by Kurt Cobb
http://resourceinsights.blogspot.com/2008/06/tinkering-our-way-to-sustainability\
.html

When we think about the scope of the ecological challenges we
face--peak oil, climate change, soil degradation, water depletion and
species loss--we often think of responses big enough to match them. We
might ponder large, national or international crash programs for the
deployment of alternative energy; for the conservation of energy,
water and habitat; and for the spread of organic agriculture and
gardening. We might also think of a global agreement to slash
greenhouse gas emissions deeply and quickly. But, the larger the
responses one imagines, the more improbable their implementation
seems. Governments are moving only slowly or sometimes not at all in
the direction of sustainability though some corporate efforts are
moving much faster.

In an age of gigantic government and corporate research projects, it
is easy to lose sight of the fact that the majority of human technical
and even social progress has been made through trial and error, in
other words, through tinkering. Unfortunately, tinkering has been
given a bad name by the dictionary. "To tinker" is variously defined
as 1) "to busy oneself with a thing without useful results," 2) "to
work unskillfully or clumsily at anything," and 3) "to repair in an
unskillful, clumsy, or makeshift way." But there is a more neutral
definition as well: "To make unskilled or experimental efforts at repair."

It is tinkering of the last sort, some of it highly skilled actually,
that was much on display at the International Conference on Peak Oil
and Climate Change held recently in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A few
examples will serve to illustrate:

* An Internet-based system called Bright Neighbor designed by
Portland, Oregon resident Randy White allows people living in a
neighborhood, village or town to coordinate simple things such as
ridesharing or tool lending and more complex tasks such as planting a
community or individual garden.

* A system of public transportation referred to as JPods seems to
take its inspiration from both the gondola and the monorail and could
create a cheap alternative to building light rail lines. In addition,
JPods can be designed to run on solar power generated by panels
mounted above the overhead track. JPods founder Bill James says he is
close to lining up the financing for the first JPod system at the Mall
of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.

* Permaculture and urban gardening are already well-established
practices. But the idea of turning every large suburban lawn into a
permaculture garden and many of the empty spaces and backyards in
cities into urban gardens is a task that has barely begun. It has the
potential, however, to provide a huge increase in the world's food
supply in ways that are healthy for people and soil and also easy on
the climate since transportation needs are minimized.

* Community currencies, which only circulate locally, offer an
opportunity to keep money flowing within the community where it is
earned. That benefits all who live there. Such a currency also offers
a method of exchange the value of which is not determined by
international currency traders, but by the hard work and ingenuity of
community residents.

None of these ideas by themselves will create a sustainable society.
But each can be tested and adapted to the locale where the testing
takes place. Allowing everyone who wants to to become an experiment
station speeds greatly the adoption of new practices and technologies.
In this way, such tinkering may work better and faster than any grand
government plan to spread sustainable practices and technology. The
secret weapon, of course, is modern communications, especially the
Internet. The success or failure of promising sustainability projects
can be transmitted almost instantly across the world, and the details
for implementing new practices can move just as fast.

It's likely the scale for most successful sustainability ideas will be
no larger than that of the town or region. This explains why tinkering
could be a more successful sustainability strategy than any
centralized research. If thousands of minds toiling under a variety of
conditions in many places are working on a problem, it just might get
solved faster and more satisfactorily than if several hundred or
thousand are working on it at a research institute or corporate
research department away from where it will be implemented.

Still, it is hard to see how a problem such as global warming might be
tackled without broad international efforts and regulation. The
tinkerer might be able to come up with ways for making deep reductions
in carbon emissions affordably. But, he or she won't have any market
for those methods without government regulations forcing the
curtailment of greenhouse gas emissions. Who is going to put up wind
generators and solar panels at the rate necessary to displace fossil
fuel plants unless the government makes it profitable and perhaps even
mandatory to do so?

While we struggle to create a political climate more friendly to
sustainability practices in the face of lethargic and often
unresponsive political systems, it is the tinkerers who have stolen
the march and are rapidly creating the needed platforms for social,
economic, technical and even political progress. Let a thousand
flowers bloom. On second thought, why not millions.