Too good to pass up:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/234674

A report being released on behavior showed a tendancy of “green” buyers to lie, cheat and steal more frequently than other buyers.

I have a penchant for technology. So I am often amused by, interested in, and spend vast quantities of time looking over different ideas for building a low cost, on-going cost-efficient home. I’m always driven to the point of laughter when I see many of the so-called “green living” websites talking about affordable housing – only to find out that the costs of actually building many of their fantasies will run about the same price per square foot as a traditional, stick-built home.

So what is the yard-stick measurement of affordable? Is it affordable to the smug, urban hipster? Or is it affordable to the every-day joe?

One of the ideas I’ve been working with in my head is the idea of building out a shipping container home. They are often mentioned as a low-cost building tool that can be used in a variety of ways. And I agree to a certain point. Shipping containers can be a low cost way to recycle some old steel into a modern home. But by the time most of the plans I see on the Internet are finished being built, there is nothing but a small living space with the price tag of a large home.

Call me a heretic. Maybe I’m just a tad bit more skeptical than others. But I’ve been lumped in to a category of miscreants, rabble-rousers, and wholesale kooks because… well… I’m skeptical. And it is funny with respect to the fact that you might usually place me on the side with the so-called enlightened, liberal progeny. But the global warming issue is still chapping my hide, years after the science world reached “consensus” on the “facts”.

I don’t argue that man has no impact on the nature surrounding him. Man is a very key part of the natural world. I might concede that man is a key contributor of CO2 gasses in the atmosphere. It would be, to this mind, a specific, unseen cost associated with our activities here on the earth.

I might concede that CO2 is a significant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. But where I diverge from the pack comes when we start seeing scientists whip out their crystal balls, begin having alternative science sessions and dictating the very real events that will take place tomorrow.
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