The March Hare: Fall '05
Issue 43

Warming hearts and hands by the fire * The Flames of Fermentation: Low-cost Sustainable Heating Options * A Tale of Two Stoves: Firelight and Cob Cooking* Good-bye to My Darlin' (Rocket Stove) * The Evolution of a Winter Space * Systemic Shelter Change

Systemic Shelter Change
Half of all development present in the United States in 2030 will have been built after 2000.
Cecil Scheib asks: How can we help make ecologically sane choices in the midst of a building boom?

One of six bedrooms in a strawbale structure built to house members of Skyhouse community

In 1995, the concepts of building a home from straw bales or fueling a vehicle with vegetable oil were simply examples of absurdism to virtually all Americans. In the past ten years, things have changed. The outreach impact of a multitude of ecologically-focused organizations, Dancing Rabbit among them, has been tremendous.

Straw bale houses have sprouted up across the country, in a variety of climates. Biodiesel "gas" stations are opening in major metropolitan areas. These small steps, the appealing face of the ecological living movement, have become more commonplace––just as recycling did the decade before.

Despite these happy harbingers of a greener future, have things fundamentally changed? Americans don't drive fewer miles in 2005 than they did in 1995, nor do the cars they drive achieve overall higher fuel economy. Suburban and exurban sprawl continues to spread. The nation's reliance on fossil fuels, especially those imported from far away, is expanding.

Observing these trends can help Dancing Rabbit refine its outreach and education programs to be as effective as possible. It's unlikely that simply informing Americans about some different options––like building materials or vehicle fuels––will solve our ecological conundrums. The momentum of this country's ailing social ecology, consistently reinforced by the corporation/media team, regularly overwhelms attempts to change isolated parts of the system. In other cases, when these attempts do receive attention. they are often co-opted or distorted beyond recognition.

In truth, this is one of the reasons why the founders of Dancing Rabbit chose a rural location. The deck is stacked against trying to demonstrate significant change in the morass of anti-ecological codes and zoning that abound in the cities and suburbs.

If sprawl continues unabated, the unavoidable effects of this kind of development will swamp any countertrends that we can encourage. The dependence on automobiles isn't easily overcome once homes are separated from business by miles of sidewalk-free high-speed roadways. The energy wasted by inefficient housing will be much harder to stem through retrofitting than by building homes better in the first place.

These developments seem to stress the point that Dancing Rabbit needs to continue, and even strengthen, its efforts to demonstrate an integrated alternative. Promulgating drop-in replacements for current American lifestyle choices, like wind power that saves big utilities money while changing nothing for the end user, is part of the picture, but clearly there's much more to be done.

Skyhouse greywater treatment wetland during establishment

To effect real change, we need human-scale development. We need cities where people can walk to shopping, school, and work. We need neighborhoods where people know each other. We need gardening spaces around houses. We need denser development where there is adequate water to support growth. We need to buy our food locally instead of shipping it in from far away. We need to create less waste and fewer toxic byproducts, and close the cycle of consumer goods through reuse and recycling.

Each year, over 3,000 square miles of land are converted to residential development over one acre in size. Each of these sprawl-size lots costs $100,000 to provide with services. Additionally, half of all development present in the United States in 2030 will have been built after 2000! That means that 25 years from now, just about half of the buildings you'll see don't yet exist. The stakes are enormously high––but as a result, the opportunity to have an impact is similarly enormous.

What role does Dancing Rabbit play in this? It can both inform people of specific strategies for ecological living––like biodiesel and strawbale homes––and agitate for improved growth standards for future development, using appropriate parts of the ecovillage model.

Examples:

• Reach out to construction consumers across the nation. Decisions made by these consumers, whether for private homes or business, are affected by things they read, see on TV, search up on the internet, etc. Both homeowners and building contractors are often interested in "green" building, and observable real-life examples have far greater impact than a glossy product catalog.
• Partner with building organizations. We're a culture shaped by trends. Helping an eco-conscious developer could have a ripple effect like Sunrise or Celebration did. Dancing Rabbit can play a role on the larger stage by sharing the work with other organizations.
• Work for government and national building standards. Having an effect on mandated standards, by local and federal governments, or private standards-setting organizations is a definite goal. Again, Dancing Rabbit can be used as an example by others already working on these issues in the governmental sector.
• Choose specific key building components. Identify the most important factors, when multiplied by the millions of housing units that will be built over the next 25 years. This could have a stronger overall effect than building a generalized "eco-house" that is too different than what builders and homeowners are used to.
• Educate people in systems design, pattern languages, and village scale modeling. Dancing Rabbit can strive to truly change the pattern of growth, not just patch it by soldering ecological improvements to a broken model.

It's important to remember that Dancing Rabbit is far from alone in tackling these issues. We have the company of many organizations and individuals who realize that the effects of the next quarter-century of growth will not only have significant impact on the rest of our lives, but on those of our descendants as well. It's easy to be paralyzed by the size of the problem––but the opportunities for change are equally great.

Cecil is a founding member of Dancing Rabbit and a member of Skyhouse community.

Warming hearts and hands by the fire * The Flames of Fermentation: Low-cost Sustainable Heating Options * A Tale of Two Stoves: Firelight and Cob Cooking* Good-bye to My Darlin' (Rocket Stove) * The Evolution of a Winter Space * Systemic Shelter Change