New Ways of Living Together 1 – What is Community?

In my Sustainable Living (SL) Text, I overview a few locations where the people are living in a new way of cooperative and localized living.  It is really about rebuilding community, and that’s what ‘Intentional Communities’ are all about – living with cooperative intention instead of just living with people Read more…

Adopting a new way of thinking and living – Adopter Theory.

Many scholars support the idea that all we need to do to solve the world’s problems is to reform what we currently do and just promote more laws and regulations to curb humanity’s worse tendencies.  As a broad generalization, many reformers perceive that humans will only behave sustainably if they Read more…

Framing for Positive Communication and Interactions- How language creates our thoughts and frames our behaviors and well-being. 

In basic communication theory, thoughts in your head have to be converted into words. As the sender, these words are specifically encoded by how your brain thinks about the world.  The words are transmitted in some manner and are received by another, who then decode the words based on how Read more…

The world Economy – are we really doing better?  Measurement is everything!

I was reading an overview of a U.S. governmental financial report the other day and it quite categorically said that the country’s economy is doing well!  I almost fell off my chair in aghast disbelief of what I was reading!  So, I pondered what the report was saying and probed Read more…

Biomimicry 2 – Learning from Nature – BioEngineering Processes

Nature has had a long time to get things right and as efficiently as possible.  For instance, an intact grass prairie ecosystem has adapted to survive perfectly in any varying conditions where it exists.  In this area of Colorado, the short grass prairie adapted to have 200 species of grasses Read more…

Biomimicry 1 – Learning from Nature – BioEngineering a New World

 I have mentioned a few times in this Blog that we can learn a lot from nature.  Think about it for a minute.  The natural world has been adapting and modifying itself for over 3.8 billion years and is still doing so.  That’s a lot of research and development time.  Read more…

Overview of Wants and Needs versus the Ecological Footrprint. 

I had prepared three more posts when computers being what they are I somehow managed to lose the file as it was backing up.  Despite spending two hours trying to locate a previous version, I have given up.  So, today’s, blog is an overview of where we are to date Read more…

Getting to Transformation 3 – Choosing Wisely –  framing for positivity

In the last post I commented on negativity when talking about problems and issues and also the use of interpretive techniques to get people to listen more attentively rather than just tuning out.  The mass media has done a wonderful job in scaring us about a multitude of issues and Read more…

Getting to Transformation 2 – Choosing Wisely – Framing for good communication

“We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.”  E.O. Wilson. One thing that always bothers me about Environmental Education and Environmental Read more…

Getting to Transformation 1 – Choosing Wisely – the path of a spiritual warrior

I was listening to a short U-tube talk by Vandana Shiva, a brilliant philosopher from India.  She really put things into simple perspective.  It got me to thinking again how we transform the world to one we want to see – I’ve talked about this several times in this blog Read more…

Economics and Energetics of farming 5 – So who is helping to change the world to SA?

Whenever I talk about the farming system, many people disempower themselves with disclaimers like “I can’t afford healthy food” or “It’s hard to find healthy food.”  Talk about an external Locus of Control (see prior post – How people think about the future 1).  This seems true of most situations, Read more…

Economics and Energetics of farming 4 – Changing the way we farm and eat to get to Sustainable Agriculture (SA)   

An obvious, yet poignant question I used to ask my students to get them thinking – “What does the term Sustainable Agriculture imply about modern industrial agriculture?”  I am always amazed how so many people talk about sustainability but still practice unsustainability as something that is commonplace and acceptable.  As Read more…

Economics and Energetics of farming 3 – The politics of food production and the future of sustainable farming.

“Modern corporate driven Industrial Farming is not about food!  It is about chemical and oil corporations making money.  Food is merely the vehicle in which they do this: And as a value added bonus, also a way to provide the healthcare industry – really sickcare – with long-term clients.    Richard Read more…

Economics and Energetics of farming 2 – a reality check on food production energetics.

In the previous post I talked about the 10% rule of energetics within the food chain. The potentially most efficient way to eat is to consume the vegetables directly so that we get 10% of the vegetables energy.  Eating an animal that ate the vegetable only gives us 1% of Read more…

Economics and Energetics of farming 1 – a reality check on the food system.

“The primary mode of cognition that the practitioners of science have used during the past century – Analytic, Linear, Reductionist, Deterministic, Mechanical – has begun to reach the limits of its assumptions.  For this particular mode of cognition and the system to which that mode has given rise, can only Read more…

How people think about the future 2 – changing the message to fit the beliefs!

Main future view categories (numbers in parentheses are percentages for each category – 25 years and 100 years, with question three overviews in the narrative within each question). 1. No real change over 25 years (or even 100 years?) (0%/7%). An intriguing category because these people recognize that environmental changes Read more…

How people think about the future 1 – how beliefs form actions, or non-actions!

“The only thing that can save us as a species is seeing how we’re not thinking about future generations in the way we live.” Erik Erikson  In my academic past-life I was doing some research on how people perceive the future might be.  My logic was that based on a Read more…

Biophilia and Biodiversity 4: Nature – other pragmatic reasons to care for it!

In the last three posts I have outlined why I think we are all connected to nature.  But that connectedness lies along a continuum of liking it for its pragmatic personal needs to loving it intrinsically as a part of who we are.  I really do not believe that anyone Read more…

Biophilia and Biodiversity 3: Nature – love it because it is essential to humanity!

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.  William Shakespeare BioDiversity is known to be a complete interaction of all the species in an ecosystem.  Modern science accepts that an ecosystem is a complete and interactive and dynamic collection of species (from the micro to especially the micro levels, which we Read more…

Biophilia and Biodiversity 2: Nature – love it or leave it, why we need it!

Earth is not a platform for human life.  It’s a living being.  We’re not on it but part of it.  Its health is our health.  Thomas Moore (archetypal psychologist and mythologist). I really do not think that indigenous peoples go around saying I love nature.  To people that live within Read more…

Biophilia and Biodiversity 1: Nature – love it or leave it, or is it just a fun playground?

In my last post I stated that nearly everyone connects to the natural world on a fundamental level.  The term Biophilia was first coined by Erich Fromm in his book The Heart of Man: It’s genius for Good and Evil (1964), but was popularized by E.O. Wilson in 1984 with Read more…

Richard’s Research on Worldviews and why he is optimistic about a transformation

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wears you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.” Muhammad Ali Recently I received the Comment:  “You actually make it seem really easy along with your presentation however I find this topic to be actually something that I feel I would by Read more…

Geoengineering 3 – tying up loose ends?

“The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the ad handle because it was made of wood and they thought it was one of them.” Anon There seem to be three main areas of geoengineering:   1) modern accepted techniques – Solar Radiation Management (SRM) and Carbon Dioxide Removal Read more…

Geoengineering 2 – Playing the HAARP: High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program.

The most prominent instrument at HAARP is the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI), a high-power radio frequency transmitter facility operating in the high frequency (HF) band. The IRI is used to temporarily excite a limited area of the ionosphere.  Sounds Innocuous doesn’t it?   According to the Patents associated with HAARP, the military experiments say it Read more…

Geoengineering 1 – Controlling Planetary Eco-Systems.

In the last 30 years it seems like the weather patterns and climate overall have become more chaotic. Most of this has been assigned by mainstream science to growing Global Climate Disruption (GCD).  The evidence is quite compelling.  More recently within the last decade the patterns have been more than Read more…

Signpost to a Sustainable Future, or … a Subversive Con?  The Georgia Guidestones!

If you haven’t heard of the Georgia Guidestones (the GGs), don’t be surprised, because your local TV station will not be doing an exposé anytime soon.   I found them through my travels within the internet one day when an apparent conspiracist commented in another blog about the hierarchy.  Those who Read more…

Monsanto and Bayer – Pesticides and Chemicals as the Basis of Our Society.

I have read several times now from different sources, “who thought it was a good idea to put poison on our food and think it would have no consequences?” Two of the largest chemical companies (Bayer and Monsanto) in the world have been given the go ahead from the US Read more…

Making the transition to Sustainable Food Systems 3 – Rethinking what farming is about in the modern age.

Let’s face it, we all like food.  It has been the primary human occupation throughout humanities history.  It is the primary drive for all of nature.  Yet how many of us in the MDCs could actually find food if it wasn’t neatly packaged in a grocery store?  Once we were Read more…