Closing the Gap between the Science and Politics of Progress
Global politics is based on an outmoded and increasingly destructive model of human progress and development. Can science change a dire situation?
building resilient societies
Kris De Decker: Enough Is Enough
Our guest this week on Sea Change Radio, Low Tech Magazine founder, Kris De Decker, makes a compelling case for the abandonment of efficiency as the barometer for planetary stewardship. He proposes we use the simpler, but perhaps more painful objective of sufficiency.
Avoiding Anomie
It is only in the telling of a new story that we will find a way of avoiding anomie; derangement caused by an insatiable will and desire without limit that can never be fulfilled.
Seven Lessons On Starting a Worldwide Movement for Change
I have not yet seen a better more worked out pathway to creating systemic change as the Transition model and practice. There are many things wrong with Transition, or solutions not yet created. There will be more on that in my next, and last post for Transition Network.
Technology and Its Discontents
In his book In the Absence of the Sacred, Jerry Mander points out that new technologies are usually introduced through “best-case scenarios”: “The first waves of description are invariably optimistic, even utopian.
Is it Possible for Everyone to Live a Good Life within our Planet’s Limits?
Imagine a country that met the basic needs of its citizens – one where everyone could expect to live a long, healthy, happy and prosperous life. Now imagine that same country was able to do this while using natural resources at a level that would be sustainable even if every other country in the world did the same. Such a country does not exist.
A Proposal for a United Nations Framework Convention on Population Growth
I propose the establishment of a United Nations Framework Convention on Population Growth –one akin to the Paris Agreement for climate change with Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in pursuit of a sustainable population in every country.
Constructing Hope: A Discussion of “Green Earth”
Neither hope nor its cousin joy are to be confused with optimism. The latter tends to be more a quality of temperament than a realistic assessment of prospects. As for the former, well, you have to go looking for them, or even, laboriously, construct them for yourself, at best in the company of other people.
“We’re a Movement, not Just a Magazine”
Can the arts stimulate new ways of living in old mining communities like Doncaster? Aided by a small team of part-time staff and many volunteers, a regular print magazine, festivals, events, campaigns, meet-ups and exhibitions have all been spawned from Doncopolitan’s co-working space office on Copley Road.
Climate Strange
As much as policy shapes behavior, a mass shift in behavior can push policy and change the world. The shift has to start somewhere — and it starts with the weirdos.
As Climate Changes, We Need the Arts More than Ever
Art can help us cope with the implications of our collective challenges. It can help prepare society for a possibly traumatic future. It can give voice to suffering and loss, helping people deal with life’s inevitable stress. And it can also offer beauty, which can be especially important in hard times.
Manish Jain: “Our Work is to Recover Wisdom and Imagination”
In my own journey what I found out was that most people think education is a solution going forward for the world, and to deal with the different crises on the planet, and I found that the education system, the current one, is actually part of the problem. Not only is it irrelevant, but it also is actually creating, reproducing, the same sicknesses you have in the planet.
