VERDANT.NET A 100% non-commercial Site Teaching ideas for economic survival and shared solutions for sustainable low cost green living.

Consumerism is a pattern of behavior that helps to destroy our environment, personal financial health, the common good of individuals and allows the destruction of political institutions.

This site details methods that you can use to help defeat consumerism, save money, work less and lead a more satisfying and environmentally benign life while you help to restore the economic self-sufficiency of your community.

We present resources that can help the reader become a better-educated citizen and grassroots activist starting from any level of commitment and knowledge.

In addition, we present techniques that you can use to make yourself and your community less vulnerable to the economic forces that are forced upon us from outside.

Those that continue to play the economic game by obsolete rules are in a losing game. Learn how to create your own game and rules that benefit you.

Online since 1995

Updated Constantly

Here are the pages of our site.

At the end of this list is our original home page with both images and amplified descriptions.

How consumerism affects society

What does overcoming consumerism accomplish?

Active resistance to consumerism

Two comparative families show the effects of consumerism

How to grow your own food

Is it acceptable to steal from a large corporation?

Consumerism in the Arts

Our Dumpster Diving Page

The Alternate Economy

A solution for the high cost of living though shared housing

Extreme Recycling techniques

Open Source Software

Easy hands-on methods to save resources and money

Resources/References for Education and Action

Radical Anti-Consumerism

Cars

Why we shut off your polluting engine and where to find the keys

How to Raise and Plant Trees for free

Corporate influence and interlocking boards of directors

Arguments against the use of styrofoam products

quotes from various books referred to in our site

Who we are & our own personal consumer choices. Who to cite for school papers.

Consumption chart to print and help quantify how much you use

Outside links illustrating what we have prepared attentive readers for since 1995. The Slow Crash by Ran Prieur The End of Growth by Richard Heinberg Here is the essential and masterful Crash Course by Chris Martenson, This is a detailed and highly illustrated series of free videos with accompanying transcripts. It is something that every educated citizen should watch and familiarize themself with. After you watch part or all of it, you will realize that many of the techniques and methods we showcase are valuable, not just as a means to live a green life and to do the right thing but as a means of long term economic and community survival.

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Finally, Read the desperate stories of hundreds of people in the Middle Class and Once Well Off Class who now suffer economic death as the changing rules of society make them irrelevant, poverty bound and the wealth of our nation drifts upward to the top 1%.

WE ARE THE 99% ======================= [Note to web designers. If you think that our site is amateurish, you are correct. We are totally self taught. We are not selling anything nor are we harvesting information for sale. Would you like to see your name and work showcased here? Then help us streamline our page(s) so that they load evenly with CSS. Using simple HTML, please copy one of our pages and email it to us with improved colors, text etc. [No outside URLS please.] Use this email from the image:

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Our original home page as it used to look with amplified descriptions and pictures:

PHILOSOPHY

The ideal world that we almost had when the Middle Class flourished and the things that we can change to help bring it back.

http://verdant.net/society.htm

What does overcoming consumerism accomplish? http://verdant.net/anticons.htm Active resistance to consumerism. Getting aggressive about it and hitting the bastards where it counts. http://verdant.net/resist.htm

Two comparative families show the effects of consumerism The choices that they make and their consequences. http://verdant.net/families.htm

Everything that you need to learn about How to grow much of your own food: in a yard, on a balcony or a rooftop. http://verdant.net/food.htm

Is it acceptable to steal from a large corporation? Do the same morals apply to them as to real human beings?

Discussion and examples.

Consumerism in the Arts : The hijacking of Art by speculation. http://verdant.net/arts.htm Our Dumpster Diving Page The techniques of obtaining otherwise wasted building materials for free. Deforestation is tragic, more so when 11% of a forest becomes waste lumber in a dumpster. http://verdant.net/building_ideas.htm

better educated citizen, less vulnerable to predatory corporations and better prepared for economic downturn. TAKING ACTION Consumer vigilantism and self protection. The Alternate Economy - Definitions and examples- A model for the economically disenfranchised American who can profit from the honorable skills of poverty and community cooperation. http://verdant.net/alternate_economy.htm Our favorite project: Richmond Grows, A public seed lending library as well as a forum to provide educational materials so that every community in America and the world can establish their own seed lending libraries. http://www.richmondgrows.org/index.html The Slow Crash by Ran Prieur. 1001 Reasons why you should strengthen your family and your community. And another viewpoint with the same conclusions for you: The End of Growth by Richard Heinberg

The Internet, paid for and built by the taxpayer ,

seized by corporations for their own profit and now, reclaimed by the public.

Open Source Software : Basic description, Lots of links, Free downloads, how to use it. http://verdant.net/opensource.htm

Easy hands-on methods to save resources and money.

Hundreds of small actions build an an edifice of efficiency and conservation. Learn or contribute ideas.

http://verdant.net/handson.htm

Resources/References for Education and Action http://verdant.net/resource.htm Lots of links to various subjects and disciplines that have the potential to affect our lives.

Radical Anti-Consumerism http://verdant.net/rad.htm

For people who are tired of breathing diesel exhaust from unattended trucks:

http://verdant.net/cartons.htm





CORPORATE INFLUENCE, MONEY AND INTERLOCKING

BOARDS OF DIRECTORS

If you really want to understand the world.... http://verdant.net/corp.htm

Arguments against the use of styrofoam products.

Contains detailed printable information to help community activists or individuals working alone learn why and how to persuade merchants to stop using styrofoam(polystyrene) hot drink cups, food containers and packing material--Why styrofoam is bad. http://verdant.net/nofoam.htm



More Resources/References for Education and Action.

http://verdant.net/resource.htm

Want LOTS more? Feel like doing some eclectic reading?

Here are quotes from various books referred to in our site:

Who we are & our own personal consumer choices. Citations for school papers.

A printable

Consumption chart to help quantify how much you use.