European Commission may forbid importation of controversial oil sands
The controversial and environmentally destructive practice of fuel extraction from oil sands could be “de facto” banned under the European Commission proposals.
Year: 2011
Sharing power: Building a solidarity economy
We all recognize that sharing is good. Sharing, lending, and borrowing help connect neighbors, encouraging isolated individuals to create community by consuming less. But most of the latest sharing projects focus on wealthy neighbors. What if I’ve never had too much? How do we address social inequity? How do we redistribute power to the majority who live without it? To transform an economic system which fails to meet community needs, we have to move from a sharing economy to a solidarity economy.
ODAC Newsletter – Oct 7
Deepening political anxiety about the economic crisis went public this week as Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England declared that “this is the most serious financial crisis at least since the 1930s, if not ever.” and David Cameron in his keynote speech to the Conservative Party Conference admitted that “the threat to the world economy – and to Britain – is as serious today as it was in 2008 when world recession loomed.”
#OccupyWallStreet – ANALYSIS – Oct 7
– Think Occupy Wall St. is a phase? You don’t get it
– What I Saw at the Revolution
– The Anti-Politics of #OccupyWallStreet
– Protests Offer Obama Opportunity to Gain, and Room for Pitfalls
– Blogging OccupyUSA (good source of links)
#OccupyWallStreet – VOICES – Oct 7
– List and map of over 200 U.S. solidarity events and Facebook pages
– “We Are the 99 Percent” Creators Revealed
– Wall Street protests across the US (photo gallery)
– It Isn’t Nice (Malvina Reynolds)
The big picture view from Totnes
Totnes is a tiny town in a tiny, but extremely fortunate, bubble.Mythic home of Transition and Rob Hopkins, conjoined (for some, uncomfortably so) with Dartington and Schumacher College, we’re connected to the wider world in a way that few rural towns could ever hope to be.
Last night, the bubble burst.
Can the #Occupy movement be a turning point?
So what is the role of community organizers and progressive leaders in this moment of #occupy momentum? After the dramatic mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, the #occupy meme is spreading like wildfire and progressive forces are rapidly aligning around the protests.
Zalmay Khalilzad’s not-so-excellent Afghan oil adventure
The private investment firm of Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and one of the most powerful diplomats in the George W. Bush Administration, is upset that a client has lost an oil deal in the country. Khalilzad’s son, Alexander Benard, is on the attack in Washington, in particular against the Pentagon, which he says acted against U.S. interests by not advising the Afghan government to favor Western companies in the deal.
Putting the lawn back, eating more industrial food and other adventures from the counterintuitive edge of sustainability
I use these two examples because I think they are good ways to describe the range of possible places that reducing your impact can take you. Adapting-in-Place, Rioting for Austerity, making your life more resilient and reducing your consumption aren’t one-size-fits-all activities, and determining what is truly sustainable is never going to involve plugging in formulas. There are some generalities that one can articulate, and some broad principles we can apply, but the answer isn’t simple.
With the Keystone Pipeline, drawing a line in the tar sands
For environmentalists protesting the Keystone XL pipeline, the battle is about more than just transporting tar sands oil from Alberta. It’s about whether the United States — and the rest of the world — will finally come to its senses about global warming.
Memo to the #Occupied movement (a post-growth economy)
You courageous people in the #occupy movement are absolutely right in saying the system is broken, greedy, and unfair. But when our discussion turns to replacing the current system, we’ve got to embrace a bigger view of reality than the one held by stock traders and politicians. It’s not just our wealth they want to control, it’s our vision for what is both possible and necessary. We need a post-growth economy that works both for people (all of them) and for the rest of nature: a localized economy based on renewable resources harvested at nature’s rates of replenishment
Sustainable means bunkty to me
What? Don’t know what bunkty means? Now you know how I feel about the word “sustainable.” My paper towels separate into smaller segments than they once did. It’s sustainable! These potato chips arrive in a box that says SUSTAINABLE in big letters on the side. I’m eating green! When I’m in a hotel, I hang the towel back up rather than throw it on the floor (would I ever do this anyway?) and the placard says I’m being sustainable. Can it be that easy? I claim that not one among our host of 7 billion really knows what our world would look like if we lived in a truly sustainable fashion. Let’s try to come to terms with what it might mean.
