Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
As unrest continues to spread across the Middle East, the possibility that the price of oil — already around ten times what it was in 1998, when the peak oil movement first began to shake off its post-1970s hibernation — might spike to unprecedented and economically disastrous levels is hard to ignore. The end of the age of cheap abundant oil calls for pragmatic steps. With the help of a roll of insulation, the Archdruid explains.
Our stories of awakenings — whether moral, intellectual, religious, artistic, or sexual — are tricky. Honest self-reflection doesn’t come easy, and self-satisfied accounts are the norm; we love to be the heroes of our own epics. … The longstanding discomfort in telling my story is further complicated by new concerns in the past few years. More than ever I’m aware that no matter how high anyone’s consciousness in the United States is raised, there may be very little we can do to reverse the consequences of modern industrial society’s assault on the living world.
Life is up to something. It is becoming more diverse and more complex. Not always, and not in every place, but as an average across all of time from the beginning of life. Life may not have a goal, but the trend is unmistakable. The first principle that organizes reality has been with us all along.
The Transition Town movement has mutated in North America, with this review of the West Coast scene. Michael Brownlee of Transition Boulder on U.S. developments, and controversial “Deep Transition”. Vandy Savage says women prefer co-operation to guns & bunkers. Joanne Poyourow reports from Transition Los Angeles (can 10 million people go “sustainable”?). Plus actuality recording of intro and update of Village Vancouver (a registered Transition Town group in Canada) by leaders Ann Pacey and Ross Moster. Full of tips for your community action plan for Peak Oil, climate disruption and tough economic times.
Taken together, the decline and eventual near cessation of fossil fuel production and that of many other minerals, disruption in global weather patterns, and the growing food and water scarcity will constitute the third great transition.
World-renowned public intellectual Noam Chomsky discusses several domestic issues in the United States, including the protests in defense of public sector employees and unions in Wisconsin, how the U.S. deification of former President Ronald Reagan resembles North Korea, and the crackdown on political activists with anti-terror laws and FBI raids. [includes rush transcript]
Mink River is simply the best novel I have read in a decade. It is brilliantly and painstakingly crafted. It tells a wonderful and heart-warming story. It never manipulates. Its prose is pure poetry: Every word counts. Its characters are so contemporary and complex and familiar that they spring to life. And its message — about cultural transition driven by necessity, about the importance of community and of place and of resilience and of love — is essential and delivered with a power and richness that no non-fictional account could hope to match.
Hozho enfolds a concept that we westerners vehemently and vocally reject: inevitability. We are the people of the fabled “fat lady”—nothing is over till she sings, and even then we hold out hope that game officials will reverse the call on further review and deliver a last-minute miraculous victory for our side. The idea that things just “are the way they are”, no matter what we do, goes against our ingrained, up-by-our-boot-straps belief that we are the masters of our fate. If something ain’t right it’s just because we haven’t fixed it yet. We only need to think harder, work longer, swear louder—and, by God, beat some balance back into this thing.
Online Opinion (or “OLO” to its devotees) is Australia’s leading online website for publication of essays on a variety of topics. It also reprints the best available essays from international sites. For a number of years OLO has been a very strong supporter of disseminating ideas about peak oil, climate change, resource limits, economics, religious issues and the vexed topic of population growth (among many others).
– Special National Geographic Series: 7 Billion
– A world too full of people – let’s invest in family planning
– Biology’s Bomb: Graphing ‘Explosive’ Population Growth in Cold War Textbooks
– How Cyber-Pragmatism Brought Down Mubarak
– Another Step Toward Mainstreaming Nonviolence
– How to Build a Progressive Tea Party
– Wendell Berry Joins Retired Coal Miners and Residents in Kentucky Capitol Sit-in
The ability to create artificial environments (air conditioning, heating, lighting) and chemically alter natural materials (processed food, plastic) perhaps gives the illusion that humans are capable of meeting their needs with minimal imputs from nature. The flawed logic suggests that if humans are only tangentially dependent on the natural world, functioning ecosystems lose importance.
