But, parallel to the inner work at the training, the longing to live in a true community was awoken within me once again. Since the training was taking place in an eco-village, an intentional community Lebensgarten in Germany, for a week I was embedded in a physical as well as social environment that brought back pleasant memories and nourishing feelings.

I have been twice a part of an intentional community. The first one did not function as a fully residential one, but we did have a community house in an isolated spot in nature and were spending a lot of time there, working, sharing, being together. This was a beautiful time of my life and some parts of me are still mourning over it.

The second one was a permacultural intentional community in Australia, where I have spent 9 months in 1990. I was still merely a long-term guest there, though sharing a work and community life. It was definitely one of those places where the fanciness of a car never mattered a bit – and all the rest did. So unlike the modern so-called communities

Anyway, the fact of the matter is that whenever I spend some time in an intentional community, be it a holistic like The Findhorn Foundation or a very light and down-on-earth one like the RCNUWC, a strong feeling starts to wake within me, a feeling that the way I am living my life is a tragic mistake. A feeling that every cell in my body and every part of my being actually yearns for a true community life.

A life where one is embedded in a supportive environment of people with shared values and visions, where children run all over the place as “our” children, enjoying the all-present safety, where people meet and share, laugh and cry together, connect and interact on a true level… Where life is fully alive and supported by life.

And, yes, where a pristine harmony with the nature and its forces is fully present. Where the nature slowly takes over (eating up the houses like in Lebensgarten) and everybody is happy with that. And everybody can sleep like a baby. Without hearing a car or any sort of pulsating modern-life city commotion.

Now, of course, things are not entirely romantic in intentional eco communities. Egos get in the way, conflicts remain unresolved and communities do fall apart, sometimes with a lot of pain involved. Just as relationships and human lives do fall apart. Not every single one of them and not always, but yes, they do.

But I still feel this is what a human life should look like. Not being locked in a dehumanised system of working for spending, running from one shop to another, from one meaningless encounter to another, gasping for some air in between, and spending the rest of the time plugged in a LCD screen, be it a TV or a computer. Holy crap, what an existence. As my dear John Lennon said: “Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans.”

Being in a phase of my life when I am reconsidering its directions and ways, I will definitely include the option of joining an intentional community in my wonderings.

Anyway, our dear van is all ready, things are more or less packed and in a couple of hours me and Marjeta will be on our way to explore Albania, perhaps one of the last resorts of a more pristine life here in Europe, not yet fully commercialised and sold out. We are so happy to be connecting with the true spirit of our dear Balkans again.

We spent the weekend with friends in Forres in northern Scotland, which is just down the road from Findhorn. Findhorn is the original eco village - see www.findhorn.org - and we took a stroll around for inspiration. There were eco houses of all shapes and sizes, from stone 'hobbit' houses with grass roofs to luxury timber clad houses with solar panels - and everything in between.

The vibe was really lovely although community living is something you would really have to commit to. It would be nice if that sense of community and oneness with your surroundings was the norm and not something you have to take yourself out of society in order to achieve. But we came away inspired and, having had so much fun this weekend, sorely tempted to move further north! Just have to finish this eco house before we can move on to the next one : )

La première fois que j’ai lu un reportage dans la magazine Elle, il était question d’un éco lieula concurrence à qui sera ou qu’est ce qui sera lié le plus ECO

Tout le monde et tout est soudain eco. Vous avez les ecofriends, les eco villages, les éco lieuX, les éco hameau., éco cités... la liste est longue!

On se demande même pourquoi nous nous sommes battus pour le développement si c’est pour quelques années plus tard, créer des structures de vie parfois même en plein centre ville pour vivre en armonie avec nous même.

Si je n’étais pas devenue une citoyenne française ou du moins une citoyenne du monde comme j’aime à me définir, la question ne se poserait même pas.

J’ai été élevé dans un village, ou disons un campement, si petit que les habitants étaient  tous fréres, cousins, grands parents, petits enfants, arrières et arrières arrières petits enfants. La famille, la vraie. Et nous vivions très près de la nature et les terrains de jeu pour les enfants étaient la forêt qui entourait le village, les activités pour tous étaient la pêche, la cueillette, la chasse, et la culture maraichère.

C'était des villages, pas des écovillages ni des écolieux. Ces lieux de vie à taille humaine sont morts balayés par la modernisation, par l’invasion des cultures dites civilisées.

Pourquoi ce regain soudain d’ECO CITOYENNETE ?

Sans doute en ont -t-ils assez de la vie trépidente et futile des villes, tous veulent sauver la planète terre. Tous veulent retourner à la terre. Mais tous iraient -ils si on le leur porposait, d’aller faire revivre le campement de mon arrière grand père ? Ils n’auraient rien à débourser pour un lopin de terre. Il n’y aurait ni électricité, ni lampe à pétrole, ni  éco architecte. ni enseignant. Puisque la nature nous enseigne ce que nous avons à savoir. C'est ça le principe de la communion avec la nature. Nous vivions déjà écologiquement.

Mes recherches m’ont permis de comprendre les différences entre ma vie là bas et celle à laquelle aspire aujourd’hui la plupart de mes concitoyens.

J’ai rédécouvert que un ECO VILLAGE et non un village  est un lieu de vie qui rassemble plusieurs individus où chacun à son propre habitat, son autonomie économique et idéologique, avec un esprit de partage et de solidarité. Ce qui existait déjà avant. La vocation d’un éco village est de mettre en œuvre un mode de vie collectif écologique et juste. Ce qui signifierait sans doute de partager l’aubergine de son potager avec son voisin, d’aller à la pêche collective comme cela se faisait dans mon village, d’apprendre à fabriquer son fillet de pêche soi même avec du raphia, d’aller cueillir le miel dans la fôret sans autre moyen qu’une torche, de se nourrir avec ce que la nature nous propose. Combien tiendraient longtemps avec cette vie d’éco ami, éco voisins, éco villageois…..?

Respecter l’être humain, il était temps ! Apparemment cela fait partie d’un des objectifs.  Il faudra inviter aussi ceux qui mettent la camisole à des êtres humains pour les embarquer de force dans un avion pour faire de la place ou alors leur proposer un écoespace afin qu’ils ne dérangent personne. Ils cultiveraient tranquillement leur éco propriété, leur éco légume et ne "voleraient" pas le travail à leurs concitoyens.

Mon vocabulaire s’est enrichi depuis que je m’éco cultive. On parle de perma culture  d’écoles alternatives d'éco cité, d'éco enseignants.... Et même d’éco charte.

Le plus intéressant c’est la liberté de croyance individuelle. Voilà que je vais me recontruire un « sian », ne cherchez pas dans le Larousse, vous ne trouverez pas. Le sian c’est le lieu de rassemblement des bonnes sorcières du village. L’endroit où l’on se réunit en assemblée générale pour résoudre les conflits entre villageois, l’endroit où l’on décident du sort des "mauvaises graine" de la communauté.

J’aurais ma statuette avec qui je communiquerais dans mon patois. Je ne dérangerais personne et je serais bien intégrée dans mon éco communauté.

La vie dans un écovillage serait sans doute différente de celle des villages en ce sens là. Celle de pouvoir mener une vie tranquille dans un pays industrialisé, "civilisé" ou l'on apprendrait à nouveau à vivre ensemble comme des hérissons, sans qu'aucun ne soit mis dehors sous prétexte qui a pris un peu trop de place et que ses pics commencent à géner ses "frères".

La série éco ne fait que commencer...

Fred Meyer (fred.meyer@backyardabundance.org) is with Backyard Abundance (www.backyardabundance.org) This group helps residents understand how to make ecological improvements to their yards. The group gives yard tours throughout the community and shows what others can do in their yard to benefit the environment. Upcoming tour is Sat., May 10 from 2-4 PM at 38 Quincent Court in Iowa City. 

 Sarah is also a student of permaculture. She studied in Fairfield last summer in their self-sustaining eco village community - solar and wind power and community gardens. She spoke on the many benfits of growing your own food, including health, money savings and mental benefits.

Both emphasized getting out and observing and listening to nature. Also, talking with others about these concepts and trying things out. One tool they suggetsed was  a broad fork. Apparently tilling isn't good as it upsets the structure of the soil and "weeds" usually benefit from tilling (by seeds being brought up from underground). This tool breaks up soil and aerates soil enough to plant things, but not destroy the healthy natural layering.

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Qu'entend-on par co-habitat?

D'origine scandinave (et plus exactement danoise !), ce concept a pour principe une formule d'habitat groupé permettant aux propriétaires des logements de jouir d'une autonomie et d'une indépendance dans un environnement qui invite à une certaine vie sociale et communautaire. Souvent, ce terme est employé pour désigner des ensembles de maisons individuelles groupées autour d'un immeuble et d'installations communautaires.

Dans le cas de Munksoegaard, cette photo est particulièrement parlante:
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En plein coeur du village, on trouve une ancienne ferme qui a été restaurée. Autour, cinq grands "ensembles", composés chacun de 20 habitations. On retrouve, dans chaque ensemble, des personnes aux profils différents: des familles, des séniors et des jeunes. Enfin, chaque entité possède sa maison commune, pour partager éventuellement les repas, les loisirs, les fêtes, les réunions...

Munksoegaard reprend bien le concept de départ du co-habitat et qui a trouvé son inspiration dans un article de Bodil Graae's, en 1967, et qui écrivait alors : "Chaque enfant devrait avoir 100 parents".

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Même si 1,5% de la population danoise vit maintenant selon ces principes, le village de Munksoegaard est plus remarquable encore, compte tenu de son éco-conception.

En effet, les maisons communes de chaque ensemble sont auto-construites en paille! Chaque habitation est en bois, avec une peinture extérieure respectueuse de l'environnement, les vitrages permettent de limiter au maximum les pertes d'énergie, des panneaux solaires alimentent en partie certaines habitations, une petite centrale fonctionnant au bois permet de chauffer les habitations, les routes sont en graviers (et non en bitume), l'eau de pluie est récupérée pour l'ensemble des maisons communes, l'agriculture biologique est encouragée, les déchets sont limités à leur maximum et triés pour être recyclés....

Enfin, sachez que le village est à proximité de la gare, que des solutions de Car Sharing ont été mises en place et que l'utilisation fréquente du vélo est la "norme".

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Une fois de plus, les scandinaves nous montrent que des pistes alternatives existent pour vivre ensemble avec des approches plus partagées et respectueuses de l'environnement. En France, le développement d'éco-villages ou de solutions de co-habitat est très récent mais au moins...il a la chance de pouvoir s'appuyer sur cette forte expérience nordique et de nous montrer que...ça fonctionne.

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Alors....tous partants pour devenir co-habitant en éco village?

This image is a plan for one of several plots on the site:

The context for this development is a new element of UK planning policy designed to encourage 'Low Impact' living - a policy which has only been adopted to date by Pembrokeshire County Council and Milton Keynes. This is Simon, explaining how these rules work and why the Lammas project could set a precedent:

"this is what is significant about this project: It will be the first such project in britain under a completely new set of rules which allow ecological living in combination with working on agricultural land. Agricultural land here is available from about £5000 a hectare as opposed to any residential plots which start at £100,000-£200,000. So once the precedent is set, the option will be open to live on and work a piece of land for less than 10% of the cost of any other home. If you think about it, that could really make a serious difference. " (from a comment on Treehugger - who reported that planning permission had already granted, unfortunately not the case)

The crucial caveat is that 75% of the new residents' living must be made from the land, as explained in this section from Pembrokeshire Country Council's planning guidance:

"75% or more of basic household needs will be met by means of activities centred around the use of resources grown reared or occurring naturally on the site. The LPA will expect this to be achieved by year 3 of the project. If achieving this requirement of 75% of needs being met on site in this time scale is considered unreasonable, given the nature of the project proposed, then this must be explained in the supporting documentation submitted with the application. For those parts of the project that cannot be achieved within three years, because of the nature of the activity, a timescale as close to the three year target must be identified with reasons why a shorter time-scale is not appropriate. The applicant must clearly advise as to how and when the achievement of 75% will happen.

Government policy emphasises the need to encourage economic growth. However, it is accepted that proposals under this policy will not generate significant levels of economic growth and are likely to be based on a subsistence based approach. Therefore a very low income will be acceptable if occupants can derive livelihoods from full-time presence on a site which is financially secure. "

A bit of lengthy quote I know, but it's important because it illustrates what a radical opportunity this represents in terms of livelihoods and rural land use. Not only is land available at the lower agricultural rate, but the requirement for "economic growth" - the central pillar of Government policy national and local - is effectively being waived.

The Lammas group have spent a considerable period of time drawing up plans to illustrate how they will meet these requirements. From the local foods point of view, the most interesting is their permaculture report. It makes for fascinating reading, and demonstrates how important planning is in achieving some degree of self-sufficiency.

You can watch the trailer for an introductory film about the Lammas project at Undercurrents:

What a world of difference between the eco-villages of the Hanham Hall type and Lammas.  No doubt as to which best claims the eco tag!

Lammas, in its bid to get planning permission has put together a comprehensive and absorbing website. Well worth checking out.

from the Lammas website: 

The Houses

Low-impact architecture uses a combination of recycled and natural materials. The project is essentially a self-build affair. The first phase will see the construction of five detached dwellings and one terrace of four dwellings. There will be a combination of building styles including straw bale, earth sheltered, timber frame and cob. The houses will feature the latest environmental technologies and design techniques. The dwellings will blend into the landscape. Indeed they will be largely made from elements of the landscape (for example turf roofs, cob walls, timber cladding).

Focus seems to be on the Code Level 6 - zero carbon homes, rather than on the wider sustainable communities. Where will people shop, where will they send their children to school and how will they get to work, were questions raised by friends.

Although it was accepted this particular design may not be the one we use in 2016 to acheive level 6, and there will be a degree of learning on the project for future projects, the designs are based on the Chorley homes technology - so I hope the comments made by CarbonLimited are taken into account.

I was surprised to hear that carbon footprints are not an issue, with no focus on reducing carbons in the construction or production of the development. So does this mean business as usual for the house builder - other than integrating a different kit of eco -materials and technologies? If so - is this a greenwash sin?

My biggest moan to the Hanham Hall team though - and a pet hate of the internet is ... advertised websites that are not complete, under construction or out of date. If you advertise a website as the communication vehicle please provide information - not Coming soon! Please come and visit this page again soon for key pieces of information.

Yacu Yura es un nombre que a la inmensa mayoria de vosotros no os suena nada. Pues bien si pasais tiempo conmigo en un futuro se os acabara quedando grabado de tanto que hablare de el. Infinitas gracias mas una a Xabier, que hizo que nos decidieramos finalmente a venir.

Este lugar es un viaje en si mismo. Peter y yo hemos estado recorriendo largas distancias durante esta semana, sin movernos apenas de donde nos encontrabamos.

Yacu yura es (fisicamente) una finca que se encuentra a varios quilometros de distancia de pueblos o carreteras. Es bastante extenso pero solo una pequeña parte esta siendo utilizado, la mayor parte es bosque casi inexpugnable. En la parte habitada hay varias casas, un cuarto de ocio, una cocina, varias salas de actividades, sala de herramientas, un riachuelo, varios laguitos, una piscina con agua del arroyo, una huerta, caminos ondeantes, mariposas gigantes, flores, puestas de sol, cielos estrellados, plantas con pinchos, abubillas, algarrobos, una sala de oracion/meditacion con forma de iglu gigante en lo alto de un repecho, compost, un gato que se llama Jade y otro Nada, cisternas que no funcionan, energia solar, internet fluctuante, comida vegetariana, ceniza en vez de jabon, etc.

Aqui se vive en comunidad, y la comunidad consta de gente como nosotros, visitantes con mas o menos tiempo y una pareja que habita de forma permanente: Jimmy y Gabi. Cuando leais como transcurre un dia cualquiera os hareis una idea de lo marciana que nos ha resultado por momentos esta experiencia. El dia empieza con un desayuno muy austero en el que guardamos absoluto silencio. Luego hacemos unos estiramientos y respiraciones (de purificacion, invocando los elementos, pranayama, etc) unos cantos y danzas en circulo de varias tradiciones del mundo (hemos hecho de los arapahoe, guarani, hebreo, hindu) y por ultimo un circulo para expresar lo que queramos a los demas. Luego repartimos tareas para la mañana (trabajo en el huerto, abrir caminos, limpiar la acequia, preparar comida, etc). despues hacemos circulo todos juntos otra vez, vamos al iglú para meditar durante unos 20 minutos. A esto le sigue la comida, que tambien comemos juntos. A partir de ahi cada uno hace lo que le place.

Me olvidaba de comentar que despues de cada circulo nos damos abrazos. Muchos de vosotros sabeis lo sobón que puedo llegar a ser por lo que esta parte no ha sido muy chocante.

Mi experiencia esta siendo estupenda, aunque no exenta de encontronazos emocionales. Por eso mismo es valiosa, por que me curte. Al hacer tantas cosas en grupo y tener que acatar las normas del lugar me he sentido como cuando era niño, me he tomado unas vacaciones de mi constante tomar infinitas decisiones, grandes o pequeñas, que es nuestra cruz como adultos. Eso ha hecho en parte que me haya permitido el lujo de observarme y observar a los demas sin (tanto) miedo a lo extraño.

He sentido mucho amor estos dias, y creo que tambien he dando un poquito tambien. Los chicos que estaban con nosotros se han marchado ya, y aunque han sido solo 5 dias con ellos hemos llegado a acercamientos que a veces cuestan años en la "sociedad al uso". El mirarse directamente a los ojos con un extraño por mas de 5 segundos produce mas adrenalina que 3 Dragon-khans.

Ademas de esto se esta celebrando un curso de danza llamada contact en el lugar. Empezo cuando llegamos y continuara hasta la semana que viene. Ya os hablare de mi experiencia con la danza en el proximo post.

Bueno amiguitos, me llaman para comer, solo deciros que seguramente pasaremos 2 semanas mas aqui, y que lo mas probable es que internet siga sin funcionar el el lugar (ahora mismo estamos en el pueblo de al lado pasando el dia). O sea que la proxima vez sera...el domingo que viene! si nos entra el gusanillo de la civilizacion nos podemos acercar al pueblo, pero... ¡Se esta tan bien en Aguas Claras!

Os quiero malandrines!

dom

• Owner - WilliamThewise Goodman
• Community Builder - Prim Chemistry
• Etopia Island Manager - Jojogirl Bailey

The Island is a showcase for individuals, organizations and businesses who want to offer goods and services which promote a socially and environmentally sustainable world.

The best knowledge in sustainable design, energy efficient building, public transportation and new urban planning concepts in the creation of the village was used. More than that it is a community committed to sharing the environmental experiences and ideas to anyone who wants to learn. Do you want to learn more about wind power, solar power, and geo-thermal? Interested in permaculture, energy conservation and efficiency? Then visit Etopia Island and see how these are used in an example of sustainable development that can be and is used in First Life.

We love to listen to new ideas so share them with us and help save the planet!

WilliamThewise Goodman explains in his Welcome message what Etopia and the Sustainable Sim Development Concept is:This second sim is an extension of Etopia Island, which was officially opened nine months ago in April of 2007.

Over those nine months we have both learned a tremendous amount about Island Management, but more importantly we have confirmed many of our original beliefs surrounding what is necessary to create a real community within a virtual world.

Etopia Island is proud to be Second Life’s premier modern-day eco-village offering residents and visitors a wide variety of experiences including homes, shops, offices, sports, education and natural beauty. This sim, Etopia Prime, continues this overall theme while still offering a variety of different options in a more modern setting than the original Etopia Island sim.

So, why have I taken the effort to develop these sims? Helping to create all this is in many ways the culmination of 30 years of my Real Life work.

My Real Life background is in the areas of Environmental Planning and Sustainable Community Development. Over the past 17 years I have been one of the leaders in the U.S. Cohousing movement helping over 25 groups of people create energy-efficient custom neighborhoods across the country.

When I first learned about Second Life almost two years ago (yipes!), I was amazed at the wide variety of environments people had created.

What I discover for the most part were two very difference development strategies. First is what I call the “First Come, First Served” model where individual owners develop whatever they want where ever they want it. This explains the vast number of areas that are a patchwork of everything from gothic castles and dance clubs to sky-filled with boxes, floating, platforms and secret hide-a-ways.

The other development strategy, which can be found in large numbers, is the “Corporate Sim.” The business world is very curious about the possibilities of the 3-d web and how it can be used to further their individual corporate goals.

What I wanted to see is if the lessons I had learn in my work in Sustainable Development, in relation to both the built world and the social connections that make up community, could be used here in Second Life. The result is what we are coining the “Sustainable Sim Development Concept”. This concept draws together the aspect of diversity and sustainability as their guiding principles. The result is an environment that can offer residents and visitors the vast majority of their needs in one location. So in Second Life this would mean that a sim would include at least some or all of the following – residential and commercial rentals or ownership, educational and recreational offerings and entertainment all in a diverse environment of built and open spaces. This means that people come to the sim for a wide variety of reasons and everyone benefits from the additional traffic. From a sustainable perspective it also means that residents can easily obtain items for their home, walk to work or skip on down to the nearby coffee shop or dance hall for entertainment, and then walk back home without every needing to hop into a car. It also means that businesses, both those based in Second Life or in Real life can be confident that there will be life around their builds. In many ways the lessons learned from both nature and the sustainable development world can be applied in Second Life and result in a total win-win for all involved.

So here on Etopia you will find town plazas surrounded by a mixture of shops, offices and apartments. In addition we have clustered the buildings to allow for a variety of natural areas, which are easily accessible within a short walk. As a commitment to reducing our dependence on non-renewable sources of energy, we have provided several transportation options including the train, an aerial gondola, an extensive bike path and boats for leisurely rides around the Island.

Etopia Island and Etopia Prime are examples of what is possible within a virtual world to help secure a more sustainable future for all of us.

As we say and feel more and more each day… Etopia Island – Good for you … Good for the planet.

With gardening fork in hand I loosened up the soil of a new garden bed. This involved digging the fork into the firm soil, wiggling it forward and backwards and little side to side and continuing that motion in strips down and along a bed about 3 square meters (1 meter x 3 meters) and also weeding it, separating the noxious weeds from the compostable weeds. Then I helped Sarah to sift the compost through a wire mesh frame, throwing the big lumps back into the newer compost piles to continue breaking down and shoveling the wonderful rich compost from under the frame onto another pre-prepared garden bed.

(I did that bed on the left in front of the green fence)

We had a chance to inspect the difference between the garden compost and the composting toilet’s compost. Both have a very similar end product and overall richness, although you don’t want to dig too far down into the newly made compost toilet’s offerings as it does start to smell just a little. The compost from the loo was placed around the fruit trees as it’s not recommended to plant your vegetables into human compost.
I spent the rest of the afternoon playing with Jess, a very excitable little dog who thinks fetch means she gets the stick and teasing you with it but is stupid enough to drop the stick she has if you pick up another one, dogs are so great. Craig finished helping empty the compost loo, scattered it around fruit trees, weeded around them and mulched them with more of the pond scum and had a great deal of fun slashing at the grass with the scythe.
Later we helped feed the chickens. There are 3 sets of chicken feeding to do. Two sections have 4 hens and 1 rooster each, they got a small container of dry feed and one lot got the protein/carb rich scraps from the kitchen (this gets rotated between each coop). The third group is a hen and her clutch of 5 babies (only one is “hers”). These guys have to be kept in an enclosed area as they are still too small and thus prey to hawks (but they are oh so cute). We collected around 7 eggs, this is about the daily average for these hens.
In the evening I helped prepare a dinner of roast vegetables - pumpkin, beetroot, garlic, purple potatoes which Sabina coverd later in an almond, sesame seed dressing that was to die for. She also (baked?) a cabbage cut into quarters and the four of us had one hunk of cabbage and loads of vegetables and some scrambled egg slices (ok so the egg wasn’t actually scrambled but it wasn’t exactly fried eggs either). It was surprised at home much I enjoyed this meal. Partly because I had helped prepare it, partly because it was delicious and a lot because I knew the how much real effort went into it being there at all.
It was an early night to bed for us after all that with the day only just reaching dark. Dishes, bath, bed!

Firstly, the Lammas project in Pembrokeshire failed to get planning permission on Tuesday. I'm fairly surprised and disappointed as I recently watched a documentary about it, and thought it was a wonderful project. The Lammas project is hoping to be the first planned eco village in the UK, so that it can act as a model for further eco villages. However, local residents were very much against it, and unfortunately there was not enough support in the local area for Lammas. The proposal was rejected on the grounds that there did not seem to be enough detail on business plans for the members and on travel and traffic in the area. However, the planning officer agreed that Lammas would make a social, environmental and economic contribution, which is a step in the right direction. There will be an appeal against the planning decision. Paul Wimbush, one of the founders of the project presented part of the documentary 'Eco Village Pioneers' and appears to be a very positive chap, eager to change people's views and come to a satisfying arrangement for all and I wish the project the best of luck.

In other news, Al Gore won the Nobel Prize for his work on climate change. I won't bore you with the details as it is all over the news, however unfortunately there is some misleading news by the BBC regarding the verdict of the High Court case against 'An Inconvenient Truth'. For further info please go here. Again, I won't go into too much detail as I expect this will be all over the news shortly. But it does annoy me that the BBC reporting misleading news articles will cause climate change sceptics to jump onto the verdict as 'evidence' that global warming does not exist and is not a danger. Many seem to quote 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' film as an alternative to 'An Inconvenient Truth' however, this is not without its own faults, and many scientists who were involved in its making, have in fact complained that their data and opinions have been misrepresented. See here : Channel 4

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I see so many people trying to 'debate' whether we have a planetary emergency on our hands, and it's just because they do not want to make the change, and face up to the very scary fact that if we don't change the human race is going to be in for a serious cull. After all, nature always wins. If you lay down concrete, after a couple of years, plants will push through. Nature rules. We are at war with the planet and we need to retreat. NOW. In my eyes, even if we have got the science wrong and don't fully understand how the planet works, there is still something inherently wrong with messing with the planets chemistry by burning huge amounts of fossil fuels and expecting it to stay the same. There is also something wrong with dumping toxic substances, and consuming resources we don't need to. Think about it, if somebody came into your home and used up everything consumable, then broke and vandalised everything else you had, you would do something about it. That is what the planet is doing to us.

*breathe and calm down* Anyway, in other news, I was sent a film about nuclear waste today. Turns out it's been leaking into the Champagne region of France. Into the water that the local people use. And possibly into Champagne. Personally, I don't have the budget to be drinking Champagne on a regular basis, but I do like it on a special occasion but it makes me really uneasy to think that something I drink (or eat, the nuclear waste leakage is not a one off in this region only), may contain radioactive waste. See here for the video : Green TV

I could go on and on for pages and pages with all the stuff I've read today and how angry I am, but I've managed to restrict myself to the brief overview above. But it just struck me that there is so much wrong and it's ALL humankind's fault. And all in the name of 'progress'.

But on the bright side, I'm trying to be part of the solution instead of the problem. I'm waiting for an allotment. And I'm exploring the possibility of getting a Portuguese Quinta so I can allay many of my food fears. I don't/can't/won't drive. Don't eat meat. Yadayadayada. But I'm only one person. I can't do it all.

That's why the Lammas Project is so appealing - it's a projected eco-village in Pembrokeshire that will look rather like Hobbiton. They've got a  good website with a great deal of detail in it - including downloadable pdfs of their plans and so on. If you root around you'll find you can watch movies about it too. Yesterday they found out that their planning application had been refused, despite all the work they'd done. But they're applying again. May their dream be realised! Have a look at the dream here!

We are too many people on this planet. There isn't enough resources on the Earth to feed everyone - at least not at the level of luxury we indulge ourselves with here in the West.

I personally do not believe that capitalism and liberalism is the key. As far as I see it, those two ideologies are two of the reasons why we have this situation with environmental and humanitarian crisis that we have today in the first place. Neither do I believe that socialism is the answer. It hasn't worked earlier, and I don't see why it should work now.

So what alternatives do we have? Personally, I don't think technology is they key. Too many things can go wrong in a high-tech, sci-fi future. And I can't see how that should benefit Earth and the human race either. I believe the best solution we have is eco-villages and other kinds of small communities. I do not think large, urban cities are natural and well-functioning conditions for the human being to thrive in. So both for the sake of the environment, and for the human race, I believe we should live in smaller, largely self-sustained, communities.

This is where I am at so far. Maybe I will change my mind later, or maybe I will find this idea better and better along the way. Either way, I will strive towards the goal of being self-sustained. I am not there yet, by far, and I am not even sure that is an obtainable goal. But it is my ideal way of life as I see it now.

"You have designed an manufactured a unique dwelling that will enhance our facility for years to come. We are just now beginning a more traditional masonry structure, but we look forward to working with you all on another dome in the not too distant future."

I settle down now to begin, or wonder how to begin writing again. It’s been about a year since I have written anything except skeletal journal entries. Sometimes I think Orange County has worn me down with its miles of homogenous retail and infinite treeless tracks of suburban houses . I am happier at different places on the continuum: natural environments (rummaging through the spaces and silence of Southern California canyons, sliding thru the thick air in a Louisiana bayou) or cities ( indulging in street photography in downtown Los Angeles, breathing in the scent of night blooming Jasmine mingled with street smells in New Orleans) small towns (the ones with quirky histories and good cookin’). But I do agree with poet Eileen Myles when she says that a place like this forces introspection. In the 11 years I have lived in this part of Southern California I have thrashed around with my foul breathed demons and swept the debris away to uncover the best parts of myself. And its easy to blame the place – distract myself from knowing that I have something to do with sculpting the contours of my life. It is time to write again.