Year: 2011

Join the Austerity Party & Vermont enables towns to finance home efficiency, renewables

by

Frequent guest Sharon Astyk declared a “riot for austerity” in 2007, which isn’t a riot at all. She led people from around the world in a voluntary effort to reduce their resource use by 90%. She is now starting up the “riot” again, and she invites you to join her in saving resources, saving money, and–perhaps surprisingly–having fun.

Peter Adamczyk, Energy Finance and Development Manager at Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC) talks about how the state’s newly revised PACE program can help towns help their home owners save money through energy efficiency and renewables.

“Nickel & dimed: On (not) getting by in America”: Barbara Ehrenreich on the job crisis & wealth gap

by

Standard & Poor’s announced Friday it has downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time in history. The move by S&P, one of three leading credit rating agencies, came just days after Congress approved a $2.1 trillion deficit-reduction plan. “In some ways, that is in another world from most Americans and their day-to-day struggles. What is it going to mean to you if you have no job now?” says our guest, Barbara Ehrenreich, who has just published the 10th anniversary edition of her book “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.” In the book, Ehrenreich tells the story of life in low-wage America and tries to earn a living working as a waitress, hotel maid, nursing home aide and Wal-Mart associate. Ten years later, she compares the current situation of low-income U.S. workers to “third-world levels of poverty.”

Canadian Government: Greenhouse gas emissions from tar sands may double by 2020

by

A newly-released report from the Canadian government reinforces the looming environmental impact of tar sands oil: As producers ramp up their activity, due in large part from a projected increase in demand from U.S. refineries, greenhouse gas emissions from Alberta’s tar sands could double by 2020 compared to 2010 levels.

Is our future our past?

by

Non or low petroleum use farming is gaining traction as many growers and livestock managers look to sustainable farming solutions. Often we think horses will be the draft animals of choice in that scenario, if animals are used in a farm’s production. At least that’s the picture of the frontier in the popular imagination on which we base our notion. But Aussie farmer Steven French argues that it was actually oxen, a harder working, more docile and manageable animal that helped drive farming in the past. Now that peak oil is moving in to full swing, can we ramp up animal production and training in time for animal use once more?

Panic on the streets of London

by

I’m huddled in the front room with some shell-shocked friends, watching my city burn. The BBC is interchanging footage of blazing cars and running street battles in Hackney, of police horses lining up in Lewisham, of roiling infernos that were once shops and houses in Croydon and in Peckham. Last night, Enfield, Walthamstow, Brixton and Wood Green were looted; there have been hundreds of arrests and dozens of serious injuries, and it will be a miracle if nobody dies tonight.

Communicating the financial crisis in 7 easy steps

by

Young people in Greece and Spain are worried, angry, and questioning the financial power structure that is causing economic hardship in their countries. The financial system has shown over the last few years that it has the potential to wreak havoc in all of our lives. How do we make sure that we find good ways to talk about this topic, especially as it is so timely and important, so that it becomes part of the Transition message?

President Obama’s (hoped for) “Amaze Speech”

by

Fellow Americans, this evening I have a special message for you. It’s an unprecedented and surprising message, but ultimately it will resonate with your common sense, good will, and patriotic spirit. It turns out that the recessionary cloud we’re under does have an extremely valuable silver lining. I know; it sounds like something only a politician would say, but wait. I think you’ll be surprised to hear my explanation.

What could a post-growth society look like and how should we prepare for it?

by

It seems obvious to say that common ways of thinking about growth and development among the population of the industrial countries assumes that peoples in poor countries would want to develop along a similar path to what has happened in the industrial world – for this is the direction of “progress” and reason. That is, after all, why they are called “developing countries”. However, for indigenous peoples “development” and growth has actually been a long history of colonial exploitation, suffering, racism, the oppression of women, not to mention the destruction of “Mother Earth”.

A nation-sized battery

by

As we look to transition away from fossil fuels, solar and wind are attractive options. Key factors making them compelling are: the inexhaustibility of the source with use (i.e., renewable); their low carbon footprint; and the independence that small-scale distribution can foster (I’ll never put a nuclear plant on my roof, even if it would make me the coolest physicist ever!).