Versammlung

"harvested themes from an ecocentric life" 

Some German ecovillages (Ökodorf) take their carbon footprint so seriously that they don’t allow computers or personal smart devices outside business or personal spaces, and there they have wired, not wireless, LANs. For inveterate cyberamphibian scribes like me, this can be a problem. As I tour from ökodorf to ökodorf this month, gathering stories, laughing at common foibles, and being inspired by each other, I’d love to share that with a wider audience.

At the Nature Community, a former hotel and hunting museum in Bavaria now remade as a mythical, magical, Black Forest ökodorf, more than 400 people arrived from all over Germany, Europe and the greater world of ecovillages for a week of music, dance, sauna, workshops and decisions. We had delegations from Vietnam, Tasmania, Korea, Brazil and many others I didn’t meet. On the final day I was asked to open the morning plenary with a short speech. I didn’t record it, so this is just from memory, but here is what I think I said.

Plenary Talk

The “elders of GEN” are actually elderly now. [Laughter] Ross Jackson is 90, Hildur has passed, Declan will be 92 next week, and Max and I are approaching 80.

When I was given the task, 30 years ago, of organizing a new network for experimental communities in the Western Hemisphere—North and South America—I took an approach I’ll call “the wide bridge.” I reached beyond the small footpath to existing ecovillages and extended our quest to broader definitions of shared interest. The Fellowship for Intentional Community. The North American Bioregional Congress. Consejo de Visiones. La Caravana Arcoíris por la Paz. The Utopian Studies Association. The National Historical Communal Societies Association (now Communal Studies Association). Associação Brasileira de Comunidades Autossustentáveis. The ecobarrios of Bogotá. The Permaculture convergences. These are “communities of interest,” natural allies, and to me, in 1995, they were fertile collaborations waiting to happen.

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Later, when the Transition Network formed in the U.K., we adopted their strategy in my home community of The Farm. The nearby city of Hohenwald, our local county seat of government, was founded by Swiss immigrants who came to build the railroads in the early 19th century. The name means “High Forest.” Our project, run through Global Village with a USDA Rural Development grant, set up an office in Hohenwald and organized workshops and events to reimagine and revitalize the city. Where buildings on Main Street had been abandoned and were falling into ruin, there popped up a new cafe, a display center for the Elephant Sanctuary, a history museum in the abandoned rail station, and a community theater. We hosted courses in permaculture and ecovillage design. In a large field, we made a community garden. Near the rail siding, we built a green industrial park powered by biochar co-generation. There was an annual heritage street fair, Sonnenshein, and a “Meriwether Lewis Pioneer Days.” The Chamber of Commerce issued a local currency. The town council passed a resolution declaring Hohenwald as Tennessee’s first Transition Town. State legislators were invited by the mayor to tour, judge design competitions, and take notes. This is what rural regeneration looks like, y’all.

A few years later, I was asked to visit the Dominican Republic to work on a rural regeneration project involving eco-design for three villages in a remote valley on the Northern Coast. We inserted some young people trained in permaculture there to live in the villages for a year and gather information and local support for the transformation. The villagers wanted to keep their traditional ways of fishing and farming but they very much wanted to have better access to medical care and a school for children. With their consensus, we created the Republic’s first eco-region, El Valle, covering 50 square kilometers. [Applause]

So you see, we go from Ecovillages, to eco-cities, to eco-regions. Eventually, eco-countries and eco-planet. Not by force, but with soft persuasion and example. By showing the way. This is the wide bridge. Ecovillages must not be scary. They shouldn’t present themselves as something that disturbs people, or governments, and provokes backlash. They should be fun.

In 1995, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that if nothing changed, then by 2100 the world would heat by 1 degree C. Well, something did change. Humans polluted more, and faster. Now the temperature is 1.5 degrees hotter. It will probably cross 2 degrees in the 2030s, maybe by 2035. By 2050 it could be 2.5. When we think about 2100, the outlook is even hotter.

I am now a great-grandfather. My great-grandson Jeremiah is one year old. I cannot imagine the world he will experience when he is my age.

What I am calling for now goes beyond ecovillage. We need cool villages. [Applause]

These cool the houses naturally with strawbale insulated walls, clay and biochar plasters and paints, and living roofs that work like natural air conditioners. We can reverse climate change with biochar/terra preta in our rooftops, our gardens and ponds, in our roads and buildings, and in our energy production mix.

But when we go out and talk to our neighbors about these things, we cannot be scary. We have to make it fun. Ecovillages have to be fun places. If it is not fun, no one will want to do it. I know I wouldn’t. [Laughter]

Living in an ecovillage is a better life. That is the message. You are very lucky to get to do this. Now go have some fun.

[Applause]

Touring Germany

I began this month with a visit to Flegessen, a remarkable example of citizen-led rural renewal, including participatory governance, repair culture, shared mobility, and a volunteer-run primary school and village cooperative shop. From there I went to Friedenshof Arche, a spiritual/ecological community influenced by Gandhi, Thích Nhất Hạnh and Benedictine traditions—simple living, shared economy, and peace-oriented communal practices, including making and using biochar. I then spent a week at Lebensgarten, where we held the triennial meeting of the International Communal Studies Association and I gave a paper on the neuropsychobiology of new media. From there we went to Schloss Tonndorf, ZEGG, and Sieben Linden. I am writing this from my first internet connection in some days, at Kommune Niederkaufung. From here we travel to Kommune Lebensbogen, then Schloss Tempelhof, Schloss Blumenthal and finally Munich, where I will depart for Iceland.

I hope to be able to pick up a few more morsels on this trip to share with you and perhaps also to find a hotspot so I can post those here.

 

Ökodorf Sieben Linden

Meanwhile, let’s end these wars. We support peace in Iran, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza and the efforts to end the war in Ukraine immediately. Global Village Institute’s Peace Thru Permaculture initiative has sponsored the Green Kibbutz network in Israel and the Marda Permaculture Farm in the West Bank for over 30 years. It will continue to do so with your assistance. We have a pipeline to aid in the West Bank that may only last a short time, so we appreciate immediate donations—right now.

We support Ukrainian families seeking refuge in ecovillages and permaculture farms along the Green Road, and we work to heal collective trauma worldwide through the Pocket Project. You can read about it on the Global Village Institute website (GVI.cool). I appreciate your support.

Could you help me get my blog posted every week? All Patreon donations and subscriptions to Blogger, Substack, and Medium are welcome. You are how we make this happen. Your contributions can be made to Global Village Institute, a tax-deductible 501(c)(3) charity. PowerUp! Donors on Patreon get an autographed book off each first press run. Please help if you can.

#RestorationGeneration.

Even when humans are locked in a cage, the Earth remains beautiful. Therefore, the lesson for us is that human beings are not necessary. The air, soil, sky and water are still beautiful without you. So, when you step out of the cage, please remember that you are guests of the Earth, not its hosts.

We have a complete solution. We can restore whales to the ocean and bison to the plains. We can recover all the tremendous old-growth forests. We possess the knowledge and tools to rebuild savannah and wetland ecosystems. Coral reefs rebuilt with biorock build beaches faster than the seas are rising. It is not too late. All of these great works of nature are recoverable. We can have a human population sized to harmonize rather than destabilize. We can have an atmosphere that heats and cools just the right amount, is easy on our lungs and sweet to our nostrils with the scent of ten thousand flowers. All of that beckons. All of that is within reach.

We now have our own merchandise store on Redbubble. Swing on in for the latest wearables and chachkas….

Thanks for reading! Everything expressed in this article is my opinion,