Small House Phobia

I am on a mission to cure others of small house phobia. And no, it's not just because I myself live in a tiny dwelling in Alaska, but because I feel that subdivision sprawl is a social and environmental ill.
Some of the obvious reasons large houses suck: tremendous amounts of unsustainable building materials, difficult to heat, a pain to fill with furniture and clean. Who even feels warm and cozy in a sprawling McMansion?? And can you even find your own kids? The huge houses of the past were at least built with quality building materials and beauty in mind. But now you throw together 4,000 square feet of particle wood and slap in a granite counter top and call it luxury.

Here's the reason most would cite for needing a large home: "I need more space."
Here's the real reason they buy a large home: "I want to impress people. Everyone will now know that I am a success and a fantastic person as I have a huge home. They will all want to be my friend and admire me."

The reason I believe #2, not #1 is that unless you have like 5 kids, people usually only think they need more space is to fill it with useless junk and clutter. Again, this isn't the 1800's when people would fill a mansion with art collections and libraries. Oh no. Now it's just to stick huge TV's on flat surfaces, particle board end tables cluttered with DVD collections, and plastic playhouses in the back yard. Some can't even afford to furnish their Mc Mansion with anything at all, so all you see are giant rooms filled with one couch and an echo.

My own tiny house reminds me that I need to constantly bring our unused stuff to the salvation army or other thrift stores. And this is a true blessing. We just can't saddle ourselves with unused clutter because there is no place to put it.

Of course the economy benefits when people pay others to bulldoze trees and build them giant hamburger houses. But wouldn't the amount of $$ going back to the people be the same if we just scaled down the homes and built them with fantastic and natural materials instead? Stone, brick, adobe. Local wood. And built them well so they would stand for generations? Spend more and put in solar, grey water and other eco-friendly systems??? Then furnish them with fine Amish furniture or other local artisan fares?
So let the addiction go--embrace small instead!

Of Monkeys and Polar Bears

What do the monkeys in India and the Alaskan Polar bear have in common? More than you might think. They are both well-loved animals looking for a new place to live.
Recently an Alaskan Polar Bear wondered into a Native Village looking for food. There is no debate that this happened simply because the Bear is quickly losing its habitat--the polar sea ice. It needs to look for food on land now, and obviously the Village dumpsters are a good choice.

The monkeys in India have a similar dilemma. As the Indian economy grows, the human population can afford to build houses in former wilderness habitat. With the sprawl, the monkeys lose their natural home. So the logical course of events has been for them to become city-dwelling monkeys. Living among and harassing their new human neighbors.

Unfortunately for the Alaskan polar bear, he was shot and killed, simply because he came too close. The Indian monkeys are painstakingly relocated, to ever dwindling habitats, only to return to their city families.

It seems to me that people have a hard time understanding these connections. As we continue to cheer our economic development, we keep ignoring its byproducts. Be it the loss of sea ice due to warming or the loss of forests for our animals as we expand our homes. It is simply impossible to sustain suburban lifestyles for every inhabitant on earth. The animals need to go somewhere. Some folks may like a world filled only with shopping malls, but that world is not for me.