Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World, 2nd Edition Paperback – Illustrated, September 3, 2008

I read this book years ago. It really moved me and seemed like a hopeful idea for decentralization. I just now got it for a gift for a young friend who is interested in sustainability.

If you've never read this book and Trump's vicious and ignorant lack of respect for our country's environmental policies and practices has destroyed your hope for the earth's future, just read it. There are few wiser or more hopeful books about what we could be doing to live sustainably. This book is not at all the preachy, chatty lists of statistics and handy tips of how to live without using plastic bags that strive to inspire us to face the inconvenient truths about this planet. Instead, it is an inspiring story that happened and continues to happen and in an unlikely place for it to happen. One of the lessons of how environmental and economy interact is that environmental quality becomes a low priority when you live at a subsistence level. Yet this miracle happens in a desolate area blighted by poverty's desperation. Read about what can happen and think about what we can change.

In 1966, when he was 22, Paolo Lugari and his brother drove over barely passable roads to a desolate area 200 miles east of Bogota, Columbia. The llanos area is a poor-soil barren that grows only a few nutrient-deficient grasses, a vast expanse of sun-baked plains in spite of over 100 inches of rain per year. A place of deadly water and hungry mosquitos. Conditions were so daunting that the Columbian government abandoned an attempt to build a road through the area. Lugari saw an opportunity to create something very special. And he did it. Today Gaviotas is a thriving, sustainable community of hundreds of joyous people studying, inventing, producing, singing and dancing amidst a huge forest that they planted. Residents from all walks of life have designed and built, planted and harvested, birthed, nurtured, taught, and entertained. There are teeter-totters that operate super-efficient pumps to bring water to the school, solar heat to cook meals, solar kettles to sterilize drinking water, ultra-light windmills to provide power. The hospital has been designated one of the 40 most important buildings in the world. Some have called Gaviotas a utopia. Lugari insists that, "Utopia literally means no place. We call Gaviotas a topia because it's real." Gaviotas the village is surprising, uplifting, extraordinary. Gaviotas the nonfiction book is as compelling as a novel, as educational as a textbook, as inspirational as the biography of a great person. If you need to rise early, do not take this book to bed with you.

When Jessie Jackson refrains, "Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive!" we were with him, but I, for one, was left wondering where this hope was. Alan Weisman's "Gaviotas", a chronicle of the Colombian village Gaviotas, is the real McCoy in black and white. Over and over again, "Gaviotas" details the hope-filling victories towards a smarter, more harmonious way of living with simple, clever, appropriate technology leading the way."Gaviotas" talks about the power of creative thought sharply focussed on simple, appropriate technology for totally ignored boonies of the Colombia's tropical plains. It talks about the creation of an extremely dedicated community out of an infertile, barren plains in the middle of war-torn Colombia. It talks about the seemingly miraculous transformation of grassland into rainforest and the tireless dedication of it's creators. It talks about the power of community, networking and partnerships with universities.I was, however, disappointed by the relative lack of contact people, organizations, and publishings for people interested in creating their own community. The story of the Gaviotas community is so inspiring it deserves a newsgroup of its own on the internet!Being an engineer by trade, I was left brimming with questions. How did they come up with the process for ultra-black copper sheeting? Where can I get the six films about Gaviotas made by Pepe Gomez? How can a roof focus and reflect heat away from a building? Can a Gaviotas be created here in the U.S. or is life too easy here?"Gaviotas" is beautifully written; a real turner. I had to tear myself away from it each night so I could get to work on time in the morning and had dreams of creating my own Gaviotas in the U.S.

Amazing.Uplifting.Inspiring.Practical.Read this is you want to know how we can create a sustainable future/less fossil fuel consumption.*After reading this, about how people living in a "third world country" could create and implement energy efficient technologies, I became very frustrated that the United States did not have the foresight to utilize the same technologies in the 1980's when it would have helped to reduce the coming energy crisis of the next 200 years/end of the industrial age.The technologies/lifestyle created by the people of Gaviotas serves as a beautiful example of ways to soften our fall from extravagant energy consumption ---> sustainable society.People have the power, don't let consumer culture steal your creativity. We really do have the brain power (as individuals, don't rely on the federal government for too much) to create a world in which we can live comfortably and happily without relying on the rampant energy usage that we have only gotten accustomed to in the past 100 years.If you enjoy this book (and I think you will), you may also enjoy: The World Without Us Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age and maybe this one if you're interested in communes/community: A Walden Two Experiment; The First Five Years of Twin Oaks Community.

I have read only the first edition not the one shown on the advertisement on this page. However, by reading this book I have been shown how some human beings in recent time can work themselves into a mode of life together that is sustainable, creative and and peacemaking, even under difficult conditions local to them.Highly recommended to all who have given up attempting to find such inspiration.The author's style may seem overtly positive, but understand the facts recorded, and that will lead you to accommodate it.

Purchased for a friend who loved it.

J'ai trouvé ce livre très passionnant et bien écrit. L'auteur retrace une vingtaine d'année de recherches en science appliquée et en expérimentation sociale. Le projet est toujours actuel, les menaces sans cesse renouvelée, les réponses que les habitants de Las Gaviotas y apportent toujours innovants: pragmatiques et durables.Le livre reste donc très actuel !