Resolving a situation where we are trapped in an impasse is sometimes possible by tracing the root cause. Global warming began when humans developed an insatiable thirst for energy for their machines. They needed them to churn out the vast range of consumer items now in our stores. Some folk are wondering whether opting out of the grid is possible. They envy the alternative lifestyle of the people on the Peninsula of Scoraig in Scotland.
Should We Envy the Alternative Lifestyle on Scoraig?
Scoraig is on a remote peninsula in Ross and Cromarty in the Scottish Highlands, and has no choice but to live off-grid. However its people seem happy enough to flourish beyond utility range, even though they could move away.
The less than 100 people have a primary school for kids, and they are ahead of most with organic food and wind power. If they need more than their own company, they can walk five miles to the mainland or catch a boat taxi. The BBC reports their alternative lifestyle has proved a magnet for crofters with cattle and sheep. They also have their own violin maker, Russian translator, community volunteers, and a part-time postal worker.
Is This Isolation Perhaps Why the Scoraig Population is Aging?
“We’re an ageing population but I guess the bulk of us are between 40 and 65,“ says Lisa, aged 54. She lives in a to-die-for stone cottage where she tends her vegetable garden. “I have been here 23 years. I don’t think it is very remote really. But it has its own hardships of the wind and the rain.”
Hugh aged 65 retired to Scoraig after being active teaching math and physics in Edinburgh. There was no electricity when he arrived. So the man, once rated top on Google for ‘wind power’, used his knowledge to build wooden turbine blades.
His community micro-grid supplements the lamps and candles in the light of which Bev, 79, crafts his hand-made violins at night. Everybody makes their own contribution. There’s a strong sense of interdependence in Scoraig, the peninsula with an enviable alternative lifestyle.
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Preview Image: Moorland above Annat Bay Looking Towards Scoraig
