Staff

The world class struggle: the geography of protest

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When the world-economy stagnates and real unemployment expands considerably, it means that the overall pie is shrinking. The question then becomes who shall bear the burden of the shrinkage – within countries and between countries. The class struggle becomes acute and sooner or later leads to open conflict in the streets.

Everything is bullish (in its own way)

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My apologies to Ray Stevens, writer of the 1970s hit “Everything Is Beautiful,” the lyrics and title of which I’ve morphed into the title of this piece. But with that I note the perpetual bullishness of the financial industry in the face of what is really an ongoing debt deflation. Every incident, every turn of events is summarized by the industry as a “bullish development.”

The commons emerges as a theme at the People’s Summit in Rio

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Commons are not just common goods or assets. They are not “things” separate from us. They are not simply water, the forest, or ideas. They are social practices of commoning, of acting together, based on principles of sharing, stewarding, and producing in common. To ensure this, all those who participate in a common have the right to an equal voice in making decisions on the provisions and rules governing its management.

The real reason the military is going green

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The military imperative is to prepare. In many ways, it’s leading the way in the development of new energy sources, said Brandon Fureigh, advocacy director for the Truman National Security Project. And with a massive budget and an oversized carbon bootprint, the military is in a good position to drive innovation. “The military has always been a good testing ground for technology in general and one reason is they have a large budget,” he said, noting how ideas sparked by military research trickle into the general business arena. Its budget for clean energy has tripled in the last four years to $1.2 billion.

Thriving in Peterborough: the latest Transition Thrive training

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We ran our latest Transition Thrive in the Green Backyard which is an urban garden, meeting space and inspiration for the Peterborough in Transition (or PinT) project. Mandy Dean and I had the unusual but very welcome opportunity to work with the PinT group for two days. Our intention was to facilitate them to fulfil their wildest dreams, while keeping their feet firmly on the ground; to take their next steps in Transition. And to sprinkle some inspiration dust and enjoy our time together.

ODAC Newsletter – 8 June 2012

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At the end of March, when Brent traded at around $125 per barrel, Saudi oil minister Ali al Naimi wrote a sharply worded article in the FT claiming there was no justification for such high oil prices, and Brent has since slumped to $100, which happens to be the Saudi target price. The decline is likely to be temporary, however, and Mr al Naimi soon shown to be as influential as King Canute…