Discuss: Running on Wind and Sun

Your article was good and your finale paragraph was GREAT - the cold hard fact is that none of this new talk about ‘Green’ is doing anything to change the overal level of energy comsumption in the U.S. or around the world.
  We need to change everything about the way we live - EVERYTHING.
    Good luck and continued good writing.  Dan

Nice article, thanks very much. But what about children - it doesn’t sound the kind of place where having children is as relatively easy as the burbs. Schools are one of the first considerations, and then medical facilities. It would be interesting to hear your views on the subject.

Excessive consumption holds hands with capitalism and our current culture.  I love how you get underneath and criticize the popular “green” culture that is only redirecting their consumption to products that are a tid-bit better for the biosphere.

This seems to me another, but yet quietly important part of my justification for simplistic ideals and lifestyles. Thank you for describing yet another step- that I have always believed, but have never seen in an article- in our path to sustainable futures.

I don’t blame the concept of capitalism - I blame the US version that is so focused on consumerism.  And our greatest sin is how so many billions of people around the world strive to copy our US way of life.
  Soon India will be putting a million new cars on the road each and every year - and yes they will be cheap little cars that spit carbon monoxide into the air unlike anything the earth can handle.  China will do everything it can to match our level consumption in housing, autos, energy and new pairs of shoes.
  My goal is to create a better example of how to live - right here in the US.

Great article…sounds like a little bit of back to the 60’s ....I have 12 acres in western PA…it’s not easy to establixsh a homestead with alternative structures, waste management, no connections to the utioity grid, etc…although all good ideas…but none will pass the building codes….and don’t forget the taxes on the land…have to sustain a decent income to pay those….we’re controlled by the state government and it’s rules and regs…all designed to protect us from ourselves…based on the state’s vision of what society should be…this is what needs changed…but it happens very slowly…unless we’re in a crisis mode….or the people as a whole make drastic changes quickly….we’re heading there…but there’s a lot of forces holding us back…as a planet, I believe we continue to evolve to a higher level….Keep the faith brothers and sisters..

Lovely article. Modern people are always in a hurry, that is why they invent various things for the purpose of saving time. And they do not think about the consequences. They are trying not to be late, for what? For what could one be late? I think, we`d better stop and look around. And maybe the things we will see, are those we have always been dreaming about.

Thanks to author. But to your considiration you have to understand that current style of our living was forming thousands of years. A agree with the fact, that our world is based on “consumerism” and in order to change, you have to change easily whole system of human being. However, nobody says of its imposiibility. Why dont you start from childhood, the phycological principles, “green” directed education in school, college and university and etc.
For sure, such global changes take many years, but if it goes one step further - it’s still good.
Good luck, author.

Dan makes a good comment. Going green will take a series of laws to be enacted. The point is we are a capitalist society and we need something in place to make us change. Of course we can still prosper by going green. We just need change