March 2012 Blog Posts (6)

Hi All. I am happy to join! I am currently working at the RE Store, cultivating a healthy relationship, beautifying my front step gardens, thinking about what food to grow this year, harvesting winter vegetables and collecting wild herbs. I am not typically a joiner but do have a social life. It makes me happy to share with like-minded people. My friend Dean and I started the Bellingham Permaculture Club (though I always preferred to call it a "Guild") in about 1994 but have not been active…

   During last year's debate between Bob Ferris and Craig Cole at City Club, Cole reminded everyone that we owe owe China a couple of trillion dollars.



   "We need this project," he implored. Turns out, that's more than an intimidating debate tactic. The international forum in Bejing on the 28th — featuring all the big players in global energy, including the Director of The US Department of Energy — provides a kind of backdrop for our own "Gateway."

   Check out…

— Originally Published in August, 2011 —

  Just last June, President Obama renewed his pledge to pursue green jobs and a "clean energy revolution," while speaking at a General Electric plant in North Carolina. To many observers of the president’s energy policy, those words played like…

Back in 2008, the price of gas and oil was steadily climbing, and there was some openness in the community about the idea of "peak oil."  A task force to study the issue was unanimously supported by both the city and county councils. 

As the task force was going about its work, the economic crisis hit, and the price of oil dropped.  As prices declined, so did the level of concern about the peaking of world oil production.  Few connected the dots to realize that high oil prices…

There is a distinction made by John Michael Greer in his writings about the difference between a “problem” and a “predicament”.  I have really enjoyed his view on this.  A problem is something that has a solution that can be solved and gotten past. A predicament is something that you have to deal with but cannot solve in the sense that you can implement something that will make it go away.  Both climate change and peak oil are predicaments for humans and not problems that can be solved. …

The Winter of Eating Locally just sort of happened around my house. No plans, no resolutions, no rules about only sourcing from within the state or 100 miles, no soul searching about coffee or bread wheat, no life changing decisions. It was life changing anyway. The Winter of Eating Locally was a by product of a great gardening year followed by a long season of underemployment. Good thing that I planted a winter garden.

In addition to my home garden, Krista Rome (the Bean…