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Well, Doctor, I Have This Recycling Problem
Gabrielle Glaser, New York Times
SOME months ago, Catherine McLendon and her husband, Martin, decided to talk to a psychologist. The couple have a blended family with three adolescent sons, and they wanted guidance in easing some typical adjustment problems.
But a few sessions in, Ms. McLendon, a floral designer, and Mr. McLendon, a bus driver, realized their worries extended beyond the demands of work, school and extracurricular sports.
Ms. McLendon was troubled by the family’s consumption habits, while Mr. McLendon worried about the disappearance of green space. In therapy, their psychologist, Sandy Shulmire, began providing the family with practical instructions for reducing anxiety, and their carbon footprint.
Dr. Shulmire is a practitioner of ecopsychology, a new form of therapy that is starting to find a following in this green-minded corner of the United States. Like traditional therapy, ecopsychology examines personal interactions and family systems, while also encouraging patients to develop a relationship to nature.
Therapists like Dr. Shulmire use several techniques, from encouraging patients besieged by multitasking to spend more time outdoors to exploring how their upbringing and family background influence their approach to the natural world.
(16 February 2008)
Tantalising Glimpses of Resilience: the Introduction to The Transition Handbook
Rob Hopkins, Transition Culture
“Central to this book is the concept of resilience – familiar to ecologists, but less so to the rest of us. Resilience refers to the ability of a system, from individual people to whole economies, to hold together and maintain their ability to function in the face of change and shocks from the outside. This book, The Transition Handbook, argues that in our current (and long overdue) efforts to drastically cut carbon emissions, we must also give equal importance to the building, or more accurately to the rebuilding, of resilience. Indeed, I will argue that cutting emissions without resilience-building is ultimately futile. But what does resilience actually look like?
In 1990 I visited the Hunza Valley in northern Pakistan, which until the opening of the Karakorum Highway in 1978 had been almost completely cut off from the outside world. When I visited I knew nothing about permaculture, of the concept of resilience, or even a great deal about food, farming or the environment, but I knew when I arrived that was this was an extraordinary place.
The Transition Handbook will be available to order here at Transition Culture on February 28th, the wait is nearly over (more on that soon). By way of starting to introduce you to it, and by way of whetting your appetite for its many wonders, here is the introduction to the book, which first introduces the concept of resilience.
(19 February 2008)
Luz Girl of the Knowing
Claudia Dávila (online graphic novel)
Thanks for visiting my web comic about Luz! She’s a city girl on a mission to gather “the knowing”: knowledge and experience about sustainable survival for humans, specifically in urban centers. Occasionally we’ll glimpse into Luz’s musings about the human condition and our connection, or lack thereof, to the natural world. You’ll meet her neighbours, friends, and mom and grandma, all of whom have knowledge of their own to share with Luz. Whenever it’s appropriate I’ll include commentary and links to more information relating to the content of each episode.
I hope you enjoy this weekly strip, while accumulating “the knowing” for yourself as the post-petroleum era approaches.
(October 2007 to February 2008)
Cover. The series began last October. In the current episodes, Luz is explaining peak oil to her classmates.
Born in Santiago, Chile, Claudia moved to Canada in 1973 and grew up in Montreal. She began drawing and painting at an early age, and was fortunate to attend art-focused public high school Wexford C.I., followed by York University for Visual Arts. She emerged to develop a multi-faceted career of graphic design, art direction, illustration, painting and cartooning. Personal writing coupled with much reading has developed into a storywriting voice appropriate for children and adults alike. These varied skills don’t often get the opportunity to come together, but they’ve found a home in creating graphic novels. … Five years in her profession were dedicated to the award-winning children’s magazines…
She is presently creating a book-art piece relating to survival in Toronto after the end of petroleum energy, for which she received a Toronto Arts Council grant. Claudia’s art is informed by her various interests, such as ecology, social politics, yoga, vegetarian cuisine, ayurveda, metaphysics and wicca, as well as the issue of the end of fossil fuels, and as such is a member of the Toronto Peak Oil Discussion Group.
Reconnecting with Our Roots – Food for Body and Soul (Video and audio)
Janaia Donaldson, Peak Moment
Linda Buzzell-Saltzman and Larry Saltzman of Santa Barbara share a love for their garden in more ways than one. Larry is creating a lush food forest and teaches permaculture to promote local food security. Ecotherapist Linda helps people heal their relationship with nature, noting that many problems are rooted in this disconnection. www.forthefuture.org. Episode 96.
(18 February 2008)
Toward New Models of Shared Leadership (Video)
Janaia Donaldson, Peak Moment
Mediator Anne Oliver would have us move back to our wisdom and forward to new social forms that are inclusive, respect all voices, and share leadership. She uses “Appreciative Inquiry” where we tell each other our stories, and out of our successful experiences, find values that can lead us into the future. Episode 97.
(18 February 2008)
Shock tactics
Terry Slavin, Guardian
Switching the kettle on for a nice cuppa used to be a soothing experience, but that all changed for Clive Bowman when he began to use a display unit to show the electricity his appliances were gobbling up in his Perthshire house. “Your electricity consumption is running along at a steady 200 to 300 watts an hour,” he says, “but when you put the kettle on, there is a horrific jump to 2,000 kilowatts. That’s scary.”
So scary that Bowman and his wife decided to scrap the electric kettle for one they could heat on the family’s wood-burning stove. Then, once the tea is poured in the evening, the rest of the water is used to fill up hot water bottles for the family to take to bed with them instead of plugging in power-hungry electric blankets.
Bowman and the 2,000 other residents of Alyth, a farming village 20 miles outside Perth, are in the unlikely vanguard of the smart meter revolution. From this month, most of the homes in the village will be fitted with simple electricity display units, such as the one Bowman has been using, but 364 will get interactive smart meters that will log gas usage, as well as electricity, and send the data back to their power company, Scottish and Southern Energy. Over the past couple of months, similar trials have begun by other energy suppliers in communities across the country.
Not every meter-reading homeowner is going to revert to wood stoves and hot water bottles, but everyone – from electricity suppliers and environmental groups to the government – agrees that there are carbon savings to be reaped from giving consumers a window to see the energy they are using, as they use it.
(20 February 2008)
