Media & Communications

‘Totnes: what the past can teach us about the future’: a new film

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I have had the great pleasure over the past few months to work with Susana Martinez and Emilio Mula to create a new short film about oral history and Transition. It emerged from the oral histories we did in preparing the Totnes EDAP, interviewing some of those people in more depth. The resultant film, premiered on Thursday night in Totnes, is one I very much hope you enjoy.

‘Malaise’: The last time a president told the truth about energy

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The anniversary of Jimmy Carter’s “Malaise” speech this month begs the question, Can a president talk to the public honestly about energy and survive? I say yes. The speech itself was brilliant. And the public loved it. If many other things hadn’t gone wrong, that speech could’ve saved Carter’s presidency and put America on the path to a sane energy policy while we still had time. Carter’s case offers a strong lesson for today.

What a waste! The scoop on poop and ecological wastewater management- Part 2 of a 2 part interview

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Have you ever wondered why we poop in fresh water? In Part 2 of an interview author Carol Steinfeld, we talk more in-depth about human waste as a resource. Carol, co-author of The Composting Toilet System Book and Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling, shares her extensive knowledge about human waste management practices around the globe, how to clear human waste of possible pathogens, and different waste-composting systems for the home.

Green is the new red: An interview with Will Potter

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For centuries, the arbitrary use of power by the state against dissidents has been a key threat to freedom. More recently, the concentrated wealth of corporations has emerged as a major impediment to democracy. When those two centers of power decide to come after people, not only do the individuals suffer, but freedom and democracy take a beating. In his debut book, Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement under Siege, independent journalist Will Potter details one such assault on freedom and democracy, the targeting of environmental and animal-rights activists.

ODAC Newsletter – July 22

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Thirty days on from its decision to release reserve oil stocks, the IEA announced Thursday that it will take no further action for the moment. This, along with positive news from the latest European emergency summit, and signs from Washington that the US may avoid its looming self-inflicted default, saw oil prices strengthen to more than $118/barrel.

The Wealth of Nature

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What do you get when you cross Adam Smith’s economic classic, The Wealth of Nations, with E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful? Something like John Michael Greer’s latest book, The Wealth of Nature: Economics as if Survival Mattered. Greer not only diagnoses why most economists are usually wrong when they peer into the future, he explains why the exuberant growth of the fossil fuel age is ending and suggests some steps you can take for a less insecure economic future.

Nuclear delusions

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The heating of Earth remains the most urgent symptom of humanity’s mismanagement of our technological civilization. Desperately seeking answers for a low carbon energy regime, some observers propose a “nuclear renaissance” to replace hydrocarbons. Nuclear companies, nations, and advocates offer nuclear as a possible “low-carbon” energy path. However, the evidence in hand shows that nuclear energy is not the solution to humanity’s energy needs that many hope for. Here are the reasons…

A conversation with Rob Hopkins (and hosted by Richard Heinberg)

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Richard Heinberg hosts a conversation with Rob Hopkins on New Thinking in Transition. The podcast begins with Rob giving an update on what is going on in the Transition movement and introducing the upcoming Transition handbook, and is followed by a Q and A.