horizon
and looking at the morning sun rise above the horizon again,

we must upgrade our life.

In our new upgraded life, we:

---> Buy (consume) less and thus spend less money so we work less.

When you work less, you have more time for our family, friends and ourselves!

You may have less money to spend to buy stuff because you are not working as much.

But don't panic. You have more than you have in your hands, literally.

One of the things you do when you are low in cash supply = use different supply of resource:

Trade (barter) - Direct Exchange of Service/Goods with no middlemen(=hidden cost), like money.

If you cannot pay for things, say, a 2nd-hand bicycle for $100, try to see if you can do something for the bike owner (shop or person) in exchange for the bike. See if you have any skills, cleaning house, massage, making clothes, repairing things, running errands, babysitting, cooking, or helping with whatever for him/her/shop, or exchange some stuff you don't need anymore.

I know it may sound a bit strange first, but try it anyway. You got nothing to lose but having an opportunity to have what you want with no cash and end up helping someone and getting to know more people in the process.

The more middleman (money, retail shops, export/import companies, transportation for the stuff to the shop) you eliminate, the closer you are to the true cost of the stuff.

Not for everyone, I know. But if you are a bit on the shy edge, you can try to do the whole transaction online so you would have less exposure to direct rejection (it's only business..).

Okay, let's put it into practice:

1) Think of 3 skills that you can exchange for stuff.
2) Find some stuff you like to have on the internet at a local online classified.
3) Email the contact person and ask if they are open to bartering (use your service/time as money) opportunity.

That's it!

You'll start to figure out the way to write an email that catches people's attention and make you appear trustworthy of your professionalism that you say in your initial email offer.

And of course, you have to deliver your service in utmost professional manner like you are getting paid for it (and you are, directly as a payment of the bike!).

Good luck in your transaction!

Animation: Trade Justice - why world trade rules need to change

The Venus Project is Sexy