modeling a directionality
It’s been expressed that we build ecovillages in order to model how people should live — i.e., live ecologically responsibly while providing communitarian support to people.
Well, Ted Trainer wants to see us live extremely lightly and technologically very simply. But, Ted, if one is of this culture it’s very hard to leap “from here to there” . . . in other words, for most people it’s disorienting to be asked to live so radically differently from what one is used to.
Ted would look at the EcoVillage at Ithaca and say that the ecological footprint is still too substantial. He’d say that we need to reduce energy consumption by 90% relative to the American norm, but at EVI they are able to reduce it by only 40%.
He’s got a point, but I think the response to that kind of criticism can be: It’s not possible to leap so far so fast. Our perspective on how lightly we’re able to live, if not enough in absolute terms, is enough, for now, in relative terms. So rather than saying that we’re modeling how to live, we can say that we’re modeling a direction to go in. It will take something of a journey in that direction to ultimately arrive at a point of fully righteous, regenerative, and sustainable lifeways.
