The Venus Project,

Red Keane 55°

I recently learned of an incredible project and I’d like to know what Celsias thinks of it. Here is a basic introduction taken from: http://www.thevenusproject.com/

The Venus Project advocates an alternative vision for a sustainable new world civilization unlike any social system that has gone before. Although this description is highly condensed, it is based upon years of study and experimental research by many, many people from many scientific disciplines.

The Venus Project proposes a fresh approach--one that is dedicated to human and environmental concerns. It is an attainable vision of a bright and better future, one that is appropriate to the times in which we live, and both practical and feasible for a positive future for all the world's people.

The Venus Project calls for a straightforward approach to the redesign of a culture, in which the age-old inadequacies of war, poverty, hunger, debt, environmental degradation and unnecessary human suffering are viewed not only as avoidable, but totally unacceptable.

One of the basic premises of The Venus Project is that we work towards having all of the Earth's resources as the common heritage of all the world's people. Anything less will simply result in a continuation of the same catalog of problems inherent in the present system.

All the information is available on: http://www.thevenusproject.com/

3 replies

C Robb W. 400°

Interesting idea Red. I like the ethos behind the project quite alot. I tend to be wary of projects and intitiatives that rely on advanced technology to solve our problems, it always seems to be just around the corner and in the meantime all we have to do is drive a little less, recycle, and eat less meat.

The one thing I totally agree with is that our culture needs to be totally redesigned. I just happen to believe we need to do it now with available technology that can radically change the way we live our lives. I expect there will be an intersection of the two approaches. In the meantime we need to do quite alot more than the minimum in our personal lives.

Written in November 2008

Idealism is a lot more difficult than making a real life here on this planet.

I don't at all think that "high tech" building is sustainable at all.

I lived for many years in rural South Africa and a lot of houses there are owner built wattle and daub structures that a family can construct themselves out of found materials (thatch grass, wattle saplings and mud) . They can maintain these buildings with no manufactured chemicals or extra inputs. If they stop living there the buildings will just slowly rot into the ground and will be completely biodegraded within 20 years or so. That's probably very consistent with most native cultures until 200 years or so ago. Basically this is a fully sustainable model.

What do we do with our existing cities and buildings? Repairing and upgrading existing buildings is a lot better, in general, than replacing.

For exaple, I live in a 50 year old house that was relocated (ie. the whole house was picked up and trucked to a new site). Sure, it might not be an eco house, but we've made improvements by improving the insulation etc. We could demolish the house and build a from-the-ground-up "eco house", but that uses far more resources (ie has far bigger environmental impact) than reusing and repairing an existing dwelling.

The idea of a common resource heritage is also very broken. Considering the world's resources as a global asset is idealistic. It does not consider the impact of transport and the fact that the rich will plunder the resources of the poor.

Seems to me these people are not trying to fix what's broken in any practical way, but are just ignoring the problems and dreaming about a society that does not have any problems to start with.

Written in November 2008

Red Keane 55°

Hi, thanks for commenting.

There are a lot of things I like about the Venus Project.

I liked the idea of smart buildings and smart cities that were built from the inside out already able to recycle near 100% of the waste produced by the people living there. Any environmental concerns were included in the design process rather than an afterthought.

I like the notion of a world where wind, tidal, wave, solar and geothermal energy sources are used in conjunction with each other to eliminate the need for fossil fuels.

I also like the idea that we collaborated more to positively solve problems all over the planet.

In truth I haven’t really searched that much yet, but so far this is the only future model that combines the principals we are striving for to slow our consumption of the planet. I’m sure there are others. In saying all that, I agree with Charles M.

“The idea of a common resource heritage is also very broken.”

There are a lot of things about the Venus Project that are broken. In theory there might be some credence to ideas like common resource heritage but realistically I don’t see that happening. I think some of the social aspects of the Venus Project would be hard to swallow.

I doubt the near future will look or behave like Jacque Fresco’s future but I think we will have many of the same goals and ideals. A sustainable world without war, over consumption and pollution sounds good to me. Maybe the Venus Project is just a glimpse of that future.

Written in November 2008

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