A day later I attended the Nobel Peace Prize Forum at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN.  While there were many interesting speakers and topics, the crowd favorite was clearly John Francis, also known as the Planetwalker.  Inspired by seeing an oil spill in San Francisco, Mr. Francis gave up motorized transportation for 22 years and walked all over this country and many others, playing the banjo as he went.  He also gave up speaking during 17 years of that time.  Along the way he got a Phd and became an expert on oil spills.  His message was very personal, but he stressed that if you are on the right path there are forces out there that will help you along.

Both of these gentlemen have books available if you want to learn more:

• Green Collar Economy, Van Jones
• Planetwalker. 22 Years of Walking. 17 Years of Silence, John Francis

I’ve been in India for over 1 month, been in 4 states. and visited several homes, and have yet to see a dryer. They are just not used here. This is a picture of an upper class apartment building and you can see the laundry put out to dry.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that each outlet has an on-off switch, which does two things. First, I’d imagine that it limits the power loss attributed to “vampire power”, the electrical leakage to appliances while not in use, by being able to switch off the outlet itself. Second, it makes me think about what I’ve got plugged in and whether or not I’m using it.

On the flip side, I have yet to see a recycling receptacle. It’s widely known that “ragpickers”, or “ragwallas”, a lower caste profession, go through the garbage and retrieve recyclable materials for income. Some say that as much as 20% of recycling comes from them. However, this doesn’t exactly sound like a good recycling solution. Maybe the ragpickers could be organized and gain better employment, as demonstrated by Albina Ruiz in a Lima, Peru, neighborhood. Seeing the government waste services failing and unemployed citizens risking their health to sift through garbage to earn a living, Albina organized micro-entrepreneurs into a waste management business and convinced locals to pay for their services. (By the way, the information about Ms. Ruiz is on the PBS New Heroes site, a series about innovators in the non-profit arena that I highly recommend.)