!A third afoot
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agk's diary 
16 Oct 2022 @ 02:32 UTC
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written on iPad Air via ssh.sdf.org in Safari 
while crickets chirp and a skunk digs in my compost
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In his 2020 climate fiction novel, The Ministry for 
The Future, Kim Stanley Robinson has a character 
note people can be classified by transportation:

> the people of the world could... be divided into 
> roughly three groups of wealth and consumption, 
> measured by their transport methods. A third of 
> the world traveled by car and jet, a third by 
> train and bicycle; the final third...on foot.

I grew up in a family who traveled by car. From 17
to 20 years old, I traveled by bike, train, and 
hitchiking. I spent most of my 20s mostly afoot;
late 20s to late 30s I traveled by car, pickup, and
motorcycle. 

Transportation highly corrolates with my footprint. 
When I was mostly afoot I sometimes walked 5 hours 
round-trip to work or 3 to the grocery. At times I 
carried water to wash, cook, and drink---or boiled 
rainwater. I cooked mostly rice and beans, mostly 
on a single propane burner. I composted bucket 
toilet waste. My only electronic was a shortwave 
radio, or later a BlackBerry Pearl. I sporadically 
had electricity. I was vulnerable to violence and 
arrest. For a few years I fought with bedbugs. I 
wore out a pair of tennis shoes each year. My BMI 
stayed around 19.

Now, driving a 14-year-old 2-door hatchback, baby 
in back, resource constraints are vague, distant. 
My house has central heating & A/C, water heater, 
big appliances: washer, dryer, full-size freezer/
fridge, stove/oven, microwave, broken dishwasher. 
Someone in my house is staring at a screen most 
waking hours. I even read books on screens of dis-
posable electronics. I rarely eat beans, but lots 
of chocolate. We drive over 500 km/week, mostly for
school and work. I'm overweight. I study or read 
til late by electric light and electronic screen.

I hope we return to bike and train as I age. Afoot
is humiliating unless everyone's afoot. The way we 
live now won't last.

 - - -

On 11 Oct, Alex Schroeder reviewed a paper. It
noted "billionaires emit more carbon in minutes 
than ordinary people do in a year," and "if soc-
ieties worldwide...matched what their citizens felt
was...'fair' inequality," global heating would stay
under 1.5 degrees.[^1]

There's a long tail to the third that drives and 
flies, a great gulf between my family's humble,
hard-working way of life and the private jet-set. 
If their assets were destroyed, I'd be more hopeful
for the rest of us. As it is, I wonder about a good 
slow life among the ruins for all the living and 
our descendents. Bike and train, and the life that
goes with them, sounds nice.

 [1]: gopher://alexschroeder.ch "Tax the rich"