Living like a monk

You can’t have many possessions when you live in a shipping container. Ten years ago, my partner and I were verging on living like zen-monks. We lived in the woods in a 40ft shipping container house that my partner built. The container we purchased was entering a forced retirement from international travel after about 11 years of globetrotting on container ships.

It arrived up the bumpy gravel track, slightly battered and grubby on a lorry and was craned into position in the woods. Over the next couple of years my partner almost single-handedly turned the container into a perfectly formed little house complete with wood burning stove, kitchen, bathroom and a mezzanine bed that looked out over a little pond. We could lie in bed and watch foxes, woodpeckers and deer go about their day. It was an architecturally brutalist version of Thoreau’s Walden pond. Given the limited space in a 40ft shipping container, we had to do a huge ‘Marie Kondo’ on all our possessions and live with the bare minimum. It was, to date, the most efficient and enjoyable house I have ever lived in.

Fast-forward a decade and now we have two children, a much more conventional house and just like small goldfish in a capacious pond, we have now expanded our quota of stuff to fill the space we have.

Friends tell us we are still pretty austere and monk-like but when I look around, I feel like we are bursting at the seams. Additionally and infuriatingly, I am increasingly aware of the flimsy quality and limited lifespan of the items in our house: the welly boots that split before both children get to use them, the zips that break and clothes that rip, the appliances which stop working and all the single use plastic that rolls in and out of the house in the form of packaging, toys and tools.

Why things fall apart

I always used to wonder why older family friends still had the same electric whisk or washing machine that they were gifted as a wedding present 30 years ago and yet everything in our house lasted a fraction of that time.

When I really thought about it and learnt about the terms ‘planned or perceived obsolescence’ I was shocked. Expendability and failure is consciously designed into products so you have to replace them with regularity.

Here is a useful three minute introduction to the concept if you aren’t familiar with the terms ‘planned and perceived obsolesce’.

Phone providers encouraging consumers to upgrade every 12 months to get the latest flashy phone model is commonplace but it is common knowledge that the precious metals required in electronic devices are finite in supply, increasingly in demand and exponentially hard to source in the natural environment.

Hopefully this will become increasingly unacceptable and manufacturers will be encouraged to change this approach due to consumer pressure.

Like most of you reading this, I am fortunate enough to browse amongst a vast array of products and with just a few clicks and a few hours’ wait, can have them arrive at my doorstep, courtesy of behemoth online shops.

Dead-duck planet?

One could be tempted to wonder if the world’s billionaires have decided that earth is now a dead-duck and, albeit they have only managed to escape earth’s atmosphere for a few minutes at a time, they seem to be planning to jet off to explore as yet untapped markets elsewhere in the solar system.

Copyright Inc Magazine and Chloe Krammel

I was drawn to my profession as landscape architect due to a love and concern for the natural environment. My work means I spend a lot of time thinking about biodiversity and healthy habitats and I have certainly noticed in the last decade or so real micro- and macro-climatic changes. The seasonal rules for planting can no longer be relied upon: In the U.K. our Springs are hotter, our summers are wetter and our winters are milder.

The tipping point

Climate change first became headline news over 30 years ago. It has never been far from the headlines over those last three decades. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report published this month (August 2021) is being called ‘a code red for humanity’.

The report is confronting and beyond emphatic that the time for climate action has almost elapsed and we have very little time before climate change will balloon and reach several tipping points, leading to a donimo-effect of accelerated changes and irreversible impacts. Examples of tipping points are loss of the permafrost, sea level rise, rainforest dieback and collapse of the Gulf Stream.

The UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in November 2021 but there is a need to not just talk about radical climate action at some hazy point between now and 2050 or 2060, but actually implementing climate action as soon as possible.

The IPCC clearly states that we have already enacted irreversible damage and have less than a decade to try and lower the extent of temperature change and avert the most extreme ‘extinction’ levels of temperature change.

What can we do?

My frustration is coming from a place of inordinate privilege. I am typing this on a computer with fast internet access (and the vast panoply of knowledge there within). I have had access to an excellent state-school education and I can hope for the same for my children. I am working in a warm dry house with access to free healthcare and a kitchen fully-stocked with food and with taps that issue drinking water on demand.

Nothing in my life is remotely challenging compared with the daily challenges of a huge percentage of the world’s population.

Given how easy it is to spiral into consumerism or be downcast by paralysing climate anxiety, I am embarking on ‘a year of nothing new’ as a way to try and check my privilege, be less wasteful, make positive climate-friendly lifestyle changes and hopefully, encourage others to think for a second when they find themselves acting on autopilot.

While there is still time to make an impact on the extent of climate change, there is a need for us all to make positive choices and be part of the groundswell of change and to stop ignoring ‘the biggest threat modern humans have ever faced’.

So what intentions have I set myself for the year ahead? Read on…