Our soils are being depleted and our drinking water is being polluted at an alarming rate. With every day that passes, we edge closer to a situation Mankind cannot afford.
We cannot control the quality of air we breathe (our #1 requirement for life), we have some measure of control over the quality of water we drink (our #2 requirement for life) and we most certainly have every control over the quality of food we eat (our #3 requirement for life). But, if our soils and water are becoming more and more denuded by the day, we have to stop and take account of how we would propose to produce food in the times to come. Without good quality soils and water, we can have as much sunlight as we want, but no quality, nutrient rich food will be produced – end of story.
Therefore, it is imperative that we balance these vital elements for life.
So, how do we do it?
Simple. We stop polluting our fresh water by defecating in it and start rejuvenating our soils by composting everything that can be composted and put it back where it belongs.
The Humanure Handbook, by Joseph Jenkins explains in detail how this can be done. It’s simple – all it takes is a little humility and effort (not much) if we are to hope to maintain our food supply in the years to come.
There are a host of alternative toilet systems already available in the market. All, or most of them, are already employed to some degree, but the simplest, cheapest, most easily manageable system is the sawdust toilet. Anyone with two healthy hands can manufacture one on any given Saturday morning. Here is an example:
Below is a list of the Do’s and Don’ts of thermophilic composting. To obtain a good grasp on the subject, I recommend you download the book here, and start as soon as possible.
What about city dwellers, people living in high-rise buildings and high density gated complexes? This proposition is clearly impractical.
Really? Consider this: in the South African context, watershedding is said to become a reality, like loadshedding, which everyone already knows about in the most tangible of ways, is it not? Should urban areas, in times to come, be without water for any lengthy period of time and you just ‘have to go’, what will you do? Leave it to pile up till there’s water again?
http://ewn.co.za/2015/07/24/Water-shedding-to-become-reality-for-SA
Watershedding could just be that thing that ‘flips the switch’, as it were, although, it’s everyone’s hope that it won’t happen. But, if it does, it would help greatly if one was prepared. The one thing that stands in our favour as a species, is the fact that we are resourceful and adaptable. People in high-rise buildings and gated complexes will make a plan – they’ll have to. My advice….start planning for that eventuality now.
We can try and rationalise all we want, but the bottom line is: defecating in fresh drinking or irrigation water is by far not the wisest thing Mankind has come up with. It’s convenient and supposedly sanitary at the depository end, but how safe and sanitary is it at the disposal end. I challenge you to think on these things. Read the Humanure Handbook and take note of the massive problems communities around the world are having, trying to deal with the piling up of human excreta sludge which we conveniently prefer not to think about.
“There are none so blind than those who will not see.”
The planet and our environment deserve more regard than this. We are the ones who have fouled it up, so we are the ones who should clean it up.
Credits:
The Humanure Handbook – Joseph Jenkins
New Way Paradigm 