In January 1996, Ole and Maitri Ersson installed a rainwater catchment system in their Portland, OR, home. Two years later they received approval from the city to use this water for all household use, even as drinking water.
The results have been cleaner than city water, says Ole. They self-test the water twice a [...]
Ecovillages exist all over the place. These intentional communities involve people sharing resources and values of social, economic, and ecological sustainability.
Here in Portland, Oregon, there is one opening up within city limits, with the vision to be “an urban cohousing community creating caring, supportive relationships with each other, the larger community, and the earth.”
Columbia Ecovillage [...]
Check out this online comic strip about a city girl named Luz (Light in Spanish), who recognizes big changes coming with the scarcity and rising prices of petroleum.
The strip begins with Luz writing her list of “Skills We Need to Learn for Survival After Peak Oil”. She pictures herself collecting and purifying rainwater, transporting large [...]
I love this wholesome natural home, built “mostly from imagination, optimism, and rubbish!” Simon, who built it with the help of his father-in-law and some friends, did away with “the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings” and instead built a natural home into a hillside, which he describes as a “low-impact woodland [...]
Indigenous Permaculture provides free workshops about living in balance with the earth, based on ancient agricultural and community practices. In return for these free workshops, they ask only that participants do a project in their community for at least one or two years.
Topics included in the workshops are seed saving, garden strategies, planting and [...]
“The Real Green Revolution is about rainwater harvesting. Let us catch water where it falls. Let it transform human lives. Let it change social existence. If this happens, the world will be transformed. The world will merely be an agglomeration of ecological-rainwater harvesting-democracies.”- Anil AgarwalFounder-Director, CSEWith a worldwide water crisis coming upon us, many [...]
Imagine a group of kids planting fruit trees, listening to ancient drumming rhythms, and learning ecology lessons all at the same time. This is an image of Common Vision’s Fruit Tree Tours. This nonprofit’s mission is to spread ecological awareness and respect for the Earth, while inspiring sustainable lifestyles.
Blair Phillips, the founder of Common [...]
