All Blog Posts (445)

Towards a Post-Growth Society by James Gustave Spelth, YES! Magazine

Today, the reigning policy orientation holds that the path to greater well-being is to grow and expand the economy. Productivity, profits, the stock market, and consumption: all must go continually up. This growth imperative trumps all else. It is widely believed that growth is always…

Dreams are attractive,

the Present is decisive,

wading through the mud,

singing in the trees,

What is Transition?

What is the…

I'm becoming quite partial to fried radishes for breakfast, particularly the big fat ones that get a bit hot for fresh eating. Slice radishes thinly, saute in a little oil until translucent and the edges begin to brown, drop in a couple of scrambled eggs, top with green onions and slivers of chilies. Serve with a side of warmed leftover beans. For low cholesterol eating, skip the eggs. Fried radishes out of the the garden are sweet and juicy. Radishes are a frequent volunteer in my garden. A…

This is from a blog that I wrote a month or so ago at another space, thought I might share it here:

At our last TWOG meeting on Wed., we were talking about the EDAP/ARC.  Creating and implementing the "Energy Descent Action Plan" or "Actions for a Resilient Community" is at the center of the mission of Transition Whatcom.  As we reflected on what that actually meant, Paul commented that really the ARC/EDAP is a culture, the culture of the future.

This hit me like a bolt of lightning. Transition Whatcom is attempting to create a path to a culture, and all of its elements (community,…

See original post at my personal blog: http://experimentsinappliedhumanecology.blogspot.com/

     I want to write about my recent experience at Sprog, a grassroots organizing camp that I just returned home from. I'm at a loss for where to start, what to write, and how to write it. One of the norms that we established at the beginning of Sprog was to be raggedy when you don't know exactly how to communicate…

Part 1 here, and Part 2 here, and Part 3 here, and Part 4…

Part 1 here, and Part 2 here, and Part 3 here. 

I just added an edit to yesterday's "Part 3" post, on point number 13 regarding the net…

"Most people in the industrial world today seem to have lost the ability to imagine a future that doesn’t have electricity coming out of a socket in every wall, without going to the other extreme and leaning on Hollywood clichés of universal destruction. The idea that some of the most familiar technologies of today may simply become too expensive and inefficient to maintain tomorrow is alien to ways of thought dominated by the logic of abundance.

That blindness,…

As we continue with Part 2 of this series (read Part 1 here), I should say another word about why I think this is an important article by Howard Odum. 

We are coming out of the age of abundant and cheap energy, and entering an age of scarce and expensive energy.  I am no energy expert by any means, but I think it is extremely important that we laypeople make an effort to…

The reading for next week's Folk School class on Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability is a "classic" article by Howard T. Odum.   Although they had never met or corresponded, Odum has been Holmgren's primary intellectual inspiration.  Footnote number 1 and  Item #1 in the List of Main References for the 1978 "Permaculture One" co-authored by Holmgren and Mollison, was Odum's 1972 book "Environment, Power, and Society."  Holmgren's 1994 article "Energy and Permaculture" is structured…

“This local law embodies the will of our residents to protect our natural resources from destruction, so our children and grandchildren can have the quality of life we enjoy.” – Councilmember Mike Simon

“Tuesday, June 14th, the Town of Wales, NY, adopted a community rights ordinance titled "Town of Wales Community Protection of Natural Resources.” 

Transition is all around us- global, local and personal. If you attended Bill McKibbons talk last month you probably, like I did, came away with a better perspective on how our local (Bellingham) Transition actions can make an impact to reduce flooding in communities across the globe. If we can keep the ‘carbon bomb’ in the ground instead of shipping it to China our local actions can make a big global difference. It’s not just about our backyard, it’s about every back yard around the…

This post is primarily for the folks taking my WFS class on Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability, but everyone is welcome to follow along at home. Notes for Class #1 are here.



In Class #2, we will cover the following material:

1) Discussion around topics of class #1: the Five Axioms of Sustainability and Introduction to Permaculture…

Hundreds Turn Out to Mayor's Cargo Terminal Meeting by John Stark

Many of those who spoke were more interested in stating their determined opposition to the Gateway Pacific project for a wide range of reasons: health effects from coal dust and ship and locomotive emissions; climate change from the burning of exported coal in China; disruption of…

Why are corporations able to make decisions on how our community is cared for, instead of we the people having the right to make the decision?  What will living our democracy look like in the near future?

When is the next Democracy School weekend and what do citizens learn? 

Autumn 2011 Democracy School- Oct 21,22 is filling up!  For information/application contact Stoney at  lidg@ymail.com   .

Our Sept 9 & 10th…

It was nice to see this week's  Cascadia Weekly (5/25/11).  Three letters to the Editor, and all by TW members. 

First was TW co-initiator David Marshak's letter addressing the advertisements in local publications, and the inaccurate statements made in them by David Warren in support of…

Walter Haugen from F.A. Farm recently said that he was on a farmer's panel and the current trend is to encourage everybody to grow 5, 10 or 15% of their own food. That's a goal which is totally doable, although if a lot of people get serious about it, a whole bunch of little scraps of lawn all over town will disappear under potato patches and square foot gardens. Even a modest number of people producing 5-15% of their own food will change the visual character of…

This  video is a "walk-through" of a carbon neutral home built as a demo. It doesn't really provide a lot of space to store one's accumulated junk. Maybe that's part of the point.

The Cube

Wow my life is getting busy. For those of you who may not know I am running for County Executive this year. Since I have run for County office before it is not fair to say I wasn’t aware of what I was getting into but it sure is getting hectic. I really believe we need leadership now to:

• Build understanding and fix the broken partnerships between local governments.
• Listen and learn to get the County planning process serving our citizens.
• Seek input for an…