First, let's define what we mean by building green, and living green. That's easy, basically, we mean by that about what most people would imagine it means: Low footprint and utilization of resources, as healthy as possible, as close to nature as possible AND practical (being aware that the possible is not always practical), as as free of artificial chemicals and GMO as can be done, etc, etc...
This being said, how easy is it to build green and live green today?
Unfortunately, not that easy...
There are two principal sets of obstacles to building green, and living green:
The first one is knowledge, usually, the lack thereof, but often also, the illusions that pass for knowledge, that have no or very little anchoring in reality, unless we count as "reality" delusions-for-a-purpose, such as the ones sold by advertizing, anchorings that thrive by hypnotizing and ensnaring the human mind with beliefs, ideas, or even convictions that are simply have no factual basis.
The second set are the *practical* obstacles, from changing our ways of thinking, to learning to do things differently, and finally, actually doing things in a different manner.
At that level, the principal obstacle to building green and living green is probably government. Taking the form of rules and regulations, taxes, zoning laws, building codes, and the like.
In facing these types of very real obstacles, it stands to reason that the two classes of people most likely to be able to reach that ideal are the very poor, because they are in a position to simply ignore government, and since there is no juice to press out of a dry lemon, escape the potential consequences; or the very rich, because they have the wherewithals to go around obstacles, comply with byzantine requirements and "get the necessary permits", and, put it in the most general terms, pay their way through or out. Such a situation is nothing new, by the way. It is exactly what existed at the end of the Roman Empire, and it directly led to the success of the Arab conquest of the Southern part on the Empire in the VIIth Century. History repeats itself, and since we seem to always forget it, or never understand its lessons, we are clearly doomed to repeat it.
At any rate, at a practical level, it's the people in between very rich, and very poor, who have to truly use their wits to build green (which is often very simple, but definitely not "according to code") and live green.
In the series of articles we plan to publish here under the BGLG heading, we will try to explore all the relevant issues, and look at the ways some people overcomed the obstacles put in our way by contemporary society, and despite all managed to achieve some significant levels of green living, including living in green buildings.
[OG-BGLG00 V100-080924] Permalink: http://optimalgardens.blogspot.com/2008/09/bglg00-building-green-living-green-how.html
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