Web Features
A simple solution could drastically reduce the energy consumption and carbon emissions of the modern citizen, and it does not require new technology or a drastic reduction in quality of life. We all learned about it in Kindergarten, and statistics from Twin Oaks prove its effectiveness.
The author recounts some of the off-beat marching orders he received from an eco-oriented “different drummer”—and how, instead of becoming a hermit, he became a communitarian.
With a long history of protecting the local watershed, Trillium Farm Community in southern Oregon grows not only organic food, but ecological activists.
Organized around common ecological values and a shared appreciation for the epic of evolution, a group of neighbors reduces its collective energy consumption by 25 percent.
Also in This Issue (Print Version Only)
· NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: ECOLOGY AND COMMUNITY
· REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNITARIANISM?
The author’s activist friends in rural Virginia turn out to have above American average per capita energy use. Intentional communities, with shockingly lower energy footprints, are the sleeping giant of the conservation movement.
· CARS AND RABBITS
What separates the men from the boys, the wheat from the chaff, the truly eco-concerned from the cotton-headed ninny-muggins? Car use. Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage has honed the practice of car-sharing to an art.
· ECOVILLAGES, HOW ECOLOGICAL ARE YOU?
Prudence-Elise Breton
The author finds that ecovillages can play powerful roles in the social transition to sustainability, but need to pay attention to quantification and evaluation to match their results to their intentions and become meaningful examples.
· FINDHORN’S INCREDIBLE SHRINKING FOOTPRINT
With the lowest ecological footprint of any ever measured in the industrialized world, a Scottish community finds it’s time to re-invent itself once again in response to climate change.
· THE NATURE OF OUR WORK
Stacie Whitney
The path to sustainability involves not only technological solutions, but a willingness and ability to continually evolve, adapt, and create—to break old patterns of behavior and attitude and accept that change is not only inevitable, but it is also good.
· THE REINDEER HERDERS OF NORTHERN MONGOLIA: Community, Ecology, and Spirit Matters
Marilyn Walker PhD
For Dhuka shamanists, whose lives revolve around intimate relationships with plants and animals, “ecology” is about both the seen, physical world and the unseen world of spirits.
· IN OUR COMMUNITY— ECOLOGY IS FOR THE BIRDS
Michael Livni
Kibbutz Lotan thinks globally and acts locally to enhance conditions for migratory songbirds.
· WATER IS LIFE
In southern Portugal, the Tamera community creates a model for reversing desertification and enhancing regional food autonomy.
· WALKING THROUGH THE FOREST
Russ Purvis
Members of British Columbia’s Kakwa Ecovillage Cooperative help save an Ancient Forest and build new alliances.
· COMMUNITY COMPOSTING: A Transformative Practice
Jason Grubb & Mason Vollmer
At Camphill Soltane, composting is both a metaphor for and essential element in the process of building community.
· SOFTWARE, HARDWARE, AND ECOLOGY AT GANAS
Tom Reichert & Peggy Wonder
Internal attitudes and willingness to change behaviors can be more powerful than simple technological solutions in shifting a community toward sustainability.
· SEEKING AN ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION
Alison Cole
What’s a verb to do in a land of harsh nouns, industrial adjectives, and wasteful superlatives? Two students look for answers in an Indian reforestation project.
Voices
· PUBLISHER'S NOTE: O SUBSCRIBER, WHERE ART THOU?
· COOPERATIVE GROUP SOLUTIONS: BALANCING OUTER AND INNER ECOLOGY
· CULTIVATING THE NEIGHBORHOOD: WHAT ARE THE BOUNDARIES OF AN INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY?: An Experiment in Geographically-Dispersed Community-Building
Don Schneider & Elin England
· COMMUNITY ABC'S: MINDING THE "P"S FOR CUES
· REVIEWS: CULTURE CHANGE
Laura Berol
