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"Live Lightly On the Earth"

Numbers can one gain perspective of the reality of our social and environmental health:

• The average size of a US house has doubled since 1949 to 2250 square feet.  (Listen to a related NPR story here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5525283) or Read the Los Angeles Times article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/topofthetimes/national/la-na-mcmansions23jul23,1,5997419.
  story?ctrack=3&cset=true

• In the next 50 years more buildings will be built than in human history to date.

• Since Lewis and Clark first reached the Pacific shore Americans have consumed nearly 80% of our old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. If this had not been stopped they would have vanished in 2006. http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00384.x

• The average US home has 13,000 board feet of lumber (one square foot of wood one inch thick). This equals one football field of clearcut for each house. http://www.esf.edu/PUBPROG/house/default.htm

• The most effective strategy is for Americans to live in smaller, more space and energy efficient dwellings and businesses. http://www.resourcesforlife.com/groups/smallhousesociety/resources.htm

• 10-30% of our community landfills are construction debris and discarded buildings. http://peakstoprairies.org/p2bande/Construction/C&DWaste/whatsC&D.cfm  http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/debris-new/basic.htm   http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/sqg/c&d-rpt.pdf

• 30% of the money the average American spends on heating and cooling their home is lost through leaky ducts, windows, walls, ceilings, etc - $140 per home in 2006. Each year leaky windows alone cost an estimated $26 billion dollars currently. http://www.epa.gov/naturalevents/fightfrost.html  http://www.hubbertpeak.com/pimentel/bioscience/conservation/conservation.pdf

• The average American consumes 46,414 pounds of materials in a year. This includes coal (7,400 lbs), oil (6,420 lbs – the weight of 1,069 gallons of gasoline), natural gas (3,240 lbs – the weight of 72,000 cu. ft.), cement (902 lbs), iron ore (440 lbs), and clays (290 lbs). This is about 7 times the weight of the food eaten (2200 lbs). http://www.energybulletin.net/14143.html

• In the United States, approximately 4 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent (almost 9,000 pounds) per person per year (about 17% of total U.S. emissions) are emitted from people's homes - how long it stays in the atmosphere is debatable - from a dozen years or so to several thousand. http://epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_home.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gases  

• According to GCL: Global Cement and Lime Magazine concrete production is responsible for 8% of the human contribution to greenhouse gas emissions as each pound of concrete produced adds one pound of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere. www.propubs.com/climate/climate.html

• The National Academy of Sciences reports that 15% of the US population have some degree of environmental illness from cumulative exposure to carcinogens and toxins (many present in building materials and carpets).

• The California Children's Environmental Health Protection Act notes the health risks of formaldehyde – a solvent present in clothing, upholstery, drapery, paints, carpets, cabinets, adhesives and cleaning products. (http://www.oehha.ca.gov/air/toxic_contaminants/pdf_zip/formaldehyde_final.pdf)

• According to the Environmental Protection Agency the average American spends 80% of their lives indoors and 30% of our lives in bedrooms.

• The EPA also reports that 90% of all regulated toxins are more prevalent indoors than out.

• The World Health Organization reports that 30% of all US homes contain toxic levels sufficient to create environmental illness. (http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/sbs.html)  

• The Natural Resources Defense Council has reported that in the last 50 years 70,000 chemicals have been created that have never before been seen by the human body.

• Only 1,000 of those chemicals have been tested for effects on our nervous system.

• Only 100 of those are regulated in their use.

• 250,000 violations of those regulations are recorded every 2 years.

The human race is living beyond it's means. The world as a whole is living beyond its ecosystems' capacity to regenerate, and, looked at in terms of a calendar year, starts living beyond its environmental means on 9 October. Looking back, if the whole world had wanted to share UK lifestyles in 1961, the Earth would just have managed with its available resources - one planet would have been enough. Today we would need 3.1 planets to support them.¹  Click here to calculate your ecological footprint.

Natural Building is part of the solution. What is Natural Building? Author, Natural Builder and NBN Member Michael G. Smith says it well, 

“Natural Building is any building system which places the highest value on social and environmental sustainability. It assumes the need to minimize the environmental impact of our housing and other supporting systems while providing healthy, beautiful, comfortable and spiritually uplifting homes for everyone.”

Natural Building is about using the resources we need and leaving the rest. You can create beautiful buildings that are safe, renewable and healthy, often for much less money than you might think - sometimes without debt or a mortgage.

Some of the materials used in Natural Building include: Strawbale, Cob, Straw-Clay, Cordwood, Bamboo, Timber Frame, Stone, Roundwood, Adobe, Earthbags, Rammed Earth, Underground, Salvaging & Scrounging, Recycling & Repurposing, Retrofitting & Remodeling, Environmentally-Preferable Products, Passive & Active Solar, Rainwater, Graywater, Composting Toilets, Blacksmithing...There are as many ways to approach natural building as there are people approaching it.

Recommended Online Reading:

"Our Myopic Building Codes", an article by David Eisenberg, at FineHomebuilding.com. 

"Making Other Arrangements", an article by James Howard Kunstler, in HopeDance magazine, March/April, 2007.

¹ "The Human Race is Living Beyond its Means", an article by Andrew Simms, Published on October 9, 2006 by the Independent: 

"The Building You're In Fuels Global Warming", by Edward Mazria, Published on Thursday, March 4, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times

"The Cement Industry's Role in Climate Change", an article by Dr Robert McCaffrey, Editor, GCL: Global Cement and Lime Magazine 

"Deforestation and the Global Carbon Cycle", an article from Earth Observer, a publication of the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA). 

"Solutions to the Al Gore Film", an article by Bob Banner, in HopeDance magazine, July/August, 2006.

More Resources:

Click Here for More Resources at NBN

A Favorite Quote:
     "She knew Limpopo Court, a newish block of flats near Tlokweng Road. She had been in one of the flats there before, visiting a distant cousin, and its shape and its stuffiness had discouraged her. Mma Ramotswe liked the old round shapes of traditional architecture; hard edges and sharp roofs struck her as being unfriendly and uncomfortable. And a traditional house smelled better, because there was no concrete, which has such a bad odour, dank and acrid. A traditional house smelled of wood smoke, the earth, and of thatch; all good smells, the smell of life itself."
Alexander McCall Smith, "The Kalahari Typing School for Men", published by Pantheon Books, 2002

photos of contemporary natural buildings courtesy of Catherine Wanek