These projects are like small bubbles of social experimentation and invention, and some of them have done truly remarkable work in developing holistic systems that radically reduce ecological impacts, while maintaining (and even increasing) the quality of life for their members. One of the main examples I profile is Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri, whose members are living on roughly 10% of the US average of resources in multiple key areas--and that's about the number we need to be shooting for if we really want to get a handle on climate change.
Solar technology, bikes and shared amenities like the common house and shared cars. We have all the technology we need to solve the climate crisis. credit: Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage
(Image by courtesy of Ma'ikwe Ludwig) Details DMCA
JB: Are those folks in Missouri stuck sitting in the dark and eating raw vegetables? Is it possible to accomplish such a feat (and 10% of the average resources is a mighty low number) and not miss out on everything that we love? What can you tell us about this community?
ML: Well, that's the big fear, isn't it? That living sustainably, or on fewer resources, essentially means taking ourselves back to the Stone Age. And that fear is really, really primal and understandable for people because we've lost our ability to do some very basic things like feed ourselves.
But that isn't the reality I'm talking about. Life at Dancing Rabbit (and in the other places I profile, including Twin Oaks Community in Virginia, and the whole country of Bhutan) is a really good life. At Dancing Rabbit, there is electricity, running water, internet, abundant food, access to cars when you need them, warm places in the winter, and cool places in the summer. It's a modern life in many ways, and really quite comfortable.
But they also have what most of us in the US are missing, and that is tremendous social support and engagement. We look at poorer countries and those are the only images we have for low resource consumption, and we get scared off by the lack of material possessions and wealth. But what we don't see in the images that make the international news, or in statistics like gross national product used to measure "health," is the deep sense of community and cultural coherence that is frequently present in those other countries and is actually how people are surviving.
In this way, your average American is actually a lot poorer than people in the most of the "developing" world (a term which is laden with arrogance, as if our lifestyle is the end-all be-all of human evolution), and you can see this in our ever worsening mental health statistics in the US.
What Dancing Rabbit shows us is that this isn't an either/or and in fact, cooperation and community are a big part of why that community works so well. And in contrast, the statistics on life satisfaction and happiness are actually really good in communities like this.
JB: Fascinating! But aren't these communities really just outliers? Are they destined to remain great examples lived by only the very few or are they catching on?
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