The magazine on peak oil and the Transition movement
I don’t meet many people these days who still think that “things are fine” with the US economy — or that “recovery is right around the corner." The light-bulbs are coming on for people and they're beginning to realize that the current state of affairs is, as David Wann says, The New Normal. The Emperor really has no clothes. We’ve consumed our way past peak resources and the descent has begun. On the other hand, I don’t meet many people who do much more about this than merely … [Read more...]
I'm pretty sure it was history in the making, local history anyway. And who knows? Maybe Mount Shasta, California’s example will encourage other towns around the country to take similar action. Last week, concurrent with the first snow of the season, a meeting took place between Shasta Commons, the area’s Transition Town movement, and the South Siskiyou Tea Party. While sleet and ice pounded the windows outside the building, warmth and understanding predominated in the meeting room … [Read more...]
The state of the Union is on our minds. But, in all fairness, it has been for the past few years. It’s painfully too easy to wonder if we are turning into a hostile, bellicose society. The good old days of sitting on Grandpa’s porch and idly churning ice cream seem a long ways from schoolyard shootings, super-sized wars in the Middle East, teenage sex slavery and ponzi schemes of today. Not to mention that gun sales are at a record high. After a half-hour or so of reading the news, … [Read more...]
After months of wrestling with the local County Building Department about permits and codes, excruciating financial gymnastics and down and dirty back-breaking spadework, we finally got our solar installation up. It’s a massive 3 kw (stc) photovoltaic pole mount. We feel like we created the best of two worlds, too, since we live way back in the woods while, at the same time, we're generating a lot of electricity. Inscribed around the base of the installation is a sun mantra, OM Suryaya … [Read more...]
As Patricia Williams wrote in The Nation this week, “You know these are interesting times when Glenn Beck, Dianne Feinstein, Rand Paul and the ACLU all stand on the same side of an issue.” The issue is the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2012, in particular Sections 1031 and 1032, which authorize detaining U.S. citizens indefinitely without charge or trial. The bill would allow federal officials to take these steps based on suspicions only, without having to demonstrate to … [Read more...]
For many of us, the first snow is on the ground, night skies are star-studded and a holiday spirit is in the air. Holidays, as much fun as they are, tend to bring out some of our most entrenched bad habits. The holidays shouldn't be a burden on the environment, but they are. Most Americans, for example, produce about 25 percent more trash during the holidays (from Thanksgiving to New Year’s) resulting in around 25 million extra tons of waste. There has to be a better way to … [Read more...]
There I was, hand-washing my clothes in a bucket in the front yard, when a friend of mine pulled into the driveway. She'd been raised in the inner city of Detroit and still carried a little chip on her shoulder about that, feeling that because she'd been raised poor she'd been dealt a short hand. She took one look at me and quipped, "One woman's voluntary simplicity is another woman's poverty." I thought about it for a minute and replied, "I dunno, they're both just 'washing clothes,' … [Read more...]
Glen W. Bowersock hit the nail on the head when he observed that From the eighteenth century onward, we have been obsessed with the fall (of the Roman Empire): it has been valued as an archetype for every perceived decline, and, hence, as a symbol for our own fears. I agree. A striking similarity The parallels between the collapsing US Empire and Ancient Rome are staggering. The Roman Empire was brought to its knees through a confluence of factors, notably a decline in moral values, … [Read more...]
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