On Transition’s impact and reimagining the road to Paris 2015
What is the impact we hoped Transition would have when we first came up with the idea, what impact are we actually having, and what could we be doing differently to increase that impact?
Society
The ultimate guide to organizing a skillshare
In the spirit of encouraging the spread of skillshares in as many places as possible, I’ve written down some of the most critical, ordered steps we took to create Somerville Skillshare from scratch…
It’s SHOWTIME For Climate Change
I’ve been working for the past few months in this pint-sized piece of paradise designing a community education ‘template’ which integrates the practices and teachings of Yoga and Mindfulness with learning basic principles about climate change and how to adapt and take action.
What to Do When You Suspect We’re Headed for Collapse
These troubled times prompt each of us to ask a simple, but absolutely critical question: “What should I do?”
Working with straw
These days, human-scale straw bales have been largely replaced by mammoth cylinders that require mammoth farm equipment; another way we have used the cheap energy of recent decades to burn our bridges.
You Can’t Bounce Off the Walls If There Are No Walls: Outdoor Schools Make Kids Happier—and Smarter
The original kindergarten—the children’s garden—conceived by German educator Friedrich Froebel in the 19th century, was a place where children learned through play, often in nature.
The Future of an Illusion
The prodigious use of energy and production of waste forms the most fundamental conditions of possibility for the American way of life. All that we know and expect, value and demand, are not possible without all this consumption and this waste.
Reviewing The Watchdog That Didn’t Bark: The Financial Crisis and the Disappearance of Investigative Journalism
Starkman explains why journalists often aren’t alert watchdogs, but he can’t see why limiting the profession to the role of a barking dog is, quite literally, a dead-end.
Transport trends – headlines
•U.S. Public Transit Reports Record Ridership in 2013 •Fitch Ratings: Failure to Invest in Transit Could Hurt the Whole Economy •Copenhagen Free Bike Rental •Evolution of the Bicycle
It’s time to put money out of its misery
Why are discussions about poverty so often held in luxurious surroundings? Perhaps it’s easier to think that way, without any poor people in the room to muddy the proceedings
Captain Erikson’s Equation
The one readily available way around the harsh economic impacts of fossil fuel depletion is the one that Gunnar Erikson tried, but did not live to complete—the strategy of keeping an older technology in use, or bringing a defunct technology back into service, while there’s still enough wealth sloshing across the decks of the industrial economy to make it relatively easy to do so.
How Sustainable is Digital Fabrication?
Digital fabrication is praised as the future of manufacturing. While CNC machines have been embraced by many…it’s important to consider the very high energy use of digital machine tools.
