Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
In unemployed worker groups and common security clubs across the country, participants are facing two grim realities. The first is that jobs that vanished aren’t coming back. And the second reality is that if unemployed workers don’t stand up for themselves, no one else will.
The Gulf of Mexico’s capacity to recover from previous environmental assaults — especially the 1979 Ixtoc explosion — provides encouragement about the prospects for its post-Deepwater future. But scientists remain worried about the BP spill’s long-term effects on the health of the Gulf and its sea life.
Eat/Pray/Love movie advertisements are now appearing all over my local part of Los Angeles. I haven’t read the book or seen the movie and I’m not planning to. But the stark graphics of the advertising campaign pump the words EAT – PRAY – LOVE into my head on a regular basis.
Looking at the news, most current stories have a common thread. Wars over oil; oil spill; catastrophic flooding in Pakistan and record cold waves in the Southern Hemisphere; wheat prices up on drought in Russia; forest and peat fires from the heat; economies cratering from higher energy costs and banking bubbles; states, provinces, and municipalities teetering on bankruptcy; unemployment skyrocketing; right-wing militant groups finding traction; civil rights trampled as authoritarianism hardens; and billions still being spent to keep people in the dark on peak oil and climate change.
What if, a friend of mine proposed, we are not approaching a point that will tip us into a grand ecological catastrophe which we are called upon to prevent? What if we are in the middle of that catastrophe and it began some time ago?
– What collapsing empire looks like
– Will our kids be better off than us?
– How BP harnesses music to its message
– Governments go to extremes as the downturn wears on
– Battle looms over huge costs of public pensions
– How facts backfire
– An evolutionary biology story of stuff
– Transforming cultures from consumerism to sustainability
I can’t prescribe the ideal post-capitalist world and I wouldn’t try. People will create solutions to the crises they face according to what makes most sense in their circumstances. In fact they’re already doing this.
Everyone wants to make a difference and have a good time. But it’s not always easy to do either one, let alone find ways to do both at the same time. But I’ve found a way! Have a funny films festival for your friends. Sure this sounds fun, but how does it make a difference? Studies have found that social relations are one of the biggest boosters for happiness and health and that they have a profound affect on people’s involvement in community.
In this week’s post, the Archdruid introduces several million of his closest friends, reveals the secret Green Wizard meaning of the word “garbage,” and confronts the dreaded Squick Factor. His theme? Your future compost bin.
While political forces have conspired to make the Zapatistas largely invisible both inside Mexico and internationally, their challenge has always been to propose a paradigm of development that is both just and self-sustaining. It seems fair, then, to see if Zapatismo can shed any light on the muddle of politics around the climate crisis.
-Do environmentalists and governments hold back sustainable lifestyles
-We’ll be happy when we’re old—if civilization survives
-Happy Cities for the Global South: Interview with Enrique Peñalosa
