By Daniel Vargas-Gómez, Open Democracy
Yes, neoliberal globalization is crashing hard. Despite the bailouts and the unorthodox policies of central banks the current world order seems to be coming to an end, but the battle is unlikely to be over and may be in fact entering its most contentious stage. It is still the case that the neoliberal beast has been wounded.
By Lizzie Rowe, Sustainable Food Trust
One of the best ways to source dairy in an ethical and sustainable way, for those of us who choose to consume it, is to buy it directly from farms. Instead of shelves of unfairly-priced milk from faceless farmers and uncertainty around production methods, consumers can get to know both farmer and their animals, and the animal welfare and environmental standards of the farm.
By Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Rapid Transition Alliance
Access to education is a basic human right, yet across the world, girls continue to face multiple barriers based on their gender and its intersections with other factors such as age, ethnicity, poverty and disability. However research shows that for each intake of students, educating girls has multiple benefits that go far beyond the individual and any particular society.
By Andreas Weber, Heinrich Boell Stiftung
Animism, the enactment and culture of interspecies reciprocity, cannot teach us how to better manage “natural objects”, but shows how to sustain a cosmos giving life to all its members. This will require us to rethink traditional sustainable practices.
By Tom Whipple, Steve Andrews, The Energy Bulletin
The four-week run of climbing crude prices continued through Wednesday, but prices fell on Thursday and Friday as doubts arose over the prospects for China’s economy and rising tensions with the US over the virus, the trade deal, and Hong Kong.
By Ugo Bardi, Cassandra's legacy
If you are a chemist, you know very well how catalysts can work small miracles: you had been trying for some time to have a reaction occur, without success, then you add a little pinch of something and - suddenly - things go "bang." In no time, the reaction is complete. Of course, as a chemist you know that catalysts don't really work miracles: all they can do is to accelerate reaction that would occur anyway.
By Bonnie Miller, Resilience.org
These are scary and uncertain times, but there may be lessons to heed as we move forward: let this redouble our commitment to eating and cooking together, practicing mindfulness, supporting local producers, and enjoying every last bite.
By Albert Bates, The Great Change
Coronavirus is hitting México hard and the government is in denial. México is going to have to face some difficult choices soon. It needs to remember what its indigenous ancestors did when the climate changed, civil collapse came, or invasion threatened. They dispersed and downsized... They self-isolated. And because of that, they are still here today.
By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
We who have been suggesting that a peak in world oil production was nigh almost from the beginning of this century looked like we might be right when oil prices reached their all-time high in 2008. But since then, we have taken it on the chin for more than a decade...
By David Bollier, David Bollier blog
Our years of leisurely critique of neoliberal capitalism are over. Now we need to take action to escape from its pathologies and develop new types of governance, provisioning, and social forms.
By Catherine St Germans, Oxford Real Farming Conference
But the big question for all of us working in this area is how we harness this new energy and markets once the crisis is over. How do we keep the energy of this moment alive? What will it take to keep citizens loyal to buying direct?
By Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Rapid Transition Alliance
How quickly, in peacetime democracies, are people prepared radically to change their behaviour? The Covid-19 pandemic provides some clues. One of the most common measures introduced to control its spread has been the ‘stay at home’ order. Normally known as ‘lockdown’ ... To an extraordinary degree, people have complied, and this is not the first time populations have accepted and adapted to suddenly introduced behaviour changes.