Los Angeles’ Eco-Village

"To live a very simple life is important now." -- Julio Santizo, LA Eco-Village

Several weeks ago, StreetFilms.org posted the above Nick Whitaker ~4 minute film about Los Angeles' Eco-Village along with the following text:

"Last Summer contributor Nicholas Whitaker had the opportunity to visit the Eco-Village in LA, to see what it's like to practice more sustainable ways of living, while having a lesser negative impact on the environment. The people who work and live at the LA Eco-Village show how even in an urban setting, there are ways to live closer to the earth and in better harmony with the people and environment around you.

"An ecovillage is a human scale neighborhood where people know their neighbors and care about them. People can live close to where they work and play and have access to other essential services without use of automobiles. Together, neighbors try to minimize waste and pollution of all kinds. Residents and friends work together to create a healthy community socially, physically and economically.

Urban ecovillages work with surrounding neighborhoods and the city at large to bring a whole systems perspective to urban planning and community development activities. The L.A. Eco-Village Demonstration is part of an international network of sustainable neighborhood groups which seek to model healthier ways of living based on environmental sustainability and social and economic justice."

The film is worth watching for its eye-opening peek into the possibility of sustainable community living near the very heart of downtown Los Angeles, California, by all accounts a major-league world metropolitan area, and a population center with one of the largest carbon footprints on the globe.

The LA Eco-Village is part of the Global Ecovillage Network, (GEN), whose compelling web presence provides a wealth of historic background information and a primer on ecovillage living a well as a host of Ecovillage Network links to educational opportunities, a resource library, directory listings to help locate ecovillages around the globe, and much more.

It's worth exploring.

While it may be naive to assume (or even to hope) the giant urban/industrial population centers of the world will somehow, out of tiny, thriving cocooned heart-beats of new consciousness, morph suddenly into fully-sustainable, zero carbon, eco-friendly green cities, it is neither naive nor is it unthinkable that this is the way the full-blown Green Revolution will begin: through a shift in consciousness, a commitment to act and the will (and good nature!) to see it through.

As the parable tells us, out of the tiny mustard-seed is born the monumental vine.