I almost think this is a scam....a housing development with a green veneer:
from their website:
"The overall vision of Armstrong Creek Community is preserving the delicate balance of the natural environment with farming activities and a thriving community. Potential residents are individuals and families who are seeking a close-knit "green" community as an alternative to typical commercial developments.
Building a beautiful community using environmentally sensitive construction methods,
sustainable building materials and technologies is our commitment to our children's legacy."
what you get when you click on "sustainability":
The following is from a discussion by Phil Hawes, chief architect of Biosphere II in Oracle, AZ...
"Sustainability", when considering a total culture, must be seen as that culture's ability to continue the activities it is engaged in to provide food, water, clothing,
shelter,
energy, health, transportation, education, and so forth, for its members over an extended time period, such as thousands of years, without destroying or seriously compromising the environment which supports the culture.
Sadly, there is, almost no endeavor which early 21st. Century industrialized peoples do that can continue indefinitely without serious irreversible resource depletion and environmental damage.
Sustainability of human activity has also been well-defined as:
"Sustainability is the integration of human settlements together with nature so as to meet the requirements of humanity in ways that preserve, upgrade, enrich and evolve the biosphere." (From "With Earth in Mind", by David Orr,)
There are some forty other definitions also being used, misused, and debated.
Also, the word "ecology" implies sustainability, since the meaning of ecology is essentially "the rules of the household", and our greater household is the planet itself with its sphere of life and the products of life, the biosphere. Dictionary definitions of "sustainability" generally focus on the idea of: "holding up or supporting without degradation or failure, over an indefinite time period."
Regardless of which one of the definitions is chosen, the inescapable conclusion is that to actually become sustainable, human culture must be able to continue doing whatever activity they are engaged in for very many years, without destroying the environment.
Sustainability does not necessarily imply self-sufficiency. They are quite different conditions and independent of each other.
The greater the degree of self-sufficiency a community has with respect to any activity, resource, or product, the easier it becomes to track and calculate the degree of sustainability with respect to those resources, or products in question.
Self-sufficiency does not mean that a community would produce all of its needs, or consume all of its products. It means that the community functions are balanced in a productive interchange within its own parts and also with other communities. Such a community would be viable, renewable and stable over time, can be seen as historically authentic.
With imported items it is necessary to try to gather data in order to calculate what people, or companies, outside the
local community are doing with their wastes generated by manufacturing, or processing things which have been imported, and are being used, or consumed by the local community. This can be very difficult.
For example, to determine whether the making of a wool sweater has been done sustainably, there must be a thorough investigation of the energy and methods used to raise the sheep, shear, card, spin, dye, wash, weave or knit the wool. Also, addressed in such calculations are the methods and by-products of producing the dyes, transporting raw materials and finished goods, as well as the energy and materials used in advertising, packaging, transporting, marketing, and retailing the final product.
When closely examined, it is difficult to find any current growing, processing, manufacturing, or marketing activity which can be sustained without seriously degrading or destroying the environment within which it exists.
If a quest for sustainability is a valid goal, we live in a time of great concern, as there is almost no aspect of human endeavor, anywhere in the modern world, which is conducted from this sustainable paradigm. We have a long way to go to reach this goal.
There are semantic pitfalls present in any attempt to briefly define a complex concept. When trying to "do the right thing" ecologically, it is only possible to work with what seem to be "ecological truths". We always need to hope that the information available to us is actually valid, and that the facts we have are understood correctly. We are all familiar with the phenomenon in the history of science where today's truth becomes tomorrow's absurdity. (i.e., "Heavier than air flight is impossible!")
This, then, is the challenge of the word "sustainable" as applied to human activity and human habitation. Can we do "sustainable" and can we do it quickly
enough. What will we be forced to give up from the last 10,000 or so years of human effort? Will we give them up intelligently, willingly, and gracefully? These are the critical issues of our times."
wha?
