Re: [GBlist] house thoughts

[Sarah Holland/David Foley <hollandfoley@acadia.net>]

on 01/09/2002 7:47 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?

Dear Patricia,

Thanks for considerate and well-expressed thoughts.  You're not far from the
idea of an "ecological footprint", first explored by William Rees at the
University of British Columbia (I think).  You might also want to take a
look at "The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices", by
Michael Brower and Warren Leon.

I think I was once in a place where folks had the "statistical average"
amount of resources - the island of Chiloe, in southern Chile.  Compared to
our lives, things were pretty hardscrabble there, but - everyone had enough
to eat, had a basic shelter, work to do and almost everyone was literate.
(In fact, I think they were better educated than many of my fellow
Americans.)  Parents had children in the expectation that they'd live to
adulthood, and family ties seemed very strong.  The basics were covered, and
folks there seemed as happy, healthy and well-adjusted as anyone I know here
- perhaps more so.  Being there helped me realize just how much of my own
life is just clutter.  I'd like to go back there someday.

I'm writing this lovely philosophy on a several thousand $ computer system,
while the CD player drones in the background.

Hypocritically yours,

David Foley
-- 
Holland & Foley Building Design L.L.C.
232 Beech Hill Rd.
Northport, Maine 04849 USA
p: (207) 338-9869 f: (207) 338-9859 e: hollandfoley@acadia.net


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