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Women, energy, and voting

By November 6, 2012
votepage1

It was a pretty disappointing presidential campaign by the two major parties given that neither talked about my key issues — peak oil and global warming — with any passion or consistency. Both major parties seem content to avoid what are essentially the two toughest challenges today and going into the future. The issue behind all issues Yes, there's been plenty of red meat from both sides on social issues such as abortion, contraception, gay marriage. And it's important for women to stand … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , ,

Ten low-tech responses to storms and emergencies

By October 30, 2012
Woman on bike in rain

We live in a world dependent on electricity and we forget that being dependent on something — however wonderful that thing is — makes you vulnerable. Even getting a back-up generator isn't a painless solution for household resilience. A medium-size generator can cost $50 or more per day in fuel to run. And just hope that your local gas stations don't lose power or sell out to panic buyers before you get there. In the long run, generators are dependent on fossil fuel inputs and fossil … [Read more...]

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

Getting my pilot’s license

By October 24, 2012
A Letterpress Bike

Ever since we first got together my husband and I have talked about how to respond to one of our key shared interests — peak oil. For us this means, first of all, a conservation-minded approach to life — using less energy, wasting less, and relying on reusable materials such as hankies and eco-cups, carrying our own grocery bags, and growing much of our own food and cooking it ourselves. But after we began to practice aggressive conservation approaches we also wondered what kinds of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Transition Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Homemade Halloween

By October 18, 2012
costumes

We're running this piece from 2010 again in celebration of the upcoming Halloween. One of my worst parenting memories happened when I took my daughters trick-or-treating on the vaunted Lawn of the University of Virginia campus one year. The girls were about six and four at the time, and the picturesque associations of the annual UVa. Halloween tradition conjured up by friends made it sound incomparable to other activities. This was easy: show up around 4:30pm and go by Lawn dorms to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Small World Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Upcycling at its best: Review of “Sewing Green”

By October 11, 2012
Bike Bag

In his 2009 book The Ecotechnic Future: Envisioning a Post-Peak World, brilliant peak oil commentator and Archdruid John Michael Greer argued that the coming energy and economic collapse would lead less to a dramatic nightmare implosion with mutant zombie bikers driven by insatiable cannibalism and more to a steady decline in which we'll live off of the detritus of industrial civilization's long orgy of abundance. It would be a salvage economy that was most likely, he said, in which we turned … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arts, Re-skilling Tagged With: , , , ,

Two years running from and toward collapse

By October 4, 2012
Two candles

Today is the two year anniversary of Transition Voice Magazine. Woo hoo! During this time we've written about everything from political agitation that was unapologetic about the need for revolution to how to trim your garden using little more than a sharp blade and a good bodily stance. Obstacle or opportunity? When we first started out we fell much more into the "WAKE UP TO PEAK OIL!" camp. We were astonished to find so many still so asleep at the wheel on resource issues and what that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Transition

Bear in mind

By October 3, 2012
bearlady

I love it that for the past few years woodland animals have been all the rage in DIY design circles. Some are nouveau-cutesy, others realistic, and almost always rendered in ways that instantly make you love the object — whether it's a stuffed animal, tee shirt, print, bedding, drinking glasses, wall mounted fake taxidermy or whatever. Very hip, very fun. Of course, from Lascaux to Frank Lloyd Wright, artists have always found a muse in nature. Drawing inspiration from nature But … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Spirit Tagged With: , , ,

I’m better off, but…

By September 11, 2012
Are-you-better-off

The US presidential election has taken a predictable turn with the rhetoric du jour that asks, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” The implication being that, in the Great Recession, you can’t possibly be better off than you were in the good ol' days of Dubya Bush & Company. With that inevitable conclusion the suggestion is that what’s needed is regime change. Romney to the rescue! Now, how a serial jobs-exporter like the clownish Mitt “corporations are … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economy Tagged With: , ,

Yes, you can brew kombucha

By September 5, 2012
Kombucha brewing

I live a pretty spartan existence. Our family doesn't live high on the hog, always out shopping or dining at the most expensive places. We don't vacation much, and when we do, it's all about going local — Virginia inns, wineries, and natural and historic sites. Basically, I'm pretty frugal, do many things DIY style, and otherwise am so into conservation that I don't want to buy much anyway. But I have to confess to what was a serious addiction to GT Dave's Synergy raw … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arts, Food, Re-skilling Tagged With: , , , , ,

Junk food for Jesus

By August 6, 2012
Jesus at Chick-fil-A

I'm a Christian. But I wouldn't eat at Chick-fil-A even if the company's CEO were St. Francis of Assisi, Mother Theresa or Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And it's not really because I disagree with the views of the company's actual CEO about gay marriage. It's because I think that Chick-fil-A's whole business model is itself basically un-Christian, despoiling God's creation in all too many ways. All that Constitution stuff But first, let me go on the record that I support the U.S. Constitution. As to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Spirit Tagged With: , , , , , , ,