Dear
Meniscus,
I have been pursuing the idea of "sustainability"
lately. It goes much deeper than buying a hybrid car or energy star
appliance (although these are ecologically and socially important).
I recently saw a financial counselor to help figure out this marriage-life-kids-retirement
puzzle, and left his office even more perplexed than when I entered.
He told me that I need to save about 1.5 - 3.0 million bucks to
retire and live a lifestyle consistant with the one I live now.
ONE POINT FIVE MILLION????? Hmmm... That's a big nut to crack. It's
hard to believe that I will be consuming that much energyMONEYresource
in the golden years.
I returned to Crestone a few weeks ago and was revitalized with
hope. We have a friend that is living in a straw-bale construction
house with a passive solar orientation (to optimize heating of the
house from the sun), solar hot water, and PV panels for electricity.
We also got the grand tour of Crestone's sustainable living sub-culture.
Straw-bale to
Earthship:
We saw about a dozen 'thisMAKESsoMUCHsenseWHYisn'tEVERYONEdoingIT'
houses. It really drove home the point of sustainability. It comes
down to this: You don't need to save for a rainy day if you create
a system that is in harmony with the needs of the human animal.
Create what you need and eliminate the reliance on things you cannot
create. Utilize all available technology for meeting these goals.
The enabling technology
(Hi-tech and Low tech)
1. Passive Solar building (Low Tech)- Orient your house so that
the southern exposure has a significant amount of glass (double
paned). Place heat sinks (stone or tile flooring or walls) in direct
sunlight so that they absorb heat when ever the sun shines on them.
The passive solar houses I saw in Crestone are never colder than
60 degrees even in the dead of winter without heat.
2. Indoor gardens (Low Tech)- produce up to 75% of your food by
growing it yourself—INSIDE. An indoor garden about the size
of a bathtub can keep fresh veggies in your house 365 days a year.
Additionally, the bathtub sized planter box makes a great heat sink
for your passive solar system if it is made out of dark stone.
3. Photovoltaic electricity (High Tech)- PV systems can basically
produce all the electricity a household consumes if you make a few
sensible changes (i.e. energy efficient appliances and compact florescent
lighting.) Battery technology is about to be revolutionized via
nano-technology and high tech polymers which will further enable
off-the-grid living.
People are building house for 60-150K in Crestone that are 95
percent self contained. This is exciting, but brings up an interesting
issue. If I can exponentially reduce the size of my 1.5 million
dollar nut and reduce my consumption of external goods and services,
what happens to the republicanHALIBURTONwarmachineECONOMY that is
100 percent dependent on my taxes. What happens if you multiple
this dream by 1,000,000 or 10,000,000?
I believe that tiny changes at the foundation of our economy/society
can have a staggering overall impact. The bickering over foreign
energy dependence, farm subsidies, and globalization may end not
because one side wins, but because the entire paradigm shifts, leaving
the issues
totally irrelevant.
Everything is accelerating. The Kundalini IS Rising—for our
entire society. As the Yogi's have noted, this explosion of energy
starts at the base of the spine (the foundation of the human organism.)
The interconnectedness and communication of jet travel and the Internet
has created a conduit for this energy to surge throughout our society.
From the base of a yogi's spine to the jewel of his crowning Chakra
across the Internet and into the mind of the editor-in-chief to
discussions with local musicians to the ears of an entire amphitheater....
All silliness aside, this Social Kundalini has the potential to
create extreme change in our world for the better. It is possible
that the suffering in the world we see today is a result of that
energy being awakened and mis-routed through our society. It is
our duty to make every corrective action possible (like a highly
trained social yogi) to coax the energy into the proper channels.
Once it is running through the proper meridians a "Great Organizing"
will occur.
Aaron Ades |