From dp@hss.iitb.ernet.in Sat Mar 6 00:41:03 1999 Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 14:45:31 +0530 (IST) From: d.parthasarathy To: sanet-mg Subject: Making the dream of sustainability a reality (fwd) Here's something that gives us all hope! DP > -----Original Message----- > > A couple of weeks ago I forwarded a review from the Nation about a book > called Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World. It describes an amaz= ing > community of scientists and engineers who have been inventing and > deploying > solar-, water-, human- and wind-powered technologies for 30 > years. They're > based in the rural flatlands of Columbia, between Marxist guerillas, > right-wing paramilitary forces, and drug lords. It's a very inspiring > story, and the book reads like a novel. > > Anyway, there's a website for the book > http://www.chelseagreen.com/Gaviotas/index.html > > I've included the book review again below. > > > > > GAVIOTAS: A Village to Reinvent the World. > > By Alan Weisman. > > Chelsea Green. 231 pp. $22.95. > > Imagine no disaster. Imagine the drumbeat of social-ecological > deterioration quieting and a sudden thrill of > honest hope. Something substantial. Not another small tale of rene= wal > told without proportion. Not public > relations, junk science or professional optimism but sweet > realism and > actual, honest hope. Imagine actual > good news. > > If that's too hard, imagine a book telling a tale too lovely for > fiction, a lyrical, well-observed book that > reports from the llanos of eastern Colombia, savannas > tortured by guns > and cows and cocaine, of an > experiment in solar democracy in which "appropriate technology" is > anything but a sad product on the > discount tables of broken, post-sixties idealism. That experiment, > named after a local river tern, is > Gaviotas, and if ever something small and distant deserved our > attention, this is it. > > Gaviotas is a village of professors and peasants, of Indians and > engineers. It was founded in 1971 by > > Paolo Lugari, a visionary son of the Colombian upper crust who loo= ked > into the future and saw that the > population would surge. But then Lugari did something new--he > concluded that the only alternative to > deforestation was learning to live, sustainably and well, in the > llanos. Then he staked a claim to 25,000 > acres and set out to do just that, with considerable brio > and success. > Years later, his trouble earned him a > copy of Gabriel Garc=EDa M=E1rquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude= , in > which the great man had > inscribed, "Paolo Lugari, inventor of the world." > > An amazing tale it truly is, one that begins in earnest when Jorge > Zapp, head of mechanical engineering at > Bogot=E1's Universidad de los Andes, succumbs to Lugari's > enthusiasm and > comes to the llanos--and then > brings all the grad students he can entice. Lugari flies around > hustling grants and volunteers. A research > colony forms, para-socialistic like most isolated scientific > stations, > only more so. The inventions begin. > > The early list is suggestive: a non-polluting tannery, a cheap ble= nd > of local soil and cement for paving > roads and runways, gaskets made of palm leaves, food preservation > techniques, palm oil=ADbased feed > supplements. These people were working from the ground up! Then ca= me > solar collectors and biogas > generators. And all manner of pumps, like the hydraulic ram that u= sed > riverflow to move a piston, and the > piston to pump water. And micro-hydro turbines. And, > eventually, after > fifty-eight attempts, a windmill > sufficiently adapted to local conditions that it could harness the > slightest breezes and last years without > repair. > > Gaviotas was not quite unique. In our own New England, the > New Alchemy > Institute was tracking the > same ethos down the same trail. But though the appropriate-technol= ogy > movement ramified well enough, > Gaviotas prospered and New Alchemy did not. One key to its surviva= l > was geographic--Gaviotas was > both in and of the developing world. By the late seventies, > it sported > a third of a square kilometer of > hydroponic greenhouses, using rice husks in place of the poor loca= l > soil to cultivate all sorts of vegetables, > including eggplants the local Guahibo Indians wouldn't eat on a be= t. > In 1978, the World Conference on > Technical Cooperation Among Developing Countries named Gaviotas th= e > leading example of appropriate > technology in the Third World. > > The "solar kettle," more than any other Gaviotan device, proves th= e > justice of this award. Though based > on "an old country custom: boil water one day to drink the next," = the > kettle took six years to perfect. It > combines solar panels, storage tanks, an efficient heat exchanger,= a > bit of distillation and a spigot--which > you turn to draw off potable water. In a world like ours, where > billions lack access to safe water and the > developmentalists cite this fact above all others to justify even > their most harebrained big-dam-based > schemes, the implications of such a simple, lovely device are, alo= ne, > astonishing enough. > > This is where the story gets good, for Gaviotans refused to patent > their inventions. Instead, they offered > them to all who would use them and encouraged the formation of > cooperatives through which low-income > people could manufacture and thus benefit from Gaviotan technology. > They ran a factory that built and > installed thousands of windmills throughout the country. Back in > Bogot=E1, a friend arranged for them to > design a solar water-heating system for a 5,500-unit public housin= g > project. They had already developed > highly efficient collectors, but needed lots of them and so organi= zed > a factory in which street kids, reborn > as solar techs, churned them out. Now they needed a system for > distributing the hot water fairly between > floors, so they invented one. Today the building is the largest > solar-water-heated construction in the > world. > > In Colombia, bad news and violence are in no short supply. Here, > again, the tale of Gaviotas turns into > unexpected terrain, as in the story of Gaviotas's hospital, which > melds solar architecture and Modernist > design in such a sensitive manner that it was named, by a Japanese > architectural journal, one of the forty > most important buildings in the world. But forget that. Consider > instead that it serves all comers: engineers, > Indians and llaneros, guerrillas, army men and paramilitary forces. > The policy is not to ask. > > The Gaviotans have their sympathies, of course. But at least as > Weisman paints them, they are blessed to > > live lives that forbid them the joys of ideology. Indeed, one of t= he > pleasures of this book is the brief, vivid, > situated tales that make the violence comprehensible. > Narcotraficantes > are a blight upon the land, but the > guerrillas are hardly heroes: > > Far from feeling shielded by the purity of their mission, the > Gaviotans knew well that environmental > endeavors could be perilous. Recently, ELN guerrillas had > captured the > entire staff of a national park, > Parque Natural El Cocuy. Nature reserves, they declared, were elit= ist > contrivances to deny people their > rightful access to land. With the others watching, the > guerrillas made > the park superintendent, a biologist > and celebrated llanero harpist, kneel and confess to this crime. T= hey > summarily executed him with a bullet > to the back of the head. > > No wonder Gaviotans reject the zealotry of what, alas, many people > still call "the left." But does this mean > they cherish illusions of having somehow become post-political? I > don't think so. Weisman reports a 1989 > visit by a group of Chinese diplomats. The ambassador, charmed by = the > forthrightness of the Guahibo > Indians (who decided, after some deliberation, that he was white a= nd > not Indian because of his clothes), > declared Gaviotas "a socialist paradise." Lugari, we are told, > groaned. Fortunately, a subsequent visit by > "the dean of Colombian right-wing politics" revealed that Gaviotas > embodied "profound conservative > principles." And Lugari complained that everyone wanted to classif= y > them. "We're not ideologues. All > ideologies do is start trouble." > > Indeed. But here we should step back. The zealotry of the guerrill= as > was bred from suffering and injustice, > and nature reserves often are "elitist contrivances." And they oft= en > do deny people access to land. The > Gaviotans know this and don't expect their solar kettles and sleev= e > pumps to take the place of justice and > land reform. They can always hope, of course, as can we, but still= , > time passes and land reform does not > come. And there is so little unthreatened forest left. And in > Colombia, as in Chiapas, as throughout the > Americas and Asia and Africa, the forests shrink and shrink. > > Hope must strain against realism, and the overarching theme of the > book is that, having established itself in > one of the harshest environments on earth, Gaviotas "bears witness= to > our ability to get it right, even under > seemingly insurmountable circumstances." And so it does, though we > shouldn't stretch the point. I say this > not because I see limits to the elegance and potential of > decentralized solar technologies but because the > dream of sustainability, though strong enough to brace Gaviotans > against incessant brutality, remains a > weak redoubt from the larger gale of "development." Gaviotas marks= a > wonderful spot on a new path for > the poor, a path that's been marked before, though never, it seems= , > with quite the same panache. But > remember, it isn't "poverty" that's the problem, not > ecologically. Far > better to indict "wealth." > > Even in Gaviotas, the flow of time saw idealism tested. By the end= of > the eighties, U.N. and > Inter-American Development Bank grants had dried up, and armed > violence pushed social spending far > down on the government's agenda. Colombia's embrace of George Bush= 's > free-trade policies was > flooding its markets with mass-produced foodstuffs, > undercutting local > farmers and driving ever more of > them to the cultivation of coca. The oil sector was booming, and, = as > usual, its captains were lobbying to > block tax credits for alternative energy. The market for Gaviotas'= s > windmills and solar collectors declined > and showed a disturbing trend--most sales were going to the > "eco-fashion-conscious elite." The smell of > defeat was in the air. > > But Gaviotas had become a rooted community, and it enjoyed > the luck of > the committed. Years before, > after considerable effort, Gaviotan foresters had found a tree tha= t > would grow in the poor, thin soils of the > llanos, and already they were growing a forest of Caribbean pine. = It > was a monoculture, but even this had > an upside--the pines were sterile and posed no threat of ecologica= l > invasion. And since Gaviotas had > developed plantation techniques that didn't rely on herbicides, th= e > trees, quite unexpectedly, formed a > matrix in which long-dormant seeds, or, more likely, stray > seeds borne > by wind and bird droppings, could > grow. > > As they did, with astonishing speed! Beneath the sheltering > pines, the > spare grasses of the llanos were > displaced by flowering shrubs, jacarandas, saplings and vines of a= ll > variety. And with them were coming > deer, anteaters, armadillos, eagles. With hard work and serendipit= y, > Gaviotas had helped to pioneer the > emerging art of restoration ecology. More specifically, they had > independently discovered a phenomenon > that is only now being properly studied--tree plantations can host > secondary succession processes of > surprising resilience, in which even the fragments of altogether > shattered ecosystems can return. > > And there was another happy twist to the tale--before long, the > Gaviotans discovered that they could > make a good income tapping the rapidly growing trees for > resins, which > they processed (while > co-generating power, of course) into feedstocks for a variety of > products, from paint to violin resin. Their > financial crisis is over, at least for now. And they had a new ide= a, > which they promptly pitched to the > Inter-American Development Bank: > > We expect that one day the tropical foliage will overrun [the > trees]...we can harvest resin for decades until > the natural forest chokes out the Pinus caribaea. If you help us t= ake > our agro-forestry project to a > commercial level, we can keep marching across the savanna, plantin= g > more pine trees, and leaving a > tropical rain forest in our wake. We can give seedlings to all our > neighbors, process their resin, turn this > desert into a productive land, employ campesinos and the Guahibo, = and > at the same time return the llanos > to what...many ecologists believe was their primal state: an > extension > of the Amazon. Imagine that...! > > All and all, a lovely tale, and only the better for being true. Bu= t > what does it prove, exactly? Hard to say, > though one point is obvious--this is not simply a story of > technology; > it is a story of community, and of the > special realism based in poverty and cooperative enterprise. > Technology is everywhere in it, of course, > and the happy ending comes courtesy of the trees, but even these a= re > subsidiary to the particular amalgam > of activism, science and hope that is Gaviotas. > > And this, indeed, is a happy brew. Keep it in mind the next time y= ou > see a windmill or a solar collector. > And keep in mind, as well, that the Gaviotans, pragmatists > though they > may be, always stand with the > poor. If our own green technologists did the same, rather > than forever > bowing to the ghost of Adam > Smith, we might really have something to be hopeful about. > > > Tom Athanasiou is the author of Divided Planet: The Ecology of Ric= h > and Poor (Georgia), which has > just been published in paperback. > > > Copyright (c) 1996, The Nation Company, L.P. 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