Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Dahr Jamail One of the themes that has revealed itself on this podcast is that the problems besetting the planet today all stem from our disconnection from the Earth. Celine Lim, an Indigenous Kayan leader from Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, knows this all too well.
How can an Australian open-pit coal mining project unequivocally denied by a joint review panel as well as two courts of appeal still be regarded as an “advanced coal project” by Alberta regulators?
For those seeking clear, practical guidance on what they can do to help steer our society away from its current unsustainable, perpetual-growth economy toward a sustainable, harmonious one, Building Tomorrow is highly recommended.
To “disabstract” an account, a bit of history, a narrative or story, an image, idea or concept, an academic discipline or theory…, is to re-embed it in a world of history, concrete particulars, detailed situations, context, depth, richness, complexity, specificity, detail, situatedness, place… and so much more.
Because great change is coming. The only question is: will it finally be inspired and initiated by us? Or will we let it be brutally imposed upon us by the power of a cruelly disrupted nature (not to mention, by the often-cruel powers that be)?
We need constructive debates about food and farming so that we can find the best ideas for addressing the desperate business at hand: figuring out how to live healthily on a healthy planet.
Doing the work, nurturing community and organizing, and being prepared to act is the best guarantee that we’ll have a life worth living. This is my hope.
So, what does Johnson’s elevation to the speaker’s chair mean for US climate policy? It doesn’t bode particularly well, although hardly worse than what McCarthy meant for clean energy and the environment.
The firekeeping practice became a way to resist those forces, to access our deep-time knowledge and put us in sync with the Earth’s rhythms and metabolism, kin with the thousands of people who are holding fires and doing this regenerative culture making at the same time.
Global network Local Futures, organiser of the three-day event, calls for a gravitation to localised systems to support local economies and sustainable communities. It’s about “shifting power from transnational corporations to genuinely democratic institutions, while simultaneously building up regional self-reliance.”
So, the next time you’re stuck in traffic because some d**n eco-snowflake glued themselves to the highway, think about why they did it. You can quibble about their tactics but not their intentions or sense of urgency.
So zoning and land use changes, while necessary, are not sufficient to transform car-dependent suburbia into sustainable, walkable communities. Many changes to transportation policy and infrastructure are also needed.
