Sustainable living in cold climates is a real challenge. A lot of these sustainability sites are very inspiring but their plans and ideas must be greatly adapted before they would work in a cold climate.
Basically, we know that it is possible to live sustainbly in cold climates if we live in relatively small numbers and live semi-nomadically (i.e. no long term premanent structures). We know this because people lived comfortable, sophisticated lives here, in this manner, for a good thousands of years.
What isn’t clear is- is it possible to live sustainably in a cold climate when you have a fairly large population and/or that population want to have an agriculture/urban life style. This is the question we must answer today because the majority of people living in cold climates today would not consider other kinds of lifestyles.
What I believe this means is that we need cold climate permaculture. Which
means that we need take permaculture concepts pertaining to housing,
planting and animal rearing and make them work for a cold climate. And by
that I mean- a climate that does not permit traditional agriculture for 9
out of the 12 months of the year. Now that’s a challenge.
posted at 12:22 on Wed, 26 Nov, 2003 |
path: /living
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