Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
People realize that our growth-addicted economy is driving us into disaster, and they are eager for an alternative. Whatever political movement can speak truthfully to that deep-felt concern and offer real hope — not just green-growth fantasies — will be able to command incredible popular support.
Our evolved history as a species has not prepared us for what is happening now. It is time to start seeing culture as a complex system that evolves according to Darwinian principles.
We are facing a knife’s edge, between a future that is abundant of collaboration with [more than human] nature, or decades of decline and unspeakable, unthinkable situations that we want to avoid. The way to start navigating the path towards the positive is to be in love with life and each other every day a little bit more.
I recently put out a call looking for places, events or venues that are creating wifi-free spaces, places where people can intentionally get away from smartphones and the distraction they bring into our lives, some time to cultivate the attention.
The speed at which the regeneration meme is spreading into all aspects of society and infiltrating the mainstream is breathtaking and faster than I would have anticipated when I told my colleagues in Gaia Education in early 2014 to take a closer look at Bill Reed’s article from 2007 ‘Shifting from sustainability to regeneration’.
What can you do with 9 tonnes of Pumpkins? Make curry, of course! This and other questions were on the menu when we sat around the table to chat about sustainable food and how Bristol is going for Gold as a Sustainable Food City with our guests…
Like every other institution in our society, colleges and universities are affected by the changing climate. They face new threats to campus infrastructure, and to the safety of students, faculty and staff. But while colleges and universities grapple with these problems, they can also be part of the solution.
But I want us to ask Indigenous people to take the reins themselves and help get us back on track with fire. I want them to take care of their own lands once again, as the Karuk people are doing up north on the Klamath River.
Without emotional resilience, people will not survive. Not only do we need to ‘think through’ this process of breakdown, we need to feel our way through it. In fact, our proclivity for thinking first and perhaps allowing a bit of emotional expression later on is a pattern that has helped get us into this dire predicament.
Everything about the lifestyle we are accustomed to, as rich westerners, has to change. If we let that sink in for a little bit that is when the real disruption comes in, giving way to a radical shift in perspective. So, where do we go from here?
The achievements of the Hydro Board rank among the most successful and concentrated single instances of energy transitions. As the Scottish Government prepares to convene its commission on a Just Transition — a project to end reliance on fossil fuels in a socially equitable manner — a clear precedent does exist.
What was amazing to see in the US context is the critical attention to these contradictions, a recognition of the politics of difference, a cutting analysis put forward by activists that call these systems of oppression out and a move to work from the margins through processes of mutual empowerment for social justice and a better world.
