Are designer eco-homes more environmentally friendly than not building them?
As Scott Adams says:
The greenest home is the one you don't build. If you really want to save the Earth, move in with another family and share a house that's already built. Better yet, live in the forest and eat whatever the squirrels don't want. Don't brag to me about riding your bicycle to work; a lot of energy went into building that bicycle. Stop being a hypocrite like me.
I prefer a more pragmatic definition of green. I think of it as living the life you want, with as much Earth-wise efficiency as your time and budget reasonably allow.
Is the well-heeled greenie not unlike Marie Antoinette, tending her washed (and "heavily perfumed") sheep in a sylvan fantasy?
I'm only jealous, of course. I can't wait to join the middle-class lotus eaters, as soon as my Lotto ticket pays out the Big One.
Absolutely. The carbon footprint of a Western person, whether they are 'environmentally aware' or not is almost identical. Environmentalists live in centrally heated houses, drive cars, buy electronic goods, and eat food produced using fossil fuels, just like everyone else. They convince themselves they are 'saving the planet' by separating their rubbish into different boxes, having a compost heap, growing a few manky veg in their garden, and buying a Toyota Prius.
ReplyDeleteIf you were serious about it all you would live in as small a house as possible, use as little electricity as possible, eat only what you could produce yourself, and travel nowhere. A very frugal and bare existence.
Oh, and probably most important of all, have no kids. Because population growth is the biggest cause of increased energy consumption.
Sobers - you are correct, but are fighting several million years of primate evolution.
ReplyDeleteSackerson - I just do my best not to waste things, not that it makes much difference in the scheme of things.
Is the well-heeled greenie not unlike Marie Antoinette, tending her washed (and "heavily perfumed") sheep in a sylvan fantasy?
ReplyDeleteOh, when you wax lyrical, Sackers ...