A View From the Edge

In order to lead the world in fixing the environment, we have to realize that industry, Wall Street, and rich science-deniers have the upper hand currently.

All developed nations subsidize their industries and thereby put goods on the market at artificially low prices.

If you’re old enough, you will remember flashlight D or C batteries that would leak after a while. The acid would eat through the casing. Later on, when small penlight, size AA, batteries came along, if you liked your Walkman, you checked them often in case they were leaking, eating through connections and even the plastic case.

When Henry Ford was asked about the Model T, one of the first things he spoke of was how far it drove on a tank of gas: up to 500 miles at 31 miles per gallon! It was small, light, go-anywhere, carried 1000 pounds and, most of all, was affordable. How far we’ve come.

There is perhaps nothing you need to create so fundamental as a home, a house, a place to live. There is something primitive and basic about construction, from laid stone to wooden beams to roofing to sheetrock and paint — anyone who lives anywhere either knows how their home was built or, indeed, can build and maintain the structure.

I am writing this on International Holocaust Day. Let’s step back in time to this month in 1939.

Ever since the dawn of time, when humans go exploring and then expanding into new lands, taking the new frontier in stages has always provided security and helped planning. It is frightening to step into the unknown. But if you take it in stages, establishing safe places before that last push into the wilderness, you are more likely to succeed.

There’s an old carpenter’s saying, “measure twice before you cut.” Facts and beliefs need more verification than that. A perfect case in point is the extinction of the dinosaurs.