Utopian Frontiers: A Story of Hope by Drew Tapley

Author:Drew Tapley [TAPLEY, DREW]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781469024127
Publisher: Gildan Media Corporation
Published: 2013-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

“W E HAD TO RETHINK THE DESIGN of our cities and our homes,” said Barbara, “in a way that shifted the core relationship to our natural environment.”

“Wow! This is where you live?” asked Beth. “It’s like living inside a Leatherman. The whole house is a tool.”

“We have softened the impact of our city on the environment, and we promote positive urban lifestyles as our culture. It’s certain that the decline of many ancient settlements was due to their exhausting the surrounding natural resources they depended on. We’re not the only civilization to make mistakes. The difference is that we have the potential to learn from the mistakes of others. If history is not a lesson, then we have to question its use.”

“Well I teach it, so it’s got some use to me.”

“Do you teach about the Rapanui people of Easter Island?”

“It’s not in my curriculum anymore, but I once taught that cautionary tale when I worked at state schools.”

“That’s my case in point: a cautionary tale. The Rapanui consumed everything on the island like a swarm of locusts, until there was nothing left. We have our own way of teaching history in this city, and we apply it to what we’re doing, exploring the inventions and ideals of the past to see what could work today. Believe it or not, even the Nazis had some good technologies. It was their motivation and application that was abhorrent—and I’m quoting Marcus when I say that. His grandfather was gassed at Auschwitz. With our working model, urban homes are places to generate power, grow food, and be self-reliant. We have a community farm, about three miles away, where we get the foods we cannot grow and process here, like meat and poultry. I make cheese and wine, and grow all my own vegetables right here. The focus is on habitats that produce rather than just look pretty and consume resources.”

“You have a very unique weather vane on the roof.”

“It’s actually a wind generator. And I’m sure you’ve seen these photovoltaic solar panels before. They convert solar energy directly to electricity. The upper ones are thermosiphon panels, which heats the water in the house. We re-purposed the walls from a freight container, hung burlap over them, and sprayed them yellow. The roof housing contains a bunch of angled mirrors to refract natural sunlight into the house. You’re right, it is a tool. A multi-tool.”

“There’s a lot of thought gone into this house.”

“We simply paid attention to good old Mother Nature, looked at her design and her weather patterns, and worked to that system. We already had the technologies you can see in this house. It’s nothing new. We just needed to change our attitude to how we used them responsibly, and for better results. Otherwise it’s like… like—”

“Applying mascara in the shower?”

“Something like that, yes. Some of the best ideas are well connected to the past when we were ‘primitive’ and paid attention to nature. No doubt you’ve seen a lot of high tech stuff in this facity, but we don’t throw out the low tech with the bath water.

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