The Functional Future
“There’s no home like place” – L.W. Wofati (see also), earthship buildings, other earth-integrated structures (such as the Simon Dale Hobbit House or Tony Wrench’s roundhouse), prefab and professionally build hobbit homes, or open-source, earth brick buildings. Documentary on building codes relevant for building these and other unusual structures. Small is beautiful A picture is worth […]
Water & Resilience. Through a case-study of Troy Gardens Community Co-housing. Related post: Food; Filtering Water Summary: With 101,920 square feet of impermeable surface area, Troy can harvest about 1.8 M gallons of water (63% of the water we use). NOW: How much of the harvestable water can we actually store and use? Use depends
Water: Harvesting Rain Water Read More »
For those who like to put things in context, read this short post covering the big picture of One Planet Thriving. The point of life is sustainable well-being: happiness, health, and long lives achieved in a way that can be sustained over multiple generations. That means we have to achieve our well-being while using only
The Dysfunctional Status Quo of Gradual Societal Collapse Read More »
In consulting with Mandy and Ryan from withinreachmovie.com, they suggested we contact Robert Griffin as someone who had visited Tamera, a Peace Village in Portugal that seems like a very interesting model for community living. They also recommended Robert as someone who is easy to talk to, accessible, and who has some pretty deep and
Interview with Robert Griffin on Hummingbird & Tamera Communities Read More »
One of the best videos I’ve seen on the case for urgency for forming physical networks of people to provide each other with needs that will not be available in the depression that she believes is coming within the next few years. Here is the free version and here is the longer version with her
This post has been moved to a better, more complete version: Life Designers.
Life Design: Introduction Read More »
Tamera, a peace-oriented ecovillage in Portugal, garnered an “Honorable Mention” (#3 of 150 proposals) in the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. Tamera was started in 1995, but it was only the latest evolution of a conscious series of community experiments starting in 1978 and some of those experiments still continue as well (e.g., ZEGG in Germany). It
Tamera: Peace Village Integrating Physical & Social Technology Read More »
Dear Melissa, My Father died on December 14, 2011 about 20 minutes after I arrived in Los Angeles, from my home in Wisconsin. Afterwards, I went crazy with my sister, her husband, and my Mom, and then sank down into less reactive sadness, being with my children and wife who arrived a day later, and
Letter to Melissa Coleman Read More »
This film, Fuel (2009), was recommended by a friend and new father (M.J.). I just watched it online here. Very well done, inspiring. Great history of fossil fuels, discussion of peak oil, the relationship between oil and our entire economy, our political system, and our way of life…and then, it goes beyond that to a
Fuel: A Review of the Movie on Biofuels Read More »
It doesn’t matter whether we view a glass as half-full or half-empty unless that view affects the risks we take in our behavior. If we collapse in despair because we are too half-empty, that is not helpful. If we are an overjoyed bull in a china shop because we are too half-full, that is also not helpful. The point isn’t whether the glass is half-empty or half-full but whether this amount of water is enough for the purpose at hand.
Unrealistic Optimism: The Woman with the Angel-Demon Tattoo Read More »