Featured Voices

John Foran is Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he teaches courses on climate change and climate justice, activism and movements for radical social change, and issues of development and globalization beyond capitalism. He is the author of Fragile Resistance: Social Transformation in Iran from 1500 to the Revolution (1993) and Taking Power: On the Origins of Revolutions in the Third World (2005). His research and activism are now centered within the global climate justice movement, and much of it can be found at the Climate Justice Project and the International Institute of Climate Action and Theory.

Jeremy Lent is author of The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, which investigates how different cultures have made sense of the universe and how their underlying values have changed the course of history. His upcoming book, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe, will be published in Spring 2021 (New Society Press: North America | Profile Books: UK & Commonwealth). For more information visit jeremylent.com..

I have a BS in Sustainable Agriculture from the University of Maine, and I worked on sustainability issues in Native Alaskan communities through Cooperative Extension before moving to North Carolina. My goal with my writing and in my life is to inspire others to think critically about their choices in order to build communities that are happier, healthier and gentler on the planet.

Chris Smaje works a small mixed farm in Somerset and blogs at smallfarmfuture.org.uk. He’s written on environmental and agricultural issues for publications like The Land, Permaculture Magazine and in Dark Mountain: Issue 6, and also in academic journals (Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems; the Journal of Consumer Culture; the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture). Trained in anthropology and social science, he previously worked at the Universities of Surrey and London.

Frank Kaminski is an ardent reader and reviewer of books related to natural resource depletion, climate change and other issues affecting the fate of industrial civilization. He lives in southwestern Washington state near the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.

Joel B. Stronberg, Esq., of The JBS Group is a veteran clean energy policy analyst with over 30 years’ experience, based in Washington, DC. He writes about energy and politics in his blog Civil Notion (www.civilnotion.com) and has recently published the book Earth v. Trump: The Climate Defenders’ Guide to Washington Politics based on his commentaries. He has worked extensively in the clean energy fields for public and private sector clients at all levels of government and in Latin America. His specialties include: resiliency; distributed generation and storage; utility regulation; financing mechanisms; sustainable agriculture; and human behavior. Stronberg is a frequent presenter at conferences and workshops and may be reached at [email protected]

Kurt Cobb is an author, speaker, and columnist whose novel Prelude provides a startling reinterpretation of contemporary events and a window onto our energy future. He writes a widely followed blog on energy and the environment called Resource Insights and is a regular contributor to the Energy Voices section of The Christian Science Monitor.

Charlotte Du Cannn writes about mythology, metaphysics and cultural change and teaches collaborative writing. From 2011-12 she founded and edited the Transition Network’s Social Reporting Project, based on the community Norwich blog, This Low Carbon Life and went on to found and edit the quarterly newspaper, Transition Free Press. In 2014/5 she collaborated with author Lucy Neal on ‘Playing for Time – Making Art as if the World Mattered’ (Oberon Books), funded by Arts Council England. She was born in London in 1956 and worked as a fashion and design journalist in London before going on the road (mostly) in the Americas – a journey she charted in ’52 Flowers That Shook My World – A Radical Return to Earth’ (Two Ravens Press, 2012) and other books. She is currently working forThe Dark Mountain Project and creating a performance and a non-fiction collection about mythos and regeneration in times fo collapse. You can find a selection of her writings at http://charlotteducann.blogspot.com Contact: [email protected]

Bill Vitek is a philosopher, educator, author and musician.  For thirty years he has collaborated with Wes Jackson–co-founder and President Emeritus of The Land Institute–on projects of mutual interest, including two co-edited books (Rooted in the Land and The Virtues of Ignorance) and, since 2011, an educational framework informed by perennial, regenerative agriculture. Bill is a Scholar in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont, USA, and directs the New Perennials Project for Rockefeller Family Fund.

Adrian Ayres Fisher works as a sustainability coordinator for a community college. She also writes and gives talks about sustainability, regenerative gardening and reconciliation ecology, from a Midwestern point of view. Her home is in an inner-ring suburb of Chicago and she blogs at Ecological Gardening.

Richard Heinberg is the author of thirteen books including ‘The Party’s Over’, ‘The End of Growth’, and ‘Snake Oil’. He is Senior Fellow-in-Residence of Post Carbon Institute and is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost Peak Oil educators.

Tracy L. Barnett is a Mexico-based independent writer focused on the environment, social justice, indigenous rights and travel. She is the founder of The Esperanza Project and author of the upcoming book, Looking for Esperanza: One Woman’s Search for Hope in the Other America.