Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

4 Designing ecological Habitats
and one-third of mineral items would be totally exhausted by about 2060.
The latest reports estimate that world oil supply will peak very soon, that
prices will rise steeply thereafter, and that supply will be down to one half of
the present volume by 2025. (Petroconsultants, 1995; Ivanhoe, 1996; Fleay,
1995). The scientists are saying that if we are to prevent the greenhouse
problem from getting any worse we must cut fossil fuel use by 60 to 80
percent. If we cut it by 60%, and shared energy equally with the 9 billion
people expected, everyone would have to get by on only about 1/18th the
amount Australians average today.
Many agricultural and biological indices of productivity or fertility seem
to be tapering to a peak, or to have fallen. It seems that we are reaching limits
to biological production; yet we are only providing high living standards for
about 1 billion people and we will soon have 9 billion (Brown, 1991, 1996).
In our view, considerations like this leave no doubt that if we are to
achieve a sustainable and just world order we must design and develop
settlements in which we can live well on levels of resource use that are far
lower than they are in rich countries today, possibly of the order of one-tenth
to one-twentieth lower, and we must reduce many environmental impacts to
zero. Thus we must add the following much more difficult and far-reaching
elements – ‘Dark Green’ in Harper’s terminology – to our checklist of
features and requirements to reach the potential for a real, full-featured, fully
sustainable ecovillage.
Developing Highly Self-sufficient Ecovillages
In the coming era of serious resource scarcity, especially of petroleum,
it is essential that we develop highly self-sufficient nations, regions, and
especially towns, suburbs and neighbourhoods. The essential element in the
new economy must be the ‘ecovillage’ – highly self-sufficient in its capacity
to provide goods and services. We need to use our land efficiently and
sustainably. We must pool our talents, skills, labour, resources and capital.
One of the main reasons for this is that transport will not be available at
today’s easy level for moving people to and from work and leisure, or for
the transport of goods. Local production will have the added benefits of
improved quality and freshness, and reduction in storage and packaging.
The greenhouse problem indicates that fossil fuel energy needs
to be drastically reduced. Only the development of such self-reliant
communities will find lasting solutions to issues such as unemployment
and deteriorating communities on the social level. There will always be a
need to import those few essential goods which cannot easily be produced
in small communities. Small manufacturing processes, modest sized
water storages, and careful use of resources like clay, wood and stone can
contribute to bioregional self-sufficiency.
We must take control of our finances. There are many examples which
show that local money can help support local development. Voluntary taxes,
LETS and related systems, working bees – all can enable us to build our own