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Eco-living
The two levels of eco-living: individual and community

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.                                                                      Mahatma Gandhi

The main purpose of this site is to explore means and tools for living as sustainably and self-sufficiently as possible as the world enters a new phase of dwindling fossil fuels and the resultant rising energy costs. Eco-living has two levels: the individual and the community.

At the individual level, eco-living means that we become as self-sufficient as possible in terms of the necessities: food and energy dependency. This site explores options for reducing our food dependency on distant corporations. It also examines methods by which we can take ourselves "off the grid" as much as possible--if not entirely.

At the community level, eco-living entails reverting back to a more traditional way of life which includes weaning ourselves from our complete dependence on sources far removed for everything we need for survival and economic activity. For almost all of history--with the anomalous exception of the last 100 years or so--smaller communities were capable of producing the basic necessities of survival, especially if called upon to do so by external events.



In most cases, they could grow their own food and maintain a certain level of economic activity to ensure their member's survival. Over the last century we have lost this ability. The 2005 movie by director Ron Howard, Cinderella Man, accurately depicts life during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Most people, particularly city dwellers, found themselves as helpless as newborns. Without employers to provide them with work, they spent the days and years living from government check to check. They had become completely dependent upon the state. Contrast that with the independence of frontier communities just 80 years earlier which would have taken such a depression in their stride.

A decreasing fossil fuel supply will most likely mean a slowdown in economic activity as well a trend towards producing necessities such as food locally or regionally instead of relying on suppliers a half-a-world away. However, the transition will neither be quick nor smooth. This means that you need to prepare today to deal with possible shortages.

You can use the following links to go straight to the topics of most interest to you. The pages on Peak Oil are a good start for putting everything into context with the "big picture".

Individual Level

Unlocking the Food Supply

Homes

Off-the-Grid

Transportation

Community Level

Community Building

Eco-Village

Intentional Community

Cohousing

Local Economy

The Tapeworm Economy Exposed




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