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I couldn't name half their countries, or speak their languages, but I knew what they were doing. My generation in almost every country in the world yesterday was doing what I was doing: working. Working to counteract climate change through 350.org's Global Work Party. 10/10/10 was a day of work, and the New SHIRE Institute was happy to get down and dirty.
Our project was cob insulation for our red barn, the future site of SHIRE residents Nick and Jessi's natural house. Nick led the way, Red Shag pouch in hand, as we loaded the straw and water into the truck and drove down past the chicken coop and freshly seeded garden. Everywhere, the summer lull has waned, and fall productivity has set in. This might be just another day of work for us, but for one day, we are joined by our entire global generation. There are Iranians and Malaysians and Chinese and Nigerian and Brazilian twenty-somethings who see, as I do, there is much work to be done. We're not waiting to do it. 
We started with the kiddies pool of hydrated clay, searching and squeezing for rocks to remove and clumps to crumble, pulling out handfuls of hay from bales we traded from our organic farmer neighbor Wayne. With the straw mixed thoroughly, buckets filled and passed inside, we plastered the cobb along the walls, spacing the empty, recycled glass bottles to improve the insulation, smothered in sticky straw mud. When one bucket is finished, we load another and steadily fill the space between studs until we're at the top of the wall. The day is hot, but the temperature in here feels good. Cobb insulation, you are exciting AND effective! For the finished layer, we need plastering cobb. We start the same way: a pool of hydrated clay. Instead of straw, we add shovels of sand and a fork full of shredded straw. The north wall has dried since its initial cobb and bottle layer was completed the day before. This cobb has a grainier texture, and a smoother finish. The wall looks good. The last step is to prepare for our next round of cobb by excavating more clay. At the SHIRE, we like to source locally, so we dug it from the next room over. This adjoining space will eventually have a poured earth floor when it's completely excavated, but for now, it's providing the insulation for the main room. It wasn't too out of the ordinary. We do work like this all the time. In fact, solutions to climate change are just about all we do. But 10/10/10 was special because of it was collaborative. It wasn't just us. It was the whole world. And the world is what we're working for.  Last update: October 11, 2010
07:39 am
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