Building Community

The economics of lawns and landscaping

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Throughout the United States in urban and suburban settings and in small towns, lawns and massive amounts of non-native flowers, shrubs, and trees dominate the landscape. Such an unhealthy landscape is hardly surprising within an economy obsessed with growth. We lay out grass lawns as fast as possible and throw down landscape arrangements with very little concern for ecological consequences. In contrast, a more thoughtfully designed and ecologically sound landscape fits hand in hand with the framework of a steady state economy.

“Expect next phase of market crash and a large one for that matter…” – Interview with Nicole “Stoneleigh” Foss

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“Financial crisis is going to make resource depletion much harder to address, because we are not going to have the money to replace highly energy-dependent infrastructure. Doing so would be staggeringly expensive and would take a very long time even if we did have the money. As it is, we will be forced to conserve both money and resources by going without.”

Building social capital through food, drink and walkable neighborhoods – Oct 31

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– Soup swaps help stock your freezer and foster friendships
– The mellow Monbiot: How to make apple juice that doesn’t cost the Earth
– Robert Putnam (“Bowling Alone”) on Social Capital and Happiness
– Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood talks about livable communities

Rescuing suburbia

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Suburbia is a favorite whipping boy, especially when the topic of peak oil or energy descent comes up. It was a bad idea, a short-sighted endeavor made even more tragic by our then less complete understanding of energy and environmental constraints. Everyone take ten seconds and think about how terrible suburbia is.

Great. Now drop it. Suburbia happened. Is there value in articulating exactly why it was a bad idea? Yes, especially to the extent that we should stop building more of it in its current form. But that’s not the conversation I’m interested in having. The question we should focus on is what to do about it. And the answers, perhaps not surprisingly, can be easily divided into three categories: do nothing and pray; abandon it for something better, transform it.

Mining and minerals: can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em – Oct 29

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-German Industry Feels Rare-Earth Metals Squeeze
-China pledges not to use rare earth minerals as weapon
-Revealed: how deep-sea mining could destroy the ‘cradle of life on earth’
-China rare earth quota prices up as exporters jostle
-Rare earths row: some home truths
-News special: Vedanta victory masks threats to indigenous people

Time for a new theory of money

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By understanding that money is simply credit, we unleash it as a powerful tool for our communities. The reason our financial system has routinely gotten into trouble, with periodic waves of depression like the one we’re battling now, may be due to a flawed perception not just of the roles of banking and credit but of the nature of money itself.

Worlds collide at Cancun climate talks

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Two worlds will collide in Cancun, but they share a single planet. If the world that defends our current model of production and consumption prevails, the planet will edge ever closer to catastrophe. The second world offers hope of a new path. Its solutions are multiple and small-scale, and require political will more than massive resources or new technologies. This second world seeks a new balance in our lives between our environment, our food systems, and our jobs.