Courtney Pankrat

How Make Something Week Brought together Thousands of Makers around the Globe

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The goal of this campaign was to reduce wasteful consumption over the holiday season and encourage people to make or repurpose what they need. Workshops like a toy sharing and repairing workshop in Aveiro, Portugal, an upcycling event in Hannover, Germany, and a gift making workshop in Helsinki, Finland, encouraged the over 10,000 participants to create new things from old items, repair broken goods, and learn new skills through do-it-yourself projects. A

Modern Monetary Theory and Strong Towns

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My skepticism aside, my goal here is not to convince the passionate supporters of endless federal money printing that this is a bad idea – you’ve got your thing and you really believe it and I don’t want to quarrel over it in this piece – but to point out to you, and especially those sympathetic to the ends if not the means of what you advocate for, that Modern Monetary Theory is not going to solve the problems we are trying to address at Strong Towns.

Defying Dystopia: Shaping the Climate Future We Want

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In short, the climate futures they describe obscure the fact that the impact of climate change will ultimately not be determined by levels of CO2, but by structures of power. In other words, the exact impact of a climate disaster will depend on political decisions, economic wealth and social systems.

‘Clean Energy Is a Fundamental Civil Right’: Major Campaign to Expand Access to Solar

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The NAACP is launching a major environmental justice campaign on Jan. 13 to mark the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. The “Solar Equity Initiative” aims to provide solar job skills training to 100 individuals, install solar panels on more than 30 homes and community centers in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, and strengthen equity in solar access policies in at least five states.

Eating your Values: Five Questions to Ask your Butcher

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Many of us would like to shop ethically and in line with our values when it comes to buying meat. But while this might sound like a simple thing to do, in practice it can be a complicated web of labels, terminology and increasing confusion.

Meet the Frontline Activists Facing Down the Global Mining Industry

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Leaders from the frontlines of mining struggles in the Philippines, Colombia and Uganda travelled to the UK this November to expose the true costs of the UK’s extensive ties to the global mining industry and oppose the Mines and Money Conference in London- a global hub of mining finance and power.

Chewing on the Olive Branch: GM crops and Mark Lynas ver 2.0

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This time, Mark Lynas returns with a much more conciliatory message, offering what he calls an “olive branch” and “the contours of a potential peace treaty” between the pro and anti-GM contingents. If this had been the speech he’d given in 2013 I think a lot of bad blood could have been avoided.

What We Learned about the Climate System in 2017 that Should Send Shivers down the Spines of Policy Makers

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If climate policymaking is to be soundly based, a re-framing of scientific research within an existential risk-management framework is now urgently required. This must be taken up not just in the work of the IPCC, but also in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations if we are to address the real climate challenge.

With Energy and Justice for All

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The city of Pueblo wants to go all-in on renewables. Low-income residents want affordable rates. Can they work together? The first things you see driving down from the Rocky Mountains into Pueblo, Colorado, are smoke stacks. Three big ones sprout from the Comanche coal plant at the edge of town, and then a stubble of shorter towers rises from the steel mill, which once provided good paying jobs to anyone who wanted one.

Our Schools are Doing too Much to Save the Planet

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We may be meeting our schools’ curriculum targets, but  in many cases we are still missing the larger aims of environmental awareness, our essential inter-connectedness and inter-being with the planet we live on, and thus many teachers, and their students,  are not acting out of deep ecological understanding or deep ecological commitment.