“All That We Share” isn’t enough

All That We Share is an exciting and exasperating book. The excitement comes from the many voices arguing to place “the commons” at the center of planning for a viable future. The exasperation comes from the volume’s failure to critique the political and economic systems that we must transcend if there is to be a future for the commons.

WikiLeaks – Dec 12

– WikiLeaks Is the New Journalism
– Could Wikileaks change or destroy the Internet as we know it?
– NYT: Keeping Secrets WikiSafe
– Predicting the future of WikiLeaks: Follow the media!
– Pentagon scrambles to prep for ‘thermonuclear’ Wikileaks release
– Six Anti-Theses on WikiLeaks
– Guardian’s country-by-country round-up

WikiLeaks (how and why) – Dec 9

– A Case Study in Web Survivability
– Live with the WikiLeakable world or shut down the net
– Massive Release of Raw WikiLeaks Files Threatened if Assange Harmed
– WikiLeaks avoids shutdown as supporters worldwide go on the offensive
– WikiLeaks, the web and the power of the people
– WikiLeaks a blueprint for things to come
– How to Think About Wikileaks

Environmentalism and political struggle

“You say things are happening … give me an example. Numerous organizations are doing lots of great work – permaculture, relocalization, etc. This is wonderful, and I’m involved in it. But everything measurable is going the wrong way. So whatever we’re doing is not working. … Unless all this community work is linked with a broader political struggle, we’re not really going to get anywhere.”

Climate – Dec 3

– Japan Turns Its Back on Kyoto Protocol
– GOP Moves Quickly to Kill House Climate-Change Panel
– Albert Bates: The Cancún Climate Summit – Opening Day Coverage
– Monbiot: Cancún climate change summit: Is God determined to prevent a deal?
– Vía Campesina: Statement on the Climate Summit in Cancun
– Food Security Wanes as World Warms

In the wake of victory

More than a decade has passed since the first tentative email lists and conversations that launched the peak oil movement. During the years since, a central theme of nearly all factions of that movement has been the goal of inserting peak oil into the collective conversations of our time. The IEA’s awkward admission that the peak has already passed may just mark the arrival of the final stage in the struggle to make that happen. At this point, a new and even more challenging question emerges: now that we’ve won, what next?