AN ALASKA SUSTAINABLE HABITAT,
A proposal for the creation of a sub-Arctic, self-sufficient, agricultural, intentional community
James L. Scott Kerr-Cole Sustainable Living Center
PO Box 801, Talkeetna, Alaska 99676 PO Box 146, Snowflake, Arizona 85937
(907) 733-5403 (928) 536-2269 (Barbara Kerr)
scottlj_79@hotmail.com www.solarcooking.org/bkerr
Site Name: Alaska Sustainable Habitat Site 1, http://sites.google.com/site/alaskasustainablehabitatsite1
Related Alaska Sites (maintained by Jim Scott):
Alaska Sustainable Habitat Wiki (to post commentary), http://wholewheatradio.org/wiki/index.php/Alaska_Sustainable_Habitat
Talkeetna Sustainability Coalition Wiki, http://wholewheatradio.org/wiki/index.php/Talkeetna_Sustainability_Coalition
Talkeetna Sustainability Coalition, Yahoo Group, created for intragroup communication. By invitation, inquire scottlj_79@hotmail.com
Kerr-Cole Sustainable Living Center, Web Site (Taylor Arizona, concentration: solar energy), http://www.solarcooking.org/bkerr/
Notes: This is a work in progress. The overall document is undergoing continual modification to describe the project as it evolves. It is being updated to include new ideas and the results of ongoing research, and edited as the need for corrections and amplifications occur. Also the inevitable changes to the overall plan for developing a community are being documented as the situation unfolds. From time to time the author will announce major updates to a contact list.
Recent Revision History: July Aug Sept 2009: Adding much unorganized material on many topics in the New & Uncategorized Ideas, Resource Collector and Articles in the Works sub-statum of the Editorial Notes section. There are design notes, analyses, bibliographical references, website references, places and people visit, notes on topics to address, articles in process and all manner of incomplete projects being warehoused here, and which the reader may explore. Topics include geothermal energy, wood steam engine and wood gas power to charge homepower batteries, soils, links to farms and agencies, links to organizations, a report on statewide renewable energy projects, wild food prospects, residence construction and an article on the topic of "why Alaska?" as a survival region and refuge for civilization.
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Contents:
1. Purposes
1a. More on Purposes (linked page)
(attachment: Topics for Research Trip to Fairbanks Aug 2009)
(sub-link: Habitat Establishment )
2. Introduction
2a. Why Did I come to Alaska? (linked page)
3. Vision Statemen
3a. Amplification of Vision (linked page)
4. Mission Statement
4a. Amplification of Mission (linked page)
5. Biographical, Jim Scott
6. Some Books Describing the Peril of the Planet
6a. Annotated Bibliography of Selected Peril Books (linked page)
7. A Personal View of Global Warming
8. An Alaska Sustainable Habitat
9. tbd
10 etc.
* Appendix A, Articles Available on the Web Describing the Perils
Annotated Web Article Sources (linked page)
* Editorial Notes to self (author Jim Scott)
This proposal is distributed with several purposes in mind: seek collaborators, engage in community preparedness activism, inform citizenry, and facilitate a dialog. More.
2. Introduction:
What impels a 68 year-old man living comfortably in retirement in Arizona to leave friends and familiar surroundings to relocate in Seward’s Icebox, where he plans to embark on a project to develop a living center? OK he believes most of the world is going to hell in a hand basket in the course of the present century, and that Alaska promises to be a refuge. But he could choose to leisurely live out his days in the sunny southwest, traveling from time to time, on the assumption that he will be nothing but a picture on the wall by the time everything really goes to pieces.
More
3. Vision Statement:
Alaska will remain habitable in the impending post-collapse era, during which nearly all of the planet will become incapable of supporting most life forms, including human populations. It will be one of the high latitude and island archipelago refuges where the salvageable life forms, as well as elements of advanced human civilization, can be preserved. If the planet eventually recovers, the surviving plants, animals and humans stand ready to recolonize the lost lands, perhaps tens of thousands of years in the future. More
4. Mission Statement:
The Habitat is proposed as a small part of an Alaskan effort to create a viable society that does not rely on materials imported from "outside" the state. Development of widespread sustainable agricultural capacity will be an absolutely necessity for survival of a significant population “When all Hell Breaks Loose”. The Habitat is intended as a self-sufficient residential farming site demonstrating the viability of relying only on Alaskan resources, primarily from the local area, and to do so using simple means and technology. The goal is to produce enough food by farming, gathering, hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry to feed the residents and as many others as possible, and to develop practices which can be readily replicated nearby and across the state. It is assumed that the Habitat will take shape as an organic, cold-climate permaculture with major emphasis on soil building. As much as practical it is to function independently of non-renewable energy sources (preferably using only on-site sources) and without the application of chemicals and artificial fertilizers. It is expected that the Habitat will achieve a net negative carbon footprint, meaning it will sequester more carbon into the soil than it releases to the atmosphere, thus contributing in a tiny way to remediation of the climate. More
5. Biographical:
Jim Scott, born 20 Feb 1940, is a retired electronic design engineer (BSEE, University of California, Berkeley, 1969, with honors) with a career as an analog designer and project leader in the fields of electronic music and in electronic instrumentation. He also worked extensively as a technical writer and applications engineer. Since retiring in 1996 he worked two years in Navajo Nation schools as a volunteer in the areas of greenhouse construction and school computer systems. From 1999 to 2008 he has been active in developing and promoting home power systems, residential green building technologies, and solar cooker design as a resident of the Kerr-Cole Sustainable Living Center www.solarcooking.org/bkerr in Taylor, Arizona. He presently resides in Talkeetna Alaska and is seeking agricultural land and partners to establish a preparedness community.
6. Some Books Describing the Peril of the Planet: details
The Vision and Mission Statements may sound extremely dire, perhaps preposterously so, but I invite you to read one or more of the listed books before judging too harshly. I have donated the starred items to the Talkeetna Library in an attempt to raise community consciousness and inspire at least a few folks to plan seriously regarding preparedness. I have read these books, and I keep personal copies to share with friends and acquaintances, and to refer to from time to time.
* The Revenge of Gaia, Earth’s Climate Crisis & the Fate of humanity - James Lovelock (2006)
The Vanishing Face of Gaia, A Final Warning - James Lovelock (2009)
* Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines - Richard Heinberg
* Hell and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and What We Should Do - Joseph Romm
* Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet - Mark Lynas
Plan B 3.0, Mobilizing to Save Civilization - Lester R. Brown
The Big Thaw, Travels in the Melting North - Ed Struzik
The Whale and the Supercomputer, On the Northern Front of Climate Change - Charles Wohlforth
A complete bibliography of all preparedness books in the possession of the writer is given in section (tbd).
7. A Personal View of Global Warming:
My judgment is that the climatic tipping point may be reached more quickly than most experts have been predicting in recent years, and that the severity of the change will be toward the more drastic end of the scale of their projections. This is based on two observations. First, typically the predictions over the past few decades have turned out to be wrong, in that the actual observed climatic changes have been more severe than worst-case calculations. Exhibit A: the melting of the Arctic sea ice. Second, there are perhaps 10 interacting processes involving the soils, seas, atmosphere and biomass that act to regulate atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, and therefore to keep the planet cool enough to support life over most of the lands and seas (the Gaia concept). Once things really begin going haywire, when these negative-feedback regulatory mechanisms (such as carbon dioxide sequestration) begin to go positive (that is acting in reverse to make things worse instead of better), each of these processes will affect the others, compounding the runaway temperature rise in an explosive fashion. One of many examples: warmer seas mean less polar ice, which means more sunlight is absorbed by water rather than reflected off snow, which results in further heating the seas, which results in even less ice next season – what is known in popular parlance as a “vicious cycle” The arctic warming heats permafrost, which releases major amounts of greenhouse gasses. And so on with cloud cover, soils, forests, etc., etc., as each interrelated mechanism compounds the effects.
The present computer models to predict global warming do not include all of the processes. It is beyond the capacity of present supercomputers to handle the whole problem, and thus the current projections are made without all of the factors taken into account. (Add reference to the Whale and the Supercomputer chapter 6) It is my opinion that if everything could be included in the calculations, the picture would be much more perilous. Accordingly I believe it is prudent to plan for the worst and hope for better. This is not to say that there is no point in attempting to reduce greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere, or engaging in massive geo-enginnering projects (put internal link to web article #10 here), on the grounds that there is no stopping the disaster anyway, so what's the point?. To the contrary, all possible appropriate remediation efforts should be made to lessen the effects on humankind and life in general.
(possible technologies to lessen global warming effects) (Jim's personal favorites)
Gen 4 Nuclear Power for a quick fix to wean the world from coal (need for development beyond experimental reactors)
Ammonia Economy for renewable energy storage and transport (present technology exists on industrial scale)
Bio Char carbon sequestration (implementation is mainly a political and economic problem)
8. An Alaska Sustainable Habitat:
Let us begin with a definition of sustainability as adapted from the Kerr-Cole Center definition.
As used in this context, sustainability refers to a system that can renew itself indefinitely. Sustainable living implies maintaining the balance between the needs of the people, nature's other species, and the future generations of both. It means practicing a lifestyle that conserves resources for ourselves and our descendants.
This does not say that all resources will be available for all time. Mankind will certainly run out of fossil fuels, but for practical purposes sunlight will be available forever. It does mean that we must do things such as minimize resource use, employ renewables, maintain and restore ecosystems, and preserve the sacred beauty of the land. We must keep in mind that we are part of nature, not apart from it, and to fail to nurture nature will have dire effects on ourselves as well as all other life forms.
Very few people will actually prepare, but if even a small number mobilize as if very bad times were indeed impending, then those societies that remain will as a whole benefit by dint of having a core of folks prepared and ready to disseminate subsistence practices. Those who did in fact set up for disaster must be ready to act very decisively to share their knowledge, plant and animal stocks, seeds, food stores, etc., when the time comes, both for their own security and the benefit of the community. Any strategy for maintaining self must include a very strong reliance on others nearby. Sharing will be a very large component of achieving cohesive local social order, particularly if the collapse includes a melt down of the economic system, and disintegration of some or all levels of governmental functioning.
(initial draft ends here) (to be continued)
1. Converging Crisis: Paul Chefurka (personal site) (pdf, may take a while to download, but well worth the wait)
2. The Prophet of Climate Change: James Lovelock (Rolling Stone magazine)
3. Too late Why scientists say we should expect the worst (The Guardian, UK)
4. Experts Say Climate Change Threatens National Security (Reuters)
5. UN Issues "Final Wake-Up Call" on Population and Environment (N Y Times)
6. Too Late to Avoid Global Warming, Say Scientists.doc (The Independent, UK, reporting on UN IPCC study)
7. Scientist: Greenhouse Gas Levels Grave (Associated Press)
8. Vital facts 'deleted' from UN report on climate change (Australian on-line “newspaper” theage.com re IPCC study)
9. The Earth Today Stands in Imminent Peril (The Independent, UK)
10. Climate scientists: it's time for 'Plan B' (The Independent, UK)
11. Global Warming Is Happening Faster (The Telegraph, UK)
12. Climate change disaster is upon us, warns UN (The Guardian, UK)
13. Peak Oil - Believe it or Not (The Oil Drum magazine)
14. An Inconvenient Talk (The Walrus magazine)
15. Eating Fossil Fuels: Dale Allen Pfeiffer (The Wilderness Publications)
16. Rising CO2 levels: A double whammy for the food supply (The Vancouver Sun, Canada)
17. Escalating Ice Loss Found in Antarctica (The Washington Post)
18. Ice Caps Melting Fast: Say Goodbye to the Big Apple? (The Washington Post)
19. Exclusive: The methane time bomb (The Alternet)
20. Bush, Mideast Wars and End-Time Prophecy (Truthout.org)
21. Earth Day Preachin' Ken Ward (Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon)
22. Earth 2100': the Final Century of Civilization? (ABC News)(Added 03 June 2009)
*Editorial Notes
Topics List
Agriculture
The Peril
Technology
Architecture
Habitat Organization
Community Organization
Energy
Skills
Materials
Supplies to stockpile
Equipment
Bibliography
New & Uncategorized Ideas
Idea and Resource Collector
Articles in the Works