By Tom Braford
Climate change is happening now! Up to 25% of the country is expected to be underwater this spring, and the Midwest will be one of the hardest hit. Drought, flooding, heat waves, straight-line winds, tornadoes, wider and more erratic swings in temperature all are likely to be part of our future.
At Arizmendi Ecovillage, we are building in resilience by hardening our site against earthquakes and direct hits by tornadoes and building in ways to manage the micro climate at the site with extensive greenhouses, seasonally enclosable courtyards that rely on natural ventilation, an underground cistern and thermal labyrinth that will allow us to temper the seasonal swings in our weather that can seriously affect the health and comfort of people, plants and animals. The upside of all of this is that we are creating the kinds of verdant, safer, more livable environments that everybody wants anyway.
Imagine being out in a courtyard or other temperate zone on one of those 10-degree polar vortex winter days or on a one-hundred-plus day in July or August. Wouldn’t it be nice to have healthy air to breathe indoors and in the courtyards when outside heat inversions drive up ground level ozone in St Louis?
If your current living environment does not do that, you might be wondering why not. Do you think that should be a minimum design criterion and that we should all be thinking about adaptation and resilience while working to restore a livable climate for all? We certainly think so. And, someone has to lead. Someone has to say, I’m not waiting. We are those “someones” and we invite you to join us.
This is a Drawdown Ecovillage movement! Come be a Livable Climate Pioneer. Don’t let your children and grandchildren down; be a hero instead. It won’t cost you any more money than your current lifestyle and maybe less. You just need to be willing to buck the current trend of cynicism, resignation and denial and bring life and bring it more abundantly instead.
Contact: braford@sbcglobal.net
www.ArizmendiEcovillage.com