Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Throughout the last year Michelle and I have been researching green building methods. So far we have visited and helped build strawbale houses, spent time in an underground concrete building in Denmark, checked out adobe brick and visited the Passivhaus Institute (Passive House) in Germany.
-Shorter, cheaper vacations the new normal
-The Work-Sharing Boom: Exit Ramp to a New Economy?
-Work-Life Balance Reconsidered
-It’s official: We’re all burnt out
In what may be President Obama’s most significant foray into changing U.S.-Africa policy since his election in 2008, the United States is embarking on a new initiative to boost agricultural production in the global south. Feed the Future (FTF) came out of the G8 summit in L’Aquila in 2009 where developed country leaders committed to acting to “achieve sustainable global food security.” Obama pledged $3.5 billion over three years toward this goal, in hopes that other rich nations would also make significant investments in agricultural development.
In a “powered down” future—the one almost certain to follow the end of the era of “Hydrocarbon Man”—the practical size of my collapsed world (and yours) could well be defined like this: How far can we walk away from home and back again in a single day?
My own answer? About ten miles. And that’s optimistic…This is the pivotal moment when the story of my life officially becomes the story of this place.
Dave Gardner’s upcoming documentary looks at modern society and asks, why are we behaving irrationally? There’s overwhelming evidence we’ve reached the limits to growth, yet we continue in our addiction. In searching for a cure, Dave starts with the need to tell different stories and shares examples from several folks he’s interviewed. He highlights an amusing segment which depicts a family’s impacts remaining in their yard! This “crowd-produced” film will also show activities at the community level which could make a huge positive difference. (www.growthbusters.org).
In unemployed worker groups and common security clubs across the country, participants are facing two grim realities. The first is that jobs that vanished aren’t coming back. And the second reality is that if unemployed workers don’t stand up for themselves, no one else will.
Yesterday, I explored the carbon captured by a straw bale building as a factor in getting to a carbon neutral/negative household. Today, I want to look at how far building-integrated photovoltaics can get us. Let’s start with a breakdown of typical residential energy demand.
-Feeding the City series intro
-The history of urban agriculture should inspire its future
-The New Agtivist: Urban farmer Annie Novak aims sky high
-Smart city governments grow produce for the people
-Poor countries suffer a hangover for a party they didn’t attend
-Stoneleigh takes on John Williams: deflation it is
-America Goes Dark
-Co-operatives offer template for David Cameron’s big society
-And now for some good news
-France’s New Rural Ghettos
Global warming is not a standalone issue. At the same time as we are trying to decarbonize our entire society and cope with the erratic weather events of early climate change, we are simultaneously being hit with peak oil and economic contraction.
If human civilization is to make the move to a steady state economy that provides prosperity without growth, it must meet people’s basic mobility needs without reliance on fossil fuels. The U.S. requires a revolutionary transformation of its transportation systems, and recent experience with the downsides of oil provides a potent political push to overcome inertia.
Eat/Pray/Love movie advertisements are now appearing all over my local part of Los Angeles. I haven’t read the book or seen the movie and I’m not planning to. But the stark graphics of the advertising campaign pump the words EAT – PRAY – LOVE into my head on a regular basis.
