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Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
– Eric Schlosser: Why Being a Foodie Isn’t ‘Elitist’
– Fava beans: Roasting pods simplifies preparation
– Are mushrooms the new plastic (video)
– Eliot Coleman: Organic agriculture: deeply rooted in science and ecology
– Radical plots: The politics of gardening
– Will China’s peak herald the “peak human”?
– Live long. Stay healthy. Join the immortals
– Immanuel Wallerstein: The world system after 1945
Since the crisis of industrial society is being driven by social and economic habits that foster the extravagant use of energy and other resources, it would seem to be obvious that using much less of these things ought to be the foundation of any reasonable response. The fact that so many proposed responses advocate doing almost anything imaginable but using less energy and other resources points straight toward the tangled heart of contemporary nihilism, and suggests a way out.
Local initiatives like the Oakland Energy and Climate Action Plan aren’t enough to tackle the climate crisis. We need national and international regulations requiring deep, scientifically grounded emission reductions, and we need strict systems of enforcement. But before that can happen, people need to see that getting off fossil fuels isn’t a dour punishment. Done right, it can be a kind of gift. Oakland, once again, is leading the way.
A new law expected to pass in Bolivia mandates a fundamental ecological reorientation of the nation’s economy and society.
“Very, very few people can ever say that they are in the single most important place they could possibly be, doing the single most important thing they could possibly be doing — that’s you, here, now. You are the movement that we need if we are going to win in the few years that we have.”
– Lester Brown: Smart planning for the global family
– The Anti-Immigration Crusader
– The Hypocrisy of Hate: Nativists and Environmentalism
– Bahrain braced for new wave of repression
– President Assad’s promises fail to quell Syrian protests
– If Humalain wins presidency, he could align Peru with Latin America’s political left
– Furious Greeks press for country to default on debt
– ‘Farms’ Owned by the Rich Provide Massive Tax Shelter
– Offshore Banking and Tax Havens Have Become Heart of Global Economy
– Matt Taibbi: The Real Housewives of Wall Street
– Bolivia enshrines natural world’s rights with equal status for Mother Earth
– Bolivia After the Storm (raising fuel prices)
– German Greens on the rise
– WikiLeaks cable: Politicians, military – not militants – behind most Nigeria oil thefts
A new global movement for happiness was launched Tuesday in the UK. Action for Happiness is supported by more than 4,500 members including the Dalai Lama. Based on the new science of happiness, the movement suggests that the keys to happier living lie in actions such as Giving, Relating and Accepting.
Media coverage has been extensive:
– 20 Happiness Facts
– Don’t worry, every little thing’s gonna be all right
– Switch off, chip in, be happy, say activists
– My advice for the happiness lobby? Start with drugs
– Britons becoming ‘increasingly miserable’, warns happiness group
– Happy evangelists take on the cynics
– It’s time the right looks beyond its prejudices and understands what this agenda is about
One of the least discussed and most fascinating features of the present day is that the strategies that got the world through the energy crisis of the Seventies are being pointedly ignored, not only by governments and corporations but by a great many of the people who claim to be offering alternative views. The obvious and successful response then — rallying the collective will and enthusiasm of the people by ‘fessing up to the arrival of crisis, and using that will and enthusiasm to slash energy consumption — has been all but erased from our collective imagination and memory. Maybe it’s time to take a hard look at how that erasure happened.
