Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Rob Hopkins In an interview with Rob Hopkins of the Transition Movement, 350.org founder Bill McKibben talks about the importance of community, the XL pipeline and the green movement.
Increasingly, those of us who were ready to move with President Obama four years ago are deciding to leave normal channels and find new forms of action. Here’s an example: by year’s end the president has said he will make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry crude oil from the tar sands of northern Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.
The nation’s top climate scientists sent the administration a letter indicating that such a development would be disastrous for the climate. … But every indication from this administration suggests that it is prepared to grant the necessary permission for a project that has the enthusiastic backing of the Chamber of Commerce, and in which the Koch Brothers have a “direct and substantial interest.”
… all crashes are relative. My acquaintances back in the USA tell me that they struggle every day in this economy of high unemployment and fuel prices; I believe them, but I also mention that our unemployment is much higher, and we pay the litre-and-euro equivalent of $8.00 a gallon. Today’s Irish, meanwhile, remain wealthy compared to the Irish of 20 years ago, who might, in turn, have been in the wealthiest half of the world. Yet people lived hearty lives in all these times and places, even when most of them had less money than the underclass of the modern West. Americans’ suffering comes not just from a lack of money, but from a lack of training.
What would a People’s Takeover require of us? Below I share some reflections on a summer of research into the bigger picture. And a few further questions!
– #Occupy summarized in one chart
– WaPo Opinion: A timely call for justice
– Michael Bloomberg: Wall Street Protesters Can Stay Indefinitely
– Occupy protests spread to Ireland
– Citizens of China rally to support the Occupy Wall Street Movement
– Occupy Protests Spread to Britain
– Phosphorus cycle: A broken biogeochemical cycle (article in “Nature”)
– Food for thought – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
– Walmart and the Good Food Movement
Daniel Yergin has succeeded as a historian of energy, but failed as envisioner of a tolerable future.
Nicole Foss is senior editor of The Automatic Earth web site, and an international speaker integrating topics of peak oil, economics and personal preparation. In 2001, Foss moved her family from England to rural Ontario, in order to prepare her family for peak oil and economic uncertainty. Local Future nonprofit has published to YouTube the entire 40-minute presentation by Foss on her considerations for personal preparation, in advance of her keynote presentation at the International Conference on Sustainability, Transition and Culture Change: Vision, Action, Leadership.
– Meet 4 Middle-Class Americans Who’ve Been Politicized by #OccupyWallStree
– Chris Hedges: “Ketchup” describes Occupy experience and group process
– Training video for running an Occupy General Assembly
As the “Occupy” movement expands from the “Occupy Wall Street” protest in New York City throughout the United States, we look at its historical significance. “This is an incredibly significant moment in U.S. history,” says Dorian Warren of Columbia University. “It might be a turning point, because this is the first time we’ve seen an emergence of a populist movement on the left since the 1930s.” We also speak to Firedoglake blogger Kevin Gosztola, who has been reporting from the occupations in Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
All of the action right now has the weird aura of being an overture to the year 2012, fast approaching as we slouch into the potentially demoralizing holidays of the current year. I don’t subscribe to Mayan apocalypse notions, but there’s something creepy about the wendings and tendings of our affairs these days. OWS is nature’s way of telling us to get our shit together, or else.
Over the last 40 years, all levels of government in Germany have retooled policies to promote growth that is more environmentally sustainable. Germany’s experiences can provide useful lessons for the United States (and other nations) as policymakers consider options for “green” economic transformation.
