Recommended Reading for Christmas Eve, 2010

[David MacLeod]

Recommended Reading for Christmas Eve, 2010
from my Sustainable Bellingham weekly email newsletter

 

Christmas Plans for a Peak Oil Pilgrim, by Elizabeth Scarpino, Transition Voice
Christmas comes but once a year and its excesses pack a crippling punch. Then there's all those "so what's new in your world" conversations. Bringing
up peak oil feels tricky. How to cope? Let me count the ways...

 

I'm Dreaming of an Oil Crisis, by David MacLeod, David Farant, Irving Berlin, Transition Whatcom YouTube Channel
A parody of Irving Berlin's 'White Christmas,' with new lyrics and singing by David Farant, and video created by your SB Newsletter editor,
David MacLeod.

 

It Does My Heart Good by Gene Logsdon, OrganictoBe.com
Brock McLeod and Heather Walker operate Makaria Farm in Duncan, British Columbia (www.makariafarm.com) and what they have been doing the past two years is just eye-poppingly, unbelievably, overwhelmingly, audaciously amazing. They
decided to take small scale grain raising to the very high level of
accomplishment— beyond the wildest dreams I had when I wrote my book by
that name....Ain’t life wonderful? Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Building Up the 'Grain Chain' by Colleen Kimmet, The Tyee
Until recently, Grieshaber-Otto was just growing a few acres of wheat and oats for his livestock. All that required was a combine; the horses and
cattle didn't need it hulled, cleaned or milled into flour. Then two
years ago, he heard Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon on the CBC talking
about the 100-mile diet
quest and how difficult it was to find local wheat. "I popped them an
email saying, what would you like?" he says. And it snowballed from
there. The following year, Martin Twigg and Ayla Harker approached him
and said they wanted to start an urban grain CSA in the Fraser Valley,
similar to the one in the Kootenays. Would he grow wheat for them?...

 

Yes, There Is An Alternative, by Robin Broad and John Cavanagh, Yes! Magazine
It makes us angry when we hear—time and again—mainstream pundits and policy makers claim that there is no alternative to the past 30 years’
path of gearing economies toward the global market. Nothing could be
farther from the truth. Currently, as financial markets stagnate and
food prices swing wildly and the environment is under siege, more and
more people, communities, and nations are taking steps to reduce their
vulnerability to a volatile global economy. Many are proceeding to build
what we like to call more “rooted” alternatives...So, in the spirit of the holiday season: Yes, Virginia, there are a multitude of rooted alternatives.

 

My Transcendental Christmas Caroling Experience by JC Earle, Energy Bulletin
Well somewhere along the way, I realized my heart had opened, and so had the hearts of my neighbors. I realized that these were my people, my
species despite our apparent differences of age, ethnic background,
political views, etc. The boundaries of our individual egos melted or
at least became softened as we enjoyed the camaraderie, joy, and
silliness of “singing in the rain.”

Sometimes I worry about our future without cheap overabundant energy and all the other challenges we face, but I wasn’t worried last night. It was so wonderful to have a
heart opening experience right here in my neighborhood with such a
diverse rag tag band of merry makers. No electricity or technology
required. Ironically no singing lessons required either!

Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Happy New Year, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanza