Portugal + Carbon-Negative

Discussion
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1

Back in spring I posted more-or-less similar potential-community listings in IC.org and ecovillage.org, within their listing constraints. [Clean-air eBike ecoHorta - Foundation for Intentional Community]

A little flurry of interest on ecovillage.org, but though it includes the world, I guess IC.org is more for Americans. And the last thing I’d be doing is encouraging you to fly here.

But if, high on your agenda with community, you are interested in:
•Southern Europe, particularly Portugal
•ultra-low-carbon lifestyle
•carbon sequestration [in soil and biomass] as part of the process of…
•no-burn self-sufficient horticulture
…let’s chat.

My main advocation for low carbon lifestyle is LOW CONSUMPTION including eBikes, though a 10+ community share of an eV seems reasonable use of resources.

There’s plenty of intentional communities in Portugal, including this area, but low carbon seems to come with low scientific-technical literacy, with more of a bias towards mysticism, or simplicity through a very basic standard of living. Contrast this with a very compact, carefully-engineered, aesthetic but not ostentatious, comfortable standard of living, still very much in harmony with nature.

I’ve come back to the “community” format after spending many months with families, where the conventional family becomes the over-riding dynamic. So I’m presently much keener to relate with individuals!

The community listings say a lot more, but I hope that’s enough to engage your passing interest.

2

Motivated to leave US for Europe. I am 1st generation Spanish\Austrian. Have passport and working on employment options with TEFL. It’s huge yet I’ve always hoped to discover my roots. Conscious community is the direction I’m seeking.

3

I tried to send you a personal reply but the site is making this very hard, it seems. email me at lists@wavesculptor.net and I’ll reply with what I just wrote.

4

Just emailed you. The forum here is sometimes limited.

5

Ok.

Be Your Medicine seazenrestorative.wixsite.com/mysite (831)207-6599

6

re Portugal + Carbon-Negative - #2 by Seazen

Hi, Replying privately as this isn’t really for the whole IC community. Not least because where I’m now committed for the next year+ is not an open intentional community in the planned sense, though it is a community of more than just a family, in contrast to the last couple of places [and years] I’ve spent in Portugal. But the owners are friends of 15 years standing from UK.

So firstly, I’m curious if you’re responding to me /just because/ I’m in Europe on a US web-site, or if there is more than a dreamy sort-of connection with what I’m saying. A lot of US golden-visa immigrants and US media are actually dragging Portugal closer to US-style dystopia: while Portugal’s mainstream-economy needs their money, the biosphere needs people who actively /avoid-reject/ US consumption-culture, not bring it with them.

I’m living about 4km off-road and 200m above Benfeita, accessible by VERY steep mountain tracks - like rocky 25% gradients - unsuitable for city vehicles. I do mountain-eBike them tho [it is extreme riding, quite risky for a person my age] and there are slower mountain footpaths the area is famous for, but with “staircases” at intervals. The Benfeita area has a lot of Estrangeiro, “Hippy” and off-grid stuff going on around it, but still very little of it in the “living lightly” sense as I understand it. A lot of people into climate-chaos denial and/or facebook-conspiracy-type ideas. Imagine, people pummelling the mountain tracks to dust with heavy 4x4s to go for a coffee, just because they can, and similarly jetting regularly to see friends and relatives or bring them here. Even the others I live with on this beautiful land don’t totally fit the living lightly lifestyle, but they do sympathise and even aspire to move more in that direction [maybe with some help].

I have another recent acquaintance who does this quazi-communal lifestyle who hosts Workaways, on another remote beautiful spot nearby as well as sometimes in the village house he’s renovating. Here’s his workaway profile: The mountains are calling for you to enjoy nature, eco-building, beekeeping and gardening in rural Benfeita, Portugal … If you can afford to join workaway, it is a good way to discover alternative places here and more widely in Europe. It’s like a more internet-savvy, consumer version of “Wwoof” which people did when I was young. If you’re not inclined but like Haico’s profile, I can put you in touch directly.

That’s a lot more than I usually write back to short messages, but I glean a bit more of you from other posts since you’ve been on ic.

Best, Trev