Year: 2012

A time of gifts

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I am in the woods outside Norwich on a January day with a gang of kids from Catton Grove, a huge primary school in a rough-and-tumble part of the city. I’m here as part of an arts and Transition teach-in, exploring peak oil and honey bees, reconnecting with nature and planting some of the apple varieties that used to grow in the Grove before it was tarmacked over.

Economic Crisis Shakes Old Paradigms

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The world will soon enter the sixth year of the Great Recession, and there is no end in sight. In the United States, where stagnation continues to reign, some 23 million Americans remain out of work, are underemployed, or have simply dropped out of the labor force owing to frustration–a condition that now threatens to precipitate Barack Obama’s replacement by a Republican candidate whose program would only worsen the crisis.

The peak oil crisis: the end game

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It is becoming clearer all the time that mankind is approaching a major turning point in its tenure on this planet. Without going into the myriad of details, the new reports forecast that the temperatures will get very high; the oceans will flood the coasts and no longer contain much fish; pandemics will be prevalent; and the storms will be so fierce that there simply will not be enough food or habitable areas to keep us all going.

How it could happen, part four: crossing the line

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This fourth part of a five-part series uses the tools of narrative fiction to explore some of the ways in which America’s global empire might come apart. As the multiple impacts of American defeat in the East African War come home to roost, a leadership vacuum made worse by partisan gridlock pushes the United States deeper into crisis — and efforts by the political establishment to evade that crisis without dealing with America’s systemic problems unleashes a backlash that might bring the American experiment to a sudden close.

A powerful tool for getting beyond the converted

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I have written several times here about ‘Transition Streets’, the street-by-street behaviour change model created by Transition Town Totnes which was the winner of the 2011 Ashden Award for behaviour change. I am delighted to announce today is that now Transition Streets (also known as ‘Streets-Wise’) is available for any group to run, anywhere.

How “Different” is the Recovery from the Financial Crisis?

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The slow recovery from the financial crisis and recession of 2007 – 2009 has become a centerpiece of the Presidential election. In last Tuesday’s debate, Mitt Romney, picking up on a theme that has been emphasized by John Taylor, contrasted the current slow recovery with the much faster recovery from the 1981 – 1982 recession.