Five reasons to plant trees now
To some people, planting a tree is the epitome of the environmental cliche. Planting a tree seems so simple, so easy, so… low-technology.
Christine Patton
Your grandmother (but without the milk and cookies)
Nicole Foss looks like she might be your grandmother coming to reassure you about something. But instead of milk and cookies you are served a cold dose of reality.
Will you help with re-writing the Transition Handbook?
Over the coming few months I will be sharing with you the ongoing work in developing the patterns-based model of Transition that will form the centrepiece of the second version of the Transition Handbook, starting on Monday.
Cluck Trek
Chickens are the happening thing in the city — as evidenced by the fact that the our chicken coop tour was highlighted by the Los Angeles Times (none of our Transition events have ever made it past the editors of this giant paper before). There aren’t too many people who have chickens here, but there is LOTS of interest.
Peak oil – Sept 19
– Germany and the UK Prepare for Peak Oil
– Exclusive interview: Robert Hirsch
– Analyst Charles Maxwell: Bracing For Peak Oil Production By Decade’s End
– Geoscientist: Have we passed the point of Peak Oil?
– Future Fear (video and transcript)
Passenger trains: our hope for a more sustainable future
After spending two days on the Empire Builder, the long-haul Amtrak line from Chicago to Seattle/Portland, I quickly realized that our investment in trains should be readily and heartily embraced.
Stories that light up the dark
Tips for personal resilience from conversations I’ve had with indigenous people:
- Seek guidance from people who have overcome suffering with dignity.
- Learn from those who have maintained a sense of humor through difficult times.
- Converse with grandparents and great-grandparents about their stories of hardship and the lessons they’ve learned. …
- Connect with your own culture by developing an understanding of, and sympathy for, the experiences and stories that your ancestors handed down in your family.
The Long and the Short of It: Existential Comfort in the Age of Hopkins and Greer, Part IV
I may have left the impression in Part 3 that because Greer’s narrative is broader than Hopkins’, because it encompasses it, redescribes it, puts it into a wider context, because it doesn’t follow a simple and linear structure or have even a hint of a fairy-tale air about it—that because of all this it is superior or more realistic.
The 4 major threats to industrialized agriculture — Fred Kirschenmann speaks
We are in a food revolution. The next generation sees the world differently. The older people alive today wanted to control the world. The new generation wants to work with it.
The enthusiasm gap in the White House
A veteran campaigner I deeply respect who said: “Show Obama you can’t be taken for granted, and I predict you will be amazed at the good things that come your way. … This is how the game is played. Get their respect!”
From ecocide to ecocentrism: a response
Ecocentrism, far from being a side issue, needs to be “the non-negotiable heart” of good human society. It is practical because it prevents us from destroying ourselves, as we are currently doing. It is ethical because it prevents us from destroying everything else at the same time, as we are also currently doing. And it is in a whole different league from discussions about which particular technology we use to run our computers.
EROI, insidious feedbacks, and the end of economic growth
Is a return to long term economic growth possible?
