Future sustainable community: right now.We asked sustainability veterans Patricia Allison and Bill Fleming Leslie Fletchard (Bill) Fleming (July 31, 1913 - June 4, 2006) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Boston Red Sox (1940-1941) and Chicago Cubs (1942-1944, 1946). Fleming batted and threw right handed. He was born in Rowland Heights, California. the burning question: In these changing times, what can we do now to build sustainable communities for our future? Patricia Allison: A sustainable culture is possible only when people's basic physical needs are met. In a sustainable future, homes will be surrounded by gardens of vegetables, flowers, herbs and medicinals, with orchards, ponds and pastures scattered throughout neighborhoods. Chickens, ducks and geese will wander through orchards and forest edges. eating insects and weed seeds, while spreading manure. The health of the soil will be maintained by interplanting. mulching and recycling all garden and household wastes. This is work you can begin right now: 1. Plant something to eat and eat organic, seasonal food. In a low-energy-use society, obtaining food will be the primary work of most people. Let's begin now to create the soil that will grow a new culture. 2. Catch water from your roof. Learn how to use a cistern cistern /cis·tern/ (sis´tern) a closed space serving as a reservoir for fluid, e.g., one of the enlarged spaces of the body containing lymph or other fluid. and how to catch only clean water, eliminating the need for hi-tech water filters. And. on the subject of water, learn how to direct household wastewater to your gardens and ponds. Remember that clean water is a precious thing. 3. Install solar panels and DC lights and retrofit your home for passive solar
Passive solar technologies convert sunlight into usable heat, cause air-movement for ventilation or cooling, or store heat for future use, without heating and cooling. 4. Organize! Join or create an eco-friendly group within walking distance of you. Explore permaculture per·ma·cul·ture n. A system of perennial agriculture emphasizing the use of renewable natural resources and the enrichment of local ecosystems. [perma(nent) + (agri)culture. , bioregionalism bi·o·re·gion·al·ism n. The belief that social organization and environmental policies should be based on the bioregion rather than on a region determined by political or economic boundaries. . intentional communities This is a list of intentional communities. Europe
5. Begin looking at sustainability from a bioregional perspective: What watershed am I in? What are the recorded weather extremes? Who are the native plants and animals Plants and Animals are a Canadian indie-rock band from Montreal, comprised of guitarist-vocalists Warren Spicer and Nic Basque, and drummer-vocalist Matthew Woodley.[1] They are signed to Secret City Records. , and how many are present? Which humans were here before the Industrial Age. and how did they five? 6. Reclaim family and neighborhood. Downscale To resize lower or convert down. See scale, downsample and downconvert. drastically, so that both parents can be home more, and someone can tend the garden. Home birth. Nurse your babies. Homeschool home·school or home-school v. home·schooled, home·school·ing, home·schools v.tr. To instruct (a pupil, for example) in an educational program outside of established schools, especially in the home. yourself and your kids. (Better yet, get involved with a home-schooling co-op within walking distance.) Invite the neighbors to a cistern-making party at your place, and have an orchard-planting party at the neighbors' next month. 7. Create community where you are. Join }our neighbors to remove fences, borders and land separation. Begin planting trees and creating gardens and playscapes for children. Find homes for sale in }'our area and invite friends to join you. Consider co-purchasing one house to be the Neighborhood Common House, with shared kitchen, office, toolroom, childcare space, library, meeting space, etc. 8. Learn a sustainable skill, offering goods and services In economics, economic output is divided into physical goods and intangible services. Consumption of goods and services is assumed to produce utility (unless the "good" is a "bad"). It is often used when referring to a Goods and Services Tax. that people need in their daily lives: consider food production, shoemaking. sewing, knitting, weaving, herbal medicine herbal medicine, use of natural plant substances (botanicals) to treat and prevent illness. The practice has existed since prehistoric times and flourishes today as the primary form of medicine for perhaps as much as 80% of the world's population. , natural building, animal husbandry animal husbandry, aspect of agriculture concerned with the care and breeding of domestic animals such as cattle, goats, sheep, hogs, and horses. Domestication of wild animal species was a crucial achievement in the prehistoric transition of human civilization from , forestry or furniture making. 9. Get involved in local politics. Begin now to learn how }our district and country political system works, and who's running it. Learn consensus decision-making Consensus decision-making is a decision-making process that not only seeks the agreement of most participants, but also to resolve or mitigate the objections of the minority to achieve the most agreeable decision. . 10. Become a Cultural Change Agent! Role model the changes that you want to see. Ride a bike. Sing and pray in public. Celebrate church in the garden. Have a TV-burning party. Share! Read poetry on street-corners. Hug often. We are the change. We are the ones we've been waiting for. And the time to act is right now. Patricia Allison lives in her garden at Earthaven Ecovillage (earthaven.org), near Black Mountain, NC, where she will be teaching a Permaculture Fundamentals course, Sept. 1-10. She will also be a presenter at the Southeast Women's Herbal Conference (redmoonherbs.com), Sept. 22-24. Bill Fleming: It is clear that we are up against serious issues with ecosystems, climate, energy, pollution and human population, but you and I do have a choice. We can deny the state of our world, or we can educate ourselves and respond by finding ways to make a difference in our own communities. To educate yourself about the state of the world, I suggest a little research and reading: Limits to Growth, published in 1972, is available at: www.clubofrome.org/docs/limits.rtf. Its conclusion is common sense and simple: accelerating consumption of non-renewable resources A non-renewable resource is a natural resource that cannot be re-made, re-grown or regenerated on a scale comparative to its consumption. It exists in a fixed amount that is being renewed or is used up faster than it can be made by nature. cannot continue indefinitely and as resource depletion Resource depletion is an economic term referring to the exhaustion of raw materials within a region. Resources are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources. happens, involuntary changes in human society can be expected. I recommend that you get the Limits to Growth, read it and share it with others. United Nations Millennium Report at: www.un.org/millennium/ sg/report/. For information about climate change and global warming, including visuals of melting of ice cap and glaciers, browse: www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org. And consider seeing "An Inconvenient Truth" when it comes to town. For information about our energy situation, I suggest you read Richard Heinberg's Powerdown and The Party's Over about peak oil, and Julian Darley's High Noon for Natural Gas. Both authors consider the impact of future energy descent on our communities, food supplies, medical care and other life support systems. Once you've taken in this information, you may decide that you want to join with others in a sustainability-oriented intentional community. Joining or starting an intentional community has many personal and inter-personal aspects. If you would like to check the idea out, here are some starting places: Diana Christian's Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Eco-Villages and Intentional Communities (New Society). A wise, thorough and kind guide. (Diana lives in our local Earthaven Eco-village.) Connect with the Fellowship for Intentional Communities and its publication: Communities Magazine. Go to the Global Ecovillage Network The Global Ecovillage Network is a global association of people and communities (ecovillages) dedicated to living "sustainable plus" lives by restoring the land and adding more to the environment than is taken. at http://gen.ecovillage.org for in-depth information about the history and current state of the eco-community movement, as well as information about individual communities all over the world. As you work with this information, please be kind to yourself without shutting it out. When presenting this material to others, I often hear people remark on the stages they and others have experienced, starting with denial and moving through anger, bargaining, and despair, and finally reaching acceptance. Each stage is normal, and we do need to reach acceptance in order to have a clear head as we consider what is ours do. Bill Fleming is an engineer and a founder of the Westwood Cohousing co·hous·ing n. A living arrangement that combines private living quarters with common dining and activity areas in a community whose residents share in tasks such as childcare. Community. His interests include peak oil and gas, the ecosystem and climate change, the design and construction of eco neighborhoods and villages, and the social organization and governance of intentional communities. Contact him at 828-254-1635 or bilff@sheltertech.com. What is a watershed? A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place. We all live in a watershed and our individual actions can directly affect it. Resource: http://www.epa.gov |
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