Envisioning a Livable Future
Most big-think essays like this end on a note of inspiration and hope. For once, I’ll resist the temptation to go that route. Can we humans make ourselves useful to the rest of life? It’s an open question.
Featured
What Do We Do Now?
Now that we have another four years of supreme stupidity, it seems all the more important to follow this small path, to turn away from the things that are harming us, to build up our communities, to live our lives — because this is all we get and the idiots do not get to take that from us, not even four years.
More than a century of community wealth – the history & future of Britain’s social clubs
We see the potential for a national support programme – but this will require major funders – and our own sector – to see the value in the recovery and renewal of social clubs as a unique opportunity to expand the democratic economy in our everyday lives.
Carbon offsets can help bring energy efficiency to low-income Americans − our Nashville data shows it could be a win for everyone
Our team at the Climate, Health and Energy Equity Lab at Vanderbilt University has been exploring the possibility of corporate offset dollars paying to improve energy efficiency in low-income housing, starting with a pilot study in our hometown of Nashville.
Humility and Our Connection to Earth
Humility, like all virtues, is a capacity that must be developed with practice. Symbolic rituals can be a way of editing our scripts to shift our habitual behaviors. In other words, symbolic humility can lead to real humility, but only if a genuine desire is there.
From the Ground Up: Excerpt
Erin’s work with Fertile Ground, and Carrie’s with Black Family Land Trust, are part of the multidimensional aspect of regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture renews both urban and rural communities, and it nourishes both human bodies and the planet.
Freedom
Although the majority of voters can’t imagine true system change, this is precisely what we need – movement toward the ecological civilization.
The Serviceberry: this Indigenous understanding of nature can help us rethink economics
Ultimately, The Serviceberry is a hopeful book. It offers a way out of what Kimmerer calls a “cannibal economy”, where endless consumption depletes the world around us. Instead, she imagines a system where resources circulate through communities, creating webs of independence that nourish both humans and nature.
He’ll try, but Trump can’t stop the clean energy revolution
All told, climate progress has been unfolding on so many fronts for so many years — often without enough support from the federal government — that it will persist regardless of who occupies the White House.
Guardians of Heritage: The Fight for Land Rights Defenders
Founded by Nana Kwesi Osei Bonsu in response to land grabs and environmental degradation, Land Rights Defenders provides legal support, advocacy, and education to those most affected.
The Plant Pamphlets
From 1999-2024, Dark Mountain’s Mark Watson taught and demonstrated the art of holding a dialogue with (mostly) wild plants. Part-manual, part-memoir, this small book is a distillation of his hands-on practice, ‘hanging out’ with twelve flowers and a tree over a year: from a conversation with burdock in a community garden, to lying alongside sea kale on the Suffolk shore, to foraging for mallow leaf fritters and flower teas.
The Battles of Our Time
In today’s Frankly, Nate describes some of the battles – or polarities – of our time: the tensions and dichotomies we face from the global macro level all the way down to the level of individual metacognition.