Off grid living urban living - Is that possible?
Unless you haven't read a news article, or been on social media in the last 5 years, it’s likely that you’re aware of the earth’s tenuous climate condition. If you're like me you find yourself from time to time, reading an article featuring the latest scientific discovery uncovering that climate change is so much worse than anyone ever imagined. Then wondering “What can I do that would have any significant effect?” I think this is a common sentiment. The fact that you are reading this article online means that you most likely live in an urban environment. Urban environments are arguably the greatest source of global warming considering that the main elements differentiating urban life from rural life are the vast majority of greenhouse emission sources: combustion engines, fossil fuel power plants, industrial manufacturing, transportation of goods and airline traffic to name a few.
All of these elements are the backbone of our modern society. Take the simple convenience of going to a grocery store to select virtually any fruit, vegetable, meat, or dairy product. This is a normal weekly activity for urban dwellers. This wasn’t always the case. It is estimated that the meals in the United States travel about 1,500 miles to get from farm to plate. The transportation of food produces about 8 tons of emissions per household. To put that number in context, 8 tons of emissions are nearly twice the amount the average car produces in a year. This is just one simple example of how everyday urban life is exceptionally convenient for humans but not so much for the planet. It wasn’t that long ago that the food options consisted of whatever was growing in the garden, or the free-range animal that was within walking distance to hunt.
So how can urban dwellers positively affect climate change? In many ways, planet conservation seems antithetical to the very idea of urban living. Is it even possible to enjoy all of the modern conveniences of city living without contributing to global warming?
As scientists have continued to measure the speed at which our climate is changing I’ve found myself pondering this question frequently. I believe that I have stumbled upon some off the answers to the complicated quandary of environmentally responsible urban living. I don’t think of myself as an environmentalist or activist with a cause to preach. I would describe myself as your average joe - I have a wife, two kids, a house, two cars, living in an average urban city. I am however pragmatic. I like a good bargain, and I don’t like to pay for things that I don’t need. I wasn’t always a penny-pinching pragmatist. When our kids were little we had a huge house three cars, an RV and a garage full of junk we seldom used. I worked a lot of hours, got little sleep, never went to the gym and had an unhealthy diet.
At some point, I came to the realization that more isn’t necessarily better (especially when it came to my BMI). My wife and I decided to downsize. We moved into a smaller house (about one third the square footage of our previous house). We sold all of the junk we had worked so hard to get including the RV and all but one car. I changed jobs and worked a lot fewer hours (got paid a lot less too). Change my diet and worked out every day. In an effort to adjust to the new income, we took the kids out of private school and tried our hand at homeschooling.
Given that we only had one car we put a lot of mileage on it pretty quickly. Eventually, we decided to trade-in for a newer vehicle. We started looking at the option of electric cars. Ideally, I’d like to tell you that our motivation was driven by concern for our environment but at the time it was pretty much the cheapest car we could purchase and operate. Although our purchase decision was financially driven, we begin to wonder if there were other ways to live cleaner while saving money. Two years, another EV, twenty solar panels, two inverters, ten batteries the size of breadboxes, two solar controllers, ten raised beds, six rain barrels, and two composters later we found that YES you can save a TON of money living “green”. Additionally, we found that the more environmentally conscious decisions we made, the healthy we were becoming.
Earlier this year I found myself working through ideas rattling around in my brain about healthy affordable clean simple living. Things that my family has tried or thought of trying to live healthier, have a smaller impact on the planet, without breaking the bank or requiring the intelligence of a rocket surgeon to implement. That’s when I got the idea! I should start a vlog (unplugged urban). For the last three months, my wife and I have been putting videos sharing what we have learned about simple clean living. Each video is intended to give other urban dwellers ideas on how they can live healthy, affordable, clean and simple.
Looking back at where we came from (tons of “stuff” and a huge house) there are two glaring observations I’ve made
Quality of living is not related to the size of your paycheck.
Money is not the most valuable asset - time is.