Health requires deep changes
As we struggle to stay healthy during the winter, it’s helpful to see how natural approaches can help. But many of the health issues require more than individual behavior change.
Act: Inspiration
Dr David Fleming: 1940-2010
It is with great sadness that I report the passing of Dr David Fleming, who passed away peacefully in his sleep last night while visiting a friend in Amsterdam. David was a huge inspiration to me personally, as to many others, and is one of the few people I have met who I considered close to being a genius. He was also one of the funniest, kindest and most thoughtful people I have ever had the honour to know. His passing will leave a large void in our lives. And he never did get his bloody book finished!
What we can learn from Transylvania (Really!)
The word commons dates back to the medieval era, originally describing land that was shared by a community under well-defined rules. Peasants were often given specific rights to hunt and fish in these places, or to harvest medicinal herbs, forage for berries, or gather thatch for their roofs. This tradition of common ownership still thrives among indigenous and peasant cultures in the developing world, but has disappeared in Europe except for a corner of Transylvania where a few commons customs have endured to this day.
Truth Needn’t be Scary
A response to a response that Dmitry Orlov has also chimed in on. The immanent end of Western industrial civilization–the Industrial Growth Society–isn’t equivalent to collapse. I tend to think of collapse as something bad. Western civ is causing collapse in many areas, such as with the rampant biodiversity loss that’s breaking numerous links in the food chain, so I find it difficult to put it in the category of collapse.
Transition and solutions – Nov 28
– Copenhagen plans bike superhighways
– The “Transition Town” Movement’s Initial Genius
– Green Property: The Power of Community Spirit
– Code Green Community (TEDxYouth in Tampa)
– Heroes of the web changing the world
The evolution of Transition in the U.S.
Transition is not a movement for bringing about change. Change is coming, with us or without us, whether we want it or not — profound change. Transition is a movement for preparing our communities for the changes that are coming. And our preparation is likely to crumble unless we are able to connect with and cultivate the aliveness, the wholeness, the healing, and the sacredness that underlies the Transition process.
Towards a kinder gentler (smaller) Oil Drum
For the past 5 years, The Oil Drum has been a home base for many high level discussions about the details and implications surrounding an early peak in global crude oil production as well as topics on society and energy in general. The entire site was started, and continued, by volunteers, in what might be described as a loose anarchy glued by social capital… In many ways our initial mission is over. The fact that oil depletion is real and urgent is no longer a 3+ standard deviation viewpoint (see recent IEA World Energy Outlook). However, thorough understanding of the nuances and importance of energy in our lives is still not widespread. [This article describes] our plans on how best TOD can play a role in the ongoing energy debate
Health and happiness – Nov 28
– Life Expectancy in China Rising Slowly, Despite Economic Surge
– Private Insurance Induced Stress Disorder (PIISD)
– Grateful People Are Happier, Healthier Long After the Leftovers Are Gobbled Up
– Cecile Andrews: Social ties are good for your health
But what is “Community”?
I know that no matter what economic or political regime prevails, my Russian village kin will survive, provided they hold on to their land and provided climate change doesn’t kill off all the flora and fauna around them. I believe that the Russian, conditioned by centuries of serfdom, the GULAG and the entire Soviet experience, is a very hardy beast, in spite of alcoholism, drug abuse and moral decay. Also, as a child of the industrial ghetto, I entirely agree that the underclass is better-prepared.
Knowledge and change, the intangible and development
Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a body of knowledge that has been nurtured and built upon by groups of people through generations of living in close contact with nature. It is usually specific to the local environment, and therefore highly adapted to the requirements of local people and conditions. Three examples illustrate the value of intangible cultural heritage to the evolving crises of our times: food, energy and climate change.
The ‘transition’ movements in North America and Western Europe, which are contributing greatly to a wider and participatory understanding of sustainable societies, now embody ideas and practices that have been at work for centuries in the rice-growing communities of Sri Lanka (as also elsewhere in South and South-East Asia). The water tribunals of Valencia and Murcia (which is on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity) serve as an inspiring testament to the strength and validity of an ancient system of adjudicating rights and resources.
A parent’s dilemma: preparing a child for an uncertain future
Quite suddenly it was clear to me that the ‘endless growth’ model of western civilization was coming to an end and that this process would only be exacerbated by the effects of climate change. This time, it wasn’t just my own future that needed re-thinking, it was my son’s as well.
Ingredients of Transition: Inclusion and diversity
Transition tends to appeal to what academics call the ‘post-consumerists’ i.e. those who have reached a level of sufficient wealth and education to feel comfortable in letting go of some of it, who are often, but not always, white and middle-class. However, if Transition is serious about creating resilient communities but fails to create a process over which all sections of the community feel some sense of ownership, it will not truly be creating resilience.
