Re: [GBlist] house thoughts

[Kirsten Flynn <kir@declan.com>]

on 1/9/02 4:47 PM, Tawney, Patricia - PNG-1 at pjtawney@bpa.gov wrote:

> What about not worrying about what we have, but what we might expect?  What
> are the resources that the world has available on an average day and what
> would be our share (based on an average world population).  Whatever our
> share is - we could then determine what size of home you might build with
> such a share.  Share of wood, share of metal, share of paper, share of stone
> etc. that are produced everyday.  Bet even the smallest of our homes are
> using far in excess of our share of the world produce.  Especially when I
> include the place I work, the malls I shop in, the roads I drive on etc.
> But when you understand this number and you can then appreciate that for
> every extra piece I use up, someone else goes without.  We deal everyday in
> our work with the technical choices, we often over look the human impact
> implications of those choices.  Anyone have these numbers?  What's my share?
> How much am I really using.  How much should I give back?

One thing I can say about this space requirement thing is this: In the words
of the Rolling Stones, 'you can't always get what you want, but if you try
sometime, you just might find you get what you need"

Many of us in the US culture are so spoiled, and so myopic about that fact,
that we so easily confuse want and need (myself completely included).  I
complained to my husband the other day that we had to share the desk in the
study/guest room/library.  "Why should I have to move my I-book to the desk
every time I want to work on the computer"  He said patiently, "because our
house is not endlessly large"  Big head slap for me there.  I have an Ibook,
I have a guest room, I have a dedicated area for a desk, I don't have to use
my lap, or my kitchen table,  I have electricity, and I have really more
than I need.  Yes I cannot use my library when I have a guest, and I have to
store my files under a bed, and I share my desk space with my husband and
oldest child, but we are not talking about life threatening problems here.

What do we need? Space to sleep, eat, socialize.  I NEED space to read,
somewhere to work, and to have guests.  That's about my personal need list,
and to be honest the last three are probably wants.  It is so easy to allow
your wants to migrate into your need list, and in this culture of plenty
(for some of the population) there is a lot to want.

It is in human nature to want more, and I don't think we can change that.
However, and this is the one thing that I think these overdeveloped "green"
houses for the rich might be able to do for this, what we want is highly
influenced by what is cool.  If we make it cool to live simply, more people
will do it, partly out of good intentions, but partly by the influence of
the peer group that we wish to emulate.  In this country that is almost
always the rich and famous.  So I would love to see an ecological house on
MTV cribs, Even if it has too much space.

Kirsten Flynn        Kir@declan.com          650-855-9464
-- 
The typical person in the United States needs about 12 hectares of land to
support his or her lifestyle. If everyone on earth lived the way we do, it
would take three planets to support them. We've overshot our footprint.
--Sim Van der Ryn 


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