A green school with a view…of dignity
“A school has to be more than beautiful and ‘green.’ It has to respect students’ dignity, and feel like a safe and peaceful place where people care.”
Karen Brown
The revolution will not be blogged, either
The original Luddites were those who were angered at the notion that they ought to sacrifice their livelihoods and starve to death in order to serve “progress.” They demanded that technology be bounded by recognition of human needs.
Food & agriculture – Sept 24
-Prospects for a viable food future
-Introducing the Permaculture Designers’ Manual, Chapter 1: Introduction to Permaculture
-Why We Need a New Green Revolution to Stop Hunger
-Food Sovereignty: Reconnecting Food, Nature and Community
-UN warned of major new food crisis at emergency meeting in Rome
MAN UP! It’s time to suck the oceans dry
"Mining’s Final Frontier" takes a golly-this-could-be-really-neato look at underwater mining. That’s right…underwater mining. As in smashing the seafloor to pieces, sucking it up, then filtering for precious metals. China and Canada are all over it like monkeys on an overturned trailer full of bananas as they, and many other nations line up to be the first to "smash and suck" their way to their God-given share of the earth’s bounty.
Cooperation law for a sharing economy
What do you call a lawyer who helps people share, cooperate, barter, foster local economies, and build sustainable communities?
Bring me the woodburning stove of Alfredo Garcia….
If everyone installs woodburning stoves, might we end up back in the age of smogs? Are we better to explore group solutions, anaerobic digestion for example, which might still be able to supply us with gas (albeit to far more efficient homes than at present) or other large scale renewables, rather than all fracturing down into small off-the-grid bubbles?
South-South technology transfer in Bolivia: A solution for local health, forests, and our global climate
These cooking devices rely only on power from the sun and are built entirely with materials indigenous to Bolivia. It is the kind of solution that embodies many of the elements necessary to really get to work solving climate change—local, small-scale, incorporating indigenous knowledge and materials, and with simple, easy-to-use technology.
Peak oil notes – Sept 23
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
Animals III: The Unwanted
It’s only in imaginary worlds — like those inhabited by today’s mainstream economists, for example — that every animal you will deal with as a gardener is a source of value to you. The key to dealing with those that aren’t, once again, starts with a grasp of the principles of ecology. The Archdruid explains.
“Good Food”: A movement, not just a movie
Our ancestors experienced the myriad relationships involved in food production on a small, local scale. Until recently, we had lost that sense of relationship-an awareness, however fleeting, that the most heartfelt food chain is not the biological one, but the one that connects us with the community of life on earth.
So where’s the hope?
In America, the spiritual journey starts with an active, conscious, personal rejection of I Consume, Therefore I Am. Life is precious, but new shoes, especially when you’ve already got perfectly adequate footware, are not.
A threat to burn the Koran and the role of the Transition Movement
When change unfolds, people want real solutions more than they want to hate. Our work helps people get focused on practical action, brings emotional rewards of connection and common purpose. Transition is an inoculation against human breakdown. It is inoculation against hate.
