Will saving the earth require mainstreaming the Lotan and Curitiba models of communal cooperation?
Alex: Let’s look at the larger picture. For most of human history, we lived and shared resources within our tribe. In the shtetl, the Jewish community offered a safety net to all. Why? Because everyone knew everyone else and mutual responsibility was a mitzvah for all. Today, too, when you know your neighbors, sharing is possible. When my wife, two children, and I lived in an apartment building in Rehovot, I didn’t need to buy a single tool because I made friends with Haim on the fourth floor who had them all. I didn’t need a car either, because once a week I got a ride to the supermarket with Karen or Yaron from the second floor. There is so much unused wealth all around us into which we can tap, so long as we don’t think we have to own it all by ourselves. We gorge our houses with stuff we don’t use. Nature, on the other hand, shares every atom, recycling it constantly. Mark Naveh, General Secretary, Kibbutz Lotan; member, international Ecovillage education curriculum board: Communit
Alex: Let’s look at the larger picture. For most of human history, we lived and shared resources within our tribe. In the shtetl, the Jewish community offered a safety net to all. Why? Because everyone knew everyone else and mutual responsibility was a mitzvah for all. Today, too, when you know your neighbors, sharing is possible. When my wife, two children, and I lived in an apartment building in Rehovot, I didn’t need to buy a single tool because I made friends with Haim on the fourth floor who had them all. I didn’t need a car either, because once a week I got a ride to the supermarket with Karen or Yaron from the second floor. There is so much unused wealth all around us into which we can tap, so long as we don’t think we have to own it all by ourselves. We gorge our houses with stuff we don’t use. Nature, on the other hand, shares every atom, recycling it constantly. Mark Naveh, General Secretary, Kibbutz Lotan; member, international Ecovillage education curriculum board: Communit
