David MacLeod's Blog (111)

Voting is important this year, especially for the Port, Bellingham city council, and the County Council. Your ballot must be postmarked by Tuesday, November 3rd.

First Published Dec 18 2006 by Transition Culture (Rob Hopkins' blog), Archived Dec 22 2006. This should now be considered a "classic" post - the discussion that brought the concept of "Resilience" into Peak Oil discussions in a major way, and a major development in Rob Hopkins' thinking regarding the principles of the Transition movement. The post was… Continue

A Response to “Small World” by Andrew Potter, published in the 8/12/09 issue of Cascadia Weekly

By David MacLeod (letter published in 8/19/09 issue of Cascadia Weekly



Andrew Potter’s book “The Rebel Sell,” which was an attempt to demonstrate that all counter-culture movements… Continue

Through June 4th, all books are 40 to 65% off at Post Carbon Books! Some great prices on some great books, so check it out.



All purchases through Post Carbon Books support the nonprofit educational and practical work of Post Carbon Institute. The store intends, through its range of products and informational links, to reflect the values and aims of Post Carbon Institute in helping raise awareness about the impacts of Peak Oil and Climate… Continue

This is a guest post by Liz McLellan, of hyperlocavore.com. Reprinted by permission.



“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has

genius, power and magic in it!”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



Please note: a discussion with the community at

The Oil Drum is ongoing in their Campfire… Continue

I'll be giving a short talk at the "Introduction to Nature Awareness and Permaculture" workshop this Saturday, discussing the relationship between Permaculture and Transition Initiatives. So I'm in the process of looking at items on the web that relate, and thought I'd just share here a mish-mash of excerpts I came across that I found interesting.



By the way...there's still one remaining open spot at this… Continue

"Permaculture: Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fiber and energy for provision of local needs. People, their buildings and the ways they organise themselves are central to permaculture. Thus the permaculture vision of permanent (sustainable) agriculture has evolved to one of permanent (sustainable) culture." - David Holmgren, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond…

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"It is as if we are wandering about a landscape littered with the pieces of many different jigsaw puzzles. Our task is to pick up as many pieces as seem possibly useful, limited in the end by how many we can recognise, and carry them to a place we don't yet know, where we must construct a new jigsaw puzle from what we have. Good observation and design skills will be the key to our success." - David Holmgren, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond…

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Another great blog post from Rob Hopkins at Transition Culture...



A Friendly Permaculture Critique of the Obamas’ Vegetable Garden

by Rob Hopkins, Transition Culture

If I had written it as a Transition Tale in the Transition Handbook, it would have ranked as being even more ridiculous than the Beckhams’ cob retirement house. However, here we are, and Michelle Obama has started to dig up part of the White House lawn and turn it into a vegetable… Continue

Article from: Agence



This article shows us we need to engage people in new and creative ways on this issue, so they don't give up and disengage. Hopefully the Transition approach will be found useful in this regard! - David



SCIENTISTS say they are haunted by the failure to convey to the world just how close Earth is to climate catastrophe.



Top researchers who gathered in Copenhagen for a climate change conference said they were worried that people could… Continue

Some of my Recommended Reading for the week. The first, by Kurt Cobb, is relevant to our endeavor, I think. He speaks of people previously working on sustainability issues now withdrawing to concentrate on personal economic concerns. Then Sharon Astyk writes about being very careful about where we put our limited resources and energies. Finally, a post from Dimitry Orlov, which is spreading quickly around the internets. Orlov writes about "Best Pracitices" for collapse. Highly… Continue