Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast
Episode 188

Not in My Backyard: A Critical Review of Environmental Racism

Surveys of community needs from around the world show that almost everyone wants the same thing. We all want a safe place to live and even raise a family. We want a healthy, natural environment, access to education, healthy food, housing, clean water, and fair use of land and local resources.

How would you feel if you lived in a community where such things did not exist? You lived in the midst of heavy air pollution, environmental contamination, and lack of basic services.

And yet these situations are more frequent than most of us recognize. The underlying cause is environmental racism. So join me for episode 188 where we are going to discuss a critical review of environmental racism, what that is, why it exist, and what we can do about it.

Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E188 which is called Not in My Backyard: A Critical Review of Environmental Racism

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast

Episode 187

How to Eat Healthy on a Budget

Inflation is taking a toll on just about everyone. But one of the most common areas where we feel the pinch is in the price of food. Food prices have consistently risen over the last 5 years and are expected to go up by several percentage points in 2024.

Not only that, if you want to eat healthy and organic, you are going to pay even more at the checkout. To top it off, junk food is manufactured in bulk and full of preservatives to make it shelf stable. Consequently, and on a per-calorie basis, it is typically less expensive than something that is packed with nutrients.

So how do we reach for something that is sustainable and strike a balance between budget and eating healthy?

So join me for E187 How to Eat Healthy on a Budget.

How would you feel if your neighbor came to your mailbox everyday and opened your mail? How would you feel if someone was always looking over your shoulder to monitor everything you did on the internet? I think most people would say "NO!" And they would say no because such things are an invasion of our privacy.

We now live in a very connected world. More and more we depend on the internet for personal services, business purposes, data storage, communication and entertainment. But what most people do not realize is that there is very little privacy in the online world and most of what you do is monitored by someone.

Between hackers, scammers, big tech and big brother, someone is always collecting data on your personal online habits. That data is used to generate an online profile of who you are, what you do, where you go and maybe even if you can be trusted. Additionally that data is sold and shared and used to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year all without your permission.

Maybe you think this is a paranoid way of thinking. But this episode is an interview with privacy expert Glenn Meder. It will open the door for you to a very different world in which there is absolutely no privacy. However, Glenn is going to give us some great tips on how to opt out of this privacy invasion simply because what we do, who we communication with and where we go really should be our personal business.

I hope you will join me for this eye-opening episode.

More and more frequently these days people are looking to live off the grid. Possibly this is because people are growing weary of the perpetual rat race and just want some peace and quiet. Hopefully people are looking to be off grid because they seek sustainability or simplicity or to otherwise have something that lacks any sort of complexity.

If off-grid is what you want there are several realistic ways to make that happen. It truly depends on personal preference and of course your budget. Bottom line is that these days such a lifestyle is not at all unrealistic. But everyone has different reasons as to why they want to give it a try.

So, if you want to learn about the best reasons to live off grid then stick around for E186.

Kate Raworth, an English economist with Oxford University, wrote that “Reversing consumerism’s financial and cultural dominance in public and private life is set to be one of the twenty-first century’s most gripping psychological dramas.”

What is obvious is that economic growth is directly tied to resource consumption. Both are hand in hand with environmental degradation and climate change. Despite this obvious trend consumerism continues to be deeply ingrained.

Even though there are communities of people that live simply and offer inspiration for social innovation, the question is whether or not this is possible on a global scale. In this episode I want to examine whether or not we can decouple economic growth from resource consumption.

So join me for E 185 which is called “Can We Prosper Without Growth?”

Whether you like it or not there is a lot of psychological research that goes into the marketing of products. The majority of this research is used to manipulate consumers and get you spend more money. Additionally, convincing consumers to purchase an ever-increasing variety of products, only to discard them after a short period of time, is a fantastic way to stimulate commerce.

From disposable products to planned obsolescence, our wasteful practices have an ever devastating affect on the environment and on our personal financial well being. Virtually all of the disposable products we use can be replaced with something that you buy only once.

So join me for episode 184 which is called Buy It Once, Buy It For Life.

There are so many warning signs about the fate of our planet yet the average person is happy to live in comfortable ignorance. Have you ever stopped to ask why people are so complacent about something that truly affects our future? Furthermore, because of this complacency we are loosing some very important life skills.

But are we really to blame? Or is this the end result of our modern culture? Are we now so comfortable that we feel as if certain life skills don’t even apply any more? Besides, we can always look it up on the internet.

We are numbly happy to live in our comfort zone yet stepping outside those boundaries is exactly what is needed if we are going to build a sustainable future. And that is the focus of this episode183 Danger: Comfort Zone.

When I get up in the morning I typically sit quietly by the wood stove for about an hour and start my day with some good coffee. I don’t worry about a lot of things during my quiet time but I do put some thought into planning my day.

If I think of something I need at the homestead, if I have time I may browse the internet for the best product and the best price. After all online shopping is a modern convenience that I enjoy just as much as everyone else.

It is simply a part of our culture now. However, in the face of building a sustainable future we do have to strike a balance between consumption and ethics. This week I want to dive into a critical few of Amazon Ethics.