"Neighborliness..."

I just read a great blog post that I want to share with all of you.  Alex Steffen, from WorldChanging, writes:

"It's an attractive fantasy -- instead of driving a Hummer, living in a McMansion and shopping at the Gap, I can drive a Prius, live in an EcoMansion and shop at Gaiam -- but it's still playing make-believe, because the systems that support and enable those choices are themselves unsustainable. Highways are destructive, even when full of hybrids; sprawl is unsustainable, even when the individual houses are green; ..."

He then goes on to say that in order to avoid ecological destruction, we need to not only do the things he mentions above, but we need to drastically change the way we think about community- how we can reshape our neighborhoods around green infrastructure.  It's a very well written post that challenges those of us who live in the United States to rethink the importance of community bonds and its role in sustainability.  You can check out the post here.

PS

Last week Lois posted about the Dalai Lama's letter to China.  I just read it myself and I'm very glad I did.  You can read it here.  Also, don't forget to go to Global Vote.  (See the post below.)

(Photo courtesy of Flickr user Carf under a Creative Commons license.)