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17 June, 2016

Pathways Of Transition To Agroecological Food Systems
By Adam Parsons

A new report by leading sustainability experts has reaffirmed the case for a paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agroecological systems – fundamental to which is a call for redistributing power back into the hands of those who feed the world

08 June, 2016

The Case For The Green State
By William Hawes

If there are to be nation-states that persist long into the 21st century and beyond, they will be green states, ecologically minded states. There is no complex argument needed, as it is a matter of survival: we can collectively form nations based on sustainable development, zero-growth, run with renewable energy, with abundant food, health care, housing, and basic incomes for all, or our societies will perish, and international relations will devolve into a Hobbesian nightmare

03 June, 2016

Our Renewable Future
By Richard Heinberg & David Fridley

This is the introduction to Richard Heinberg's and David Fridley's new book, Our Renewable Future, now available from Island Press. The goal of this book is to help readers think more clearly and intelligently about our renewable future. An all-renewable world will present opportunities as well as challenges. And building that world will entail more than just the construction of enormous numbers of solar panels and wind turbines. Along the way, we will learn that how we use energy is as important as how we get it. Indeed, unless we adapt our energy usage patterns with the same vigor as is devoted to changing energy sources, the transition could result in a substantial reduction of economic functionality for society as a whole

14 May, 2016

This Is Where The Jobs Are!
By Vijaya Kumar Marla

Development of rural areas will stop the migration of the rural people to the cities and this will not put more pressure on the urban jobs. If India as a nation has to progress, there is little doubt that India’s villages too have to progress. India needs creative solutions to start a revolution which can take its villages fast forward in time, such as the creation of a knowledge and information economy that can create opportunities and thereby prosperity to impoverished areas: a) To create a self-reliant, self-sustainable village economy. b) To provide resources for locally-made products to be value added to the highest possible degree within the village so that wealth generated stays with the villagers

07 May, 2016

After A Century In Decline, Black Farmers Are Back And On the Rise
By Leah Penniman

These Black farmers don’t stop at healthy food. They’re healing trauma, instilling collective values, and changing the way their communities think about the land

06 April, 2016

Viva la Producción! Urban Farming In Cuba
By Josh Gabbatiss

Urban agriculture is a big deal in Cuba. Food gardens – termed organopónicos – make up 8% of land in Havana, and 3.4% of urban land across the island. The country enjoys unprecedented levels of self-sufficiency, with small, local operations producing 90% of all its fruit and vegetables

20 February, 2016

The Radical Work Of Healing: Fania And Angela Davis
On A New Kind Of Civil Rights Activism

By Sarah van Gelder

I think that restorative justice is a really important dimension of the process of living the way we want to live in the future. Embodying it. We have to imagine the kind of society we want to inhabit. We can’t simply assume that somehow, magically, we’re going to create a new society in which there will be new human beings. No, we have to begin that process of creating the society we want to inhabit right now

08 January, 2016

A Historic Event Or A Fraud? -- Critical Thoughts On The Paris Climate Accord
By Saral Sarkar

If humanity can no longer indulge in the growth compulsions inherent in capitalism with its principle of competition in a free market economy, shouldn't the state(s) step in and order a stop in further economic growth? Shouldn't the state(s) then tell the people that they have to accept a contracting economy and all the consequences thereof? Shouldn't the state(s), from then on, plan an orderly withdrawal from the present mad economic system?

28 December, 2015

Culture, Education And Human Solidarity
By John Scales Avery

Cultural and educational activities have a small ecological footprint, and therefore are more sustainable than pollution-producing, fossil-fuel-using jobs in industry. Furthermore, since culture and knowledge are shared among all nations, work in culture and education leads societies naturally towards internationalism and peace

15 December, 2015

Renewable Energy After COP21: Nine Issues For Climate Leaders To Think About On The Journey Home
By Richard Heinberg

COP21 in Paris is over. Now it’s back to the hard work of fighting for, and implementing, the energy transition. We all know that the transition away from fossil fuels is key to maintaining a livable planet. David Fridley (staff scientist of the energy analysis program at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) and I have been working for the past few months to analyze and assess many of those proposals, and to dig deeper into energy transition issues—particularly how our use of energy will need to adapt in a ~100 percent renewable future. What follows is a short summary of what we’ve learned, along with some recommendations

09 December, 2015

Terra Viva, Earth Democracy: One Planet, One Humanity
A People’s Pact to Protect the Planet and Each Other

This pact was first initiated on 9 November 2015 at the launch of a Citizens’ Garden in the Jardin Marcotte in Paris, together with Navdanya, Solidarité, AMAP Ile de France Network, the Cultures en Herbes, and the Mayor of Paris 11. We invite you to become part of the ‘change we want to see’ a change that allows us to reclaim our future as one humanity, one Earth community, through Earth Democracy

The Insanity Of The COP: We Must Adopt A Different Vision
By John Foran

The overall verdict of the International Tribunal on the Rights of Nature and Mother Earth is that the Paris agreement will lock in the worst abuses of capitalism and guarantee climate catastrophe. The current logic of the COP, which isn’t sustainable, just, or innocent of multiple crimes comes with the clear intention of committing many more. We need another logic and set of principles to guide us. And we need a path to get there… The Tribunal represents a possible alternative logic for a global agreement, one based on a very different conception of rights – of Nature, of human communities, and of future generations who must find a balanced way to live on Earth, if they, and she, are to thrive. And though we surely don’t the upper hand inside COP 21, it is entirely possible that that is not where the real battle for the planet will be fought. There is a different way. All we have to do is enlarge the many paths to it that already exist, and create many more new ones. This we must do, and this we will do

COP21, Bill Gates, And Climate Catastrophe
By Robert M. Christie

Gates has pulled together billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), George Soros (consummate currency trader), Jack Ma (Alibaba), and Saudi Prince Alaweed bin Talal, in a massive effort at venture philanthropy. With their government allies, these guys are taking the powers that be directly down the wrong road. Their goal is to invest in Research and Development (R&D) of new low or no-carbon energy production technologies over the next five years. Their billions of private and public dollars could be much better spent on direct climate mitigation efforts urgently needed now

 

11 November, 2015

The Left Should Embrace Degrowth
By Giorgos Kallis

Capitalism without growth is savage. Degrowth is not a clear theory, plan, or political movement. Yet it is a hypothesis whose time has come; and one that the Left can no longer afford to avoid

05 November, 2015

West’s ‘Fail-Anthropy’
By Dr Vandana Shiva

What needs to be done is clear. In the case of climate change, the key strategy should be reduction of emissions and strategies for adaptation. We must move away from industrial, chemical-intensive agriculture, away from a centralised, global commodity-based food system that exacerbates emissions. Biodiversity conservation will be central to adaptation. In place of the biodiversity-destroying industrial monocultures, including those based on GMO seeds, we need a shift to agroecological practices that conserve biodiversity and ensure biosafety

03 November, 2015

Living In The Anthropocene – A Frame For New Activism
By Mark Garavan

‘Development’, ‘progress’, ‘sustainability’, the ‘environment’ sound hollow and disconnected, spoken by confused subjects seeking safe purchase in a diminishing fantasia version of the planet. We need a new language, a new way of speaking, a new way of articulating our human-Earth inter-subjectivity. We cannot go back to pre-modern sensibilities for this. That too is a false turn. We are inescapably the beings of modernity. But our sciences, natural and social, need to fashion Anthropocentric resonance. We need deep history, deep sociology, deep economy – that is, frameworks of meaning that situate the human within far wider processes of evolution and life

What Is Degrowth? Envisioning A Prosperous Descent
By Samuel Alexander

The revolution that is needed must emerge ‘from below’, driven into existence by diverse, inspired, and imaginative social movements that seek to produce a post-capitalist society. We must endeavour to live the alternative worlds into existence, here and now, and show them to be good, while at the same time recognising that the Great Transition that is needed will likely come only at the end of a rough road – after or during a series of crises. Can we turn the crises of our times into opportunities for civilisational renewal? That is the question, the challenge, posed by our turbulent moment in history

31 October, 2015

Time To Stop Worshipping Economic Growth
By Brent Blackwelder

Our global economy is treating the planet as if it were a business in a liquidation sale. Even environmental organizations—devoted to environmental protection— have been slow to acknowledge the major causes of environmental degradation, such as perverse economic incentives encouraging raw resource extraction and non-renewable energy use. We need environmental leaders to speak out for a new, just, and true-cost economy; and to challenge the mindless embracing of economic growth—even ruthless and futureless growth. Environmental leaders should be driving the push toward refocusing economic thinking on the changes that we will have to make if we are going to move to a healthier economy that exists within the nine planetary boundaries. Only if humanity stays within these nine boundaries can it continue to develop and thrive for generations to come

26 October, 2015

Marxism And Ecology: Common Fonts Of A Great Transition
By John Bellamy Foster

Socialist thought is re-emerging at the forefront of the movement for global ecological and social change. In the face of the planetary emergency, theorists have unearthed a powerful ecological critique of capitalism at the foundations of Marx’s materialist conception of history. This has led to a more comprehensive conception of socialism rooted in Marx’s analysis of the rift in “the universal metabolism of nature” and his vision of sustainable human development. This work resonates with other approaches for understanding and advancing a Great Transition. Such a social and ecological transformation will require a two-step strategy. First, we must mount struggles for radical reforms in the present that challenge the destructive logic of capital. Second, we must build the broad movement to carry out the long revolutionary transition essential for humanity’s continued development and survival

"Revolution" or "Phase Transition"?
By Michel Bauwens

At the P2P Foundation, we don’t use the moniker ‘revolution’ with much frequency, preferring the concept of phase transition. In this article, we would like to elucidate the relation between the two concepts

07 October, 2015

Why Resistance Is Not Only Fertile, It's Essential
By Mark Boyle

In this extract from Mark Boyle's latest book, Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi, he explains with beauty and great feeling why we have to stand up for Nature and defend the well-being of the Earth, our home, with ferocity

#GlobalGoals? The Truth About Poverty And How To Address It
By Rajesh Makwana

It's high time UN agencies and the mainstream media acknowledge the true scale of global poverty and engage in a long overdue public debate on how ambitious and transformative the international development agenda really is

25 September, 2015

Sustainable Development: Something New or More of The Same?
By Charles Eisenstein

Switching from chemical to herbal growth stimulants (“green” or “sustainable” development) isn’t going to solve the problem. If development equals growth, then “sustainable development” is an oxymoron. Poverty and ecocide are baked into the cake. It is time to transition to a world in which wealth no longer means more and more

19 September, 2015

True Direct Democracy, The 3rd Nemesis Of The Cabal
By John Reid

With the instant communication and information we have today, we have the capability to run and manage the nation without the self-serving treasonous politicians who do next to nothing for the people. True Direct Democracy would enable us to enjoy the greatest freedom we have ever known and, just as importantly, free us from the tentacles of the cabal

16 September, 2015

“Don’t Owe. Won’t Pay.” Everything You’ve Been Told About Debt Is Wrong
By Charles Eisenstein

Positive money refers to money created directly without debt by the government, which can be given directly to debtors for debt repayment or used to purchase debts from creditors and then cancel them. Negative-interest currency (which I describe in depth in Sacred Economics) entails a liquidity fee on bank reserves, essentially taxing wealth at its source. It enables zero-interest lending, reduces wealth concentration, and allows a financial system to function in the absence of growth

09 August, 2015

The Need For A New Economic System, Part 4 Neocolonialism And Resource Wars
By John Scales Avery

Present economic system produces an endless series of resource-motivated wars. In addition to the enormous suffering, waste, injustice and ecological destruction produced by modern wars, we must recognize that in an era of thermonuclear weapons, war has become prohibitively dangerous. Therefore we need a new economic system

31 July, 2015

What About Innovating Beyond The Growth Trap?
A Challenge To The Ecofiscal Commission’s Growth Fixation

By James Magnus-Johnston

A new voice has emerged recently in Canada called the “Ecofiscal Commission,” which could have the funding, clout, and determination to steer the country in a more promising direction. The group includes high-profile economists, former political leaders, and high-powered financiers. They define “ecofiscal policy” as something that “corrects market price signals to encourage the economic activities we do want (job creation, investment, and innovation) while reducing those we don’t want (greenhouse gas emissions and the pollution of our land, air, and water).” There seems to be a semblance of steady state thinking among this otherwise rather conventional lot

12 July, 2015

An Interview With Agroecologist Jairo Restrepo
By Juanfran Lopez

Jairo Restrepo is a passionate educator and activist in the field of sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty. He campaigns for a return of self-determination, knowledge and autonomy for the farmer in the face of powerful agribusiness. He has been a consultant on sustainable agriculture for many years, working with the UN, Unesco, the FAO and the International Labour Organisation, among others. Originally from Columbia, Restrepo is a strong advocate for agroecology and regenerative farming. He is unique in that he not only argues passionately for the rights of farmers, but he also teaches an array of practical technologies and preparations to increase soil fertility and transform cropping. He offers tools and inspiration for farmers, smallholders and activists

13 May, 2015

We Need New Economics For A New Era Of History
By Peter Barnes

Welcome to the Anthropocene, when humans are the dominant geological force on the planet. For this new age we need a new Economy

12 May, 2015

In Defense Of The Commons
By Shalmali Guttal & Mary Ann Manahan

Shared access, reliance, use and governance of natural resources is a common form of tenure in the world, North and South, rural and urban. The specific rules and institutions that govern common property are very diverse, developed by communities groups on their own direct experience and reflecting their priorities. Where well managed, such systems have proven capable of preserving the long term health of the resources and sustained benefits to the community relying on them. Common spaces are under increasing threat – their resources are grabbed for private interests, mined and degraded for short term gains

Water Commons, Water Citizenship And Water Security
By Buenaventura Dargantes, Daniel Moss, Mary Ann Manahan & V. Suresh

The authors of these cases are public sector water operators and policy analysts, community activists and academics. The editors of this compilation are colleagues in the Reclaiming Public Water Network who have been working for some time to bring about greater democratization of water. We offer these cases to shine light on new ways forward as well as to invite your contributions to a growing understanding of how to govern and manage our shared water commons

11 May, 2015

Russell Brand And The Currency Of Revolution
By Nozomi Hayase

The blockchain innovation has already opened the floodgates. The currency of revolution is showing that solutions to systematic abuse of power are within us. All we need to do is unite our will with what moves us from within and become the diverse currencies of our unfettered wishes and dreams

04 May, 2015

Steady State Socialism
By Alan Johnstone

Competition for the appropriation of world profits is one of the bases of the present system. So it is not “Humans” but the capitalist economic system itself which is responsible for ecological problems and the capitalist class and their representatives, they themselves are subject to the laws of profit and competition

23 April, 2015

Mere Desh Ki Dharti...
By Vandana Shiva

In living soil lies the solution to climate change... Yet it is the soil itself that is being forgotten and buried under a borrowed paradigm of ‘cementification is progress

14 April, 2015

The Rise Of Biocultural Rights
By David Bollier

The idea of bioocultural rights provides a powerful legal framework for reclaiming land, culture, traditional knowledge and self-governance. These things should not be driven by markets, but by a deeper set of values, including ecological imperatives. It will take a great deal of bottom-up political and legal action to win recognition for biocultural rights. But I think it holds great promise for giving commons-based governance a new foundation in law

11 April, 2015

Change The Money And Change The World
By Mark Kirkwood Callingham

Project for a New Economic Century (PNEC) offers a practical way to change direction and choose our own course. Essentially the strategy is to craft a monetary system with a code of ethics that is owned by the people. A people’s currency co-developed by a wide range of individuals representing vast amounts of knowledge & experiences

27 March, 2015

A New Economy Will Help Save Rivers And Fisheries
By Brent Blackwelder

Globalization and cheater economics have been destroying the world’s great rivers and their fisheries. Most people know about the devastation of rivers from water pollution, but not as many are aware of the significant impacts of big dams, river engineering, and real estate development in and on top of rivers. These activities can seriously damage fisheries and impair the natural functions of riverine ecosystems. A true-cost, steady state economy would, for the most part, avoid the continuing tragic dismantlement of rivers and fisheries

22 March, 2015

The "Naturalness" Of The Commons
By David de Ugarte

Agricultural and hunting commons are the original form of ownership and work, long prior to State property and private property… and for the time being, the most persistent: commons institutions remained vigorous throughout the world up through the Middle Ages and resisted Modernity with relative strength until the “amortization” of nineteenth-century liberalism forced them to evolve into modern cooperativism. But don’t be fooled: even today, there are large European regions, like Galicia, where more of the 25% of the territory is made up of common lands. We have always been surrounded by the commons and by community values. Our culture kept more than just the formula for us

Food Democracy South And North: From Food Sovereignty To Transition Initiatives
By Olivier De Schutter

People seek to co-design food systems, to participate in shaping them, to recapture them. We were familiar with the slogan of workplace democracy; we must now open up our eyes to food democracy

Only Less Will Do
By Richard Heinberg

As we collide with Earth’s limits, many people’s first reflex response will be to try to find someone to blame. The result could be wars and witch-hunts. But social and international conflict will only deepen our misery. One thing that could help would be the widely disseminated knowledge that our predicament is mostly the result of increasing human numbers and increasing appetites confronting disappearing resources, and that only cooperative self-limitation will avert a fight to the bitter end. We can learn; history shows that. But in this instance we need to learn fast

21 March, 2015

From Basic Income To Social Dividends: Sharing The Value Of Common Resources
By Rajesh Makwana

It’s time to broaden the debate on how to fund a universal basic income by including options for sharing resource rents, which is a model that can be applied internationally to reform unjust economic systems, reduce extreme poverty and protect the global commons

10 March, 2015

A Solution For The Global Crisis
By William Kotke

We humans are amazingly creative and resourceful and have emerged successfully from many dire situations. We can easily create this on the ground, while we work on the big problem of transferring from the negative emotional condition of the death culture- civilization- to the positive emotional condition of a life nurturing survival

22 February, 2015

Radical Democracy: Reclaiming The Commons
By Carlos Declós

Over the coming months, Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons will act as a microphone for the voices involved in all of these local struggles. By doing so, and by offering a common framework for interpreting what these apparently local struggles mean at a more global level, the project hopes to lower the volume on the noise that currently dominates the media sphere to offer the clarity needed to take steps towards making radical democracy a common reality

14 February, 2015

Beyond The Market-State: Decentralizing Power In A Sharing Society
By Rajesh Makwana

At a time when governments are failing abysmally to mitigate climate change, reduce inequality or end poverty, the key to creating a more equal and sustainable world is establishing participative forms of political engagement at all levels of society—from the local to the global

12 February, 2015

Potential New Allies In The Effort To Achieve A Sustainable True Cost Economy
By Brent Blackwelder

Those who want a true cost, steady state economy need some new, powerful allies. We need allies that stretch across the political spectrum, from liberal to conservative. We need allies that can speak from a values perspective to bring moral considerations to bear on the discussion

28 January, 2015

Sustainability Over Growth: The Paradigm Shift At The Heart Of The UK 's "Green Surge"
By Richard Collie

With the leftist Green Party now polling at record levels in the UK , the predictable backlash from the conservative media arrived last week. The Tory press had fun spinning the Party's policies into sensationalistic drivel (see Matthew Holehouse's Drugs, brothels, al-Qaeda and the Beyonce tax: the Green Party plan for Britain for the Telegraph). There was vocal criticism from a number of Labour supporters too. While hostility from the conservative press was to be expected, I must say I have been quite taken aback by how many Labour commentators have completely failed to grasp the mentality of Green supporters or what the "Green Surge" is all about

21 January, 2015

Our Renewable Future
By Richard Heinberg

What’s needed now is neither fatalism nor utopianism, but a suite of practical pathways for families and communities that lead to a real and sustainable renewable future—parachutes that will get us from a 17,000-watt society to a 2,000-watt society. We need public messages that emphasize the personal and community benefits of energy conservation, and visions of an attractive future where human needs are met with a fraction of the operational and embodied energy that industrial nations currently use. We need detailed transition plans for each major sector of the economy. We need inspiring examples, engaging stories, and opportunities for learning in depth. The transition to our real renewable future deserves a prominent, persistent place at the center of public conversation

20 January, 2015

Rain Water Harvesting In Myanmar
By Marianne de Nazareth

There are several types of Rain Water Harvesting ponds in the villages of Myanmar , of which some are especially designed to handle storage only of drinking water. The pond walls can be as high as 6 ft., and are normally protected so that domestic animals cannot enter them and pollute them. This protection is crucial and needs to be adhered to strictly

18 January, 2015

A Population Perspective On The Steady State Economy
By Herman Daly

If our ethical understanding of the value of “sustainability” (longevity with sufficiency) is to “maximize” cumulative lives ever to be lived, subject to a per capita consumption level sufficient for a good life, then we must limit the load we place on the earth at any one time

02 January, 2015

2015 International Year Of The Soil: A Message Of Hope
By Jon Queally

Last year, the United Nation's Food and Agricultural Organization officially declared that 2015 would be celebrated as the International Year of the Soil citing the threat to one of the key ingredients to the planet's food and farming systems posed by "expanding cities, deforestation, unsustainable land use, pollution, overgrazing and climate change."Summarizing the issues at stake and the fight ahead, Dr. Vandana Shiva, has posted an impassioned New Years message to those battling on behalf of food sovereignty, economic egalitarianism, agroecology, climate action, and social justice

28 December, 2014

Peace, Love, And The Gift
By James Magnus-Johnston

If you can’t make more money exploring your gifts and skills, embrace the challenge. If we are to degrow the economy towards a steady state, we’re going to need to be a whole lot more generous, a whole lot happier, and more grateful for what we have already. Gift practices might shrink the formal economy a little, but they will engender precisely the love and community that we often feel is missing in modern life

23 December, 2014

Food Sovereignty: 5 Steps To Cool The Planet And Feed Its People
By La Via Campesina, GRAIN

How the industrial food system contributes to the climate crisis. Between 44% and 57% of all GHG emissions come from the global food system

03 January , 2014

Building Creative Commons: The Five Pillars Of Open Source Finance
By Brett Scott

This is an article about Open Source Finance. It’s an idea I first sketched out at a talk I gave at the Open Data Institute in London. By ‘Open Source Finance’, I don’t just mean open source software programmes. Rather, I’m referring to something much deeper and broader. It’s a way of framing an overall change we might want to see in the financial system. To illustrate this, I set up an analogy between computer systems and economic systems, and I then explore what financial ‘code’ might be. I then sketch out the five pillars that could underpin an open finance movement

Seedbombing: Applying The Principles Of Permaculture To Finance
By Brett Scott

We need to constantly create portfolios of alternatives and throw them into society, learning from what works and what doesn't. That's how great institutions like Ecology Building Society got started - a group of people with an idea went ahead and just did it. These solutions are often small, but that's the point. We don't want to replace one monoculture with another monoculture. The ideal is to create a rich, responsive jungle of creative and resilient services, rooted into the reality of their local context

18 October , 2013

Corporate Sustainability And The Commons
By David Bollier

David Bollier is among the foremost global thinkers and advocates for the commons. #NewMetrics channel co-curator Bill Baue recently had the following discussion with Bollier about the potential intersections between the commons movement and emerging concepts and practices in the corporate sustainability movement

03 October , 2013

The Story Of Solutions: Time To Replace 'More' With 'Better'
By Annie Leonard

Annie Leonard has come out with a new movie "The Story of Solutions". Let's thank her and watch it!

01 October , 2013

Climate After Growth: Why Environmentalists Must Embrace
Post-Growth Economics And Community Resilience

By Asher Miller & Rob Hopkins

The nearly ubiquitous belief of our elected officials is that addressing the climate crisis must come second to ensuring economic growth. This is wrongheaded—both because it underestimates the severity of the climate crisis, and because it presupposes that the old economic "normal" of robust growth can be revived. It can’t. In fact, we have entered an era of “new normals”—not only in our economy, but in our energy and climate systems, as well. The implications are profound

Growth And Laissez-faire
By Herman Daly

Once the economy is constrained in aggregate scale to stay within the limits imposed by the ecosystem, we could then fine-tune its allocative efficiency by internalizing remaining external costs into market prices. But it is critical to understand that even a perfectly efficient economy with optimal pricing can grow too big for the finite ecosystem to sustain, and once it is too big then improving allocative efficiency within the too-big economy is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic

The Commons: A Historical Concept Of Property Rights
By Hartmut Zückert

The historical concept of the commons is a concept of property rights. If we historicize the contemporary debate about the commons and bring the historical concept of the commons into play, we must take that into account. Yet we must consider whether the question of property rights is even the central issue if we seek to solve global problems, and if so, how common-property rights can be fleshed out today

Approaching A Steady State Economy, Part 2 — Clean Clothes
By Rob Dietz

Thinking of an actual household as a small economy can be a helpful exercise. I have made or been a party to many decisions in an attempt to run my household as a steady state. For example, my wife and I decided to have a one-child family. We also decided to live in a cohousing community founded on sustainability values. In the spirit of drilling down to the smallest scale possible, I want to describe my recent experiment with one “sector” of my household economy: the laundry

Sutton Community Farm : A Farm Beyond Food
By Laura Jean

Sutton Community Farm in London, England is the city’s largest arable community farm. From the seven-acre plot, London’s skyline can be seen shining through the distant haze, a constant reminder of the city this farm is attempting to feed

25 September , 2013

The Future Is Local, The Future Is Organic
By Colin Todhunter

The future is local. The future is organic. Well, at least it could be if we base our food production on an increasing body of evidence that indicates the harmful effects of petrochemical, corporate-controlled agriculture

The Crisis Of Civilization Is An Unprecedented Opportunity: Nafeez Ahmed
By Rob Hopkins

One of the most illuminating voices in the British media at the moment is Nafeez Ahmed, who has been regularly writing about peak oil, climate change, geopolitics and how they all overlap in the Guardian. Rob Hopkins spoke to Nafeez to hear his thoughts on the current state of debates around peak oil and the future of fossil fuels, what we might do about it, and the role Transition might play

30 May , 2013

Toward A Generative Economy
By Marjorie Kelly

What kind of economy is consistent with living inside a living being? This question is being answered in experiments across the globe, from community forests in Mexico to "industrial symbiosis" in Denmark

Supply Shock: Ecological Economics Comes Of Age, Part 2
By Brian Czech

So now in the 21st century we must stand before the mirror and ask: Which of the following ladies or gentlemen will materialize? A long-evolved, tribally rooted, Homo ecologicus, or the self-interested, utility-maximizing, globe-trotting Homo economicus? Which, we might ask, would also deserve the title of Homo sapiens? Clearly we need sapience in a full-world economy

26 May , 2013

Supply Shock: Ecological Economics Comes of Age, Part 1
By Brian Czech

The ecological critique of mainstream economics is so strong and compelling that a large and growing academic movement has formed around it. This movement is called “ecological economics,” no less, and is more or less embodied in the International Society for Ecological Economics, or ISEE

04 April , 2013

Eating Our Way Home: An Immigrant Family’s Journey For Sustainability
By Aparajita Sengupta

Aparajita Sengupta grew up in Kolkata and went to Presidency College and the University of Calcutta. She did her PhD in English Literature from the University of Kentucky. While staying in the US, she and her husband Debal became interested in the issues of food toxicity,biodiversity and seed rights. Upon returning from the US in 2011, they visited various sustainable farming initiatives in India, and started a small Community Supported Agriculture Farm (Smell of the Earth) on borrowed land with the hopes of spreading awareness about local and chemical-free food systems

06 March , 2013

The Soul Of Community
By Carolyn Baker

It is a desire to be connected with something greater than the egos of other people and the projects in which we might engage with them. Fundamentally, a successful human community is the unfolding of a spiritual dynamic. It cannot be contrived or made to happen. Rather, it erupts from our desire for the depths, and that desire is certain to constellate the shadow in ourselves and the other

Stealing Back The Commons: Citizen Economics Beyond Capitalism
By Jules Peck

There is reason to be optimistic. Growth long since has failed to deliver increases in life satisfaction for those in the rich-world. We need not fear the end of growth and a new post-capitalist economics. It’s an exciting time to be alive – truly revolutionary changes are afoot

09 February , 2013

Mutually Assured Well Being: The Continuity Of Community And Individual Resilience
By Carolyn Baker

Community resilience and personal resilience cannot be neatly separated, nor can we justly assert that one is more important than the other. They function interdependently and clearly need each other. Community activism is essential as societies and ecosystems continue their decline

31 January , 2013

Against Growth: A Conversation With Economist Joshua Farley
By Almantas Samalavicius

Given the relation between economic production and ecological degradation, Joshua Farley is convinced that economic growth must stop. It is just a question of when. And whether cooperation will displace competition as the dominant concept in the economic paradigm

Living With Just Enough
By Azby Brown

Artist and designer Azby Brown offers simple lessons in sustainability from the Edo period of Japan

26 January , 2013

The Cultural Dynamics Of The Commons
By Sarah Schultz

An interview with Lewis Hyde , a poet, essayist, translator and cultural critic and the author of The Gift, a seminal 1983 work about the creative commons. He teaches creative writing at Kenyon College and is a Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. His newest book is Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership

24 January , 2013

What Is ‘Socialist’ About ‘Green Socialism’?
By Mario Candeias

In this article, we are experimenting with the concept of ‘green socialism.’ We want to discuss whether it could fill the void of a left-wing, ecological, feminist imagination

20 January , 2013

How A Gift Economy Powers Education In Rural Nepal
By Simone Cicero

As the Maya (meaning “love” in Nepali) Universe Academy proves, love for your community and passion for solving real community problems can be new forms of currency—a new means of exchange that generate impressive changes for good

How Millions Of Farmers Are Advancing Agriculture For Themselves
By Jonathan Latham

The world record yield for paddy rice production is not held by an agricultural research station or by a large-scale farmer from the United States, but by a farmer in the state of Bihar in northern India. Sumant Kumar, who has a farm of just two hectares in Darveshpura village, holds a record yield of 22.4 tons per hectare, from a one-acre plot. This feat was achieved with what is known as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI)

19 January , 2013

What Would A Down-to-Earth Economy Look Like?
By David Korten

We are Earth’s children; she is our mother. We must honor and care for her as she loves and cares for us. Together we can forge an integral partnership grounded in the learning and deep wisdom of her 3.8 billion-year experience in nurturing life’s expanding capacities for intelligent self-organization, creative innovation, and self-reflective consciousness

16 January , 2013

Earth Is Not A Global Village: Start Living More Locally Before It’s Too Late
By The Editors Of Living Green Magazine

Life teaches us how long-lasting, sustainable economies work. These economies are local, not global. Think about it this way: The Earth doesn’t have one ecosystem or climate, but many as different from each other as oranges are from apples. Diversity is the way Life guaranteed some living things and systems would have the skills to survive almost any cataclysm. This means that we can diversify. We can relocalize or, in more realistic terms, re-regionalize economically, fit ourselves into these smart living systems and work with them

Will 2013 Be The Year Globalization Died?
By Erik Curren

And anyone who remembers that we live on a finite planet knows that economic growth will have to end someday. When that day comes, we’ll need to find a new way to be prosperous. Let’s hope that 2013 will be the year it happens

14 January , 2013

How To Mobilise $2.8tr To Finance The Global Sharing Economy
By Share The World's Resources

There are many policies that governments could implement to raise the finances needed to reverse austerity measures, tackle climate change and prevent needless poverty-related deaths. But we cannot rely on governments to change the current world direction - the only hope is a huge groundswell of popular support in favour of global sharing

08 January , 2013

Enough: The Central Concept In Economics
By Herman Daly

For the Hebrews in the wilderness the manna economy was designed with “enough” as a built-in feature. Our economy does not have that automatic regulation. We have to recognize the value of enough and build it into our economic institutions and culture

“Promised Land”: Energy And Ethics In The Age Of Economic Decline
By Carolyn Baker

Shredded as it may be by movie critics, if we allow it to do so, “Promised Land” takes us deeper than cliché, not only into disturbing questions about hydraulic fracturing and energy depletion, but about who we want to be as humanity transitions from one paradigm to another. In these times and on so many issues, we must cultivate the discernment of Frank Yates who firmly asserts, “Sure, it’s a clean and efficient resource, but the way they go about getting it is some dirty business.”

06 January , 2013

Complementary Currencies
By Gary Alexander

Can a community print its own money? The short answer is a resounding YES and for many this has become a symbol of a Transition town taking the local economy into its own hands. We are very used to using money for exchange and will likely still need it in some form, but ideally one that reduces the problems with conventional money

28 December , 2012

The Outlook For Steady State Economics In 2013
By Brian Czech

Predicting the future is risky business. It’s usually unnecessary and there’s a lot of credibility at stake. But it seems perfectly reasonable to predict that, soon, more organizations will start explicitly advocating the steady state economy as the sustainable alternative to economic growth

20 December , 2012

The Role Of Sequestration In Reversing Anthropogenic Climate Change
By Anandi Sharan

Capitalism and the middle class have thus given humanity a formidable challenge. Not only must we overthrow capitalism, we must introduce in its place scientific social and ecological systems to address the problems the previous world system created

23 November , 2012

Water Conservation: Treasuring Every Drop
By Manu Moudgil

In the times when tapped water supply is considered an absolute sign of development, the traditional water harvesting systems are losing their age-old relevance. This is why the Lakholaav pond in Rajasthan assumes greater significance

20 November , 2012

From Endless Growth To A New Form Of Democracy
By Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed

Humanity faces a momentous period of transition. Modern civilization is not only in crisis. It confronts a multiplicity of overlapping global crises that are potentially terminal. There's only one question that remains. Are you going to hold fast with the grip of death to the old paradigm, or will you embrace life to become an agent of the new paradigm of community cooperation?

Where Infinite Growth Meets Biophysical Limit
By Eric Zencey

To achieve a sustainable, steady-state economy, we’re going to have to limit matter-and-energy throughput in the economy to what the planet can sustainably give to us and what it can sustainably absorb from us. Against that physical limit, though, the economy continually exerts pressure

07 November , 2012

The Great Transition, Part I: From Fossil Fuels To Renewable Energy
By Lester R. Brown

The old energy economy, fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, is being replaced with an economy powered by wind, solar, and geothermal energy. The Earth’s renewable energy resources are vast and available to be tapped through visionary initiatives. Our civilization needs to embrace renewable energy on a scale and at a pace we’ve never seen before

The Great Transition, Part II: Building A Wind-Centered Economy
By Lester R. Brown

For the first time since the Industrial Revolution began, we have an opportunity to invest in alternative sources of energy that can last as long as the Earth itself. The choice is ours. We can stay with business as usual, or we can move the world onto a path of sustained progress. The choice will be made by our generation, but it will affect life on Earth for all generations to come

Why We Should All Be Talking About Global Sharing
By Adam Parsons

If we're serious about ending poverty and healing the environment perhaps it's about time that we all start talking about global sharing

31 October, 2012

A Sobering Report From The Eco-Summit
By Elliot Campbell

I think that we are and as such, given a non-zero potential for catastrophe, it is immoral for society to continue on the path of ecological ignorance, over-consumption, and exponential growth. It is up to those who realize this, my peers in the scientific community and aware citizens like those who are reading this blog, to give this message and hopefully, eventually, affect positive change that will ripple out to the local, national and global scale creating a better future with less

The Commons As A Transformative Vision
By David Bollier

We are hard-wired to cooperate and participate in commons. One might even say that it is our destiny. While the commons may seem odd within the context of 21st Century market culture, it is precisely why the language of the commons is experiencing such a strong resurgence these days: It speaks to something buried deep within us. It prods us to deconstruct the oppressive political culture and consciousness that the market/state duopoly demands, and whispers of new possibilities that only we can actualize

30 October, 2012

Transition Town Fujino Goes For Local Energy Independence
By Carol Smith

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the working group Fujino Denryoku (“ denryoku” meaning “electric power”) was established to help people break away from their dependence on electricity provided by the traditional power utilities and transition towards self-sufficient, locally-distributed energy created with the participation of local people. Although the system does not suffice for all the electricity needed, it can reduce dependency on power utilities. To enhance energy independence means to have a “lifeline backup”, boosting resilience

Economic Growth: The Missing Link In Environmental Journalism
By Brian Czech

Environmental journalists don’t have an obligation to environmental protection. But they do have a unique opportunity. They have the opportunity to raise awareness of the whole truth, however inconvenient, that environmental protection doesn’t square with economic growth

28 October, 2012

Sweden Imports Waste From European Neighbors To Fuel Waste-To-Energy Program
Living on Earth

Sweden's successful waste-to-energy program converts household waste into energy for heating and electricity. But they've run into an unusual problem: they simply aren't generating enough trash to power the incinerators, so they've begun importing waste from European neighbors

25 October, 2012

Proposing A Vision Of A New Earth
By Rajesh Makwana

The earth’s ecological problems stem largely from our collective failure to share. That might seem like an overly simplistic statement, but it is now increasingly evident that only by sharing the world’s resources more equitably and sustainably will we be able to address both the ecological and social crisis we face as a global community

23 October, 2012

How To Start A Community Currency
By Mira Luna

Communities can regain control of the flow of money and credit by issuing their own currency as a complement to conventional money, as electronic barter networks, debit cards, mobile phone payments, Timebanks, LETS, or old-fashioned cash

20 October, 2012

Igniting A Learning Revolution
By Isak Stoddard, Eva Friman, Ingrid Rieser, and Sara Andersson

At Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Science, the Centre for Environment and Development Studies (CEMUS) strives to change the way we teach, meet, and learn. For 20 years, this student-initiated and largely student-run program has, in an otherwise rigid university structure, built and developed a space for interdisciplinary and experimental education focused on sustainable development

Pulling Back The Curtain On Economic Growth’s Magic Act
By Rob Dietz

Lisi Krall writes, “Perhaps the real question of progress is not how to forge a new energy frontier, but how to forge a different model of economic organization and purpose, a model that isn’t predicated on never-ending growth and a belief that there are no real biophysical limits.”

18 October, 2012

In Praise Of Anarchy, Part III
By Dmitry Orlov

Utopian societies inevitably fail, while those that are cognizant of human weakness and are able to compensate for it can go on for ages. The greatest weakness we have in our nature is our propensity for forming hierarchies, for following formal systems of rules and laws that attempt to defy natural laws, and for listening to utopians

17 October, 2012

Degrowth Offers Alternative To Global Consumer Culture
By Worldwatch Institute

If everyone lived like the average American, according to the Global Footprint Network, the Earth could sustain only 1.7 billion people----a quarter of today's population----without undermining the planet's physical and biological systems

It’s Time To Prioritise The Global Sharing Economy
By Adam Parsons

There is much talk about the need for greater sharing in our societies today, in everything from household goods and peer-to-peer services to cooperative enterprises and the ‘commons’. But we often fail to acknowledge one of the most important examples of sharing in the modern world: systems of universal welfare provision

12 October, 2012

Is Anarchism A Political Philosophy Whose Time Has Come?
By Katherine M Acosta

It seems that everywhere, these days, people are talking about anarchism. Now Dmitry Orlov joins the discussion with a 3-part series, “In Praise of Anarchy.” 

10 October, 2012

A Practical Proposal To Erase Externalities
By Randy Hayes & Brent Blackwelder

As the global economy grows, it expands into pristine habitats, interferes with critical ecosystems, consumes more resources, and emits more pollutants. Many activities that fall under the banner of economic growth are undercutting the planet’s ecological systems. At the heart of this tragedy are pollution damages that are imposed on society but not factored into company costs. These damages are called externalities because they are externalized by the businesses generating them

Land Use, Climate Change Adaptation And Indigenous Peoples
By Kirsty Galloway McLean

For indigenous peoples, resilience is rooted in traditional knowledge, as their capacity to adapt to environmental change is based first and foremost on in-depth understanding of the land. As climate change increasingly impacts indigenous landscapes, communities are responding and adapting in unique ways

Beyond Occupy: Progressive Activists In Europe
By Geoffrey Pleyers

Occupy is part of a wide range of subterranean movements that explore ways to complement representative democracy and empower citizenship. Some citizens want to build stronger democratic institutions: others don’t trust elected representatives any more and promote a change that starts at a local level and in daily life

In Praise of Anarchy, Part II
By Dmitry Orlov

When confronted with an increasingly despotic régime, the good people of almost any nation will cower in their homes and, once they are flushed out, will allow themselves to be herded like domesticated animals. They will gladly take orders from whoever gives them, because their worst fear is not despotism—it is anarchy. Anarchy! Are you afraid of anarchy? Or are you more afraid of hierarchy? Color me strange, but I am much more afraid of being subjected to a chain of command than of anarchy (which is a lack of hierarchy)

05 October, 2012

Manifesto For A Post-Growth Economy
By James Gustave Speth

Gus Speth has been a co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advisor to presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, the head of the United Nations’ largest international assistance program, and Dean at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. In this excerpt adapted from America the Possible, Speth takes on the tricky issue of post-growth prosperity

04 October, 2012

‘Alternatives To Development’
By Rob Hopkins

An Interview With Arturo Escobar author of Encountering Development and Territories of Difference

The Commons As A Transformative Vision
By David Bollier & Silke Helfrich

Below is the Introduction to new anthology of essays, The Wealth of the Commons: A World Beyond Market and State, just published by Levellers Press. The Introduction is by David Bollier and Silke Helfrich, of the Commons Strategies Group

Radical Simplicity And The Middle Class
By Samuel Alexander

How would the ordinary middle-class consumer – I should say middle-class citizen – deal with a lifestyle of radical simplicity? By radical simplicity I essentially mean a very low but biophysically sufficient material standard of living, a form of life that will be described in more detail below. In this essay I want to suggest that radical simplicity would not be as bad as it might first seem, provided we were ready for it and wisely negotiated its arrival, both as individuals and as communities

In Praise Of Anarchy, Part I
By Dmitry Orlov

Peter Alexeyevich Kropotkin is our prince's name, and he eventually became a renowned scientist who advanced the understanding of the history of glaciers, an historian of revolutionary movements, foremost theoretician of anarchism, and, because of his lifelong burning desire to do something to help the plight of the common man, something of a revolutionary himself

01 October, 2012

Generation Food
By Robert Jensen

For his new project though, Raj Patel is moving away from books, bumping up his production values and shifting from analyzing what’s wrong with our global food system to celebrating how it can be done right. He’s focusing on the many ways people around the world are changing how their communities eat today so that everyone can eat tomorrow. And to tell these stories, he’s teamed up with prizewinning director Steve James, best known for Hoop Dreams and The Interrupters, to document the new film Generation Food

24 September , 2012

Myths About Industrial Agriculture
By Vandana Shiva

Our 25 years of experience in Navdanya shows that ecological, organic farming is the only way to produce food without harming the planet and people's health. This is a trend that will grow, no matter how many pseudo-scientific stories are planted in the media by the industry

Refusing Capitalism
By Colin Todhunter

We must move away from the headlong drive towards urbanization in places like India and falsely equating well-being or ‘happiness’ with addiction to consumer goods. This shift involves rejecting the goods and services being forced upon us by large, powerful corporate interests, while placing more emphasis on self-sustaining local communities in which bio-diverse, organic agriculture and local food sovereignty is central and where there is sustainable use of the environment. And this is as true for the rich countries as it is for the poorer ones

19 September , 2012

A Mothers' Movement For Future Generations
By Heidi Hutner

Future generations deserve safe wombs and breast milk, and clean air, water, and soil. They deserve a livable climate and healthy, non-genetically modified food. Future generations—including rivers, oceans, mountains, forests, deserts, and the innumerable species—deserve to live as they have for centuries

A Life Of Abundance Without Money
By Maria Grusauskas

The story of a man who gave up money and found happiness

13 September , 2012

Growth or Equality: Two Competing Visions For America’s Future
By David Korten

David Korten on how closing the wealth gap can open the way to a fairer, more prosperous economy

Three More Growth Fallacies
By Herman Daly

1. As natural resources become scarce we can substitute capital for resources and continue to grow. 2. Space, the high frontier, frees us from the finitude of the earth, and opens unlimited resources for growth. 3. Without economic growth all progress is at an end.

06 September , 2012

The Dark Side Of The “Green Economy”
By Jeff Conant

Why some indigenous groups and environmentalists are saying no to the “green economy.”

Enough Already: Overcoming Crisis Mentality And “Us verses Them” Thinking
By G. Scott Brown

What is required if we are to address the issues confronting us at root level is a “Great Turning”—a shift from a life-denying worldview and society to a life-affirming worldview and society—and there is no precedent for it. Nothing that has come before, and certainly no single-issue campaign, has come close to requiring such a sweeping and fundamental shift in our thinking and behavior. However big we make the enemy, if we make the crisis we face about an enemy “other,” we over simplify things and miss the root cause

‘No Religion!’: A Buddhist Monk’s Approach To Universal Religious Harmony
By Yoginder Sikand

I read the book in almost one long sitting, and by the time I finished I was convinced that what the Venerable Bhikkhu had to say was about the most sensible thing I’ve ever read on how to develop an understanding of religion/spirituality that can accommodate all religions, bringing people of different religious paths together to sink their deep-rooted conflicts and hatreds for each other

04 September , 2012

Video - What The Economic Crisis Really Means - And What We Can Do About It
By Doingitourselves.org

Doing It Ourselves aims to broaden understanding of the debt crisis and peak resources and encourage action for the sake of personal preparedness, happiness and ethical living. This animation sums up the key challenges facing our global society of credit crisis and resource scarcity and describes a path we can take to a happier life, now and in the future!

What Is Money?
By Mary Logan

What happens when our fiat currencies die, as all currencies eventually do? It will eventually be worthless. When our monetary system fails, those who view money as a materialization or manifestation of our real economy will think that the world is ending. The end of a fiat currency is not the end of the world, particularly when money is increasingly spinning as a simulacrum in its accelerated information storm separated from real society at the upper levels of the financial system. It is only the end of the world for those emotionally invested in it as the reason for living

03 September , 2012

An Integrated Strategy To Fight for Human Survival
By Robert J. Burrowes

If we are to effectively resist elite control and violence in our lives and take concrete steps to create our nonviolent world, then we must recognise the enormity of the psychological damage that individuals within the global power elite have suffered and accept that they cannot take responsibility for ending their violence. Instead, we must take responsibility for ending their violence while creating a world in which damaged individuals are unlikely to be created and, if they are created, they cannot wreak havoc on the rest of us

02 September , 2012

The Simplicity Exercises: A Sourcebook For Simplicity Exercises
By Mark A. Burch

Introduction to Mark Burch's book "The Simplicity Exercises: A Sourcebook for Simplicity Exercises"

29 August , 2012

Social Innovations For Economic Degrowth
By Andreas Exner & Christian Lauk

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we find ourselves in a peculiar situation: although hardly anyone would deny the deep ecological crisis facing humankind, we seem to be caught in a net of assumptions that impede a practical solution. Having acknowledged that we need to reduce consumption of energy and materials drastically, we still often think that adjustments within the current system of production and consumption will accomplish this formidable task

28 August , 2012

Our Hunger Games
By Vandana Shiva

Hunger and malnutrition are man-made. They are hardwired in the design of the industrial, chemical model of agriculture. But just as hunger is created by design, healthy and nutritious food for all can also be designed, through food democracy

27 August , 2012

Romney’s Dirtier, Deadlier Energy Future: Is There Another Way?
By Sarah van Gelder

The oil-dependent economy Romney supports is a step toward an unstable, costly future. Renewables and energy efficiency offer real hope

Commons: Alternatives To Markets And States
By Derek Wall

The struggle practically and intellectually has to be about rolling back commodification and regrowing a gift economy. Commons economies don’t abolish injustice or guarantee sustainability but we can do better than being slaves to an economy which marches to the beat of the bond markets. Whether Syriza in Greece, the work of ecosocialists, the experiments of workers control and solidarity economies in Latin America or a thousand other examples alternatives to a bought and sold world are emerging

Resilience In suburban Anchorage
By Mary & Todd Logan

An alternative story of resilience from Alaska

26 August , 2012

The Apocalypse Of The Teacher (The Book of the Great Divide)
By J.H. Marten

A parable for our future

25 August , 2012

Building Resilience In A Changing Climate
By Richard Heinberg

By cutting our reliance on fossil fuels, by reducing energy requirements in general, and by eliminating our economic system’s need for perpetual growth (and hence for perpetually increasing energy consumption), we can make our way of life less vulnerable to energy shortages and price spikes while also reducing carbon emissions

24 August , 2012

The End Of The Industrial Revolution
By Paul Gilding

Now we shift to the third great wave, the world post the industrial revolution. To an economy designed to last, that is built around the present and nurtures the future. This will be an era where we…… well, that’s the exciting bit. We get to decide what comes next. We get to decide what the third great phase of human progress looks like

India: Lucky Baby! Protecting Daughters In Patriarchy’s Heartland
By Alka Pande

Story of a few courageous women who, against all odds, protect girl childs

22 August , 2012

Transition Movement Meets Sacred Economics
Rob Hopkins interviews Charles Eisenstein

In this fascinating conversation between Rob Hopkins co-founder of Transition Network and Transition Town Totnes and Charles Eisenstein , the Author of 'Sacred Economics’, an economic theory based on gift economy both assess each other's theory and practice and brings out the strength and weakness both systems

21 August , 2012

The Resilience Imperative And Civil Disobedience
By Michael Lewis

The tasks of transition are many. The challenges are daunting. The outcomes are uncertain. Our courage remains untested. But we are a resilient species. We are not alone; there is “blessed unrest” all about. If we but open our eyes, we will SEE change is possible. If we act in ways that recognize we are interdependent, we will continue to innovate cooperative transitions to a steady-state economy

Revolutionary Changes At The Community Level:
Love, Compassion And The Vision Of Miriam Hyman

By Colin Todhunter

This is a story of how love can overcome hatred and compassion can overcome despair. It is also a story of a spirit of unity and fellowship that transcends national identity, culture or politics. It is an inspiring tale of how ordinary folk can work to bring about tangible change for the betterment of others who may be less fortunate

Occupying For The Future
By Linnea M. Palmer Paton As Told To Stacy Lanyon

An inspiring Occupy story from the front line

20 August , 2012

Workers Must Take Control
By Mark Vorpahl

In order for workers to have a national independent political voice they must build a broad united effort around demands that can galvanize the majority such as "Jobs not cuts," "Medicare for all," "Tax the rich," and "Fully funded education and social services." To make sure that voice is heard the support for these demands must be demonstrated with the largest mobilizations possible as well as other organizing tactics

Wimpish In America
By William A. Cook

Can anyone doubt that Capitalism is a failed economic system? How many times must it fail for people to accept that fact? Yet our press and our representatives and our schools keep a thundering drum beat of regurgitation to keep it afloat when its very existence has been made possible by taxpayer buyouts of their failed policies. But, like Ayn Rand, one needs to keep living and pushing to that objectivistic end, self-gratification at any price, even if it means living off the dole. How utterly ironic

18 August , 2012

From Denmark To Bhutan: The Policies Of Happiness
By Colin Todhunter

Various surveys have indicated that while wealthy western nations use up vast quantities of the world's scarce resources, many of their citizens are not much happier, or are indeed less happy, than those who belong to poorer countries that use far fewer resources

Book Review: “Social Humanism. A New Metaphysics”
By Brian Ellis - Last Chance To Save Planet?

By Dr Gideon Polya

”Social Humanism. A New Metaphysics” by Melbourne philosopher Professor Brian Ellis is an important new book for a World that is rapidly running out of time

Top Academics Rebel Against State Capture In Favor Of Truth And Ethical Human Rights
By Anthony Ravlich

More top academics are breaking the long silence of academia regarding the rights omissions, such as children’s rights, and the new ethical human rights approach which includes all the rights

17 August , 2012

Back To school
By Sharon Astyk

If we have to live locally again, live mostly with the people around us, education for citizenship, for self-improvement, so you have some poems and stories and ideas in your head, so you can talk to others, argue, write a letter, stand for council or congress, or even simply build a barn, this is what school should teach us – and why it will persist

My Outside Classrooms
By Yoginder Sikand

Whatever education I've received that I consider valuable and useful, has been from outside, rather than within, the classroom

16 August , 2012

Our Cooperative Darwinian Moment
By Richard Heinberg

Darwin tells us we must evolve or die, and current circumstances bring that choice into stark relief. A lot of people evidently think that fitness and selfishness are the same...Yet it is our abilities to innovate socially and to cooperate in order to increase our collective fitness that have gotten us this far...

India And Pakistan: Communal Violence And Peace
By Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.D.

A proposal for peace communal harmony in India And Pakistan

15 August , 2012

Demilitarization Is Not A Dirty Word
By Jody Williams

Human security for global security: Demilitarization is not a dirty word, nonviolence is not inaction, and building sustainable peace is not for the faint of heart

Charles Eisenstein Wants To Devalue Your Money To Save The Economy
By Erik Curren

Author Charles Eisenstein has a modest proposal to keep rich people from hoarding all the cash and free up capital for the rest of us

“Common Sense Revolution” Needed To Tackle Climate Change
By Rolly Montpellier

To ignite the forces of revolution you need to light a match. Occupy Wall Street provided that spark. But to sustain a revolution, you need to build a fire. Fear of climate change may just be the fuel that feeds that fire. When fear is present, common sense solutions are sure to follow. One can either be immobilized by fear or motivated to take action. And a growing number of people are recognizing that the warming of the planet is caused by human activity. Fear can be quite paralyzing but can also lead to extraordinary courage in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds

“Can A “Bank Fair” Be A Useful Tool For Increasing Socially Responsible Banking?”
By Don Lathrop & Brian Trautman

Berkshire Citizens for Peace and Justice recently organized a Bank Fair . It was just the sort of initiative that could provide individuals who were interested in moving toward a more just and equitable society the opportunity to move one step closer by becoming informed about how their choice of banking institution compared to competitors in the treatment of and commitment to customers, community, and the planet

Revolutionary Acts At The Community Level: The Bindu Leprosy Project
By Colin Todhunter

The story of a simple act for the dignity of living in Bindu Art School in South India

14 August , 2012

There Is Hope For The Future Of Food
By Raj Patel

I have learned that: People are kind. Everyone has contradictions. Raw goat tastes funny, but it’s not as bad as Cuban food. The world is more beautiful than I imagined. There is more hope for the future of food than I dared to believe, against impossible odds. And it comes from unlikely places

Family Success Story On The Household Carbon Footprint Front
By Tim Newcomb

The success story of an American family in reducing household Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Sizeable household reductions in a household Carbon Equivalent footprint usually cost money and sometimes a lot of money. This household has succeeded to a considerable extent over the past 5 years, by budgeting carefully and picking projects which have multiple benefits to counter the costs

Forsaking Meat Can Save The Planet
By Colin Todhunter

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation, livestock is responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gases, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together. It could well be the case that going vegetarian may be the easiest and quickest way to lower your carbon footprint, reduce pollution, and save energy and water

Conference On The Economics of Sustainability
By The Global Research Consortium for Sustainable Development

The Global Research Consortium for Sustainable Development is organizing conferences on "The Economics of Sustainability" 17th – 21st September, 2012 in New York City, USA and 24th – 28th September, 2012 in Accra-Ghana

13 August , 2012

The Real Deficits That Are Killing Us
By David Korten

Replacing cultures and institutions that value money more than life with cultures and institutions that value life more than money is a daunting challenge. Fortunately, it is also an invigorating and hopeful challenge because it reconnects us with our true nature as living beings and offers a win-win alternative to the no-win status quo

The Triumph Of Fantasy Over Science
By Rob Dietz

From reframing to organizing, from protesting to storytelling, there’s a lot of work to do to get past the collective mental block and start walking a sustainable economic path. For decades, we’ve shown ourselves to be incapable of accepting facts, unable to modify failing social institutions, and unwilling to adjust our lifestyles. But now is the time to overthrow the academic programs and economic institutions that got us into this mess in which we undervalue our most important assets. Now is the time to tell the story of ecological economics — the hopeful story of long-term prosperity on a healthy planet. Now is the time to demand the economy that we want and that the planet needs

From Fukushima To India: A Future That's Renewable
By Colin Todhunter

At a time when the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have just past, it is apt that questions be asked of the nuclear industry. With proper commitment and investment in renewable energy and sustainable low impact development, humanity could have a future. The future could be renewable

10 August , 2012

A Critical Mass For Real Food
By Anim Steel

The old logic of the slave plantation is still the logic of our industrial food system, 500 years in the making. There’s a new way of thinking taking off

"The World As It Is, And The World As It Could Be"
By John Scales Avery

A look at the world as it is and a world as it could be

India: Greeting Every New Born Daughter With Fruit Trees
By Saadia Azim

For years now girls in the village of Dharhara in Bihar have been welcomed into the world in the most novel way: By the local community planting at least 10 fruit trees - traditionally mango - in celebration

09 August , 2012

Conscious Peace: World Peace Depends Upon Our Collective Consciousness
By William T. Hathaway

"Conscious Peace" is a chapter from RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War, which presents the experiences of war resisters, deserters, and peace activists in the USA, Europe, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Recently published by Trine Day, it's a journey along diverse paths of nonviolence, the true stories of people working for peace in unconventional ways

Mutant Modernities, Socialist Futures (PDF)
By Ravi Sinha

Past socialisms cannot be presented as models for future socialisms. The conditions which shaped the twentieth century socialisms have long expired. The vision that inspired the designs of those socialisms needs reworking in the light of the lessons of the past century. It is in this context that the insights gained from revisiting the issues of modernity and freedom will prove immensely important for envisioning socialist futures

08 August , 2012

Climate Change Action Is Not Hopeless
By Stuart Staniford

So maybe it takes us to mid-century to get to a near carbon-neutral society. The point is that it's not hopeless. As the weather gets worse - the droughts, the storms, the melting ice - the denialists will look sillier and sillier and the pressure for action will rise. And as it does, the solutions will increasingly be in place. So don't be discouraged if electric car sales are tiny right now, or solar power is a very small fraction of total energy use. This is a long game

“Green” Economy, Greed Economy
By Omar Rashid Chowdhury

Our planet faces a two-fold crisis. The dominating system itself is a crisis to the planet and in its throes of survival the system is creating more crises. “Green” economy, the model now being sold by the mainstream, is one of many “survival techniques” of the system. Conditions of “green” economy’s own structural existence limit its capability to resolve the ecological and employment crises. We need a new system with conditions controlling unchecked accumulation, exploitation and expansion

Rio+20: A Move Towards More Sustainable Transportation
By World Watch Institute

Implementation monitoring of Rio+20 voluntary commitments will be vital

07 August , 2012

Claiming The Commons That Capital Consumes
By Farooque Chowdhury

Encountering the commons robbers, national and international, is a political fight. A cultural fight also. An informed, aware, organized and politically active people, the owners of the commons, can successfully claim the commons

05 August , 2012

Failure And Hope From Rio+20
By Jules Peck

For the time being, we may have to give up hope for action from governments. After all, the best our political “leaders” were able to come up with at Rio+20 was “green growth” and its love-child “sustained growth.” How many more moronic oxymorons can they think up?

04 August , 2012

Why Are Human Beings Violent?
By Robert J. Burrowes

In essence, human beings are violent because of the 'invisible' and 'utterly invisible' violence that we adults unconsciously inflict on children. And this is in addition to the 'visible' violence that we inflict on them consciously

02 August , 2012

12 Innovations To Combat Drought, Improve Food Security, And Stabilize Food Prices
By Worldwatch Institute

Worldwatch Institute highlights 12 ways to make the U.S. agriculture system more resilient to drought and, in the long run, more sustainable

Countercurrents For "Counter Solutions"
By Binu Mathew

Countercurrents is launching a platform for Counter Solution. It is already happening all around the world. Come join us. Take action by joining in one of these local actions. Throw in your ideas. Alert your friends. Spread the word. Write about these actions in your area and let the whole world know. Encourage your friends to write about them. Document it on video and share it with us. Let us join hands for a "Counter Solution"


 

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