The Future of Wheat
By Steph Wetherell, Sustainable Food Trust
“It’s important that we take care to do things right, not to rush, and to make sure that the power in these new economies is equitable, There is always the danger of re-building the old system and re-commodifying these precious seeds.”
Open Letter to Fridays For Future. It’s Time for Action, but, what Action?
By Margarita Mediavilla, 15-15-15
Dear Fridays For Future activists: I am writing to you as a member of a research group from a Spanish University that has been working on issues of sustainability, energy and climate change for more than ten years. I am doing this because I think that, as you say, it is time for action in the face of the climatic emergency, but I also think that it is necessary to be very clear about what kind of action is necessary.
Stanford Study Says Renewable Power Eliminates Argument for Using Carbon Capture with Fossil Fuels
By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog
New research from Stanford University professor Mark Z. Jacobson questions the climate and health benefits of carbon capture technology against simply switching to renewable energy sources like wind and solar. Carbon capture technology is premised on two possible approaches to reducing climate pollution: removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere anywhere in the world, an approach generally known as direct air capture, or removing it directly from the emissions source, such as the smoke stack of a fossil fuel power plant.
The Just Transition, Economic Democracy, and the Green New Deal
By Evan Casper-Futterman, Jason Spicer, Cooperation Jackson
Two recent books takeup the challenges of radical social and institutional transformation to make a GND maximally effective. One outlines the requirements for a maximally participatory democracy, but raises questions about its ideological valences; the other outlines a multilayered effort in one US city, leaving us with questions about organizational capacity to pull off the GND. Inasmuch as these works draw mainly on non-US examples, they magnify the challenges that remain here.
Corporations in the Crosshairs: From Reform to Redesign
By Allen White, Great Transition Initiative
Transnational corporations, the engines of global capitalism, have become the target of efforts to create an economic system both socially just and environmentally sustainable. The unprecedented power and impact of these leviathans on society and ecology raises critical questions: What is corporate purpose? To whom should corporations be held accountable? And how, in fact, can that be accomplished?
Why I Spent Christmas on the Moon
By Rob Hopkins, Rob Hopkins blog
I returned from my time there with some thoughts, some reflections, which I hope will prove useful in the battles that lie ahead, in the ongoing uphill push to wrestle our future back from insane men who feel it is OK to dash headlong into creating the conditions in which we no longer have one. And a future that could be so, so beautiful.
Has Extinction Rebellion Got the Right Tactics
By Chay Harwood, Marc Hudson, New Internationalist
All agree we need to take action for climate change, but some environmentalists find the Extinction Rebellion’s tactics difficult to get behind. Environmental campaigners Chay Harwood and Marc Hudson provide the arguments for and against them.
Shifting from Industrial Agriculture to Diversified Agroecological Systems in China
By Zhenzhong Si, Agroecology Now!
Ecological agriculture – food production following the ecological principles with reduced or no use of chemicals – is being increasingly adopted by an emerging group of agricultural entrepreneurs. Driven by consumer interest in safe and healthy food, various ecological food initiatives such as organic and “green” food companies, farmers’ cooperatives, community supported agriculture, and ecological farmers’ markets have been taking root in China in the past decade.
Climate Change and the Attention Economy
By Peter Doran, Open Democracy
The questions posed by the ecological crises – notably the climate emergency - are a series of provocations. These questions drive us back not only to intimate connections between our actions and the fate of the earth and our atmosphere, but to the intimate realm of our attention and capacity to care both individually and collectively.
Reading Aloud
By Damaris Zehner, Integrity of Life
Despite the fact that I am recommending shorter school days and fewer subjects, I am convinced that reading aloud should be a big part of every class plan. Reading and writing are a fundamental part of the curriculum, and have been for many centuries, we know that; but we forget how unnatural they are.
How We Cut Our Electricity Usage by 85%
By Kara Stiff, Low-Carbon Life
You read that right: 85%. My family of four uses, on average, 4.7 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per day. Our electric bill never tops $32 per month. In the past we used just over 30 kWh/day, which is about average in the U.S., although there is huge variation. In our state, the average is over 36 kWh/day.
The Invisible, and Growing Ecological Footprint of Digital Technology
By Paul Mobbs, Free Range Activisim Website
The elements of our lifestyle which we most closely identify with tend to be off-limits to any critical discussion. This is one explanation as to why recent research on the impact of digital technology is missing from the popular ecological debate. But as 96% of British adults have a mobile device{1} the footprint of digital technology can no longer be ignored. From electronic waste to carbon emissions, it’s taking on a life of its own.
What has a Year of Experiments Taught us about Basic Income?
By Guy Standing, World Economic Forum
As a long-time proponent of basic income, and as someone who has been involved in pilots in four continents, the past year has been a roller coaster, perhaps summarised as two steps forward, one step back, with marks for progress as six out of 10. It will take acts of courage to move forward decisively in 2019, but more doors are opening.
A Continent Ablaze
By Marc Hudson, New Internationalist
What we are seeing now is – in part – the result of wilful negligence, wilful blindness and casual greed. A total failure of leadership by political leaders from the major parties that stretches back not three weeks, or three months, but three decades, when Australians were first warned of the dangers in what was then known as ‘the Greenhouse Effect’.*
Peak Oil Review 6 January 2019
By Tom Whipple, Steve Andrews, Peak-Oil.org
Brent crude futures jumped nearly $3 a barrel on Friday after a US airstrike killed top Iranian and Iraqi military commanders in Baghdad. Brent crude futures hit an intraday high of $69.16 a barrel, their highest since Sept 17th, before easing down to $68.60, up $2.35 for the day. West Texas Intermediate futures were up $1.85 or 3.04 percent to $63.05 a barrel, having earlier spiked to $63.84 a barrel, their highest since May 1.
West’s ‘Dust Bowl’ Future now ‘Locked In’, as World Risks Imminent Food Crisis
By Nafeez Ahmed, Insurge Intelligence
Research sponsored by global credit ratings agency Moody’s concludes that by the end of century, parts of the US and Europe are now bound to experience severe reductions in rainfall equivalent to the American ‘dust bowl’ of the 1930s, which devastated Midwest farming for a decade. These consequences are now ‘locked in’ as a consequence of carbon emissions which we have already accumulated into the atmosphere.
What Did You Learn in School Today?
By Damaris Zehner, Integrity of Life
Last week I wrote about the overloaded and ineffective schedule of the typical public school. I made the claim that students should be spending much less time in school and, while in school, much less time in desks. The immediate effect of this change would have to be fewer subjects taught to children of all ages.
Iran, energy and war
By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
No one can say for certain whether current tensions between the United States and Iran will spiral into war. But remember: When they tell you it's not about oil (and natural gas), you can be certain that these resources are at the center of American motives. Absent these resources it would be difficult to understand the United States' decades-long obsession with Iran.
Big Oil Spent $3.6 Billion to Clean Up its Image, and it’s Working
By Kate Yoder, Grist
If you’ve ever seen an ad featuring ExxonMobil scientists handling beakers of green goo, the algae that will supposedly fuel the future, you’ve been the target of an oil company’s advertisement. Exxon isn’t trying to sell you a product, exactly — but it is hoping to sell you on the idea that it’s committed to a greener future.
Dollars to Doughnuts: The Shape of a New Economy
By Allen White, Kate Raworth, The Great Transition Initiative
In my book, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist, I try to reframe economics through the power of images. The diagrams that we draw profoundly shape our thinking. If we’re going to thrive in the twenty-first century, and if economists are going to be helpful in doing so, we need to rename and redraw the economy.
The Carbon Ranch
By Courtney White, Resilience.org
My crazy idea turned out to not be so crazy after all. In a few short years, the idea of sequestering atmospheric carbon in soils took off thanks to the hard work of many people and organizations. It’s become a movement, which I’ll discuss in the next issue – a hopeful thing indeed!
Plastic Planet (documentary film review)
By Frank Kaminski, Mud City Press
Of all the documentaries that have been made about the dangers of plastic, the one that has stuck with me the most is Plastic Planet. It’s my favorite for numerous reasons, the first of which is the breadth of its scope.
An Analysis of Northern North American Climate Data
By Roger Blanchard, Resilience.org
Because the expectation of climate scientists is that the high latitudes will experience the largest degree of warming due to global warming, I decided many years ago to monitor temperatures at various widespread locations in northern North America.
Kurdist Rojava: A Social Model for our Future
By Ted Trainer, Resilience.org
Despite appallingly difficult circumstances the Kurds in the region of Rojava are building a society that is totally different from the Middle Eastern norm. Very few people understand that this is the kind of model we must all adopt if we are to achieve a sustainable and just world.
This can Be the Year When we Recharge Nature – and Ourselves
By George Monbiot, The Guardian blog
It’s going to be a rough year. The fatal combination of escalating climate breakdown and the capture of crucial governments by killer clowns provokes a horrible sense of inevitability. Just when we need determined action, we know that our governments, and the powerful people to whom they respond, will do everything they can to stymie it.
The Key to the Environmental Crisis Is Beneath Our Feet
By Ellen Brown, Web of Debt
There is a much cheaper and faster way to sequester carbon from the atmosphere that doesn’t rely on these corporate giants to transition us to 100% renewables. Additionally, it can be done while at the same time reducing the chronic diseases that impose an even heavier cost on citizens and governments. Our most powerful partner is nature itself, which over hundreds of millions of years has evolved the most efficient carbon sequestration system on the planet.
The Truth About: Heating and Cooking with a Wood Stove
By Kara Stiff, Low-Carbon Life
First of all, wood stoves are not an automatic environmental impact win. You should know that right up front (more about it later). We always consider environmental impact when we choose but we also take into account other things: comfort, safety, labor commitment and especially resilience. Our wood stove was chosen mainly for resilience.
Step by Step – Can We Make New Decisions?
By Laurie Cone, Center for Ecozoic Studies
As we all know, shifting away from the dominant culture of consumption can be overwhelming. Our brains are wired to stick to habits with which we’re familiar. Our friends and family have expectations of us being a certain way. But it’s clear that we need to make big changes.
Capitalism – a Self Organizing Structure That Leads to Self Extinction
By Norton Smith, Resilience.org
We live with the belief that we have created an economic system called capitalism and that we have control over it though government policy and taxes. What if the tables were turned and capitalism only describes a self organizing system that creates itself in an environment of surplus goods and services?
Repent – Another World is Possible
By Vicki Robin, Vicki Robin blog
To repent is to feel such direct sorrow at what you have caused that you turn your life around. You are not passingly sorry. You are sorry for the rest of your days, and come to cherish this sorrow as it reminds you to care about the lives you touch. You may stumble, but you correct course as soon as you are a half a degree off.
Epistemological divide: How we live in two different worlds of understanding
By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
Epistemology is the study of how we know things. All of us cycle between two main ways of knowing in our modern culture: 1) the rational, reductionist way and 2) the holistic, relational, intuitive way. By far the most dominant way is the rational, reductionist way and our institutions, scientific, economic, financial and organizational are governed by this way of thinking.
Happy Holidays from Resilience.org!
By Resilience.org Staff, Resilience.org
Hello and Happy Holidays from Resilience.org! There will be very light posting over the holiday period. Normal posting will resume on January 2, 2020. Thank you very much for your support over the last year, and we hope to see you all again in the New Year.
Ocean floor mining: What could possibly go wrong?
By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
The world's nations may conclude a treaty governing undersea mining through the auspices of the United Nations as early as next year. Once that is concluded, large scale mining of ocean bottoms is expected to begin. One method—already in use in coastal waters controlled by individual countries—will be to suck up nodules of ore lying on the seabed with huge vacuums and filter out the sediment that comes with it.
Lyla June Johnston: Let’s End Our National Addiction to Oil
By Tracy Barnett, Lyla June Johnston, Esperanza Project
But there is another way to live, which involves re-localizing goods and services. Please bear in mind we will have to do this either way. We can quit oil on our own now in a graceful way that our children will be proud of, or we can keep going and be forced to quit when we are not ready. Now is the time to start working together to be free from this addiction.
Dangerous Nostalgia for the 1950s and 1960s
By Kevin Klinkenberg, Strong Towns
Well-done, compact cities and towns are incredibly livable and pleasurable, as well as more financially sustainable. Humans are very adaptable and resilient, and the transition to whatever is next should also give us more excitement than sorrow or remorse. The America of the 50s and 60s is over. The party has long since petered out. That's a good thing. Let’s clean up and move on to something better.
The Staple Food Revolution: Bringing Beans and Grains to Local Markets
By Danielle Nierenberg, Emily Payne, Food Tank
After a couple of years as growers, Jaeger and Ajamian realized that they couldn’t build a local food system without a local processing facility, and they opened Shagbark in a former carpet warehouse in 2010. Now, they say that with each passing year at Shagbark, they find more and more reasons why local and regional processing facilities for staple foods are important.
Hey Teacher, Leave those Kids Alone
By Damaris Zehner, Integrity of Life
I outlined earlier the essential elements of human beings: we’re physical, cultural, social, linguistic, spiritual, and mortal. If an education system were designed to educate real human children, with all of those capacities, it would look different from our current one.
Terra Firma: Fibershed
By Courtney White, Resilience.org
Fibersheds put it all together into a practical, natural, and hopeful whole. It's based in the philosophy that nature still knows best, whether it involves the role of animals on the land, promoting life in the soil, keeping the ground covered with plants, building up soil carbon, generating local jobs, and using ingredients sourced from nature.
This So-Called Bridge Fuel ‘Leads to Hell’: Blowout at ExxonMobil Fracking Site Among Nation’s Worst-Ever Methane Leaks
By Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams
The revelation Monday that a blowout last year at an Ohio natural gas well owned by an ExxonMobil subsidiary was one of the country's largest-ever leaks of the potent greenhouse gas methane provoked impassioned calls for a rapid, just transition to 100% renewable energy nationwide.
Another Rightwing Strongman has Won – but There is Hope for a Different Future
By Pryamvada Gopal, The Guardian blog
While defeating the right at the ballot box remains vital, our long-term work involves keeping alternatives to the present alive in society’s imagination. In the face of an unthinking insistence that neoliberal inequality and bigotry are unavoidable, we need to become difficult dissidents and uncooperative naysayers who speak up.
Earthseed Land Collective: Farmers of Color Create Space for Collective Living & Liberation on the Land
By Jean Willoughby, Agrarian Trust
Members of Earthseed describe themselves as a group of “black and brown parents, activists, artists, educators, business owners, farmers, and researchers, who came together to remember our relationships to land, to livelihood and to each other,” and to cultivate a “transformational response to oppression and collective heartbreak: A model of community resilience through cooperative ownership of land and resources.”
UNEP: 1.5C Climate Target ‘Slipping Out of Reach’
By Zeke Hausfather, Carbon Brief
Unless the world begins to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement “will slip out of reach,” according to the latest UN Environment Programme (UNEP) emissions gap report.