Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
– An Uprising With Plenty of Potential (Tea Party strategist, professors, Cornell West)
– Here’s what attempted co-option of OWS looks like (Glenn Greenwald)
– Lobbying Firm’s Memo Spells Out Plan to Undermine OWS
– Should the Occupiers Stay or Go?
I was reminded of Vespasian when Charlie Hall, perhaps the best-known energy researcher you’ve never heard of, commented at a recent conference that we have built a society where fossil fuels have consistently displaced labor. This has had the unfortunate result that those whose primary aptitude is with their hands are finding less and less work.
– Awesome (lightshow on Verizon Building in NYC)
– Occupy and anarchism’s gift of democracy
– Occupiers: We’re Already Changing Politics
– OWS-inspired activism
– Corporate change of heart: “The Brotherhood of Man” (video)
– Investment firm to encourage Arctic drilling
– Climate change: there is no plan B
– Battle to Save an Unsung Fish Critically Important to Ocean’s Ecosystem (menhaden)
– Obama’s Re-election Strategy Is Tied to a Shift on Smog
– BBC drops Frozen Planet’s climate change episode to sell show better abroad
– The Keystone Victory
– NYT: Older, Suburban and Struggling, ‘Near Poor’ Startle the Census
– Zoobombing in Portland, Oregon (video of off-beat bicycle event)
– NassimTaleb: End Bonuses for Bankers
This outline of “Transition Companion” was compiled to help guide discussions in our local book groups. I thought other people might find it useful as an overview of this rich and dense work.
– ‘Use-by’ dates: A myth that needs busting
– Young Farmers Find Huge Obstacles to Getting Started
– Processed Food Industry Shows USDA Who’s Boss in the Cafeteria
-Onshore wind energy to reach parity with fossil-fuel electricity by 2016
-Gas Companies Caught Using Military Tactics To Overcome Drilling Concerns
-EU biofuel target seen driving species loss: study
-New study suggests EU biofuels are as carbon intensive as petrol
-Local Power: Boulder Considers Moving Off the Grid
Something happened in September 2011 so unexpected that no politician or pundit saw it coming.
Charles Eisenstein, the author of Sacred Economics, gave this inspiring talk to Occupy Wall Street, which is actually about growing “the bright side of the force”. This Star Wars inspired theme I couple with “the handicap principle“, which has a “bright” and a “dark” side; the selfish and the cooperative. Animals generally use just one of these forces in gathering acceptance and status, while humans are capable to use both or choose one. Or they don’t actually choose, they use the part of the force which is easiest to achieve within the current design of our societies. Unfortunately we have chosen to grow “the dark side of the force”, today growing these evil powers mainly through the ideologies of modernism and capitalism. As a result, community is almost gone.
Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley at The Cob Cottage Company, in Coquille, Oregon, have created probably the most complete permaculture site in the country. Permaculture sites, including our own, generally emphasize plants, animals and earthworks and ignore building your own home. I am beginning to see that one cannot have permaculture without building your own comfortable dwelling from the materials onsite.
As next June’s Rio+20 summit on sustainable development approaches, discussions about how to effectively establish a green economy are surging. But as a recent conference of the United Nations Institute for Social Development emphasized, the green economy is not simply about the economy and environment. Rather, it requires a deeper restructuring of economic and social processes including people’s relationships with food and agriculture.
