Riot for Austerity

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theanimal
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Riot for Austerity

Post by theanimal »

This is a concept developed about 10 years ago now. The idea sprung up in 2007 when it was determined that to avert the serious negative effects of climate change, those in the developed world (particularly the US) would have to reduce their emissions by around 90%. The number has been debated, it may only be 75-80%. Anyways, this led to a movement where people tried to reduce their consumption in 7 different categories. The goal is to reduce as much as you can (90% if possible) and keep it there.

Original post- https://simplereduce.wordpress.com/riot ... y90-rules/
1. Gasoline. Average American usage is 500 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR. A 90 percent reduction would be 50 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR.

No reduction in emissions for ethanol or biodiesel.
Public transportation and Waste Veggie Oil Fuel are deemed to get 100 mpg, and should be calculated accordingly.
2. Electricity. Average US usage is 11,000 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR, or about 900 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH. A 90% reduction would mean using 1,100 PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR or 90 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH

Solar Renewables are deemed to have a 50% payback – that is, you get twice as many watts.
Hydro and Wind are deemed to have a 4 to 1 payback over other methods – you get 4 times as many.
3. Heating and Cooking Energy – this is divided into 3 categories, gas, wood and oil. Your household probably uses one of these, and they are not interchangeable. If you use an electric stove or electric heat, this goes under electric usage.

Natural Gas (this is used by the vast majority of US households as heating and cooking fuel). For this purpose, Propane will be calculated as the same as natural gas. Calculations in therms should be available from your gas provider.
US Average Natural Gas usage is 1000 therms PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR. A 90% reduction would mean a reduction to 100 therms PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR
Heating Oil (this is used by only about 8% of all US households, mostly in the Northeast, including mine).
Average US usage is 750 Gallons PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR. A 90% cut would mean using 75 gallons PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR. Biodiesel is calculated as equivalent.
Wood. This is a tough one. The conventional line is that wood is carbon neutral, but, of course, wood that is harvested would have otherwise been absorbing carbon and providing forest. There are good reasons to be skeptical about this. So I’ve divided wood into two categories.
Locally and sustainably harvested, and either using deadwood, trees that had to come down anyway, coppiced or harvested by someone who replaces every lost tree. This is deemed carbon neutral, and you can use an unlimited supply. This would include street trees your town is taking down anyway, wood you cut on your property and replant, coppiced wood (that is, you cut down some part of the tree but leave it to grow), and standing and fallen deadwood. You can use as much of this as you like.
Wood not sustainably harvested, or transported long distances, or you don’t know. 1 cord of this is equal to 15 gallons of oil or 20 therms of natural gas.
4. Garbage – the average American generates about 4.5 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY. A 90% reduction would mean .45 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY.

5. Water. The Average American uses 100 Gallons of water PER PERSON, PER DAY. A 90% reduction would mean 10 gallons PER PERSON, PER DAY.

6. Consumer Goods. The best metric I could find for this is using money. A Professor at Syracuse University calculates that as an average, every consumer dollar we spend puts .5 lbs of carbon into the atmosphere. This isn’t perfect, of course, but it averages out pretty well.

The average American spends 10K PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR on consumer goods, not including things like mortgage, health care, debt service, car payments, etc… Obviously, we recommend you minimize those things to the extent you can, but what we’re mostly talking about is things like gifts, toys, music, books, tools, household goods, cosmetics, toiletries, paper goods, etc… A 90% cut would be 1,000 dollars PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR

Used goods are deemed to have an energy cost of 10% of their actual purchase price. That is, if you buy a used sofa for $50, you just spent $5 of your allotment. The reason for this is that used goods bought from previous owners put money back into circulation that is then spent on new goods. This would apply to Craigslist, Yardsales, etc… but not goodwill and other charities, as noted below. This rule does not apply if you know that the item would otherwise be thrown out – that is, if someone says, “If you don’t buy it, I’m going to toss it.” Those items are unlimited as well, because they keep crap out of landfills.
Goods that were donated are deemed to be unlimited, with no carbon cost. That is, you can spend all you want at Goodwill and the church rummage sale. Putting things back into use that would otherwise be tossed should be strongly encouraged.
7. Food. This was by far the hardest thing to come up with a simple metric for. Using food miles, or price gives what I believe is a radically inaccurate way of thinking about this. So here’s the best I can do. Food is divided into 3 categories.

#1 is food you grow, or which is produced *LOCALLY AND ORGANICALLY* (or mostly – it doesn’t have to be certified, but should be low input, because chemical fertilizers produce nitrous oxide which is a major greenhouse contributor). Local means within 100 miles to me. This includes all produce, grains, beans, and meats and dairy products that are mostly either *GRASSFED* or produced with *HOME GROWN OR LOCALLY GROWN, ORGANIC FEED.* That is, chicken meat produced with GM corn from IOWA in Florida is not local. A 90% reduction would involve this being AT LEAST 70% of your diet, year round. Ideally, it would be even more. I also include locally produced things like soap in this category, if most of the ingredients are local.

#2 is is *DRY, BULK* goods, transported from longer distances. That is, *whole, unprocessed* beans, grains, and small light things like tea, coffee, spices (fair trade and sustainably grown *ONLY*), or locally produced animal products partly raised on unprocessed but non-local grains, and locally produced wet products like oils. This is hard to calculate, because Americans spend very little on these things (except coffee) and whole grains don’t constitute a large portion of the diet. These are comparatively low carbon to transport and produce. Purchased in bulk, with minimal packaging (beans in 50lb paper sacks, pasta in bulk, tea loose, by the pund, rather than in little bags), this would also include things like recycled toilet paper, purchased garden seeds and other light, dry items. This should be no more than 25% of your total purchases.

# 3 is Wet goods – conventionally grown meat, fruits, vegetables, juices, oils, milk etc… transported long distances, and processed foods like chips, soda, potatoes. Also regular shampoo, dish soap, etc… And that no one should buy more than 5% of their food in this form. Right now, the above makes up more than 50% of everyone’s diet.

Thus, if you purchase 20 food items in a week, you’d use 14 home or locally produced items, 5 bulk dry items, and only 1 processed or out of season thing.

I'm at 90% or below in 4 categories. Transportation is my weakness due to air travel. I'm not sure about garbage. Definitely below the average, but I'm not sure the exact total. Not entirely sure about food either. I have a good amount of local food, but then again any non local food has travelled LONG distances.

At most, I imagine only a handful on here would fully attempt something like this. Nonetheless, one can still reduce their output as much as one is willing. It's not really about sacrificing, but rather conscious living. I would imagine that if one were to reduce consumption by half they wouldn't even be able to tell a difference. Where do you stand? How can you further reduce your consumption?

jacob
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by jacob »

Cool! I remember that one from Sharon Astyk's site years ago. Concurrent with when those "Buy Nothing for X time" were fashionable.
  • Gasoline: This is tricky. We have a car because DW needs it for work to drive between the some ~100 offices she's overseeing. Mileage gets reimbursed and it's pretty much a wash. If she didn't have that job, the likelihood of our continued car ownership would converge on zero. We do take 1-2 road trips per year worth about 1600 miles and our tank gets 22 mpg. One trip would qualify. Two would not.
  • Electricity: Last month was 147kWh so 17% of the average household. That number is probably on the low end. It would be higher in the summer (bedroom A/C) and in the deep winter (central heating fan).
  • NatGas: 339 Therms total for last year. This would be 34% of the average household. Somewhat higher in the winter. Very low in the summer.
  • Garbage: I have no idea since I've never weighed our garbage. We produce one hefty bag every 8-10 days or so. It doesn't feel particularly heavy since it's mostly plastic from food packaging. I'm oddly fascinated by http://www.zerowastehome.com/ ... if we started buying package-free food, our garbage would go way down.
  • Water: We use less than the minimum charge according to the city. I don't know how much less. But basically, there's a min cut-off and we're almost always below it even with watering the garden w/o collecting rain water :shock:
  • Consumer goods: I suppose our biggest cost here is toilet paper? Otherwise, everything is bought used with very few exceptions. We're likely in the 2% or less range here. Probably less than $100 ... definitely less than $200.
  • Food: Most of our food is dry bulk goods, say 60% (hence the 5 gal buckets in the kitchen). About 10% is grown in our backyard. The rest is wet goods.
Our house is 976sqft. Climate data under my profile.

7Wannabe5
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

My results would be odd and very mixed.

Gasoline: I currently almost never drive a car myself or even use public transportation. However, my BF lives about 15 miles away from me, and I am not infrequently a passenger in his car which gets about 30 mpg. Sometimes he picks me up on the way back from somewhere. Sometimes he goes out of his way to pick me up. Let's just say I do use about 50 gallons because 1 round-trip to his house/week is on my theoretical gas rationing coupon.

Electricity/NatGas/H2O: Difficult to determine since I divide my time between a small apartment (800 square ft.) I occupy with my sister and her 4 dogs(!!!), my off-the-grid camper, and either the house where my BF is camped out with a friend or a hotel room the corporation he works for funded. I also charge up my battery packs at a variety of locations. So, I would have to track actual usage, rather than attempt to break down and then puzzle back together bills. I am a lap-top/bright lights and hot shower slut, but very good about not being the one to turn on/up the heat or air conditioning.

Garbage: I give myself extra points in the category of garbage, because it is definitely the case that I have taken more carbon out of dumpsters or exposed wood lot and put it back in the ground than vice-versa this year. At least a 10 to 1 ratio, maybe more.

Consumer goods: I have Scavenge list rather than Shopping list. I rarely buy anything new. Sometimes other people buy me new useful stuff like wool socks, decent winter boots and bike hauling trailers. I definitely spend less than $1000.

Food: I am sort of in a terrible state like that of person who likes to cook but is undergoing major kitchen renovation in this category. I eat a lot of produce from my garden. My sister kind of trades me produce for organic/local dairy items she purchases. I buy some junk/treats from the Dollar Tree and some healthy stuff (of mysterious origin) from the very good ethnic corner markets in my neighborhood. My BF provides me with all the coffee I need, and pays for our food when I am staying with him, and we eat out quite often. Probably the main factor preventing me from doing much better in this category is a level of psychological resistance to once again assuming "wife" role.

Anyways, I don't want to be a frugal conservationist party-pooper, but one thought I had recently was that perhaps the rule or code of behaving in a manner that would prove efficacious if everybody were to follow suit will not serve. Like if you are a woman who is married to a drunk gambler and you want to make sure there is enough money in the kitty to buy milk for the baby AND no vomit to clean up off the floor in the morning, skimping on buying yourself a new dress so that there is more money left in the kitty is not going to work. What you have to do is take all the money from the kitty before your husband can get his hands on it, and use it to buy a cow.

cmonkey
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by cmonkey »

Agree on this being cool, I love striving for things like this! I can't say I'm as good as @jacob, but hey I'll list what I've got.

Gasoline: Our budget puts us at $440 for the YTD. ~$2/gallon here so that puts us at 220 gallons. I'd estimate at least HALF of this was going out for rennovation stuffs. Next year will tell for sure. So we are 44% here.

Electricity: Sadly we are average, 100%, in this category sitting at 12798 KWH for the past TTM, however we are also 100% electric (heating and hot water as well). So maybe that counts for something. This is the category I'm focusing on trying to reduce as far as expenses, but it's REALLY hard with a certain roommate running a 750 watt "person space heater" for 12 hours a day. :evil: She's gone in 3 weeks.*

NatGas: 0% for this, we had our gas turned off when we went with geothermal :D. Should I then reduce my Electric rating by some amount?

Garbage: Currently this is massive due to Mount Plaster in my garage. 96 gallons weekly at least until spring. Normal garbage is similar to jacobs, we fill a 10 gallon bin weekly, but this also includes stuff we are just plain getting rid of from our household. If it were 4.5 lbs/day that would mean it should weigh 45 lbs!! It does not, I'd say 7-10 lbs of 'normal waste' most of which is food packaging. So we are throwing away perhaps 1 lb per day / 2 people = .5 lbs per person per day. 0% for this one!

Water: Our softener tracks water usage right to the gallon, so I'll have to start watching this. DW showers twice weekly I'd guess (she smells great anyway) but she takes longer showers and I shower daily but very quickly. 5 minutes in the morning for about 2.5 gallons of water/min = 15 gallons of water (wow that's a lot!) for myself and 10 gallons/day for her. We wash 1-2 loads of clothes weekly and our washer uses about 15 gallons per load. So 30 gallons/7 days = 4.2/day. Dishes done by hand each evening for about 5 gallons of water. Our toilets are dual flush (1.1 gallon for #1 and 1.6 gallon for #2). I could get really gross/nerdy here, so lets just say 5 gallons per person per day. ;)

So a very rough guess at this is 40 gallons/day/person or 40% of normal.

Consumer goods: Looking at the list of applicable purchases, our budget puts us at 593+144 (personal products + entertainment products) YTD. The vast majority of our budget goes toward what I call 'lifestyle' expenses (cats, chickens, bills, food). So we are at $737 YTD for consumer goods. 0%

Food: For food I'd take a very rough guess at 50% dry/bulk, 25% wet goods and 25% backyard garden. We have been pushing harder into the dry/bulk category this year, but still have work to do. We don't buy much meat, but we purchase a fair bit of dairy.


We are at 90% or lower in 3 categories and 45% or lower in 2 more categories. Electricity is our spot to work on!




* the only reason I haven't confiscated yet it is because her parents are likely to send us a decent sized check next month and it will more than cover the cost. I have been using it as an exercise in tolerance/patience.

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Ego
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by Ego »

It seems to me that a riot would entail going negative in a big way. -250%, -500%, -2000% -10000%

I have a friend who owns a five unit apartment building. He does not allow a/c or heat. He installed solar and wind electricity as well as solar water heating. His electricity meter spins backward. Net metering allows him to accumulate credits. He's got the place metered and knows if someone is using more than they should. He explains the situations to prospective tenants and is a good ambassador for low energy use.

So if he encourages 5 households to reduce electricity usage by 50%, that would mean he could claim his own miserly usage plus the 5X50% decrease. Not bad.

In our building, heating is the biggest user of natural gas and air conditioning the biggest user of electricity. I control the heating for 40 households and have not yet turned on the boiler. When I do eventually turn it on, I will let it run for several hours in the evening then turn it off before going to bed. Before we arrived, the boiler was left to run constantly November - March and the tenants would control the steam at the radiator. Also, right now we permit window air conditioners. I am working to change that as it (ahem) spoils the historic character of the property. :ugeek: During the summer there are about 15-18 a/cs running. That will shift to fans.

I am working on a poster for my Systems Wall so that future managers of this building will continue to run the heating system the way I do. My hope is that it is easier to continue an existing process than to make a new one. :D

7Wannabe5
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

@Ego: I love your systems wall.

One of the problems with a solution focused on private individual consumer habits is that we are all public consumers, and also private and public producers. If you are a resident of the United States, approximately 50% of your carbon footprint is already being spent on the infrastructure surrounding you which allows you to be more productive. For instance, the cement industry is a huge producer of CO2, but people don't think about their share of a new storm drain system. I think GDP is a dubious measurement, but in terms of greenhouse gas emissions/GDP , the United States is below the world average. Also, the United States is the world's top exporter of food. So, it's kind of like comparing the energy usage of a minimalist vs. a frugal person who runs a workshop from his home vs. a frugal person who runs a workshop and a market garden.

I take it as a given that eventually all available fossil fuels will be transformed into heat and "something else" (currently mostly landfill contents) through productive/consumptive processes. So, what you are directly or indirectly producing with your share of the kilocalories made available from the giant bowl of petroleum pudding is likely more relevant long-run. Like if you were seriously concerned with creating a collection of stuff to pass down to somebody 100 years from now (or whenever you assume the bowl of pudding will be eaten up), what would you choose to produce or cause to come into production with the cheap energy that is now still available? How can you as an individual obtain a yield forwarding this process, and thereby motivate yourself in a manner not purely reliant on altruism? Can you use your brain to design something that humans of today will want to buy, and the humans of the fossil-fuel-free tomorrow will still be able to produce and use?

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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by jacob »

7Wannabe5 wrote: Anyways, I don't want to be a frugal conservationist party-pooper, but one thought I had recently was that perhaps the rule or code of behaving in a manner that would prove efficacious if everybody were to follow suit will not serve. Like if you are a woman who is married to a drunk gambler and you want to make sure there is enough money in the kitty to buy milk for the baby AND no vomit to clean up off the floor in the morning, skimping on buying yourself a new dress so that there is more money left in the kitty is not going to work. What you have to do is take all the money from the kitty before your husband can get his hands on it, and use it to buy a cow.
Jevons's Paradox. However, the paradox becomes null and void if actual shortages develop. I think of it as training wheels + come future Nuremberg trials of our generation(s), I can at least honestly say that I wasn't part of the problem.

sfchristo
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by sfchristo »

"5. Water. The Average American uses 100 Gallons of water PER PERSON, PER DAY. A 90% reduction would mean 10 gallons PER PERSON, PER DAY."

A quick google search shows that that number seems to be accurate. Wow! And that is just a personal household number, not what people also use in their offices/schools and so on. In California we've been in a drought for years and DH and I started filling a bucket in the shower and use it to flush the toilet. That cut our water use massively (I don't have the figures in front of me but we watch closely when we get the bill and use keeps going down) When I wash dishes or my painting brushes I use a trickle of water/just enough to get the job done. I still have a backyard with some water sucking trees (Australian tree ferns) but I've been toying with finding just the right amount of water for them. I'm planning to convert my yard into a desert friendly one.

It was the goal the conservation of water that started getting me into the other aspects of resource frugality. Water use was the gateway drug. :) Now I'm much more conscious of gas, electricity, and everything else. And I'm sure I have a long way to go.

@7W5 I see what you mean about the gambler. Like there has to be a systemic approach as well as an individual responsibility approach. 95% of California's water is used for industrial purposes (farming and so on) and so it makes a lot of sense to examine what happens there, but on a collective action of individuals basis, if almost everyone used their gray water as in the simple example above of the bucket in the shower, California would save millions of gallons per day.

Toska2
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by Toska2 »

I can not start to imagine how to monitor mine.

My living arrangements were/are

A fourplex apt - 4 months
Tent - 2 months
Communal living - 2 months
Compact car - 3 months

This year has been interesting if nothing else.

theanimal
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by theanimal »

Hmm, greater than 100%. I like that. Heating and cooling seems the easiest to control or influence behavior of others as you've demonstrated with being a building manager or owner.

Solutions for the other categories don't come as readily to me. I imagine for food, one could have somewhat of a market garden setup. Growing food for others in the community, selling to others nearby and/or possibly cooking. The last portion would likely be a hassle though.

The other categories have me stumped so far with regards to persons >1.

jacob
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by jacob »

Ehhh ... I'd be careful about "too much 100%+ via others"-thinking. Like, how much credit would I get for ERE then? And could I deduct that credit to personally adopt a lavish wasteful lifestyle?

I think it's better to keep the riot parsimonious.

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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by theanimal »

Good point.

ShriekingFeralHatred
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by ShriekingFeralHatred »

blah
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theanimal
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by theanimal »

Slippery slope, eh? This isn't a contest and nobody is going to be shamed for not being "pure" enough. The fact of the matter is that there is and won't be significant enough action from the top down. We're already past the point where drastic action can prevent anything. Nonetheless, in the future people will have to make do with less and for now I'd rather feel like I'm not a part of the problem as much as possible. It's better than just being cynical about it and criticizing those who are actually trying to do something. People are here (on ERE) because they've decided they want to live deliberately. This is something people can consider when reviewing their framework.

ShriekingFeralHatred
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by ShriekingFeralHatred »

blah
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Ego
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by Ego »

I agree there is a risk of moral license with +100% solutions. That's exactly how I rationalize air travel and car ownership, so yeah!

On the other hand, I think there are situations where one person can leverage certain tools and have a far greater impact than they would individually. ERE is a good example.

theanimal
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by theanimal »

??????

Dude, I'm doing this for myself more than anything. I don't own a car. I think you are getting ERE types mixed up with yuppies. Nobody here is buying a solution.

ShriekingFeralHatred
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by ShriekingFeralHatred »

blah
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jacob
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by jacob »

I doubt many people will do this voluntarily. However, those who do will be much better prepared once these conditions are forced on them.

It's like camping in bear country. Everybody knows that it's not a matter of how fast you run. What matters if whether you're significantly faster than the slowest members of your party. A perfectly fine analogy to how the standard deduction when paying taxes is higher than my ERE budget ... so it's easy to fly under the limit w/o bothering with any tax optimization gymnastics. It is the strategy of "not whining at the margin" :mrgreen:

Put it another way ... if you 5x my utility usage, I'd notice it in my budget but it wouldn't be a big deal.---My electric bill would go from $31 to $63 because usage is so low that most of the cost is taxes and fees. However, if you 5x the utility bills of the average American, they'd probably be forced out of their homes.

ShriekingFeralHatred
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Re: Riot for Austerity

Post by ShriekingFeralHatred »

blah
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