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Tag Archives: sustainability
What Permaculture Can Teach Us About Commons
What Permaculture Can Teach Us About Commons As a developed set of social practices, techniques and ethical norms, permaculture has a lot to say to the world of the commons. This is immediately clear from reading the twelve design principles of permaculture that David Holmgren enumerated in his 2002 book Permaculture: Principles and Practices Beyond Sustainability. It […]
Disconnect: Congressional hawks hate sustainability, but love military that seeks it
Disconnect: Congressional hawks hate sustainability, but love military that seeks it Recently, I toured a U.S Navy mine sweeper and destroyer during Fleet Week. Just before the tour entrance line a tent with exhibits caught my attention. On the first table were a set of small bottles containing various kinds of liquid fuels, a sampling […]
The Structure of Collapse: 2016-2019
The Structure of Collapse: 2016-2019 Leaders face a no-win dilemma: any change of course will crash the system, but maintaining the current course will also crash the system. The end-state of unsustainable systems is collapse. Though collapse may appear to be sudden and chaotic, we can discern key structures that guide the processes of collapse. Though […]
Eight “New Normal” Charts That Are Insanely Abnormal–and Dangerous
Eight “New Normal” Charts That Are Insanely Abnormal–and Dangerous Is there anyone on the planet who’s actually stupid enough to believe these New Normal charts are healthy and sustainable? Anyone questioning the sustainability and rightness of The New Normal is immediately attacked by the mainstream-media defenders of the crumbling status quo. Not only is everything that […]
150 Strong: A Pathway to a Different Future – Serialisation
150 Strong: A Pathway to a Different Future – Serialisation Creative capitalism, ethical capitalism, altruistic capitalism, natural capitalism, green capitalism, distributed and democratic capitalism. Capitalism 2.0? Capitalism comes with a potpourri of sweet-scented prefixes, all of which presume that there is something wrong with capitalism per se. There are some other prefixes we commonly hear—crony capitalism […]
We’re Not Going To Make It…
We’re Not Going To Make It… …without real sacrifice Right now I’m on a Metro North train heading the NYC. I’ve been invited to sit on an advisory council at the UN on building a sustainable energy future. I’ll let you know how the meeting goes, after I take a few selfies to immortalize the experience in […]
Peasantization as modernization – an alternative ecomodernism
Peasantization as modernization – an alternative ecomodernism I’ve spent – wasted, probably – a fair amount of time on this blog critiquing various techno-fixer scenarios for achieving future sustainability and social justice, most notably that of the self-styled ‘ecomodernists’1. I’m not going to rehash that here, but in this post and the next I’m going […]
How Systems Break: First They Slow Down
How Systems Break: First They Slow Down Alternatively, we can cling to a state of denial, and the dominant system will be replaced by archetypal systems that are not necessarily positive. Understanding our current socio-economy as a system of sub-systems enables us to project how and when unsustainable sub-systems will finally unravel. The reality that […]
Moral economy: a different way of thinking about the future
Moral economy: a different way of thinking about the future The current economic system has ‘wealth extraction’ masquerading as ‘wealth creation’ to the long-term detriment of everybody, even the super rich. New thinking is needed. Coal shovels at work in Randolph County, Illinois c. 1970. Katy McClelland/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by-nc-nd)You know something is grotesquely wrong […]
Tiny Homes–The Future of Sustainable Living
TINY HOMES – THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING With creativity and a passion for building, Robert Johnson has built a lovely example of how individual and welcoming a tiny home can be. With his one-of-a-kind tiny home concept, Robert has built a spacious home that only takes up 280 square feet. With inventive thinking he […]
Weather extremes slash cereal yields
Weather extremes slash cereal yields Wheat and other cereal crops in developed countries such as Australia have been decimated. Image: CSIRO via Wikimedia Commons Increasing intensity of heat and drought as a result of global warming may have caused worldwide cereal harvests to be cut by up to a tenth since the mid-1960s. LONDON, 8 January, 2016 – Climate […]
End of Coal? Tyee’s Climate Reporter on Paris Predictions
End of Coal? Tyee’s Climate Reporter on Paris Predictions Geoff Dembicki talks tipping points, clean energy and, yes, if we’re screwed. Bon voyage, Geoff! On Friday, long-time Tyee sustainability reporter Geoff Dembicki will set out for Paris, where he’ll be on the ground covering the United Nations climate change conference. The 29-year old reporter, who […]
Disconnect From the Grid, Reconnect With the Planet
DISCONNECT FROM THE GRID, RECONNECT WITH THE PLANET The grid: that vast network of utilities that includes electricity, water, sewage, gas and telephone lines. Most utility bills are predictably unpredictable. They maintain a monthly grip around the wallet, keeping most people tethered to one monopoly or another. For a growing number of people, the idea of […]
Bread, circuses and inequality – a dishonest bargain
Bread, circuses and inequality – a dishonest bargain How does consumerism undermine democracy? Flickr/dcmaster, CC BY-NC 2.0 China leads the way the Chinese people surrender democratic citizenship for the promise of individual gain through private consumptionOver the decade of the 2000s I visited China several times. At some point on each trip a Chinese acquaintance would assure me, […]
