Sheep on the curragh
Sheep, pigs and cows do not belong to massive agribusiness factories here; they often belong to smallholders, and you will see them in the space of a backyard.
Building Community
How New England can change the World: A bang for your buck in the Berkshires
Want to encourage the local economy? Try printing your own regional money.
Peak Moment 182: Changing the world one bike rider at a time
A weekly free bike coop where you can use mechanic’s tools and expertise to fix your bike? Free clinics where schoolkids or neighbors learn to maintain or build their own bikes from used parts? While Chauncey and Dash Tudhope-Locklear make a living repairing bicycles, volunteer projects support their mission of empowering “social change through bicycles.” With an eye to local food self-reliance, they even repair farmers’ bicycles for free.
2010 Local Future conference features Nicole Foss
The 2010 International Conference on the Future: Energy, Economy & Environment examines deflation, collapse, and the transition to sustainability. It features extended keynotes and extensive interaction with Nicole Foss, Joe Tainter, Richard Douthwaite, Steve Keen, David Korowicz, Steve Keen, Chris Bedford, and Aaron Wissner. The conference comences on Friday, Nov. 12 and runs through Sunday, Nov. 14 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Early bird 50% off registration is open through Thursday, Oct. 21.
Tim Jackson on economic growth from this year’s TED Talks
As the world faces recession, climate change, inequity and more, Tim Jackson delivers a piercing challenge to established economic principles, explaining how we might stop feeding the crises and start investing in our future.
Web and media – Oct 17
– How fear of bias dominates the climate change debate
– Is Social Networking Useless for Social Change?
– Monbiot: The Values of Everything
Bicycles and better communities – Oct 15
– In Los Angeles, people come out to play when streets are closed to cars (video of CicLAvia)
– There’s safety in numbers for cyclists
– 7 Rules for Sustainable Communities – British Columbia edition
‘Know-How’, ‘Know-What’ and the politics of knowledge for social change
In an age when wealth and power present a more diffuse and benign face to the world, the soft authority of knowledge is ever more important as a force for social change. The politics of knowledge – how ideas are created, used and disseminated – represents a key issue for the social change community.
Swinging the hammer for justice
A new book by longtime bioregionalist Stephanie Mills tells the story of one of our forerunners in relocalization’s long history. Bob Swann may be the most important pioneer for a just world whom you’ve never heard of. He worked tirelessly over a long life to bring together practical structures for economic justice, land reform, rural investment and credit, complementary currencies, and education.
The Witch of Hebron and the myth of post-peak oil uniformity
The witch of Hebron, herself a prostitute, is a beautiful, charming, intelligent caricature, overly-idealized by Kunstler who argues that in a post-collapse world, the rights of women and minorities, so dramatically achieved in the twentieth century, will become virtually extinct in a “world made by hand”.
Whole life redesign
What we’re really talking about is a permaculture redesign, or reassessment of our whole lives. We’re allotting a year to do it – we have several times now done year long projects – once by not buying anything but food and fuel for a whole year, another with the Riot for Austerity, trying to get our resource use down to 10% of the American average, and both were enormously useful and revelatory.
Urban agriculture – Oct 14
-Urban farming yields small climate gains
-Case study: The Year of Urban Agriculture in Seattle
-How to grow food in strange places – by the experts
