Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
This talk introduces a book project titled Taking Power or (re)Making Power: Re-Imagining Movements for Radical Social Change and Global Justice, presenting the culminating case study — the “Global Climate Justice Movement.” The project surveys the history of the new movements for radical social change of the 21st century, contrasting them with the great social revolutions of the 20th.
The group’s message is that “fresh, nutritious food and a positive environment in which to eat it, is a basic right which all of us should enjoy,” a right that should be legally underpinned, formalising the government’s responsibility to ensure the nation is adequately fed – and potentially leaving it vulnerable to legal challenges if it fails.
Quebec’s social economy (also translated as “solidarity economy”) extends far beyond the province’s two major cities, and includes manufacturing, agricultural cooperatives, daycare centers, homecare services, affordable housing, social service initiatives, food co-ops, ecotourism, arts programs, public markets, media, and funeral homes.
A new University of Guelph study proves what many western Canadian landowners have long documented — that methane gas leaking from energy industry wells can travel great distances in groundwater and pose safety risks, contaminate water and contribute to climate change.
Researchers have once again linked a sequence of devastating climate events to global warming fuelled by prodigal human use of fossil fuels. And this time, they believe they have identified the agency behind the blazing summers that have claimed lives and destroyed livelihoods repeatedly during this century.
The Toronto Tool Library in Ontario, Canada, is a model tool lending program. With four locations and a variety of workshops and community events, it is a pioneer of the lending and sharing movement.
We call this regenerative mentoring. There’s a mentoring process to this where you’re either in a peacemaking relationship or you’re mentoring towards that. Some people don’t feel like they have a connection to others, and so you have to really give them some surplus — you have to get them on board and bring them into the game again.
I am very excited about the growing recognition of using ecological approaches to growing food, particularly linked to the growing interest in rebuilding local and regional food systems. This not only builds regional economic and cultural vibrancy, but it helps us all stay healthier.
Falling costs allowed the world to add record new renewable capacity even as investment fell, according to a new report. The findings, from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), show 139 gigawatts (GW) of renewable capacity was built in 2016.
Forty years ago, the rulers of the West made not one, but several Devil’s bargains. Despite the suspicious smell of sulfur in the air, they thought they would get away with them.
I promised a bonfire of the numbers on my Peasant’s Republic of Wessex project in this post. Well, here goes. We shall also be taking a couple of side trips to the city state of Londinium – which, it turns out, is not without its peasant-like aspects – and to the Principality of Wales. So pour yourself a stiff one, pull up a pew, and get yourself some matches to help me light the flame.
What could you catalyse where you live that would act in the same way? How could your community, your place, tell a story about what the future could be, a story that burns in bright colours? Because goodness knows we need those.
