Getting beyond just wheat, corn, and rice
What was the last grain you ate? Chances are very good it was wheat, corn or rice…
Jude Isabella
Time to take ownership of the Anthropocene
Maybe you, too, know that feeling of despair that comes when learning of some catastrophic impact of climate change…
From grid waste to good taste
The U.S. power grid is a vital part of the nation’s infrastructure. It’s also a wasteful one. Now, a new start-up is looking to solve both of these inefficiencies at once by reducing utilities’ excess power production while turning dormant lands into productive greenhouses.
A Song of Our Warming Planet – Understanding climate change through music
University of Minnesota undergrad Daniel Crawford illustrates climate change with his cello.
Veggies at the Liquor Store—and 5 Other Ways to Bring Food to Your Community
Out-of-the-box ideas for putting healthier food on our neighborhood plates—and make friends doing it.
Policies for Shareable Cities: A Sharing Economy Policy Primer for Urban Leaders
This report details 32 specific policy steps that local leaders can take to benefit from the growing sharing economy and support innovations such as carsharing, ridesharing, cohousing, cooperatives, and urban agriculture.
A New Society From the Bottom Up
So broadly speaking, even amongst radicals, most people are open to thinking about new directions, but they don’t have a fully coherently defined vision of where they’re going and how to go forward.
The Hidden Argument Against Bike Share (and Bike Anything)
Cities everywhere are working to improve transportation options to reduce reliance on automobiles and for this reason bicycling as another mode of transport is taking off. But there’s a lot of push back because in the U.S. car culture is king, and the hidden argument against bikes is rarely made public.
Peak Oil as seen through the eyes of Arab oil producers
Reflections by the author of the "Hirsch Report" on the Conference “Peak Oil: Challenges and Opportunities for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries.”
How the Chicken of Tomorrow became the Chicken of the World
Rotisserie chicken, chicken nuggets, Kung pao chicken, chicken livers, Buffalo wings, chicken Kiev, lemon chicken, chicken soup, barbecue chicken, chicken salad, fried chicken—there is no denying that the U.S. loves chicken. According to the USDA, poultry production exceeds $20 billion annually, with over 43 billion pounds of meat produced. The National Chicken Council estimates per capita consumption of chicken in the U.S. at over 80 pounds a year. What’s surprising is that it hasn’t always been this way. This is the story of how an Italian immigrant farmer and his son helped launch the industrial production of chicken.
The necessary transition to a new economy
Even Forbes is jumping on the bandwagon of the “sharing economy” with a recent article on AirBnB. This closely follows Van Jones’s CNN article about the “sharing economy,” but the push to transform our broken economy isn’t just about sharing, though; it isn’t even just about renewable energy, energy efficiency, public transportation, and the other elements of the green economy movement. There is a “new economy movement” that’s pushing for a fundamental shift away from the neoliberal policies that have dominated our economy and society for decades.
Starting down: seven deadly sins
For those of us who live in countries where we use many fossil fuels, we have been shielded from the consequences of living badly. But that age is ending. Now that the Mayan Baktun 13 calendar has passed, we begin the era of the Gaian calendar. We “will eventually have to reduce either our populations or our living standards (emergy use) by 80 to 90 percent” (Odum & Odum, 2001, p. 170)