A green way of life... That is what we must achieve in order to ensure the continued survival of all life on this planet as we know it. We must not put the burden on our children, or our children's children to clean up the planet! The sooner we get proactive, the sooner the world changes. Green is a concept which is hard to fit into everyday life. The drive to work, the elecricity used at home/work, the tremendous amount of pollution generated to produce the products we "need" for everyday life... while all of the above increase daily, compounding more and more pollution - devastating our otherwise pristine planet. How can we possibly escape this madness???? Proactively adressing this problem does not involve decreasing or comprimising... it can only be adressed by elimination. As long as the world relies on polluting sources, pollution will exist. Pollution is not an acceptable model of life... it is destructive and its burden remarkably significant to the entire planet for decades to come. Our very existence is threatened.. we cannot accurately predict the effects pollution will have on the planet... we can only observe. We can no longer observe the decay of the earth! To live green is to live in harmony with nature. Previous thought believed this to be impossible - short of rejecting the last 1000 years of technology, or spending a fortune. Its time for us to come together and make something happen. Its time to develop a model community for all of the world to accept and adapt... so that we may strive to improve the quality of life for all of the world. I'm not talking an extravegant middle of a giant city development... I'm talking about cheaply developed cheap land. Developed by the community itself! With the contribution of everyone, we can build and fund the community ourselves. This does not have to be a daunting or expensive task - modest, smartly engineered houses and infrastructure built by the volunteer labor of the entire community will make it a reality. Construction isn't so tough, as long as everyone is dedicated to doing the best job possible! The houses themselves must be as green as possible. It is not expensive to build a modest house that is self sustainable... ask yourself how much space you need... how much power you need... heat/cooling etc. The basic idea is outlined here: http://www.epa.gov/greenkit/index.htm I'll put it into roughly estimated financial terms... assuming 20 individual houses. 5 acres, 20 plots, .25 acre each... thats plenty! Just as an example... here is a plot outside of louisville, actually quite close... reasonably priced: http://homes.realtor.com/search/lis...d47f93a&lid=1089388093&lsn=1&srcnt=283#Detail Obviously land can be had cheaper, depends on location. That right there is close enough to a metro area to still be very convienent. With a nice carpool getting to work would be cheap and easy, even with a 1+ hour commute. No I'm not suggesting that plot, I'm sure there is much more suitable out there Say ~$75k for land. A rough one-off estimate for constructing each house would be ~40k... of course it will likely be cheaper given the incredible buying power we would have!!!! This is how a community built, community funded project is cheap. Not a shack, not a mansion... a decent ~1200sq ft living space that *you* can customize and build to your liking. After land/building costs/etc lets be a little extravegant and say $1 million bux. The larger the community, the cheaper it becomes for each resident. Online calcs tell me about $7000 a month/30yr assuming $0 down. Thats a whopping $350 per month for each person to have their own house... Assuming every house to have 2 residents and everyone pays $175 a month to live. Given the scope and nature of the community project, I think funding would come easy. I'm not talkin a shack, and I'm not talkin high class snooty... I'm talkin functional living space that is environmentally friendly... without "the man" sucking in huge profits! The idea is that nobody profits, everyone shares the costs equally. You can flip a couple burgers and live a comfortable life... the main investment is your time! We can most definitely make this happen, its this sort of progressive thinking the world needs. If nothing else, we live cheap and green amongst like minded people, in a community second to none. The concept of community is what is important. Community built means the costs are substantially decreased - for everyone! Especially in eco-friendly housing... the labor costs can be substantial. Anyone with the will to do it can construct a house, it just takes effort and thought. As far as who would own what, the community would be owned by a company, and rent paid to it. The company would be equally divided amongst everyone... but would have to be there for legal/financial reasons. All thats required are a group of dedicated individuals, who also have the skills required (or are willing to learn!) to build. Construction is not a daunting task... and with everyone helping, things can move swiftly. There is lots of talk on here about bringing the movement back, it'll never happen... etc etc... how about coming together to live cheaply while taking a step in making the world a better place? I'm serious about this... Who is willing to dedicate their time to make this happen? The financial burden is low... the work ethic must be high!!!!! Once applied, the ideals can be lead future projects... people just have to come together and help eachother work towards a common goal! At minimum, lets take this opportunity to discuss the feasability of such a project
I like the idea except a few things. I would be fine living in a shack... and I was pricing out land around me and I found 120 acres for $5000. (not as many trees though). I also found a small (yet nice) house and lot in a small hamlet (basically nobody lives in most the houses anymore) that was only $1700. It made me think of trying to save up some money and buy an entire hamlet. This one has around 10 houses so I thought it was reasonable (and even if a couple people wouldn't sell there houses it would be fine). It would probably be a good start for a community like this. Anyway I am only 19, and I have NO MONEY right now. So this is quiet impossible for me right now. Keep the ideas going. I dont understand why old hippies who are near retiring age now are not doing this all over.
