Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Capitalism is facing a structural crisis. It is no longer capable of organizing the production and distribution of goods that people need. Its logic of profit and capital accumulation prevent us from having a more just and egalitarian society.
That there is considerable overlap between permaculture responses to flood and fire resilient design reflects a deep listening to country, holistic and uncorrupted science and old fashioned common sense.
Finding a way out of this “polycrisis” requires a deep transformation in how energy and food are produced and distributed, with actions that challenge corporate control head on.
Sustainability means living as nature lives. It means no depletion of the elements of the ecosystem humans have been treating as economic resources, and no waste. What we pursue is up that tree.
How can we reshape the narrative and shift the paradigm towards different economic systems that promote human and ecological well-being over material consumption?
This fall’s elections are more important than anything that’s happening here at Sharm el Sheikh, I think—the one in Brazil last month, and the ones across America last week, and the one that could come in Georgia early next month.
The project of direct democracy, of which reason and rational deliberation are an inseparable part, has to be made appealing and desirable for a growing amount of people.
Overall the plan of action should be the same: empowering localized economies and grassroots organizations as a way to mitigate resource overuse and move toward an ecological civilization. Any model that begins from the proposition that consumption patterns can remain unchanged is a nonstarter.
Accounting for 37% of global carbon dioxide emissions, the built environment is a major part of the climate change problem. That also means it can and must be a key part of the solution.
Once the paucity of this cheap world is made plain, once the naked emperor is publicly called a cheated imbecile, once the grubbiness of what shows up in those priority mail deliveries is clearly revealed, maybe, just maybe, the privileged will then notice the rest of the misery embodied in their spending…
The modern food system has a huge carbon footprint. These Indian cafés want to change that.
Do you really want to know the truth; are you really willing to let it in, to be changed by it? My hope is to demonstrate that the answer must, simply must, be: Yes.
