Ecosa Institute News

Life at Lost Valley

by Wes Ozier, Earth Odyssey Magazine, January 2010

"The Ecosa Institute...teaches the best course on sustainable design in the country." -Wes Ozier, Lost Valley

I live in a small quaint little two-room cabin with a loft. Most of the buildings here look like your typical old summer camp wooden buildings, and they are all clustered together so everything is a short walk away."

My name is Wes Ozier. I am 37-years-old, a LEED accredited professional, and I want to see our society evolve into a sustainable future. Why? I grew up in Detroit, a major urban area where I always felt that there was something wrong with the way we lived. The effect that the city had on people and the lack of nature around us always bothered me, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why.

Disaster in the Gulf

by Tony Brown, Director of the Ecosa Institute, May 2010

If we look at our history over the past 50 years it is clear that we, as an industrialized society, are exhibiting insane behavior. Albert Einstein has described this as,

"... doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

The recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon and subsequent oil spill is not only an environmental disaster, but is a testament to how little we have learned over the past decades. Since the 1950s we have had an almost continuous history of oil spills with only the major events, such as the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, becoming big news stories. Looking at oil spill data is quite overwhelming as well as puzzling. (www.marinergroup.com/oil-spill-history.htm) One would imagine that any sane society would have found way to eliminate this kind of destructive behavior. Certainly if an individual rather than a corporation continually participated in this level of destructive behavior he or she would be seen as pathological and either treated or locked away. However we continue to allow the same technological process over and over and are told that,

"this time it will be different."

Sustainable Cities on Planet Earth (SCOPE)

A security proposal for 21st century cities

by Tony Brown, Director of the Ecosa Institute, September 2009

"Make No Small Plans, For They Have Not The Magic To Stir Men's Blood. "
Attributed to Daniel H. Burnham, whose 1909 "Plan for Chicago" is said to have been our nation's first comprehensive urban planning document.

The most critical thing we need, in order to be able to handle the changes coming in the next 40 years, is innovation. Not just technological innovation, but innovation in the way we design our cities and their infrastructure. Yet over the past 30 years I have seen the opportunity for real innovation narrowed; zoning regulations, city codes, copyright issues, and the ever-present threat of legal action slows the rate of change down to a glacial pace. Current piecemeal solutions to the existing urban infrastructure will not be enough and making suburban houses "green" will certainly not solve global problems. Change requires a different way of thinking altogether; it requires a different

Are We There Yet?

by Tony Brown, Director of the Ecosa Institute, June 2009

Artwork by Lauren Stocksdale, Spring 2009 With Ecosa approaching its 10th year, it is interesting to see the stir of interest in "green" and in saving the world by changing light bulbs. However, people I know who have been seriously advocating change for the past ten years are frustrated, and concerned, by the shallow responses and the lack of serious action. The scale of the challenges and, yes, disasters facing our societies are far greater than most people appreciate. For the last 10 years Ecosa has tried to persuade, cajole or encourage change rather than "tell it like it is" because we believed being negative would get in the way of the message. The results of this approach have done little to change our society, so our new approach is to speak out without the sugar coating. Radical is derived from the Late Latin radicalis, having roots. The radical approach we are advocating looks at the root causes and proposes root solutions.