Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
If we are to make by necessity or desire, a shift to a lower input society, it is necessary to take the lessons learned in other lower-input societies and ask the question: what are the major food security issues likely to be?
In the sphere of disaster recovery there is a term that we can expect to hear a lot in the coming months, even years — “build back better”.
The near-religious belief that economic growth depends not on energy and resources, but solely on increasing innovation, efficiency, trade, and division of labor, can sometimes lead economists to say silly things.
A new law expected to pass in Bolivia mandates a fundamental ecological reorientation of the nation’s economy and society.
One no longer needs to go through the long and often arduous process of becoming a “person-in-the-foreign-culture” in order to spout off in public as an expert about its core realities. The new discourses about the other are predicated, more often than not, on an underlying belief in the essentially normative and universal nature of US cultural, political and economic behaviors.
We have been told that the experts know best, and that even though they crashed the economy, they’re still the experts. We’re told that we should be patient, not question things we don’t understand, and by all means, keep shopping. “These kinds of messages work to keep us paralyzed and isolated, and keep us from seeing other possibilities,” says Linda Schmoldt, a Common Security Circle facilitator in Portland, Oregon. “We must envision a new economy and society based on real wealth, and create a new story about what is possible.”
– For those with eco-anxiety, it’s not easy being green
– NOVA: A Strict Carbon Diet (video and transcript)
– Photo journalist Ed Thompson visits Totnes
– Taking stock of that over which we have dominion
It’s tough to convince people that there is a need for radical change of their attitudes and behavior in relation to energy issues. Cognitive mechanisms that produce beneficial results under most circumstances can lead to an irrational resistance (if not immunity) to any kind of argument aimed at our own set of beliefs about peaking global oil production, renewable energy resources, and the continued viability of nuclear power.
– The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science
– Multi-tasking: It’s Not Just Rude, It’s Ruining Your Brain
– Mark Morford: Please Step Away From the Fear
Among the sources of the pervasive cynicism of contemporary America, especially but not only displayed around energy issues, is the belief that the United States is a sham democracy controlled by a malign elite. It’s hard to think of a bit of conventional wisdom more widely held, on all sides of the political continuum, but like a great deal of today’s American credos, it deserves a hard second look, for there’s more going on here than meets the eye.
I admit it: in the days of mobile internet and GPS, the concept of posting physical signs as a way of generating community may seem “retro” and outmoded. However, signs are all about locality. Finding resources in the course of our normal daily movements is direct, efficient, and full of the possibilities inherent in the manifold layers of existence that engage when we interact with our living immediate environment.
-The Ghost Park
-Emotional Resilience In Traumatic Times
-Let No Man Say It Cannot Be Done
-What Makes Life Good?
