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About Erik Curren

Erik Curren is the publisher of Transition Voice. He co-founded Transition Staunton Augusta in 2009 and serves as managing partner of Curren Media Group. In 2012, Erik was elected to the city council of Staunton, Virginia.

Convinced that food can save America

By May 6, 2013
Student drinking yogurt

It's hard to overestimate the importance of food. Yet, sometimes it appears just as hard for food writers to avoid hype. It's all too easy for people who love food enough to write about food to lose themselves in breathless raptures over the deliciousness of forest foraged mushrooms or the power of artisanal pork to cure diabetes, resurrect rural economies and provide meaningful careers to former baristas from Philadelphia to Portland. It makes even a sympathetic reader wonder: is all this … [Read more...]

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Emancipating slaves then and now

By April 24, 2013
emancipation cartoon

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. It's a needed chance for Americans to talk about slavery that has helped us reexamine our history. For example, recent documentaries and museum exhibits on America's Founding Fathers regularly show that slavery played a big role in the lives of several heroes of the American Revolution. So, now we know that while Thomas Jefferson proposed legislation against slavery, he may also have fathered children by his slave Sally … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Cotton Gin Paradox

By April 24, 2013
cotton gin with slaves

It's not hard to see that, when cars get better gas mileage, people feel that they can afford to drive more. Or that consumers think they can afford a bigger refrigerator if it's Energy Star certified to use less electricity. Blame it on Jevons's Paradox that increasing the energy efficiency of machines doesn't necessarily decrease the total amount of energy people use, but may actually do the opposite. As Jevons put it in 1885, when you can burn coal more efficiently, people burn more of … [Read more...]

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4 ways to respond to the Boston Marathon bombings

By April 17, 2013
Fred Rogers quote on looking for the helpers

After the bombing attack on Monday that killed three and left more than 170 injured at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Americans try to make sense of yet another act of senseless violence. Whatever the police, the FBI or Homeland Security come up with, here are four ways to understand this tragedy on a personal level that can transform anger and fear into compassion and strength: Think of the victims and "look for the helpers." If you're religious, pray. If not, offer good wishes … [Read more...]

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3 steps to raise a happy peak oil kid

By April 12, 2013
a mother and a child in a garden

Your baby absorbed so many early-learning podcasts in utero that when she's born she doesn't know if she's supposed to be Baby Einstein, Baby Mozart or Baby Bill Gates. Your husband or wife had to call in some big favors to reserve little Emma or Alessandra a place in a top preschool. After that, you've got her future all planned out: a decent gifted program, Yale undergrad, Wharton MBA, partner at Goldman Sachs. If this is your parenting style, then Honeycomb Kids: Big Picture Parenting … [Read more...]

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3 energy-wasting appliances you can easily live without

By April 3, 2013
clothes dryer

In today's economy, who doesn't want to save money? And if you care about climate change or peak oil, then all's the more reason to ease off or even cut out major appliances that make us all burn more coal, nukes and fracked gas without providing much benefit in our daily lives. Clothes dryer. Why do you still have one of these? You already know they ruin your clothes, slowly shrinking them while wearing out the fabric (just check the lint filter). Dryers are also one of your home's biggest … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: , , ,

Lessons for the Great Recession from throwaway books

By March 27, 2013
Book Swap

This new trend of "eco swaps" sounds harmless enough — people exchanging stuff they don't want for other people's stuff they do want, with no money involved. Seems perfect for a down economy. But don't be fooled. The eco swap is a boil on the butt of capitalism. Just take the books-and-music swap that my wife and Transition Voice Editor Lindsay Curren held last Sunday. The promise of an excuse to finally clear out old copies of Fifty Shades of Grey (who knew it was a trilogy?) along … [Read more...]

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Cut off from society, sports become junk

By March 20, 2013
Roman Gladiators

If junk food contains little nutrition without the benefits of real food, then junk sports provide only empty entertainment without the benefits of real sports. Rather than inspiring ordinary people to become healthy and achieve their physical and mental potential in cooperation with others, junk sports encourage laziness, celebrity-worship and über-competitiveness. It's perfect for an age of diminishing prospects. An age of unemployment, cynicism and fear. Field of dreams We already … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economy Tagged With: , , , , ,

Follow nature and avoid collapse

By March 11, 2013
scoreboard

Neoclassical economists, business gurus, the Republican Party and every high school teacher that ever gave C+ to a slacker sophomore would have us believe that human society cannot function successfully without competition among its members. In life, we're told, there are either winners or losers. There's no other option. So you better be smarter, work harder, get luckier and be born richer than the other guy or gal unless you want to wind up on the junk heap of history. Or even natural … [Read more...]

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Eating for the Cure

By March 5, 2013
Photo from Coqui The Chef

You'll need a pretty high tolerance for research studies and medical lingo to get through Autoimmune: The Cause and The Cure.  But then if you or someone you love is suffering from an autoimmune disease such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, lupus or even type 2 diabetes, then you've probably already learned to deal with jargon-filled medical research and advice. And most of the advice, despite its complexity, can likely be boiled down to a simple choice, repeated in a hundred different … [Read more...]

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