Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Four uprisings of global significance surprised the world in 2011, and the spirit of all four will surprise those who manage the food system in 2012—which leads to my choice of year-end and year-beginning indicators that pick up the colors of these uprisings in emerging habits related to eating.
– Clinton on OWS: “What they’re doing is great”
– Newt Goes Full ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Against Romney
– Occupy 2012: Firmly disorganized, driven by dreams
– Why Now? What’s Next? Naomi Klein and Yotam Marom in Conversation About Occupy Wall Street
A sustainable world that works for the 99% is possible, if we can respond to climate change, economic injustice and resource depletion at the same time. The transition to a renewable energy economy can be a valuable frame for that discussion. Just as the financial elites brought about the economic crisis, they are blocking the renewable energy transition to reap more profit from their fossil fuel investments. Because of fuel depletion as well as climate change, further delay may prevent a successful transition. Social justice and sustainability advocates can blow the whistle on the 1% for this issue too, and collaborate to speed up the transition locally.
Mason’s new book, Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: the New Global Revolutions, surveys activist actions and encampments from Tahrir to Syntagma Square in Athens to Zuccotti Park and finds that each one was driven by a group of overeducated and underemployed young people jacked into technology like no revolutionaries since The Matrix.
There’s room in the movement for everyone who cares, whether their bent is for deadly serious de-industrialization, “fun and sexy” protests, technological innovation, or even, yes, going out walking.
Don’t stand there asking what to do! Look around, roll up your sleeves and get busy! Offer your talents to the task. If you can write, start writing and share your thoughts with ever wider circles of readers. If you can farm, start an organic CSA. If you are an engineer, you should be focusing on renewable energy.
– Seniors in Walkers Shut Down Local Bank of America
– ‘Occupy’ Protesters in New Hampshire Seek Visibility Ahead of Primary
– NY Times reporters look back at OWS (video)
– First Feature Doc About Occupy Movement
– What a Bunch of Farmers Can Teach a Bunch of Occupiers About How to Keep on Going
– What OWS can Learn from South Africa’s United Democratic Front
– Occupy Wall Street and Transformational Strategy
– The Challenge of the Era of Technological Abundance
– Foreign Affairs: Globalization and the Threat to the West (an elite change in direction?)
– Republican Climate Hawks Sighted in New Hampshire (video)
– Matt Taibbi: Iowa: The Meaningless Sideshow Begins
– Obama’s Pentagon Strategy: A Leaner, More Efficient Empire
– Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs
– Complete with Threats and Astroturf, Big Oil Preps for Election Year Push
– TV: I Vote 4 Energy (spoof of API ad)
– Canada: Climate Criminal
– Why is an oil stock owning Congress member pushing to end EV tax credits?
– In Depth with Author and Journalist Chris Hedges (video)
– Vengeance vs Forgiveness: This Eternal Struggle
– Guy McPherson: Taking a hike
– Fascist America? Not Exactly
My resolution for 2012 is to be naive — dangerously naive.
In a few short weeks a rag-tag group of under-thirties has been able to transform the global conversation about economic issues by focusing on three basic points, all of which are essential for stopping runaway climate change and ecological overshoot.
