Green Hype: When You’re Far Too Lazy to Do Any Research
by Tony Chavira
Let’s cut to the chase: the idea that “the Green Movement is new” is dumb. Green is old. Really old, maybe even ancient! But we all know that architectural tradition, urban planning, building and development in American are Eurocentric in their inception. Europeans didn’t need to live alongside their land; no need for reverence of the earth because they were from areas far too cold to worry about sustainability. And let’s be honest: Christianity during the middle ages had everyone convinced that the apocalypse was going to happen tomorrow, so no one cared about living in equilibrium with their environments.
The Ancient Persian culture built homes (and whole communities) that allowed for natural temperature control, with street corridors that blocked the winds but kept the sun from cooking the streets. Japanese architectural and community design did the same thing in a cooler climate, where they used wind and the natural landscape to block cold fronts and trap heat in pockets in valleys or enclaves in mountains. The goal of Japanese landscape and building design today is still focused around minimizing the effect of the structure on the natural landscape.
South Asian cultures practiced minimal waste, recycling tools and building materials almost annually, and cared more about water-efficient landscaping than almost any other (since you obviously can’t drink ocean water). In Africa, sub-Saharan cultures did the same thing, and the more nomadic tribes were able to leave minimal bio-disposable waste behind in their camps. In fact, European imperialists found their system more efficient than building full-scale encampments (mostly because the imperialists were more interested in moving around and conquering the continent one village at a time).
Native Americans are an interesting case study. The Mayan people were found to have “disappeared” spontaneously into history, a culture vanishing all at once. But archeological research has shown that the Mayan people actually built their empires by mining and ravaging their environment until there wasn’t a shred of fertile land for 100 miles in any direction. Not being able to survive, the civilization was forced to split apart. The Aztecs and Incans, on the other hand, centered their civilizations on water reclamation and reforesting the land around the lakes that their cultures inhabited, Lake Texcoco and Lake Titicaca respectively.
The Apache Indians developed cliffside dwellings on the north side of large spaces in modern Arizona, allowing for natural cooling throughout the day. Inuit people developed a system for building into the sides and spaces of hills and the natural landscape (later “innovated” by Frank Lloyd Wright and genius guys like these).
If you read through the LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) manual (here’s a pdf with the full Green Building Rating System), you’ll see all of these things outlined as if they’re revelations of the modern age. After Al Gore received the Nobel Peace Prize for “Outstanding Public Relations,” the American sentiment seems to have finally shifted from “Who cares about the environment?” to “Good God! Save Our Planet!” But if Western culture had been less imperial (historically-speaking) we may have been able to avoid this problem entirely. But hey, that’s ancient history.
Let me clarify: I’m not bashing anyone who thinks that green is the way to go. I don’t plan on moving to Lake Arrowhead for beachfront property in 2020. It’s just kind of funny because the green movement is the ultimate in sustainable reclamation: they’re reclaiming knowledge of green design that’s practically been lost to the ages. Anyway, it really doesn’t matter who re-writes the history books as long as the lessons of the past positively affect our future. Just let this be a lesson to builders and green entrepreneurs alike: historical research can save the world and make you a ton of cash. Now go and save the world already.
www.racaia.com | tony@fourstory.org
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