Living Deliberately

Video of Fletcher School environmental expert William Moomaw's Mar. 27 talk about the construction of his energy-neutral home is now available.

Medford/Somerville, Mass. [04.04.08] On Mar. 27, Professor of International Environmental Policy and Director of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy William Moomaw spoke at The Fletcher School about the energy-neutral home he and his wife Margot have constructed. [ More details about their home ]

Moomaw, who is also senior director of Tufts Institute of the Environment and co-director Global Development and Environment Institute, discussed his efforts to balance his environmental concern with cost factors and the availability of technologies.

Moomaw is a member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. He also codirects the Tufts Climate Initiative, the program that enables the university to meet Kyoto Protocol emission reductions.

Watch video: Windows Media (57:05)

Video by Tufts Educational Media Services

The talk was sponsored by the Environmental Sustainability Initiative (ESI) and co-Sponsored by Net Impact.

This New House: Living deliberately in the twenty-first century

When Henry David Thoreau went to the Walden woods to "live deliberately," a simple cabin met his modest needs. Today, Americans expect a comfortable fullsized house, with energy at the flip of a switch. When we planned our retirement home in western Massachusetts,
my wife, Margot, and I wanted to live deliberately -- without threatening the environment or the climate system -- yet maintain our lifestyle. We faced many more decisions than Thoreau did, in everything from materials to energy sources. The finished house is heated with just 14 percent as much energy as one built to code, needs no air conditioning, and burns no fossil fuels. In the course of a year, solar panels produce all the electricity we need. There are many ways to create a comfortable low-impact house, but all require that, like Thoreau, one make deliberate choices about how to live. -William Moomaw

• A look inside William Moomaw's energy-neutral home (Illustration by Harry Campbell. Originally ran in Tufts Magazine, Winter 2008)

Related coverage:

• The 3% Solution (Tufts Magazine, Winter 2008)
• Climate Change: A Hot Debate in '08 (Jan. 15, 2008)
• What Are We Missing? (Oct. 22, 2007)
• Fletcher professors members of 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (October 2007)
• Report: Nations Must Stop Emissions Now (May 14, 2007)