Raslene

Read the full report here: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/

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1.  Which parts resonate most with you?

Easily, the part when it mentions that some specific trends came up and accelerated during the lockdowns. I remember in early to mid of 2020, people here in Jakarta (mostly) were crazy about making dalgona coffee, planting greens, collecting decorative plants (some are crazy expensive), cycling, home cooking, and many more. It showed how social mandate really works for change by public participation, recommendations produced through internet and social media influences, also intertwined with policy making like strict social distancing – that’s how people try to cope with boredom or sudden change with those trendy activities.

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Other than that, the part where one of the solutions suggested, is through plant-rich diets and including indigenous and local knowledge in policy development. I believe human and ecological wellbeing are interconnected so in order to achieve humankind wellbeing, we must take care of our ecological wellbeing first, as nature provides life for humankind. With modern lifestyle and knowledge, we often forget about the marginalized or small communities, as if they deserve isolation or neglect and have no rights to voice. For me, balanced participation and representation is key.

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Lastly, though the most significant practices we can do collectively are to stop burning coal, oil, and gas, it’s impossible to do it literally. By then, it resonates to me that we need to manage the adaptation of social infrastructure and address complex interconnected risk (e.g. food-energy-waste-health).

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2.      What are you already doing in your practice that helps to make it better for your community?

I start with the basic human needs and activities:
- Wash or shower in cool water (without water heater), if you’re lucky on some days you’ll get warm water anyway from the hot sunny day.
- Dry your laundry naturally by wind or under the shade/sun.
- Use mild detergent instead of the conventional harsh detergent.
- Use a water filter to produce drinking water instead of choosing the refill or reusable water gallons. The fact that it’s not more sustainable as they commercialized, and indeed that the water companies are causing real water scarcity, and extensive drought in the surrounding areas/villages of water springs. It’s faux that less carbon footprint and waste were produced as we see PET are contributing huge numbers in the dumpster and landfill. Talking of PET recyclability, the bottles out are way bigger than the bottles in.
- Reduce consumption of electricity at home, no daily air-conditioner. Though this might not change anything significantly, at least you pay less for the electricity bill.
- Groceries and food choices: buying whole food and less frozen or processed food.
Purchase from local business for imperfect organic greens in kilograms, plastic-free, cheap, and great. Do food preparation after that to make sure I plan out the meal and prevent any food waste.
Also, it’s easier to clean, one bag of organic trash at a time, not a small pile every few days.
- Avoid food waste by planning before purchasing. Learn the food categories for better storage.
Freeze stuff that can be frozen if you’re not sure you can finish it on time (freezer-safe veggies only). Turn them into something else (e.g. kimchi or other fermentation, etc) for long(er) term food stock.
- Take public transport or walk instead of cars or motorbikes, unless in a rush or running late.
Having some time to read or contemplate on the trip, instead of stressing over lateness and traffic is always better.
- Pick electric motorbikes or any vehicle with lower emission. Fare price-wise is mostly the same anyway.
- Conscious shopping or purchasing, buy not to hoard, buy in bulk only if needed.
- Send out sorted items for recycling purposes to trusted recycling institutions.
- Try your best to be responsible for your own lifestyle.

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3.      What else do you want to do but don't have the ability, funding, network, etc to yet?

- Learning to bike!
- Solar and wind energy for home electricity.
- Having a small garden to produce greens or plant-based food – as climate impacts include health risks of malnutrition, food inflation, food-borne illnesses, and food production/stock safety.
- Considering to live away from the city to reduce density and stress, also because high urbanization means high climate vulnerability.

- Having bigger area to plant some other plants like vanilla, cardamom, nutmeg, etc, for small-scale consumption. As we know, biodiversity also gets the negative impact from this upcoming catastrophe.

- Contributing in animal rescue and care, I feel that humans are owing too much to animals.

 

4.    Who in your community (or elsewhere) is someone who is already doing something and who you can learn from?

I think it’s great to know and learn how to:
- Do efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. Be attentive to building design and performance, changes in construction material, and addressing housing crisis. With today’s minimalist architecture trend, cost-wise it may not be way cheaper. Though fundamentally it still could offer growth chances along with people who live in it. Yet at the same time, most people get the same template, design, and resolution for diverse needs, despite geography, materials available, and personal living habits. For example, how people in Mollo district raced to build modern houses instead of keeping the traditional house to avoid poverty labelling. Meanwhile, the concrete wall and tin roof made the whole house feel stuffy and hot with bad air circulation. I feel people today prioritise the look and design in bigger portions, rather than doing long term thinking, seeing, adapting, and planning for possible future needs, growth and changes. Also reflected in the fact that Jakarta's housing conditions are mostly ruled by self-built houses (69.59%, BPS 2016) to fit living individually and separated from the collective consideration.
Learning from:
1. Arkom (Arsitek Komunitas) - as a community architecture initiative in Yogyakarta, one of their programs is called Collective Housing. With the aim to develop the provision of housing and mutual cooperation based residential areas. They explore alternative design concepts, produce in a participatory manner and are open to be more experimental and adaptive under the spirit of cooperation and collectivity. As a community, each project starts with seeking advice from the community. The community doesn’t want to be an object in the collaboration with the principle: Believe the people, they are the solution. You need to trust the community and the community needs to trust you.

2. Jatiwangi Art Factory - located in Jatisura, West Java. JAF is known for their residency-based festival programs. Besides their cultivation, research, and development of clay as Jatiwangi residents are expert in producing roof tiles following the most traditional to the most modern methods. An interesting project they made in 2016 was House of Love.
Examining the ideas, problems, and visions of the members of JAF collective, they designed a special house for young artists after they leave the collective to marry, start a family, or find work that allows them to afford their own home. The architect constructed it together with the community as a module with elements of future architecture, recycled materials, which can be adjusted to changing needs. In short, it’s a growing home built with local wisdom and resources. This project allowed a young couple, artists of the JAF, to live in it for a year and to continue their work with and for the community. 

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- Reduce food waste in the community as citizens of developing countries, as it’s an irony that the food waste biggest contributors are coming from the household levels. Global household food waste averagely reached 74kg/capita/year. As cited from the UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021, Nigeria (with Sapele as study area) is the largest food waste producer, estimately 189kg/capita/year. Followed by other countries with more than 100kg of waste/capita/year: Greece (142), Iraq (120), Saudi Arabia (105), Australia (102). Also of course, Indonesia counted with 77kg/capita/year of household food waste estimate or 20.938.252 tonnes/year.
Learning from:
1. Lakoat Kujawas - located in Taiftob village, Mollo district, East Nusa Tenggara, rice didn’t grow in their dry lands. Instead of forcing food similarity (past politics policy related), they alternate rice with local food resources such as bose corn, sorghum, sweet potato, and cassava. As a community that initiates a public library, creative writing classes, and archival spaces for art and culture of Mollo, they also develop a food lab named Ume Fatumtaum inspired by Uem Bubu (traditional house for food storage). They offer archiving efforts to document local knowledge such as Mnahat Fe’u Gastronomy tour, Skol Tamolok cultural school (a weekly cultural knowledge regeneration), collecting local food seeds, archiving plants and produces names, documenting Mollo’s cuisine through recipe archives in form of spoken narratives, experimenting in the food lab, passing on traditional food preservation technologies (e.g. se’i meat, lu’at fermented chillies, mocaf flour making), learn food management in Uem Bubu from the women or mama, etc. By embracing local food resources, getting creative and knowing your food and produce, choosing less (highly or ultra) processed and pre-packaged food, might be a way to help reduce food waste numbers.

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July 2022

Notes from the writer:
This essay is a part of GEDUP from DELTA X: Conversations and Collaborations with Mekong Cultural Hub.

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