About Paula Osborn (born in Pietermaritzburg in 1967)

I have been an environmentalist since 1993. What inspired me at that time was a letter written by Chief Seattle to the then US President George Washington a long time ago. I have not been much of an activist as I seem to have evolved in a slightly different way to most eco-warriors. I am inspired by those who are brave enough to “put their life on the line” for environmental justice, but I seem to be attracted to solution-based environmentalism. I believe that the WHOLE issue of lifestyle and consumerism and society need to be addressed, (ie. The cause) to make any REAL impact. I believe that the “alternatives” need to be made more AVAILABLE and ACCESSIBLE to the average household or business. We can lobby governments and corporations to make the necessary changes till we are blue in the face, but if the alternatives are not readily available for us each to adopt, the environmental collapse will go on unabated .

For over 16 years I have been laughed at and had so many “eye rolls” to even count. Nothing cuts the conversation dead like saying, “I am a Sustainable Development Consultant” when asked what I “do”. I have been called a tree-hugger and even “crazy”. Once I was told that I have a personality disorder, because I am unable to see the world in a “ NORMAL WAY ”. I seem to have a Black and White approach to things like TRUTH, honesty and integrity. I really don't know how to live in that “grey world of normalicy”, when what passes as “NORMAL” these days involves committing the greatest atrocities on our children and our children's children!

How can I live in this grey world where “normal” includes the betrayal of our “loved ones” by being complicit in the continuing destruction of the ALL LIVING SYSTEMS that would support them. And that's not even mentioning all the other atrocities we commit on the people who are CURRENTLY ‘enslaved' in providing us with the “things” we think we need to satisfy our egos! It seems being “NORMAL” is to continue to deny these most ‘inconvenient truths'.

We all know about Global Warming, but do nothing about it. I suppose this is because most feel that it is out of OUR control, yet we ignore a host of other critical environmental injustices that contribute to or compound global warming, in areas that we really do have control. Or could have, if we only realised the dire need to exercise that control. Here are examples of some of the issues I have been attempting to shed light on over the years, and present a range of the integrated and holistic solutions I believe could offer us a way out the mess we're in, if we really wanted to. . .

Paper Industry:

I have been a graphic designer since 1992, and realised (even back then) the devastating impact the paper and printing industry has on the environment including deforestation, soil depletion, as well as the chemical pollution and other waste streams associated with these linked industries.

There is not enough demand for recycled paper, so the batches that are made are small, making recycled paper expensive. Until more people demand LOCAL recycled or environmentally sound paper, there is little hope in reducing the effects this industry has on the planet.

Solutions:

Plant more efficient renewable paper source: eg. Hemp is a higher quality source for paper, with more sustainable effects on land, soil and eco-systems. There is no waste stream associated with Hemp as it is multipurpose crop and can also be used for food, textiles, bio-fuels, health products, medicinal and insulation (there over 25000 uses of hemp).

The waste streams of a huge range of other plants can be blended with other paper making fibres. Eg. Pineapple leaves or sugar cane begas, usually treated as waste, can be used for paper and textiles, instead of incurring the cost and carbon footprint of transporting and ‘wasting' it.

Recycle all your paper – there is no excuse not to, because schools, churches, shopping centres all accept our waste paper.

Printing Industry:

Huge amounts of chemicals are used in the printing industry for processing lithographic plates and the plates themselves are made from an un-renewable resource – aluminium. While there is some plate recycling happening, the smelting is highly energy intensive.

Solution:

I developed eco-printing in 1993, where clients were encouraged to print collectively on recycled, chlorine free paper, using lead free inks. Collective printing involves one run of 12 clients only requiring 4 to 8 lithographic plates (as opposed to the 48 or 96 that would be required if each client printed on their own). A further benefit is the reduction in chemicals, waste and labour, and therefore cost! Go to footprintz . . . triple green printz.

Water & Energy:

We must be completely delusional if we think that there is an endless piped supply of energy and water. If we don't take measures to invest in some “energy and water” back-up systems, there will come a time when we will kick ourselves for being so dependant on Utility companies (that continue to invest in polluting technologies) for such basic necessities.

Many ask me what the payback period of a set of solar panels or a wind turbine is, and I always have to suppress a laugh at the irony of the question, I've even fantasised that with a completely dead pan face, I would say: “the payback period is a few thousand years of survival. . .” (but I don't!). I have to take a deep breath, and break the news to renewable energy hopefuls that, at this juncture, the break even point may only come when the equipment reaches their lifetime guarantee and likely need replacing with more efficient systems - (one can assume that technology is still advancing).

We are literally trading in the stability of the planet for future generations to even survive . . . for what! The bottom line!! I honestly don't know who can be held accountable for the MIND BOGGLINGLY WASTEFUL, UNSUSTAINABLE and DOWNRIGHT UNSOUND PRACTICES AROUND ENERGY AND WATER, TRADE AND INDUSTRY and the so-called “Economic Viabilities” these OPERATE BY! Ultimately, we really can't BLAME ANYONE!! Except perhaps ourselves. We are ones who BUY what is being produced – as long as it's cheap!!! And we like to stay in the dark when it comes to really accepting “the real cost” behind the things we buy in general and specifically, the energy and water we consume.

Solution:

There are so many things we can do to reduce our energy and water consumption. I say with ALL earnesty, that if we were all conscious enough to be remotely more resource efficient every time we switch on an electrical appliance, or open a tap, or pull the bath plug, we would halve our domestic water and energy demand overnight!! And that will mean fewer emissions AND save money to start investing in our own Power Production and Water Harvesting!

We can become part of the solution and become an independent renewable energy power producer. The REFIT (Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff) allows small scale renewable energy producers to feed energy into the grid. This SHOULD become the future of energy, where it is produced right where it is needed, and only the surplus exported.

In terms of water, it doesn't take a genius to realise how important harvesting rain-water and capturing grey-water will become in the future. So I won't go into all the fact and figures here, but really, this is the time to take some control and save water. Don't be caught with your pants down on this one! Go to ISS . . .

Deforestation, Erosion & Soil Depletion

Our natural or ancient forests are all but gone. The causes are varied area by area. The primary cause of deforestation is slash and burn for agriculture. One of the most critical things about deforestation, apart for the loss of eco-systems and wildlife, is the fact that we are destroying the VERY thing that is capable of off-setting our huge levels of carbon emissions. So. . . in other words – very stupid!!

Compounding environmental damage caused by deforestation is erosion. As we denude areas for commercial agriculture, we are losing precious topsoil into waterways. This clogs rivers and streams AND the chemical fertilisers and pesticides used in main stream agriculture are polluting the quality of our most precious resource – water! - while our soils are left baron and lifeless.

We landfill all organic waste from the kitchen and garden. So even after all the damage GROWING OUR FOOD creates on the environment, we continue create impacts by throwing what we don't eat and our garden leaves into the rubbish bin. This is causing methane production in our landfills and further compounding soil depletion AND air & water pollution.

Solution:

Plant indigenous trees and reforest denuded areas.

STOP CUTTING DOWN ANY TREE that is indigenous and over 100 years old.

Support local organic market farmers as they farm in ways that are more sustainable on the land and soil, and the carbon footprint of food is dramatically reduced, and local food security increased!

COMPOST all organic waste to replace our depleted soil and minimise methane production in landfills! Earthworms are able to convert the organic waste in the most natural way, that provides plants and soil with the micro nutrients and benevolent micro organisms.

Go To earthworms. . .

Genetically Engineered Organisms

This is probably one of the most critical issues that need to be addressed. The impacts on our health, food security and natural species are incalculable! These “Seeds of Deception” (as Jeffery Smith titles his book) threaten the world as we know it and will affect our future generations more than we can even imagine. The bio-tech companies are unscrupulous, and our governments are either too corrupt or too embedded with the corporations to do anything to scrutinise or regulate this industry. Labelling is key, because over 70% of processed food are derived from the classic “BIG FIVE” of GMO crops. These are SOY, MAIZE, CANOLA, POTATO & DAIRY PRODUCTS. The genetic material of other species of animal or plant are blasted into certain crop plants to ‘achieve' a spectrum of traits for a variety of rather dubious purposes.

All trials and tests conducted by in-house: “scientists” only test what they want for the results they want. They go to criminal lengths suppress any independent research discoveries. The traits of Viruses, Bacteria as promoter/ switch-on genes are at the core of this “frankenscience”.

The attitude around GMO's certainly does smack of the “we'll do it because we can” GOD-LIKE attitude surrounding the Nuclear Industry, where impacts are only fully realised AFTER THE FACT!

My mind still boggles at our “investment” in GMO technologies, let alone the outright inundation and proliferation of a technology not fully tested. This profoundly misplaced “trust” in the high-input methods promoted by the Agricultural Sector to unsuspecting farmers, who are in turn are trapped in a cycle of debt, is beyond comprehension.

It's like: we are “choosing” between poisoning our soils and rivers with chemical pesticides, or “poisoning” the earths genetic material with unstable viral proteins. We have no idea how or what these “loose transgenic material” will translate into within our soils, in the plant itself or in our bodies for that matter. The fact that we are expected to believe (and most do without question) that this “mutation” is no more harmful than “natural” evolutionary processes, borders on ludicrous. The Bio-tech Companies either think we are dumb, or they know that most just don't even give a SH*T to worry about what they're really up to.

I do !! I believe: AGRICULTURE without the CULTURE, is only AGRIBUSINESS!! (and a rather ‘agro' one at that!). Food and our health is a necessity, not a commodity!! Our soil and water are precious – and the fact that current agricultural practices are compromising (and that's an understatement) our natural living systems in the name of profit, borders on criminal (so is that).

Solution: “Invest” in more sustainable forms of Agriculture. Food needs to be produced at a more localised level. Demand a moratorium on all GMOs in Africa !! (including the Trojan horse GMO: Round-up ready crops). Why do we (Africa that is) allow old, wasteful and energy intensive technologies ” be lumped on us or allow ourselves to be guinea pigs for new untested “scientific discoveries” such as GMO's – cloaked as a “solutions to world hunger” or solution to pesticides, especially when many European countries are openly rejecting BOTH in favour of sustainability!!

GROW YOUR OWN FOOD IF YOU CHERISH YOUR HEALTH!

GROW NATURAL VARIETIES IF YOU CHERISH YOUR FOOD SECURITY.

Diversity has always been our friend. We are sacrificing our million year heritage of wild adapting species AND our 3 thousand year heritage of naturally adapting domestic species, just so that a few arseholes who really don't give a SH*T about you or world hunger can get rich and yes, as crazy as I KNOW this sounds – CONTROL the “Future of Food AND Water” ways that would make for a great sci-fi horror flick, if only it were fiction.

Fossil Fuels & Bio-Fuels

Nobody likes the self-destructive junki. We are all so hooked on fossil fuels that “we cannot see the wood for the trees” – sorry couldn't resist it. I think there is little doubt as to the extent the gluttonous gas guzzling 1st world will go to feed this monster, (made more clear now that we are running low on the stuff.) Rape, pillage and steal does little to describe the political, economic and military disruption and destabilisation tactics used by some to get their hands on it. So – the wars in oil rich countries makes it abundantly clear that oil companies don't give a toss about people right NOW, let alone care about the environment or people of the future.

Bio-fuels

How about this one for scary? Combine the unscrupulous Oil Industry and the sinister Bio-tech agri-businesses and voila: the ultimate “we control the world corporation is born!!” and we just stand by and watch. It is no different from the junki who sells his soul and takes food out of a baby's mouth to feed his addiction. It is no stretch of the imagination to see that more and more of the worlds arable land will be used for bio-fuels rather than food. There will also be way less regulation by Food and Health organisations (not that regulation has prevented these guys anyway), but essentially this will mean “carte blanche” on chemicals and GMO's.

If bio-fuels are made from recycled oil, and produced at a local level, for local consumption, this technology is worth supporting. Unfortunately when bio-fuels “hit the market”, the bulk of the industry will be owned and controlled by the same ol' same ol' oil/bio tech companies servicing the bottom line, and ignoring the greater social and environmental impacts. I will go as far as to say any product considered "green" but is produced centrally, and distributed globally, is ANYTHING BUT. Especially if a similar product is available (or could be produced) at a local level. A classic example is the FAD of Going Green with Earthworms but are being sold in expensive wormeries, exported from affar, made from plastic, unnessesary parts, "designed for convenience", etc, etc, defeat the iobject of WHY we are doing it in the first place.

Solution:

Drive less and only when necessary and support local industries that use local renewable materials wherever possible.

We all are forced into buy goods from Multi-nationals, but we don't have to give them ALL our money and support. If you want to live in a safe and secure community, we have to support each other first. There are local farmers, artists, crafters and artisans, capable of making or supplying just about everything we need. If we focussed on developing this as a parallel production system, perhaps we won't be so hard hit, when the global oil crises reaches it's crescendo. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you must, but it only takes about a minute to add up all the facts and realise that we truly are heading for a Malthusian Tragedy.

I guess I honestly feel that if we as humans do not stop pretending (for a moment) that all is fine in Babylon, and recognise that we need to make more effort to live in a more sustainable and ethical way, then we really are no more evolved than the virus that reproduces itself and feeds off its host, until the host is dead.

Come on, let us be slightly more evolved than that!!

No one says that we have to go back to living in caves, but if we could be a little more resource efficient, live in harmony with the natural living systems, and have enough respect for ourselves to respect others, we can be around on this beautiful planet for a long time.

I have come to realise that as much as I am disappointed in people, I still have hope that we can survive if we make the effort. The planet Earth, our most gracious host, will not remain gracious for too much longer. Earth need only shrug, and that will be an end of homo-sapiens on this physical realm. The earth however, will survive, many of her life forms, perhaps forever changed, will live for many more millions of years, we just won't be a part of it anymore.

So environmentalists are really “peoplists” – for lack of a better word. Eco-warriors are fighting for the heritage of the unborn, and of those most affected by our actions, but have no voice to protest or beg for our mercy in our relentless and most irrational quest for “wealth”. Our distorted understanding of “wealth” desperately needs to be adjusted. The Earth and her resources ARE our common wealth, yet the elite get rich off them, while the future suffers.

From this you will realise that the effects we are having are diverse, which means we have to be part of the solution in a diverse way. We can't wait for business and government to protect our environment for our children. It is for EACH of us to make small changes in a number of ways that relate to our throw-away lifestyle, and only then will businesses change their methods. As long as we support them in what they do NOW, they have no reason to change or adapt to the changing paradigm. Only when we demand cleaner and fairer products will cleaner and fairer products will be produced.

We have the power, let's use it.

1love
Paula