Remaking Settlements Through the Simpler Way
* Report: REMAKING SETTLEMENTS: THE POTENTIAL COST REDUCTIONS ENABLED BY THE SIMPLER WAY. Ted Trainer. Simplicity Institute, 2015
Description
Ted Trainer:
""The conclusion the present analysis generally indicates is that we could live well on something like 5 - 10% of present Australian per capita dollar, energy and footprint cost, while greatly improving the quality of life and eliminating most global problems. However this would require huge change in the geography of settlements, economic and social systems, and attitudes and values. In my firm view the lifestyles and systems discussed below are highly attractive, and I would opt for them whether or not they were necessary. However they would be far more frugal than those which most people would be willing to accept today. They might be more austere than resource limits will force us to accept in future, so the following discussion might best be seen as exploring how resource-cheaply we could live well if we had to. It is important not to think in terms of simply reducing consumption or making existing systems more efficient. The Simpler Way is about new means to new goals in new systems, and therefore about a quite different conception of the good life, of the good society and of “development”. For instance conventional thinking about Third World development is locked into the conviction "