[Greenbuilding] Gaviotas

[Steve]

I've looked up at the stars for as long as I can remember, and have
always dreamed of going into space.. As a kid, I was near-obsessed
with the 1960s space race.. I built models of the Apollo craft, had
pictures on my bedroom wall of the Saturn V launching, the first
Gemini spacewalk, and of course Skylab and the ISS. I've read books
about huge space habitats, and have even written articles about how we
might go about terraforming other planets. But.. we need to clean up
our own mess here long before we even think about moving large numbers
of people off the planet, not to mention we also don't yet have the
technology to efficiently launch things into space. The idea of moving
humanity off the Earth is as pie-in-the-sky an idea as you can get.

Do I believe we'll take our first real steps out into space fairly
soon? of course.. we've been to the moon, we've sent probes throughout
the solar system, space exploration is inevitable. But.. we need to
learn how to live sustainably here before we spread our bad habits
elsewhere in the universe. Leaving Earth because it's too polluted or
resource-depleted is no different than one parent abandoning their
family because their home and/or family life isn't perfect, and we all
know how society in general looks upon people who do that.

Space exploration should be just that, exploration.. an exciting &
positive event, to further our knowledge of the universe... not to
seek a place to flee to because we've destroyed our home.

p.s. Gaviotas is a great book; I like it even more than his other
well-known book 'The World Without Us'. The world worked pretty well
before we came along, and will hopefully do so again after we're gone.

-Steve
-- 
http://www.greengeek.ca