Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Ce mois-ci, la Museletter réunit deux articles qui partagent un thème commun : l’Humanité est-elle capable de réaliser les changements nécessaires au sauvetage de la planète et par la même occasion à son propre sauvetage ?
This morning as I was gathering news for Truth to Power’s Daily News Digest, I opened Sharon Astyk’s blogspot, one of my very favorite, to find her caustic commentary on the death and funeral of Michael Jackson. As her comments distilled in my mind and body, I realized that I have even more to say about this cultural phenomenon-no desire to say it better than Sharon because who could (?), but hopefully to embellish her inimitable incisiveness.
While living modestly, these peoples’ lives were filled with sumptuous dreams they worked to transform into reality. While they certainly suffered from bouts of frustration and dismay over the years, none of these greats surrendered to what we call today ‘political burn-out’—or worse, just plain jadedness. … If environmental activists evaluate their work in terms of immediate efficacy and pragmatic ‘do-ableness’, they often collapse after five to ten years (sometimes far less) under the weight of abject disappointment. They resent themselves, their movements, and the world, for not changing fast enough.
Bugging Out
How Politics Works and Why Activism is So Important
Risk Assessments: Playing the “What If?” Game
The Future of Transport
Dopamine Returned on Energy Invested (DREI)?
Tällberg Forum 2009
One Second After: A Book Review from a Prepper’s Perspective
Ruins of a Second Gilded Age
The long-term consequences of young children already taking their gaze away from living people and constantly-changing nature to look down into and be captured by static machines concerns me. Who benefits and what is lost? What is appropriate technology use? What induces obsessive/compulsive/addictive behavior?
Sharon concludes: “All that matters is that the work gets done, as well as possible, that the floods are as small as we can make them, and that the suffering is as little as possible. That’s honestly all I care about.” Indeed. That is the task to which we all dedicate ourselves, whatever we choose to call this work.
Handwork is not and should not be a gendered province – all of us have time when we must sit and listen, or time when we want to converse. As times get more stressful, we may find that we have more of this time, not less – for all that we have more work to do when we must make do with less money and energy, we also often have more of this time. That is, unemployment, a more seasonal life, less television, fewer nights out and fewer long car trips may mean more reasons to sit, and be quiet together. If the power does go out, or get too expensive, handwork makes the evening hours productive, artistic, graceful – and the movement of fingers enables conversation.
Economy takes its toll on Amish
Greening a mountain community: Estes Park, Colorado
Why Are Chickens Leading the Sharing Revolution?
The Amish ran privately-owned family farms for centuries until the latter part of the 20th century when they began taking jobs off the farm where they made good money, but many also became seduced by consumerism. They gradually spent more money, allowed themselves some of the conveniences previously shunned in order to live more simply, and found themselves caught up in spending more money and buying things they didn’t need … One Amish man comments on the need to return to basics: “We were all going way too fast. This has made everybody stop and realize we’re just pilgrims here…”
Comedian, screenwriter and peak oil activist Jon Cooksey (How to Boil a Frog) presents his alt-reality agenda for the 2009 ASPO-USA conference.
Day 1. 9-9:01: Announcement that yes, peak oil is real and here now, and we’re running out of everything. All the usual presentations will be handed out as footnotes.
9:01-noon: Everyone who flew to the conference on a plane plants trees outside the hotel, followed by a pledge to forego driving double the number of miles they flew in the coming year. A Cadillac Escalade will be sacrificed to the god of climate change, Carbonus, just before lunch
Want to be a real hero? Save the planet. Don’t know how? Start by viewing the new eco-comedy, How to Boil a Frog. The film tells the story of Jon Cooksey, an ordinary man on a mission, who decided two years ago that he had to do something personally to make sure his 12-year-old daughter would have a future, given all the bad news on global warming.
If you are planning to withdraw, please tell me where you’re going, and send directions. If not, it’s time to start thinking about how you and your family or tribe will muddle through the years ahead. One word comes to mind: durability. If that wasn’t the first word that came to your mind, I’m not surprised.
