If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you are probably aware that I am a huge environmentalist. You may not clearly understand just how huge an environmentalist I am though. Lately, I have been doing some thinking about my long-term goals, and some of them are coming into some clarity:
- I want to build a house and live in it.
- I want my house to be made while maintaining a neutral carbon impact. If I use trees to build my house, I want those materials to be renewed before my death.
- I want to stop using petroleum and coal altogether. No cars. No petroleum fed food. Only clean energy. Offsets for all things outside the realm of the above.
- I want to achieve the above comfortably.
In a blog, these goals seem a little silly, but I have been thinking about variations of these for many years, and they are indeed quite serious, real goals.
That said, putting them out there in public makes me look and feel like an extremist, like a crazy person outside of what is considered the norm - outside even of the margins. I think I can do it though, and I think I need to get to work soon if I am going to feel like my life has been a success.
The first thing I need is money. More of it. Lots more of it.
1. Have you read Christopher
1. Have you read Christopher Alexander? esp. The Pattern Language
2. Have you read Michael Pollan's "a Place of my Own"?
3. Have you read Bill Mollison (Permaculture: a Designer's Manual (http://www.tagari.com/item.php?itemid=1) expensive so find in the library)
I read these lately, and they really changed my paradigm about building. I will talk your ear off about Christopher Alexander if you give me a chance.
As far as your list goes,
#1 applies to just about everybody I know.
#2 is admirable
#3 makes you crazy (in a good way)
#4 is unrealistic but would be nice.
What is the ultimate goal here? To have a structure from which you can operate? To build that structure? To bring your lifestyle in synch with the environment? To reduce your carbon budget?
I've been reading probably too much lately, and have been thinking similar thoughts. My goals are more in line with "land" than "house" though. Land Land Land. 5 acres- garden, woodlot, pond, pasture.
I haven't begun my reading
I haven't begun my reading yet, but these are all officially on my list.
The goal here is to leave the Earth in a better state than I found it in. So far, I have about 25 years of damaging the Earth, living unsustainably, and ignoring the major problems of the world. Even as I type this sentence, I am using energy, which I'm betting isn't sustainable.
What I'm thinking is that before I die, I want to know that my life has made things better for those behind me in some tangible way. It's tough - there are so many problems with the way things currently are: People are being bombed. Most Americans eat food that is two parts poison for every five parts food*. The food we eat damages the earth. People are starving; dying of infectious and preventable diseases. Worst of all, most people (myself included more or less) turn a blind eye to all of this. If we were not, surely there would be a popular uprising.
Somehow, building a house is making a statement that I don't want the status quo, that I need something different and better. It's not going to have a huge impact on the above things, but at the very least, perhaps it will allow me to say that I'm just not a part of the problem. Then again, if you're not part of the SOLUTION, you are part of the problem.
I don't know. I want things to be better, and I want to be a catalyst for that change. How can I say that I am for the betterment of Earth when I live unsustainably and wastefully?
*I just made this stat up.
I watched
I watched this:(http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/2) this morning, and thought you would be interested. 15 minute video on appropriate technology for developing countries.
When is a good weekend for me to visit for a saturday? I'd love to come up and spend some time chatting.
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