Cradle 2 The Grave: Not Just For DMX Anymore

Reading to Cradle to Cradle reminded me of one of hte most impressive life style choices that I have ever heard about. One of my best friend's brothers (Henceforth known as Ben) built a completely off the grid house in the desert. The house is out in the New Mexico desert and was built solely by Ben and his brother Dave over the course of a few months. Ben, a graduate of the hippy farm school Hampshire University was always interested in the environment and over the course of a few years decided to buy a plot of land and build his house. The house is sunken into the ground of the desert which helps with both heating and cooling year round, he collects rain water for use in the house and also installed solar panels on the roof. The best part as far as I am concerned is that he built the entire house illegally, state codes in New Mexico have made it illegal to build a house on only 1 acre of land because it is barely enough to build a house on. But thanks to the fact that he is surrounded by desert and no one cares about the codes in the desert he was able to build the house.

I personally don't have the willpower to live in the desert and build my own house. However I think that people like Ben are those who will do the best in the world that Cradle to Cradle envisions. The restructuring of our society that McDonough puts forth in his book is revolutionary and will require the actions of people like Ben who are willing to go out and build their own world even if they have to live in the desert.