How People Used To Be Sustainable
Over the last couple of weeks I have been looking into ways people in the past were much more resourceful and sustainable in their ways of living & surviving.
Over the last 100 or so years we humans have harnessed electricity and used it to power most things in every day life, both businesses and individuals have become so dependent on it that I doubt we could survive in today's modern climate for much more than a couple of weeks without electricity in some form or other.
My thoughts led to 'How People Lived Without Electricity' and then onto 'How People Used To Be More Sustainable'
So here are some of my findings of just how we used to live without electricity, fossil fuels & mechanization.
Transportation
Without modern forms of mechanized vehicles (Trains, Passenger Planes, Cargo Planes & Ships) transport was not such a simple task as it is in today's world.
Goods that needed to be transported locally were either hand delivered (On foot) or where goods were required to be transported around the country they would be transported via horse and carriage. Where items were required to be transported overseas then sail boats were used. Sail boats harness the power of the elements (Wind) to effectively push them from island to island, today this mode of transport would be considered Green, Eco, Sustainable and environmentally friendly, in days before mechanization it was considered statutory.
Entertainment
These days entertainment comes in many forms, to name a few, The Cinema, Television, Radio & Concerts, just how did we cope without all our modern day wizardry?
After a hard days hunting for food, communities used to get together and tell stories, sing songs and put on small shows to entertain, also as alcohol has been around for thousands of years, we used to drink! Whilst we were preparing food on an evening groups would talk about the next days chores, how to tackle every day problems and generally plan things out.
Entertainment used to be created and not simply watched, music has always been close to us fellow humans, even before modern day instruments were invented people would clap in time to the songs or stamp their feet in time.
Communication
Today almost everyone carries a mobile phone and if not we are within reach of a wired telephone, telephone box or a Laptop with fast internet access, so how did we communicate without such luxuries?
To communicate before electricity was understood we relied on just a few forms of communication, the main local one was 'Messenger Boys' after a letter was hand written and sealed it would be handed to a messenger who would transport it by foot for many miles, sometimes taking weeks to get the message to it's intended recipient. This meant that communication was not something used for everyday chat but for essential messages and letters of great importance.
In times of war or for faster communication the humble 'Carrier Pigeon' would be used, flying in a straight line had many advantages over navigating on land or by sea, speed been the main one. Pigeons could successfully relay a message in a matter of hours and could sometimes allow for a reply to be had in the same day.
Again these methods of relaying messages were extremely energy efficient and sustainable.
Heating
Gas fired central heating, Oil fired boilers & Electric heating are the standard forms of heating both businesses and homes but how did we manage before these inventions came to light?
Heating living spaces has always been a challenge for modern day man but before we had easy access to fossil fuels we had to be much more inventive, here's how we did it.
Firewood was collected locally and cut into small chunks, dried for at least one season (Year) then used in the winter months in either an open fire or burned within a fireplace to provide local heating. A long standing quote I heard was, 'Wood warms you 3 times, once when you collect it, secondly when you chop it and finally when you burn it.' As someone who burns sustainable wood I have to agree!
Burning wood is sustainable and Carbon Neutral because the carbon the tree absorbs throughout it's lifetime is simply released again when burned. The problem with burning fossil fuels such as coal and crude oil is that the carbon contained (Trapped) within the fuel has been there for millions of years, when we extract it and burn it we are releasing carbon into the atmosphere that is not in the everyday balance of our planets atmosphere, effectively adding to the amount of carbon present.
Clothing
Today we have Gortex, Thinsulate, Polyester & Nylon plus a hundred or so man made synthetic materials at hand to make all manner of clothing items with, so how did we manage to cloth ourselves in the absence of these modern day marvels?
Clothing up until the 1800's in general was something we did through necessity rather than for show. When we lived off the land, the animals we hunted for food served us with both food and clothing. Animal skins were removed and fashioned into warm, weather proof covers that became the modern day equivalent of clothes.
Moving on into the 1900's and we had access to spun wool and cotton people would sit and hand fashion clothes for all the family. Practically all the working class made their own garments as they could not afford tailored clothes from the shops. Interestingly, once a wool jumper became too small it would almost certainly be unraveled and wound back into balls of wool ready to be re worked into a new garment of clothing. (Waste Not Want Not)
Building & Construction
Modern day construction consists of building regulations, toxic materials and the use of non renewable resources. You can look at a typical building of today and find materials from all 4 corners of the globe. Things have not always been like this, lets take a look at just how buildings and houses were constructed in leaner times.
Let's look back a couple of thousand years to a time when we relied on the land to provide for all of our needs.
Homes were build from locally gathered materials, branches from trees were used to construct roofs that were covered with moss for weather proofing, the house walls were constructed from either timber logs or local stone. Everything we did had a minimum impact on the planet we roamed, we took what was available and came up with innovative techniques to solve the problems we faced. This was a time that humans were in balance with our planet.
I still actively search for articles on the internet relating to 'Low Impact Homes' houses that have been constructed with by traditional, sustainable & renewable techniques, some groups across the UK are trying to setup sustainable, low impact communes where people who live there can go back to basics and live a simple life where much of the working day consists to working the land to grow food. I love the idea and hope that some manage to break free of the modern day chains that tie us down.
Farming
Food is now produced on a massive scale to provide for the ever increasing population of humans, with better health care and less manual jobs we are all now living considerably longer lives. In some ways this is great but in other it is putting more and more strain on the food chain. We fish the oceans in non sustainable ways, farm the land to exhaustion and use chemicals to stop pests, leading to strains of chemical resistant insects. How much can the ecosystem take before it collapses? Just how did we farm in the past?
Only going back to the 1930's before WW2 things were very different. Practically everyone grew their own vegetables, they grew whatever they could, we look as 'Growing Your Own' as something of a new idea but we have always grown our own. People ate what was in reason or what had been preserved from last months crops. All food eaten was from local sources, nothing was flown in from around the globe as it is now and everything was fresh as refrigerators were not yet around to preserve food for any considerable time.
People used to keep a pigs and chickens for meat and eggs, once a year (In Post War United Kingdom) it was time to slaughter the pig. Now it was something of a family affair and since learning of this makes me laugh at the paranoia we have over best before dates and use by stamps. Once the pig was slaughtered it would then be gutted and butchered. The meat would be rubbed in salt (Cured) then hung in the front room from ceiling hooks, the meat would then be carved off when needed over the next year unit slaughter time again. Nothing was wasted from the pig, everything was cooked and eaten in due course.
Closing thoughts on how we used to live.
Well I hope I have given you some insight into how things were in the not too distant past, yes we have moved forward, yes some things in life are now better but as a whole we have lost touch with our planet. We no longer live sustainable lives, we use more power and heating than is necessary, we use resources in a non sustainable way. We are no longer constructive and inventive.
I don't want for any of us to run for the hills and go back to living in caves but I think it is now time to look at what each and every one of us can do to be more sustainable, resourceful and renewable. We need to learn from our elders now before the information is lost forever, information that has been passed down 100's of generations.
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