News

Conference studies sustainable living

By Matt McEntee

Posted on Dec. 09, 2004, at 12:00 a.m.

Last Thursday, a conference was held at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast to promote the ideas of sustainable living, ecovillages and ecopeace. Speakers came from as far away as the United Kingdom and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

There are some six billion people in the world, according to the United States Census Bureau. Concern over population growth was expressed by Emily Markides, a professor from the University of Maine who spoke at the conference.

“We are all in one boat and the boat is sinking,” Markides said.

As a response to this problem, organizations are springing up all over the world in an effort to promote sustainability.

Sustainability is the concept of living in such a way that we can exist indefinitely without causing damage to or depleting the environment, Markides said.

Roger Kelley, another speaker at the conference, stressed the importance of sustainable living given our current world population.

“[It is] the only way 6 billion people can survive,” Kelley said.

In various locations around the globe, sustainable communities are beginning to pop up. In Scotland, a village known as Findhorn is one such example. Recycling and reuse are a part of life in the community and several of the living structures have been built from discarded whiskey barrels.

New technologies are also being pioneered and put to use. “Living machines,” as they are called, utilize organic processes to treat wastewater. After the treatment, the resulting water is at a higher standard than the local water.

Another similar community can be found in southern India. Built on a barren landscape, In Auroville, described by one observer as resembling the surface of a dying moon, inhabitants used plants to revive the land. The settlement features a cafe capable of producing 1,500 meals each day using steam generated by heat from the sun.

Daniel Greenberg said one of the greatest benefits of these villages is that they provide a laboratory for new ideas.

“People think to get through this we’ll have to live in caves eating straw,” Greenberg said.

He added that in many ways sustainable lifestyles would offer a higher standard of living.

Greenberg is the executive director of Living Routes, an organization which offers college level, accredited courses at ecovillages worldwide to give students the resources to live in a sustainable manner.

Steps are being taken on a local level as well. In Stockton Springs, UMaine students from the Peace Studies Program are renovating a barn to convert it into a sustainable living center. Closer still is Ayers Island in Orono, which is being considered for sustainable living projects by Claudia Lowd, one of the organizers of the conference. The idea is fairly young, according to Claudia.

“This has all been newly formulated,” she said.

Initial plans include working out a lease with the current owner of the island and possibly building a composting toilet and solar shower. Lowd has larger plans for the island, which is currently designated as a “brown field site,” meaning it is polluted.

“We’re thinking of a green industrial park,” Claudia said.

Lowd hopes to renovate existing buildings and help restore the island, which was once home to a paper mill. Some of her goals for the island include cleaning up the abandoned industrial site, and educating people about green industry. Lowd predicts that the island could be a resource for the community.

“The first benefit [of the project] is to take a really beautiful place on the planet that is tainted and blighted and bring it back to a beautiful spot for the whole community to use and then teach others how they can do that in their own back yard,” Lowd said.

Lowd and others are confident about the future.

“We’re moving forward,” she said

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 9th, 2004, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.