Sustainable community plan
I have previously discussed the concept of a sustainable community. In this post, I present some of the details, and show a rough diagram of the layout. Read on to find out more.
Surviving and thriving in a sustainable community
A community makes it easier to survive and thrive. Most people would agree that a dormitory suburb with tract housing is not a sound basis for a community and many people are becoming aware that centralised power, water and food systems are vulnerable in the event of an economic or social collapse (which many people are thinking is increasingly likely). How can we build a community that is sustainable (able to support itself)? This is an update from my previous posts on this topic. Read on to find out more.
Local vs Global – Becoming Resilient
For most of human history, the majority of people worked and lived within 10 kilometers of where they were born. International trade and travel now allows us to obtain goods from overseas and easily move to other countries, but at the same time, we are now dependent on oil to transport our food to us and allow us to get to our jobs. We no longer produce local food or energy or work near our homes.
Whilst cheap imports now underpin our way of life and standard of living, loss of local employment weakens our society. Parents have to work away from their children for much of the day, leaving little time for families. A lot of what we earn needs to be spent to maintain even a basic standard of living.
Globalism offers benefits, but how can we manage the drawbacks in our individual lives – economic insecurity, vulnerability to cuts in energy, food and water and demands on our time and family life?
Changing Perspectives on Sustainability
I’ve recently written about building resilient households and communities. This is a result of a mindset shift to free thinking that embraces technology, yet rejects the prevailing views of society based around control and hierarchy in favour of independent thought.
We’ve seen the fruit of conventional authoritarian thinking – massive bank losses, ordinary people losing their houses and jobs, problems of alienation, environmental destruction and wastage and constant warfare.
Read on to find out more about the contrast of values between traditional thinking and free thinking, and how this impacts on environmental sustainability and personal and community well being. Read more…
Resilience and Sustainability Principles for Freedom
Recently I wrote about how I see a sustainable, resilient community functioning. This would be based on renewable energy and local production of food and engagement with the market through production of goods and services from within the community. I see this an antidote to the stress, economic uncertainty, lack of autonomy and fragility I see in traditional centralised systems. I’d like to follow up with this posting about some of the principles that I see as necessary for successful resilient and sustainable communities or individual living.
The Resilient Community – A Plan
Recently, I’ve been considering the economic turmoil we find ourselves in. In my view, it is more than a recession, or a depression. I think that it is a turning point in society where the old ways of being a slave to conventional wisdom are no longer sustainable, and where we have an opportunity for greater freedom. This post is about an idea of a sustainable, resilient community that will help us regain our independence and freedom.