[Greenbuilding] 500 year old house

[David Seth Melchert]

Rob Vadurro wrote:

..."One observation I would like to ask the listers
what you think about is the fact that what I see around here in New
Mexico that most, if not all, the little towns contracting and sporting
derelict buildings aplenty. Many are (once) beautiful stone or adobe
built to last for hundreds of years, now un-used and in ruin."


Excellent observation. One of my perceptions is that the environmental crisis is rooted in the ways we think and identify with. In a sense it is a spiritual crisis, and it is you and me, just as much as anyone.

I do not carry the same occupation (builder) as my father (artist and professor) as his father (minister) as his father (farmer). I suspect that this is widely shared by all on this list. Through the generations we "do our own thing", "been there, done that", blazer trails - all themes that to one extent or other we hold dear. Yet it seems to me that it contributes to unsustainable living.

I cannot say I advocate innovation and societal change - far from it. But part of our work as green building pioneers is to address the paradox that the faster we seek solutions the more elusive they seem to become, and that some of the solutions reside within ourselves.

Seth Melchert
Oakland