Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Today’s industrial societies preen themselves on their openness to change and the vast number of choices they provide to their inmates — er, citizens. Why is it, then, that all those changes and choices inevitably amount to more of what we’ve already got — which is not exactly working well any more? The Archdruid considers the options, and offers an unwelcome but necessary suggestion.
We know an evolution is needed. We know that evolution is being birthed within the crumbling of the old ways of being and doing that for so long have not served us or our earth. We see shapes of what is rising, the many new ways of thinking, feeling, being and doing now being created and embraced by increasing numbers of people. Yet much of what will evolve is still blocked from our view. It is a time of complexities, challenges and deep hope.
EB is suspending normal posting today in support of the international SOPA strike. Learn more.
If there is a common challenge in creating a commons in diverse contexts – indigenous culture, permaculture, cyberspace – it is about how to build enduring trust. Trust is needed as a prerequisite for mutual commitments, experimentation and innovation beyond those enabled by markets. Trust is needed whether it is an open source software commons or a water commons.
The world’s farmers produced more grain in 2011 than ever before. Estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the global grain harvest coming in at 2,295 million tons, up 53 million tons from the previous record in 2009. Consumption grew by 90 million tons over the same period to 2,280 million tons. Yet with global grain production actually falling short of consumption in 7 of the past 12 years, stocks remain worryingly low, leaving the world vulnerable to food price shocks.
It is commonly assumed that our national security depends only on our capacity to project military power beyond our borders and has little to do with how we organize the internal business of the country. The nation’s armed strength and its “soft power” are necessary components of security, but they are not—and cannot be—the whole of it. A larger vision of security includes the internal resilience, health, and sustainability of the nation, that is to say its capacity for self-renewal. Real security, in other words, is inseparable from issues of energy policy; education; public health; preservation of soils, forests, and waters; and broadly based, sustainable prosperity.
We provide new statistical evidence to show that energy efficiency policies and programs can reliably cut energy use—a finding that is consistent with the policy stance of leading experts and organizations like the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) and the World Bank. Additionally, we take our policy message one step further—by using new insights from the emerging multi-disciplinary literature on “energy efficiency gap,” we recommend that the world needs more energy efficiency policies and programs to cut greenhouse gases—not less as implied by the BTI and its cohorts in the media.
With so many books on our shelves we have a trove of tips and techniques to draw on far into the future as we re-skill our way forward. And, providing we make the preservation of the Internet a priority, our Web hubs will allow us to exchange information and ideas to help us adapt in place most delightfully.
Welcome to the second half of our Looking Back, Looking Forward month when the Social Reporters will be looking at the year ahead and outlining their plans and visions for themselves as Transitioners, their initiatives, their neighbourhoods and the world.
– Sopa plans set to be shelved as Obama comes out against piracy legislation
– Wikipedia to shut for 24 hours to stop anti-piracy act
– Explainer: understanding Sopa
– How PIPA and SOPA Violate Free Speech and Innovation
– Momentum shift: SOPA, PIPA opponents now in driver’s seat
– Rupert Murdoch Goes on Twitter Rampage Targeting Obama, Google
Thomas describes changing attitudes to the natural world in early modern Britain, a time period that he sets at approximately 1500-1800. A great many things happened in the relationship between Britons and their natural environment during this period: enclosures of common land, increasing urbanization, the birth of scientific taxonomy, early attempts at conservation, and many others. I read a few pages, saw that Thomas was an engaging writer, and decided to take a first step towards dispelling my massive ignorance of the human past.
“We’re a conduit and a packager of important cutting edge material that people need to do the work that they’re engaged in.” Judith Plant and the New Society Publishers (NSP) team are social change agents bringing emerging ideas and authors to the forefront. They converse about the need for women’s voices in social change; rootedness in place, and how their boots-on-the-ground, solution-oriented books are antidotes to fear. They deliberately go out to talk to their readers. Hearing what they want, then search for authors to address topics readers are asking for.
