Monday 25 February 2013

Old mill

The Girl and I, with some friends from my non-profit, journeyed south to Kilkenny some time ago tour places that were using sustainable energy. We looked at a community for the mentally handicapped that used a bio-digester to make heat and electricity, as well as a factory that used a waterwheel.

Along the way, though, we also saw this old mill, now an ivy-covered skeleton. It reminded us that sustainable power is not a hip new fashion. Virtually all energy used was once sustainable, whether it be from the muscles we replenish by eating or the wood we can regrow, from sailing ships to waterwheels. Almost all the energy we used to fashion our lives came from our world's daily energy salary, before we discovered a trust fund under our feet.

I expect we will restore a world of water mills world one day, but I would like to see us do it comfortably, while resources are plentiful, rather than in haphazard desperation.

1 comment:

Suzanne, Kiva Fellow, Graduate Student, and Mom said...

Not only sustainable energy usage but creating a world built to last. The Irish were handy with building homes that built to last with very few materials. Even their "paint" of crushed shells was eco friendly but also with a purpose--to protect their homes from the elements so they would last longer. Europeans are much less living in a disposable world than the United States although that way of living is much more watered down that it used to be. Would you be interested in researching sustainable life on European islands, then sharing with us. My first suggestion is the Channel Islands or the fishing islands sprinkled in the seas. Peace out, dear friend!