Inspiration

Preston model

Cllr Matthew Brown on the Preston Model and the Economics of the Imagination

By Rob Hopkins, Rob Hopkins blog

The scholar Richard Sennett once wrote, “modern capitalism works by colonizing people’s imagination of what is possible”. If it is the case that our current economic model thrives by creating the conditions that suppress rather than unleash the imagination, and if we recognise that now, more than any other time, we need a mass re-nourishing of the collective imagination, then where might we spot examples of ‘the economics of the imagination’? Eight years ago, the economy of Preston was crocked. Then its Council decided to take a new approach. Today I’m speaking to Cllr Matthew Brown, the recently-elected leader of Preston City Council. What Preston have achieved should be a model for everywhere else. “Let’s have a bit of imagination about how to get out of this mess” he tells me. I last interviewed him in June 2015, so I started by asking him, when we spoke just before Christmas, what has...

  • January 23, 2019
El Cua Nicaragua

El Cuá, Nicaragua: Community-Owned Hydropower Transforms Rural Economy

By Transformative Cities Staff, Transformative Cities

Residents of the northern highlands of Nicaragua were typically overlooked by modern infrastructure development. The Association of Rural Development Workers has changed this, securing access to electricity and clean drinking water for local people for the first time. Today the association is also generating enough profits from hydro power to fund US$300,000-worth of development in the region. The Association of Rural Development Workers was founded when American engineer Benjamin Linder moved to Nicaragua in 1985 to help communities construct the first hydro project in the San Jose de Bocay region. Benjamin’s murder by Contra rebels sparked an uprising both locally and internationally, leading not only to the setting up of the association but also a renewed focus on development in the region. Lifting of the electricity grid posts The association has had great success in mobilizing residents within the region, including women, to participate in and take ownership of projects....

  • January 22, 2019
Acequias

The Art of Decolonizing…..Everything

By Alan Wartes, Think Radio

Devon Peña is Professor of American Ethnic Studies and Anthropology at the University of Washington. He is also founder and president of the Acequia Institute an organization devoted to strengthening traditional communal irrigation practices in the San Luis Valley of Colorado.

    • January 22, 2019
    praying mantis

    Environmental Awareness

    By Jody Tishmack, Anima/Soul

    We need to find affinities with the natural world and connect with them.  For when we do we will find it is easy to love the world, to naturally care for and renew it… just as it cares for and renews us.

    • January 22, 2019
    bison

    Bison are Back, and That Benefits Many other Species on the Great Plains

    By Matthew D. Moran, The Conversation

    Today some 500,000 bison have been restored in over 6,000 locations, including public lands, private ranches and Native American lands. As they return, researchers like me are gaining insights into their substantial ecological and conservation value.

    • January 21, 2019
    Green New Deal

    Could a Green New Deal Save Civilization?

    By Richard Heinberg, Common Dreams

    To fully and systematically address the climate/energy crisis, the plan will have to be far broader in scope than what is currently being proposed. And while we need to mobilize society as a whole with a World War II-level of effort, the reality is that there's never been a challenge like this before.

    • January 21, 2019
    Restored systems

    Memoirs of an Earth Steward & Ecosystems Restoration Manual

    By Daniel Christian Wahl, Medium

    Sparked into action by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring John Todd and his wife Nancy Jack-Todd, together with their friend Bill McLarney, founded the New Alchemy Institute (N.A.I.) in 1969 “to restore the land, protect the seas, and inform the Earth’s stewards.” 

    • January 18, 2019

    How to Take on Fascism without Getting Played

    By George Lakey, Waging Nonviolence

    The growth of polarization makes it possible for haters to come out from the margins, form larger groups and make political trouble. Why is polarization increasing now, with the accompanying growth of fascist groups?

    • January 18, 2019
    Lackan farm

    Lackan Cottage Farm Design

    By Lackan Farm staff, Permaculture Association

    Lackan Cottage Farm is the product of permaculture design, which can be seen in everything from our natural building products, to our waste and water treatment, energy production, and food growing. It is constantly evolving and growing with our own permaculture experience.

    • January 18, 2019
    beach

    Why We Won’t Quit the Climate Fight

    By Kathleen Dean Moore, Earth Island Journal

    We are old climate veterans who have tried to do our part, in every way we know how, to keep our fossil-fuel addicted civilization from driving off a cliff. Are we tired? Sure. Discouraged? Absolutely. Pissed off? Yep. Sad? Call it broken-hearted. Quitting? Nah.

    • January 18, 2019
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