An ongoing collection of papers exploring some of the less familiar
dimensions of conversion to a sustainable society:
NEAHCASA, 2007.
Strategies our own CLT is using to transform the housing market and achieve 80% reduction in overall housing costs.SHOOTING PEOPLE, 2007.
How a digital camera can transform how we see ourselves and others.OH, NO! WE'VE BEEN ELECTED!, 2007.
Global warming requires more than just replacing our lightbulbs with more efficient ones. Here is what can be accomplished on a community level.WHAT IS TO GIVE LIGHT MUST ENDURE BURNING , 1978.
Loss, and grief, break us free from our rational world and plunge us deep into the interconnected consciousness from the realms of qi. The heart speaks.PLACES TOUCHING SPIRIT, 2006.
How our places can bring us into deeper connection with the rest of creation.SACRED ART, SACRED SPACE, 2006.
The different roles of art and architecture in a world where all is held sacred, and where the primacy of energetic realms is understood.LNG IMPORTS: Neither Safe Nor Wise, 2005.
At least 49 new LNG import terminals are proposed around the US - many near population areas. They hold potential for catastrophic accidents, can be major terrorism targets, and one of the least wise alternatives for meeting our energy needs. Wiser alternatives can be the first steps we can take locally to transition to a sustainable society.
ECONOMICS, ARCHITECTURE, AND BANKING 2003
The interaction of banking, economics, and architecture in sustainability.
GREEN POWER OR GREED POWER, 2002
When are utility-scale giant wind power plants "green", and when are just more of the same old greed?
TEN EASY PIECES, 2001
Ten first steps on a path away from terrorism, greed, and violence.
SEEK WISDOM, NOT VENGEANCE, 2001
The roots of terrorism are in our own history and actions as well as those of others
HOSPICE: Gateways of Life and Death, 2000
Acknowledgment and honoring of major elements of life transform the institutions we create to deal with them.
TERMINAL ED: Our Schools Are Dead, 2001.
Finding a ray of light for our public schools.
MIDNIGHT COMES: A Journey from Death- to Life-Centered Healing, 2001
A battle with mutant staph inflections, and what they say about our relationship to the rest of life.
A PRAYER FOR HELP, 1997
Leadership in transition to sustainability will come from the Third World as much as the wealthy countries. Our fears are largely what keeps us from that transition. Here is why we need each other's help.
IT'S OIL RIGHT, FOLKS! There's Good Times Ahead, 1996
Growth, greed, and inequity currently quadruple our cost of living. Why it's time, now, to let go of them, and why "technical fixes" won't work.
FUTURE WORLD OIL SUPPLIES: There IS a Finite Limit, L.F. Ivanhoe
WORLD OIL, Oct. 1995From industry statistics - when world oil peaks, depletes; strategies for wise use, false statistics. Outstanding intro to this issue.
A feeling for some of the non-economic benefits of a sustainable culture that are far different from those of a growth society.
THEIR POPULATION, OUR PROBLEM, 1996
Population is not someone else's problem. Why we tiptoe around the issue points to our own responsibilities.
THE IZU PRINCIPLES, 1994
A brief summary of the change-of-heart principles needed for sustainability.
ECO-BUILDING II, 1996
A succinct overview of the immense savings from letting go of the costly values of growth, greed, inequity, and violence. Some of the paradoxes involved if we capture those savings without first dealing with population, appetites, and our inner values.
SOME QUESTIONS WE HAVEN'T ASKED, 1996
A more extensive coverage of the issues in Eco-Building II, showing that the political actions needed involve little more than reversing some of the laws enacted in recent decades.
SHEDDING A SKIN THAT NO LONGER FITS, 1996
The head and the heart of letting go of things that don't help us any more, and a feel for what we find beyond.
SHARING SMALLER PIES, 1975
Twenty-two years old, but still an excellent introduction to the inversion in our operative values involved in becoming a part of a sustainable world.
COSMIC ECONOMICS, 1974
Growth, fueled by fossil fuels, operates on an "inversion" of values and successful practices from a sustainable society. What's now called a "Carbon Tax" originated in this article long ago, which warned of all the failure-shortcuts we're now trying, such as ethanol fuels that are not net energy producing.
BUDDHIST ECONOMICS, by E.F. Schumacher, 1966.
Schumacher's essay on the different kinds of economics which arise from different value systems was a profound breakthrough for me in understanding how to create a society worth living for. Here it is reprinted from my 1973 Environmental Design Primer. It appeared several years before, in Resurgence.
SIMPLE PRICES, 1996
A quick snapshot which illustrates how totally our values color our every action, and the magnitude of change implicit in small actions.
FINDING TIME, 1993
Another brief look at the impact of a different mindset in freeing and enriching our lives when we let go of maximizing acquisition of material possessions.
A different vision of what consititutes our real wealth, with a cluster of illustrations of how our surroundings change when we embrace more nurturing values. Text of top award winning entry in the 1993 AIA/UIA Sustainable Community Solutions International Competition.
THE HIDDEN COSTS OF HOUSING, 1983
Top award winning entry in the 1981 California Affordable Housing Competition. Shows that construction costs are small players in the lifetime cost of housing compared to energy and financing. Suggests strategies to reduce housing costs by 90% through unconventional approaches to the whole spectrum of housing costs.
BORROWING TROUBLE, 1993
Looked at over time, the real costs of repeated or ongoing borrowing escalate, while the benefits dwindle. Big savings here - personal, governmental, and business.
ENDGAMES, 1990
Overall costs of alternative courses of action include where they leave us in at the end. Twenty years of heating a house with natural gas leaves us with twenty years less reserves of gas. Heating with insulation leaves us at the end of the same period still having that twenty years of gas available, plus houses insulated to save heat for fifty or a hundred more years.
THE SACRED ROOTS OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN, 1995
A personal commentary on moving to enriching and nurturing patterns of living and working.
THE SPIRITUAL HEART OF SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES, 1993
Dealing with the diseases of the spirit that haunt our society, the essential role of a sacred basis to our lives and culture, and how the power of sustainability becomes expressed in cities of passion and life.
THE SHRINE OF THE MOUNTAIN AND THE WATERS, 1997
The importance of our surroundings showing that we value all of Creation, and what happens when we go about ensuring that it does.
Cohousing has demonstrated what is missing in our neighborhoods, and the will of people to regain it. It's time to put together what is needed for real neighborhoods, not just intentional housing groups.
RENTALLS, 1993
Some of the least visible yet most important elements and concepts for creating a transportation system providing more freedom, convenience, and quality of transportation than the automobile.
BUILDING VALUE, 1976
A few graphic reminders, from a study done for the California State Architect's Office, of different ways of valuing our surroundings and the importance of new concepts in our approach to sheltering our activities.