[Mesuge]

Follow-up to recently posted article about New Hampshire "green living".
The couple moved from Cali to NH, built off grid house with nice cedar schindels on ~200acre family estate grounds. We can infer from the article that there might not be more than 10people involved in this family circle (kids, relatives, grandparents) sharing this very property. So, that's roughly 20acres per person, each adult is driving ~expensive cars like Prius, Forester. How many Earths are needed in order to offer such a lifestyle to the rest of human race? Sorry, for posting this silly rhetoric question in the end.

http://peakoil.com/consumption/an-off-g ... hampshire/
gallery: http://www.naturalhomeandgarden.com/mul ... 0202&seq=0

PS I'm in no way bashing their efforts and choices, e.g. the house seems rather simplistic/rudimentary, apart from floors also nice use of concrete in the kitchen instead of marble etc. Evidently lots of locally sourced materials and labor, just wondering about the scale what passes for green..

[peeker01]

No problem here - most families don't own 200 acres, so we don't have to worry about the
earth supporting such a load. These people built this house themselves. I'm impressed.

[Pretorian]

How many Earths are needed in order to offer such a lifestyle to the rest of human race?

It is irrelevant-- there is no need to give such a lifestyle to anybody, those who can get it will, regardless of availability of earths. Besides, there is no such thing as a human race.
Also, if any of those 200 acres are arable, this living is truly green as these acres won't be pumping wheat, corn and soy into human pustules all over the world, while soiling forests and rivers around.

[Margarethe]

One famous author (V. Hugo, I think, but not sure) refused to eat anything but simple food, slept on a hard , bare bed, and did not employ servants in his house though he could easily do so - all because he felt guilty for having these things when poor people all around the country did not. His wife was all but driven crazy. Two perspectives with equal weight.

[Serial_Worrier]

One famous author (V. Hugo, I think, but not sure) refused to eat anything but simple food, slept on a hard , bare bed, and did not employ servants in his house though he could easily do so - all because he felt guilty for having these things when poor people all around the country did not. His wife was all but driven crazy. Two perspectives with equal weight.

Not everyone can have servants. One is the ruling class and the other is the servant class to serve their masters. That's the way of things.

[KrellEnergySource]

The population density in the US overall is one person per 7.6 acres. So one person per 20 acres sounds like a better distribution, and therefore a good thing. I find it hard to fault them for that.

Brian

[Margarethe]

One famous author (V. Hugo, I think, but not sure) refused to eat anything but simple food, slept on a hard , bare bed, and did not employ servants in his house though he could easily do so - all because he felt guilty for having these things when poor people all around the country did not. His wife was all but driven crazy. Two perspectives with equal weight.

Not everyone can have servants. One is the ruling class and the other is the servant class to serve their masters. That's the way of things.

That's your thought. But apparently, that author didn't think so, and so do I. I don't divide people into categories. We're all just people. Those two categories aren't even enough to cover the diversity and uniqueness of millions of humans in the world.

[Serial_Worrier]

One famous author (V. Hugo, I think, but not sure) refused That's your thought. But apparently, that author didn't think so, and so do I. I don't divide people into categories. We're all just people. Those two categories aren't even enough to cover the diversity and uniqueness of millions of humans in the world.

If I can afford servants, why should they serve me?