Building Community

A Tale From Portugal, and one from home

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I have been astonished to learn as I visited more than 100 transition initiatives over the past 6 months, that nearly all of us are off comers, and with this somewhat dubious title actually seem to breathe fresh life into the communities we have chosen to live in, perhaps for this very reason, delving deeply into the roots of our cherished new homes, and bringing them up for fresh examination in a way that those well established in an area have perhaps become so accustomed to that the value is no longer recognised.

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.

Slow time, fast time

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“Fast Time” is the world I live in, the one with a two hour meeting scheduled at 7pm, my husband’s classes at 12:35, Eli’s bus at 8:15 and 3:30… payments due by the first of the month, etc… It is the world run on clocks and calendars, where expectations can be fixed and formalized. All of us live in fast time in some measure, some of us almost completely, others only barely. There is, however, no good way of escaping it entirely.

I also live in slow time. Slow time is the world of things that cannot be subject to fast time – things that take their own time, that you cannot schedule, that get done when they are ready. This is the time in which the wheat is ready to harvest, in which babies are birthed, in which winter sets in for real, in which children learn to walk or read or ride a bicycle, in which the plums ripen, in the ill recover strength, in which bread rises, in which change happens.

Agroinnovations #107: Recipe for America

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On this episode of the podcast we are joined by Jill Richardson. Jill is a journalist, author and blogger who writes for the blog La Vida Locavore and also for the news site alternet.org. In this interview we discuss Cuba as an example of a post-peak agricultural society, the propaganda of the GMO seed companies, the corporate push to approve genetically modified salmon, the Green Revolution in Mexico, and how to fix our broken food system.

French lessons – Oct 24

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– France Gets a Foretaste of a World After Peak Oil
– France on strike – dramatic photographs
– Exchange student sees French strikes up close
– Dinner ladies lead the fight against pension cuts
– Marseille close to standstill as worst strikes in 15 years cause French chaos
– Sarkozy’s approval rating hits new low as French strikes drag on
– From my hometown in France : Videos and updates on the strikes

Can space aliens save the world?

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"Calling occupants of interplanetary craft to rescue our planet, as we seem incapable of doing so ourselves despite the best intentions of a vocal & divided minority of earth dwellers who struggle against those who have…" What we need is a revolution of thought on the scale of the Copernican introduction of heliocentrism.

ODAC Newsletter – Oct 22

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After weeks of prediction and build up, this was finally the week of the UK government spending review statement. With the government insisting that it will be the greenest ever there was much anticipation of how the Department of Energy and Climate Change would fare in the review…

Two moving sidewalks

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In all likelihood, in the gap between the broken-paradigm moving sidewalk and the saner-future moving sidewalk lies all of the above: a spread-eagle attempt to keep one foot on each sidewalk for a brief time; a mere hop in moments of trust; a broad vault of faith when sometimes we cannot fully make it; and a few decades of twisting, turning, going-back-on-ourselves, and doubting.