I recall a kid’s TV program from 1969 where a bumbling wizard from the 11th century comes to the future and is enamored with the magic of “Electrickery.” He would flip a light switch and act as if he cast a spell so that the light turned on. Now a Read more…
As we move through the coming global political and economic upheavals, re-localizing our lives is the best way to re-establish our sovereignty and begin to live sustainably. This is not going to be a tweak of what is now, or even a variation of how we live, (e.g., greener and Read more…
To overview briefly about the idea of ownership. Nowadays, especially in the developed countries, we own lots of ‘stuff.’ Some people have so much stuff that they cannot store it in their home and rent storage space at specific rental facilities (the 11th largest growth industry at this time). Now Read more…
“We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world” Howard Zinn. Here in the USA, I just submitted this year’s tax return. Whether I like or dislike taxes, they are a fact of our Read more…
“If you want evidence that the world is a terrible place, watch the news and surf the web. But if you want to remember how incredible this planet is, go outside and into nature. Unlike social media and the news, nature has no incentive to keep us agitated, angry and Read more…
“Our true destiny…is a world built from the bottom up by competent citizens living in solid communities, engaged in and by their places” David Orr. The quote above explains my views succinctly. It needs more explanation, but my whole blog is about explaining this simple quote. Then I got looking Read more…
“Her … food, clothing, ornaments, amusements, luxuries [all] bear no relation to her power to produce wealth, to her services in the house, or to her motherhood” Charlotte Perkins Gilman. My mother (born in 1926) was a powerful personality trapped in a world not of her choosing. This has made Read more…
I have talked about Standard of Living (SOL) and Quality of Life (QOL) a lot in this blog (e.g., Centralized versus Decentralized Living 2 – Economic Considerations (Nov 2019} (click on the ‘Quality of Life’ at the bottom of this linked post tag as a search term for other similar Read more…
“We’ll go down in history as the first society that wouldn’t save itself because it wasn’t cost-effective.” Donella H. Meadows A continuation of a fictional reflection by a hundred-year-old Espe from 2112 about the start and on-going movement of transformation to Sustainable Living. I add clarification links and quotes as needed. Read more…
Think about our global economic system. Who and what does it serve? It’s a human construct yet it has a life of its own and we are all but servants (or slaves) to the wants and needs of this system. Despite illusions that we make the decisions concerning the economy, Read more…
When I was visiting Eire in 2010, I spent a day with critical economist Richard Douthwaite (Book: Short Circuit; The Growth Illusion; The Ecology of Money) to probe his views. After several hours of pleasant discussion, I asked him what he thought a feasible new economy would actually look like. Read more…
I ended the last post with a statement from Daniel Quinn concluding that the path forward is to recondition ourselves to simply begin anew and stop relying on old failed paradigms to somehow work out solutions for us. When I cover alternative economic paradigms, I am often asked why Read more…
In my Sustainable Living textbook, I have a chapter on economics. Recently, I was looking at it and pondering on how many years I have been trying to get people to see that money and more ‘stuff’ does not make us happy over the long term. I went through my Read more…
As I ponder the logistics of what it will mean to live sustainably, I have to wonder if a centralized or more decentralized system is the way to make it happen. Centralized economies (what we erroneously called Communism) failed miserably – even China had to resort to a capitalistic system Read more…
I do not see how we can become a sustainable society with the current economic system that is designed to not be sustainable. How can we have a sustainable world in an endless growth system based on money? As I have often said in economic content within this blog (e.g. Read more…
I have spoken of the desperate need to rethink and change our global economic systems (see previous post The world Economy – are we really doing better? Measurement is everything!). Bhutan has metrics in place since 1998 to measure Gross National Happiness (GNH) using over 9 major metrics instead of Read more…
To understand economics and how the globalized world we take for granted today came about, in today’s post I would like to tell a story. It’s a greatly simplified story but the essence is quite solid, and I hope that you see how the consumer mindset took hold rather easily, Read more…
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…
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…
“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…
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…
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…
POPULATION, ECONOMICS, CHOICE and MORALITY I didn’t get to complete my thoughts on this in the last post because of a keyboard problem. Countries that have invested in female education and family planning have demonstrated major drops in total fertility rates. Regardless of which counties are used as comparisons (e.g. Read more…
In the developed countries, when you have enough monetary wealth to live comfortably, being in the rut is not such an imposition. It might still have problems, but you can afford to suffer through them – or as often happens, you can afford prescription or even non-prescription medications to blunt Read more…
As an older person, I have seen technology come from the analog radio, television, and corded land-line telephone to the digital wonders we have today. One of the most intriguing for me is the loss of printed word to the internet revolution. We now all have at our fingertips nearly Read more…
So how is the business world moving forward with all of this sustainability stuff. To read the mainstream news and publications would suggest it is well on its way. The reality? The main driving force seems to be the business worlds perception of how the customers view sustainability. It is Read more…
Is there a model system we can explore that can show us how a Steady State System works successfully over long periods of time? Yes, and it is called the Natural world. The currency of this system is energy and it can show us a lot about how economies ought Read more…
Some Left brain stuff today. The late Professor Al Bartlett at University of Colorado-Boulder spent many years doing public talks about the concept of growth and sustainability in connection with modern economic business thinking and planning. A lot hinges on the terms growth and sustainability. Is there such a thing Read more…
In the late 1970s I recall watching a BBC science show that showed at least four main different hydrogen fuel options. The researchers were all from the big engineering universities like MIT, CALTECH, and Oxford, so we’re not talking garage inventors. The different options were clearly discussed and demonstrated on Read more…
John commented: “SL is a very difficult but essential challenge and means lots of different things to folk and organisations. It is amazing how many corporates use the word ‘sustainable’ in their mission statements and this often forms part of their marketing message without any substance. Then there is sustainable Read more…