Professor in Florida Proposes Real Estate Development in Belize to Reduce Global Warming

Imagine meeting someone who has created a word.

Dr. Barbara Brodman, a professor of Latin American studies and founder of Global Awareness Institute, an environmental public charity, hit on a word to describe a community that goes beyond "thinking globally, acting locally."

The typical environmentally sensitive project is called "eco-community" to indicate ecological concerns. Worries about rainforest destruction, global warming, carbon emissions and species eradication are top on the proponents' agenda.

"I call my development in western Belize a 'geo-community' because it ‘combines self-sufficient living with responsibility for the community and eco-system that supports it.’ This new concept integrates the culture of both local people and new Iguana Creek residents into an effort to protect and preserve a severely threatened piece of tropical forest."

To address concerns of air, water and ground pollution, the community stores rainwater, develops much of its electricity from renewable resources and has a process for obtaining transportation fuel from non-fossil sources.

"But the local people need to be involved in the transformation that takes place when portions of a tropical forest are developed," explains Brodman, who maintains a web site at www.gaiglobal.org to address the issues of a "geo-community." "Too often foreigners bring in their own experts and don't train the locals. Our project of ten homes will teach local workers to use special tools so that they can start their own businesses. Ecology is one-sided if the local people don't participate in the economy."

Brodman's vision for her community combines buildings that are environmentally sensitive and culturally responsible.

The word appears to be a "neologism," a newly created word -- with scores of competing appearances. A search for no hyphen, "geocommunity," reveals over 100,000 occurrences from one company: a software maker that finds data for the Geographic Information System or GIS community. Hence, "geocommunity."

Brodman describes her Iguana Creek development as an experiment in "responsible living."

The project is on 54 acres of a protected ecological preserve in western Belize, an area that eco-tourists might consider visiting to see the similarities between the dairy land of this area of the Mayan heartland and the rolling hills of Vermont.

So, if you recently scanned for "what is a geo-community" with a hyphen, you probably found a single example, related to a real estate listing that Brodman arranged to publicize the project. Anyone wondering what the next new word is will quickly conclude that geo-hyphen-community is a rare new addition to the lexicon.

For more information about the project, please click on the links below related to travel to Belize, which is considered by some to be part of the Caribbean more than part of Central America.

If you don't speak English well, consider the free tutoring that is available online.

JK McCrea
Founder of these sites
www.RoadLovers.com
JKMcCrea.com
www.freeenglishlessons.com
www.gaiglobal.org
www.geocities.com/bb_tropicaldream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDqvPAi_Rac selling a home in Fort Lauderdale

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

www.RoadLovers.com JKMcCrea.com www.freeenglishlessons.com www.gaiglobal.org www.geocities.com/bb_tropicaldream www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDqvPAi_Rac
Article Submission made possible by: www.articles-submit.com
Courtesy of:Affiliate Name

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated