We WILL NOT run out of resources!

This should be a required mantra for people to say everyday. *We WILL NOT run out of resources. We have EVERYTHING we need here on Planet Earth*. Repeat three times. etc.. etc.

Of course in our world of today this statement is not true. We are consuming more than our fair share of resources and we also have a strict tiered hierarchy where the very few get most of the spoils, i.e. 1% of people own 20% of the World's wealth.

Many in the Green movement cry foul at the sheer quantity of people in our world and say that we are doomed to failure due to the size of our populations. I for one do not buy into this argument and scarcity thinking. I firmly believe we do have enough resources for the people of the world; the problem is that we have no idea how to distribute the bounty from the earth fairly.

If so few get so much it means that the average person never feels like the world is a fair place. They may have employment and an income but they are always fearful that some outside influence (a boss, a recession, outsourcing) can take that job and income away from them. So their physical representation of the Earth's bounty (i.e. monetary income) is not guaranteed in their minds. Therefore we do not have trust among the many that we will always be looked after. The upshot of this is that we will try to hoard resources and will do whatever it takes to get rich quick to beat this scarcity mentality. It explains why we have all accepted the notion of the free market economy for so long. We see that 1% with so many of the spoils of the Earth and believe that one day it could be us.

However what is a far better solution all around is if we have the absolute faith and know that we ALL can access the resources of the world (through physical manifestations like money) whenever or wherever we need them throughout our lifetimes. The best way to do this is to form local communities and to use those communities as springboards towards true sustainability. One proactive step to take is to set up bartering systems within those communities. Straight away we start to take some of the power away from the current economic system and start to get security in our lives. Therefore, even in recessionary times we have enabled ourselves to "earn resources" from the earth that no outside influence can take from us. After all bartering of goods and services keeps "resources" flowing freely through a community without monetary transactions.

I am NOT advocating a return to a socialist regime that was supposed to advance a fair society for all. In that system the few again exploited the resources of the Earth and further exploited the masses. It never met it's intended goal. However if we all take our individual power back and align into strong local communities then we can start to implement solutions in our lives that can force a natural re-distribution of the Earth's resources. Bartering in our local community is a strong step in this direction.

If we barter it means we are not forced to earn bigger and bigger sums of money in the wider economy to pay for the goods and services we normally outsource. Now instead we could possibly get those from our local economy. As an example we may need plumbing services that would have cost us 5K traditionally. Perhaps we can now request those services (if available) in our local economy. These services will be assigned a points ranking. We now owe the system this value of points. The corollary is that the plumber who did the work has built up this value in credits. The Key thereafter is that I do not owe him the points directly. I have my own skills, labour and talents that I can offer others (or the plumber). I will need to offset his work to me over time to the community. Since I am performing my own unique skills and services it means I can offer them to the community at a time of my choosing. The plumber can also "draw" from his credits too, either from me or from others in the community.

The upshot is that we create a circular movement of goods and services but are NOT paying excessive fees to the outside "market" economy. This has the desired effect of meaning we need to work less and have shorter working lives in the wider economy. Of course this frees up even more time to work in the local economy. Over time we can envisage a future where our current totally unsustainable economic model is de-leveraged by the growing influence of thriving local community economies.

We then start to experience true sustainability and also much fairer distribution of the earth's resources. This is because we can begin to TRUST that our goods and services will always be needed and that we can trade and work our way sustainably and securely into the future years. No longer can recessions/outsourcing/bosses etc. decide our faith on a whim.

Of course all of this coupled with advancing self integrity will mean that we can start to imagine a future where we do not abuse the natural resources of the earth. If we learn to trust as above it means we will inevitably end up with a far more mature relationship with the earth. Our integrity and trust combined means we will have a relationship with the world where we will only take what we need, when we need it. I believe that is when we will return to balance with the Earth.

Remember if we can change then we will NOT run out of resources, in whatever format we need them.

We don't need a greenfield site to build a sustainable community

There are nearly seven billion of us on the planet. In percentage terms, nearly all of those people are housed. People often think that to have a sustainable community means going "off-grid", i.e. buying up land in splendid isolation and building houses of straw bales, cob and having compost toilets.

But we can't all leave our current housing solutions and head off to the mountains to do this. First off there wouldn't be enough land and secondly it is not practical. So if we are to have sustainable communities we have to RETROFIT our current localities. While it is a noble concept to build a sustainable community from scratch it really can only ever be a showcase for what the rest of us should be doing.

Millions of people live in horribly unsustainable places, e.g. large tracts of suburbia surrounding Western World cities. This is the last place that one would think of as being sustainable. But these are the very places that sustainability can and will work.

These housing solutions are sprawled out to give everyone they own "plot of the earth". The car is King, as generally basic services like shops are at least one mile away. So we end up with people living lives of isolation in their homes, followed by commutes into and out of their developments in their cars. Life becomes a prison of the box, i.e. the house, car, office, factory, recreation buildings etc..

There are so many tools at our disposal to counteract the mess the developers presented us with.

Form community - 150 people or less, research shows that above this number people lose intimate contact and responsibility for each other.
Set up a local economy - barter. Have an honest appraisal of everyone's skills and talents, whatever they may be, from hanging pictures, through counselling others ,childcare, growing food to accountancy services. Agree a ranking system for each task and begin trading with each other. Preferably via online accounts (note this will be covered in detail in subsequent blogs).
Utilise individual and common land - One person or people from community can barter time and services to growing fruit/vegetables for community. Perhaps more people can barter for the preparation of these products into tasty meals for the tables of the community.
Investigate possibility of building shared building - try to decouple from maintenance fees for the housing development and perform this task among community on barter economy. Possibility then of using the money saved to get a collective fund to purchase materials to build community building.
People could work from this building - telecommuting, selling produce from community, having small shops for craft sales etc...
Integrate elderly into community - promote elderly integration rather than allowing people go on to scrapheap at age 65. They could be active members of barter economy, especially for child welfare as they are retired.
Bring pre-school childcare back into the community - childcare groups residing in individual houses or indeed in community building. Childcare bartered by community members. Retired people ideal here.
Alternative education of children - possibility of running Steiner type education models.
Breaking free of 9-5 working model in wider economy - community members to try and break free form clock driven work week. Negotiate for services rendered rather than time on the job. Then with the extra time saved (as one becomes more efficient if getting re-numerated for tasks rather than time) then suddenly much more time is freed up for the community and for the barter economy.

All of the above (and MANY more solutions) will be covered in greater detail in subsequent blogs and downloads. These are some of the very easy to implement (community building obviously is a longer project) and fast ways to start being sustainable in our local community.

The one thing we can do today is to start. Obviously we won't get 150 people in one day. Start with one other person and build from there. It takes just one other person to BEGIN your community. Then over time you can turn your dysfunctional isolating housing solutions into a truly vibrant community of people.

I don't want to be in community with him/her/them !

We all think this: How could we possibly imagine forming local community with those people from next door or even that crowd down the road. After all he/she/they have so many flaws, as does everyone really come to think of it!

Those days have to end. Our current society structures have engendered a sense of isolation. As a result we have become very discerning about whom we spend our time with. As we have grown individually we have watched many others who we feel do not meet our standards or indeed are not the kind of people we want to commune with.
But society is tearing itself apart as people are crying out for community. The "ice-olation" has become too much to bear. We are all beginning to feel strong stirrings and desires to form community. But how do we transcend our differences and make this leap? How do we find the strength, compassion, courage, patience, love, security and commitment to stand as strong individuals and yet be part of an even stronger, nurturing community?

TO me the ONLY answer is that we all have to finally face those demons, make an inventory of our shortcomings and overcome them in due course. We may feel superior and more enlightened than our neighbours, but chances are they have their own unflattering views of us. We all have our flaws. What is certain is that we cannot bring the more toxic of those into community. We need to be honest with ourselves, be ruthless and work through these issues. The past decade has exposed many skeletons in our world and has introduced a culture (thankfully) of people no longer being willing to live and wallow in their darker character traits. Society is advancing at an exponential pace. Our healing as individuals is happening, it is as if the older dysfunctional templates are not being supported anymore.

So the man who refuses to face his emotions and hides himself in his work, the woman who is exhausted to the point of desperation trying to be all things to all people, the elderly person draining their families for sympathy, the young adults refusing to grow up by hiding themselves in alcohol/drugs, and many more similar stories of peoples lives are all going to have to change. We cannot have strong community if we continue to lead unhealthy individual lives.

The brilliant news of course is that once we do form healthy local community we suddenly find that we will lose so much focus from the more narcissistic traits of our personality and our lives. This environment will promote a sense of collective responsibility, thereby acting as positive amplification of our better, truer, more loving selves.

Like the older ancient native cultures (e.g. Native Americans), we will find our joy in community. It is no coincidence that in those cultures depression was not something that was common at all. If people can believe in something bigger than themselves, namely the community, then it takes so much focus away from their individual problems. Those small nagging problems can never take root, fester and grow into bigger problems when they are getting shared and sorted collectively.

We shouldn't though beat ourselves up for the way society has evolved over the past 100 years. It is a fact that prior to that the community was central to peoples lives. During that time we had intimate understanding of our local environment but not of the wider world. In the 20th century a culture of exploration and seeing the world set in (e.g. massive immigration to the USA). Unfortunately this led to our isolation. While we saw the world, learned so much, especially about other cultures etc., it ultimately led to the point where people became very unhappy.

I now believe we have reached the turning point. We are meant to go back to our local communities, to find true purpose and joy in our lives. However the fantastic news is that we can do so with the vast knowledge we have gained from the wider world. We are coming full circle, back to where our ancestors were but with so much more knowledge and information. We can have all our needs met in the local community, but thanks to technology like the Internet, we can also have the world at our fingertips. No longer should we search wide and far for the holy grail, i.e. the one city, country, house, suburb etc.. that will be perfect. Where we are today is perfect. It can be our very own city of Gold.

And you know what, him/her/they down the street are probably lovely people......

Introduction

No matter where we live I firmly believe we can create heaven on earth in our local community. Our immediate environment should be able to meet most (if not all) of our needs and should hold us in a promise of security, plenty and healing from cradle to grave.

All modern day housing solutions promote a sense of isolation and competition. We live in close proximity to each other but fail to share any of our joys,woes, fears or success with one another. We shut our doors and often try to face life with just the help of those within our own four walls.

The western world of present has taught us to believe we don't need our community and if we do need any outside assistance we tend to just purchase it from a third party.

Life has become a repetitive existence for many that is lived out in a series of boxes of isolation; from our houses to our cars, from our offices to our shopping malls.

However we can RETROFIT our lives and our housing developments. We can turn our houses of isolation into homes of warmth and sharing as part of vibrant, thriving, life affirming local communities. The chance for change is here. We can turn our lives around and create our very own cities of gold, or even our own little peace of heaven on earth.