All Blog Posts (445)

GET THE WORD OUT! Is a web video profile package for local businesses & non-profits, farmers, artists and start-ups.  The promotion is sponsored by DuVal Ethnographic/Good Reason Pictures as part of our effort to help build a more vibrant and sustainable creative economy in Bellingham. 

People who are pushing creative fronts are often challenged to put what we are doing into words and contexts that promote economic development and personal well-being.      

DuVal…

Giving Robert Socolow a Wedgie (so to speak) by Rob Hopkins

http://transitionculture.org/2011/10/06/giving-robert-socolow-a-wedgie-so-to-speak/

In 2004, Steve Pacala and Robert Socolow published a paper in Science about climate mitigation which introduced the concept of ‘stabilisation wedges’.  This proposed that rather than waiting for some ‘magic…

Time to get the winter squash in. Collect the squash, wash them off, and then go over each squash completely with a wash cloth soaked in clean water with a little bleach added. Allow your squash to air dry and store in a single layer, not touching. They keep well at cool room temperature, 50 - 60 degrees F. Eat in reverse order of keeping qualities. Check the seed catalog or on line. The small C. pepos don't keep as well as the big C. maximas, so plan on Sugar Baby pumpkin pie and baked…

Celt's Garden: Community Emergency Readiness is All About Attitude

by Celt Schira, Transition Whatcom

...Columbia Neighborhood has spectacular pocket gardens as well as the best organized disaster preparedness in the city. Check it out. I like to walk down the alleys. That way I can peer into people's gardens…

It took quite a while to get the fake blood out of my hair. Then I went out and planted the winter garden in the gathering gloom of approaching heavy weather. It's late, I should have planted turnips, beets and rutabegas in August, but it didn't work before. The deer ate it, dry gardening doesn't work on roots around here, take that Steve Solomon, I was unable to keep the little sprouts that I replanted watered, which just demonstrates the limits of my capability to keep it all together. If…

There was a request for a synopsis of the web chat last week that Energy Bulletin and the Post Carbon Institute hosted. 

The full chat transcript is available on the Energy Bulletin website here.

I also put together an edit, where I matched the questions with the answers.  I think I got most of it, but I left a few questions and answers out.  See…

Here are some things I do to help with the energy descent problem:

Ride my bike, take the bus, walk, and skateboard.

Shop at thrift stores, and other second hand goods establishments.

Shop at local businesses.

Practice growing food naturally.…

As we watch the stock market gyrate up and down (mostly down) over the past several weeks, its easy to understand why more and more people are becoming anxious about the economy.  In fact, the last 4 years have been difficult for many.  At a recent meeting discussing Resilience Circles, we discussed how we've all either personally experienced an economic downturn, or have close friends and relatives who are struggling.

Transition co-founder Naresh Giangrande…

    As the TWOG continues to explore ways to spark and support Transition Whatcom's efforts, we have begun a discussion about our own personal efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and prepare for climate change. The next few TWOG blog posts will be about our individual efforts, questions and dilemmas. Hopefully this will become the beginning of a community-wide discussion, which can then help inform the creation of an EDAP/ARC for neighborhoods, and eventually for our county as a…

      As the TWOG continues to explore ways to spark and support Transition Whatcom's efforts, we have begun a discussion about our own personal efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and prepare for climate change. The next few TWOG blog posts will be about our individual efforts, questions and dilemmas. Hopefully this will become the beginning of a community-wide discussion, which can then help inform the creation of an EDAP/ARC for neighborhoods, and eventually for our county as a…

An important message from

Friends of the Nooksack Samish Watershed

Acme farmers and residents need your help. 

Tuesday August 9th, County Council voted to approve a 280 acre mineral zoning designation (a gravel mine) in Acme.  The mining site is located on a steep slope just above the South Fork of the Nooksack and adjacent to several commercial organic family farms.  Our…

We are getting close to having 1,000 Transition Whatcom registered members on the ning site! This is a great achievement and it means it’s time for us to become more active and visible in the community. Some of the best ways for you to help out are to:

1) Become a member of the Transition Whatcom Operating Group (TWOG)

2) Become an active leader of one of the Working groups

3) Volunteer to either help support working group activities or to help spread the word about the…

Debt Tantrum On A Sinking Ship - by Richard Heinberg

Republicans say that more government debt is unsustainable. If we keep piling it on, we’ll eventually get to a point where all government revenues are eaten up by interest payments. We have to get off the deficit treadmill now; if we do—if we downsize government by shrinking the federal budget—we can…

I have moved up from nano-farming. I am now learning micro-farming. Like all transitions, it has its moments. Eating snow peas off the vine was a good one. Breaking into the first row of potatoes and coming home with the best, freshest potatoes ever, that was great. Half a bucket of fresh snap beans to share with my family and friends, yah. Most of the moments so far have been intangible joys: Navajo Grey squash swelling on the vines, corn tasseling, soup peas in exuberant bloom, looking…

Yesterday, a blog by Whatcom County councilman Carl Weimer was posted exposing roads being built on Cherry Point wetlands without permits. In the blog Carl stated he was advised to have the appearance of neutrality with regards to the SSA project, so as to not be considered biased in future legal deliberations and decisions.…

An Open Letter to Aaron Ostrom, Executive Director of Fuse Washington

(Normally I would lean towards not posting such a blatant personal political position here on the TW site, but since a blatant misrepresentation of Tom Anderson is being spread prominently, I am making an exception)

Aaron,

.

As someone who's been a long time subscriber to Fuse, I have found the information your organization shares to be quite valuable, and…

Transition Whatcom (TW) is an exciting grassroots project aimed at social change. I was one of the original organizers of the group and am the only member who transferred to the Transition Whatcom Operating Group (TWOG) last year. Since we started TW, we have inspired many people to make positive changes in their lives by looking seriously at the threats caused by climate change, peak oil, and economic instability. As time has passed, these threats continue to show up in significant…

It is difficult to stay pessimistic when the sun is out, the lettuce in our garden is growing faster than we can eat it, our dog wants to stay outside all the time because there is so much neighborhood activity to see from our front yard (mostly, I think, the cat traffic across the street), new neighbors (very nice ones) have moved in next door, our son just got married to the love of his life, etc, etc, etc.

But once in a while I will see something that makes me wonder- how…

The complete version of my Letter to the Editor of Cascadia Weekly (published July 13, 2011.  The letter was given the unfortunate title "Dark Future" by the Weekly.  For sure, I see hard times in our future, but there are also many opportunities.  As David Holmgren has written, "We have trouble visualizing decline as positive, but this simply reflects the dominance of our prior culture of growth."  My primary reason for writing the letter was to point out that, contrary to Michael…