Post by trollhunterx on Sept 5, 2010 21:58:02 GMT 1
To help kick things off with a variety of topics, I thought I'd add the one that I posted on the R4 Science board, before realising, 'Just A Minute'-style, that I'd deviated from the rules, and ringing my own buzzer. The extra scope this board will afford is going to be a real breath of fresh air...
Gaviotas and IT
Back in the mid-nineties, when I used to read newspapers like The Independent, and took a keen interest in ecology, I came to know, perhaps through a review, about a book called 'Gaviotas; A Village To Reinvent The World', by Alan Weisman. It told the story of a man, Paulo Lugari, and the community he inspired in los llanos, an inhospitable region in Colombia. He and his colleagues wanted to prove that people could live in the harshest of environments, because with a surging global population, this could become a necessity.
In the process, they developed several innovations in sustainable technology, such as an ultra-efficient water pump, solar heating systems which worked in the rain, and no-soil crop systems. The ultimate consequence of their efforts was the inadvertent regeneration of the rain forest.
The book, when I acquired it, lived up to the publicity. However, a couple of years later, when I was more familiar with the internet, and Googled for more news of Gaviotas, it seemed to have vanished from the media. I wondered if the FARC rebels who, on at least one occasion, had entered the village but left the 'Gaviotans' in peace, had finally drove the pioneers from their land. It was depressing to think that the initiative might have failed. Particularly as Intermediate Technology - an idea proposed by by E.F. Schumacher in his seminal book, 'Small Is Beautiful', whereby the technology utilised in developing countries should be commensurate with the capabilities of the natives, and in harmony with the environment that they understand better than any foreign scientist - seems also to have gone the way of the Dodo. I understand that Schumacher's IT Institute still exists, under a different name (IT having come to mean something rather different these days), but it doesn't seem to have much influence in the scientific community.
So my question would be, where is the incentive for the proportional, 'human-sized' development Fritz Schumacher espoused, when the need for it is ever-increasing?
Though I may have spoken too soon. I took another Google for Gaviotas, and my efforts were better rewarded this time. I've actually come across a link for the text itself. It's well worth a look, although I would recommend skipping to Part II for the meat of it, maybe even Part III (The Tools) if you *really* in a hurry:
Gaviotas - Google Books
It's a little like 'The Fates of Nations', but hopeful, rather than ultimately depressing.
Note: I noticed after posting my original topic that the Google link only provides the first 107 pages of the book. It still makes a great taster.
Further note: rather more annoyingly, I see that Google actually remove pages, sometimes 3 or 4 at a time, sometimes more, within the sample. Not such a great taster
Gaviotas and IT
Back in the mid-nineties, when I used to read newspapers like The Independent, and took a keen interest in ecology, I came to know, perhaps through a review, about a book called 'Gaviotas; A Village To Reinvent The World', by Alan Weisman. It told the story of a man, Paulo Lugari, and the community he inspired in los llanos, an inhospitable region in Colombia. He and his colleagues wanted to prove that people could live in the harshest of environments, because with a surging global population, this could become a necessity.
In the process, they developed several innovations in sustainable technology, such as an ultra-efficient water pump, solar heating systems which worked in the rain, and no-soil crop systems. The ultimate consequence of their efforts was the inadvertent regeneration of the rain forest.
The book, when I acquired it, lived up to the publicity. However, a couple of years later, when I was more familiar with the internet, and Googled for more news of Gaviotas, it seemed to have vanished from the media. I wondered if the FARC rebels who, on at least one occasion, had entered the village but left the 'Gaviotans' in peace, had finally drove the pioneers from their land. It was depressing to think that the initiative might have failed. Particularly as Intermediate Technology - an idea proposed by by E.F. Schumacher in his seminal book, 'Small Is Beautiful', whereby the technology utilised in developing countries should be commensurate with the capabilities of the natives, and in harmony with the environment that they understand better than any foreign scientist - seems also to have gone the way of the Dodo. I understand that Schumacher's IT Institute still exists, under a different name (IT having come to mean something rather different these days), but it doesn't seem to have much influence in the scientific community.
So my question would be, where is the incentive for the proportional, 'human-sized' development Fritz Schumacher espoused, when the need for it is ever-increasing?
Though I may have spoken too soon. I took another Google for Gaviotas, and my efforts were better rewarded this time. I've actually come across a link for the text itself. It's well worth a look, although I would recommend skipping to Part II for the meat of it, maybe even Part III (The Tools) if you *really* in a hurry:
Gaviotas - Google Books
It's a little like 'The Fates of Nations', but hopeful, rather than ultimately depressing.
Note: I noticed after posting my original topic that the Google link only provides the first 107 pages of the book. It still makes a great taster.
Further note: rather more annoyingly, I see that Google actually remove pages, sometimes 3 or 4 at a time, sometimes more, within the sample. Not such a great taster
