Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Why then don’t complex agricultural societies, or the even more complex civilizations that they sometimes evolve into, rely on ecological complexity to solve problems? Because by their very nature they are committed to ecological simplicity. Their size, population density and social complexity are in most places the result of grain monocultures.
If you want a picture of happiness, you just had to look at the faces of the Egyptians as they stood up for their rights! And the same for the faces in Wisconsin and in state capitals all over the country. No doubt about it — standing up for your beliefs brings some of the greatest satisfaction in life.
This essay documents our five years as a “neorural” family, cultivating corn, beans and squash with organic methods on a small scale. This essay will perhaps inspire those who don´t have access to land, but nonetheless want to make themselves more self-supporting in the production of their food. Written primarily for the Latin-American context, this article honours the “cultural memory of a sustainable pre-industrial lifestyels, still present in the older generations. [Outline of the article in Spanish, photos, links to original and PDF]
Este ensayo documenta la historia de un proceso personal y familiar. Cuenta de nuestro acercamiento, como familia “neo-rural”, al cultivo de maíz, frijol, calabaza, con métodos orgánicos, en campos de cultivo a pequeña escala. Compartimos las experiencias que hicimos durante estos cinco años, estableciendo vínculos de trabajo y colaboración, con una familia campesina en la bioregión donde vivimos. Quizás este relato pueda servir de inspiración para quienes no tienen acceso a una tierra, pero si tienen la inquietud de aprender y hacerse más responsables de la producción de sus alimentos.
Continued violence in the Middle East kept oil prices high this week. Libyan exports are down at least 1 million barrels a day and fears are escalating that the stand-off there could turn in to a protracted civil war. The unrest spread to Oman this week where security forces clashed with demonstrators. Meanwhile news of the arrest of a Shi’ite cleric demanding democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia sent the Saudi Tadawul stock exchange down 11%.
So I set out to figure out a way to be like everyone else without causing permanent brain damage, and suddenly I had a brilliant flash of intuition – I can apply those skill to my domestic life! Home, family, housekeeping, marriage – I can usefully set the skill set used by the American public to prevent themselves from having the faintest idea what is going on or why they should care, and make it part of my daily life.
Creating an Energy Descent Action Plan and/or the intentional relocalisation of a community will raise a lot of questions. How much arable land surrounds the settlement, how much food, fuel and fibre might it produce, what productive role might back gardens, allotments and new urban market gardens play? How much energy infrastructure is needed, and how much could realistically be installed? Failing to ask these questions will hamper attempts to think strategically about relocalisation.
Documentaries that cover peak oil or deal with resource depletion tend to be downers on the whole, offering few pleasures beyond the snarky joy of Schadenfreude. “The Economics of Happiness” is different. Yes, it’s realistic about climate change, resource depletion, overpopulation and the other horsemen of the globalized industrial apocalypse. But it’s also hopeful about the future, showing how we could all live with more dignity, fun and humanity once we graduate from the consumerist rat race.
In last month’s cover story of The American Conservative magazine, I wrote about Ireland’s boom and bust, and what it means for the USA. A few months earlier I described the tense week of Ireland’s bankruptcy and international bailout, and a few months before that I wrote in Big Questions Online why the Irish might be better able to handle austerity than Americans. This election begins the next chapter, one that offers many lessons for politically active folk back home.
As the upheavals in the Middle East drive the oil price ever higher, the report identifies a litany of questionable assumptions that underpin the forecasts of the International Energy Agency (IEA), on which UK policy is based.
-The Invisible Food Crisis
-Food prices reach record highs
-Climbing fuel prices trigger alarm
-Caught in the Food Pirates’ Trap
Rivers and streams are being overdrawn, aquifers are being depleted, both surface water and groundwater are being polluted, and sources of flowing surface water–snowpack and glaciers–are receding as a result of climate change.
Whatever the outcome of the protests, uprisings, and rebellions now sweeping the Middle East, one thing is guaranteed: the world of oil will be permanently transformed.
