Year: 2012

Viva La Décroissance!

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Degrowthers should be natural allies of steady state economics. The idea is that in some countries, especially wealthy crowded ones, some degrowth is necessary before an economy of optimal size can be maintained. Failing to recognize the steady state economy as the light at the end of the tunnel will relegate the degrowth movement to a suicide mission with the political feasibility of a Tiny Tim presidency. After all, perpetual degrowth is no more sustainable than perpetual growth.

Risk, or why competition is bad for us

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I’m not saying that there is no place for competitive systems in society – there are times when a free market is the only way of reaching an equilibrium of resource distribution within a particular closed system, but at the same time, shouldn’t society recognise the flaw in competitive systems as a means of distributing resources, and instead look at ways in which benefit is felt by all, whether or not they have a competitive advantage?

It’s official. We’re looking for land…

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Yes, I know. Secretary Vilsack called for 100,000 new farmers. The 2008 Farm Bill appropriated $75 million dollars of funds for Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Programs to provide education and training to get new farmers started. And of course, we have Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food and inspiring advocates like USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan leading this movement to get more people farming. Not to mention the growing market and awareness surrounding local foods. And yet, to be actually in it, planning a farm as a born-and-bred city kid without ties to the land (more specifically a specific piece of land), it feels so so so far away.

Contamination fears linger for Japanese children, workers one year after Fukushima meltdown

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We go to Japan to speak with Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of the Kyoto-based group Green Action, as Japan marks the first anniversary of the massive earthquake and tsunami that left approximately 20,000 dead or missing and triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. It was the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl…We also speak with Saburo Kitajima, a contract laborer and union organizer from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. “The workers at the Fukushima plant are currently working under extreme circumstances.”

Tedium and black magic: the trouble with Energy Descent Action Plans (EDAPs)

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At the heart of the current Transition Town process is the creation and implementation of the so called Energy Descent Action Plan for each locality. The Totnes group spent two years — 2 whole years! — on creating their EDAP. I am not the first person to wonder if the time, effort and money could not have been more profitably spent on actually “doing energy descent.”

The narrowing window for a transition to a sustainable industrial society

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Some will say that the window for a transition to a sustainable industrial society has long since passed and that we are destined for an eventual return to an agrarian and craft society. There are two problems with this kind of thinking that have nothing to do with whether it is correct or not. First, almost no one will be able to accept such a message upon the first hearing and perhaps not ever. If you argue something which your audience will likely never accept, you will miss the chance to move them incrementally toward your view.

The best of all possible worlds has no use for peak oil

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Psychologist Kathy McMahon (aka “Peak Shrink”) warns people against the impulse to make big changes within the first couple of years after finding out about peak oil. “Don’t make any huge changes.” she says “Do the things that you think are important where you are, but don’t panic and do something dramatic. Let it sink in.”