The Cape Cod Ark

http://www.vsb.cape.com/~nature/greencenter/newalchemy.html


The New Alchemy Institute

From 1971 to 1991, the New Alchemy Institute conducted research and education on behalf of the planet :

"Among our major tasks is the creation of ecologically derived human support systems - renewable energy, agriculture aquaculture, housing and landscapes. The strategies we research emphasize a minimal reliance on fossil fuels and operate on a scale accessible to individuals, families and small groups. It is our belief that ecological and social transformations must take place at the lowest functional levels of society if humankind is to direct its course towards a greener, saner world."

"Our programs are geared to produce not riches, but rich and stable lives, independent of world fashion and the vagaries of international economics. The New Alchemists work at the lowest functional level of society on the premise that society, like the planet itself, can be no healthier than the components of which it is constructed. The urgency of our efforts is based on our belief that the industrial societies which now dominate the world are in the process of destroying it."

A SAFE AND SUSTAINABLE WORLD

The Promise of Ecological Design


Author/Editor: Nancy Jack Todd
Price: $28.95
Format:
cloth 203 Pages 6 x 9 Figures. Bibliography. Index.
Publisher:
Island Press
Subject:
Green Living , Architecture & Sustainable Design
ISBN:
1-55963-778-1
Pub. Date:
3/11/2005
Status:
In stock.

In the late sixties, as the world was waking to a need for Earth Day, a pioneering group founded a small non-profit research and education organization they called the New Alchemy Institute. Their aim was to explore the ways a safer and more sustainable world could be created. In the ensuing years, along with scientists, agriculturists, and a host of enthusiastic amateurs and friends, they set out to discover new ways that basic human needs--in the form of food, shelter, and energy--could be met. A Safe and Sustainable World is the story of that journey, as it was and as it continues to be.

The dynamics and the resilience of the living world were the Institute's model and the inspiration for their research. Central to their efforts then and now is, along with science, a spiritual quest for a more harmonious human role in our planet's future. The results of this work have now entered mainstream science through the emerging discipline of ecological design.

Nancy Jack Todd not only relates a fascinating journey from lofty ideals through the hard realities encountered in learning how to actually grow food, harness the energy of the sun and wind, and design green architecture. She also introduces us to some of the heroes and mentors who played a vital role in those efforts as well, from Buckminster Fuller to Margaret Mead. The early work of the Institute culminated in the design and building of two bioshelters--large greenhouse-like independent structures called Arks, that provided the setting for much of the research to follow.

Successfully proving through the Institute's designs and investigations that basic land sustainability is achievable, John Todd and the author founded a second non-profit research group, Ocean Arks International. Here they applied the New Alchemy's natural systems thinking to restoring polluted waters with the invention and implementation of biologically based living technologies called Ecomachines and Pond and Lake Restorers. A Safe and Sustainable World demonstrates what has and can be done--it also looks to what must be done to integrate human ingenuity and the four billion or so years of evolutionary intelligence of the natural world into healthy, decentralized, locally dreams hard won--and hope.

The Author NANCY JACK TODD is a writer and editor based on Cape Cod, where she gardens and swims and publishes the environmental journal Annals of Earth. Her other books, with John Todd, include Tomorrow is Our Permanent Address and From Eco-Cities to Living Machines. Her writings have also appeared in a number of publications and anthologies. She and John Todd have received the Bioneers Award, the Charles and Ann Morrow Lindbergh Award the Daimler/Chrysler award for design, the United Nations (FUNEP) Award, and the Swiss Threshold Award for contributions to human knowledge.
Also of interest from Island Press:
Ecological DesignDesigning Sustainable Communities

Stephanie Mills, author of Epicurean Simplicity:

Nancy jack Todd tells a marvelous story. This first-hand account of New Alchemy’s visionary, rigorous, and phenomenal projects to sustain life gives us all hope. This is a book that I’d like to share with local famers, sprawl fighters, and conscientious citizens. Here we have grounds for the hope of living simply, meeting our basic needs, and restoring health to the world, and on a shoestring budget.

Donald Watson, Architect:

a clear, inspirational story that shows the nitty-gritty of how talent coalesces around important issuses and how creative minds work together. This book is a necessary read for any idealist who aspires to change the world through architecture, design, the environment, and science.