I was talking with some friends and what came out of the discussion was why I believe that localization matters so much. Another comment that arose out of that discussion was the notion that we must rebel against the globalized society to become sustainable. Let me say straight away, I Read more…
If this past year of 2020 (and continuing in 2021) has taught us anything, it should be that we need to become more self-sufficient as individuals and as communities that live in the same area. What does seem to have happened though is that we have fallen into using big Read more…
“Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control people” Henry Kisinger. I fully intended to just do a localized food growing post, but I watched a short news interview with noted Indian sustainability scholar-activist Vandana Shiva, and ended up exploring yet another rabbit hole – that of Read more…
“The Great Reset is an attempt to create a plausible impression that the huge winners in this system are on the verge of voluntarily setting greed aside to get serious about solving the raging crises that are radically destabilizing our world.” Naomi Kline The above quote comes from an article Read more…
I have spent many posts recently emphasizing connectedness. The only people I have ever met who say they do not want to be connected are people who are angry and hateful at the negative aspects of the world as it is currently experienced by them. Loneliness is a modern disease Read more…
I used this in an earlier post but it is worth repeating: “I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address those problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are Read more…
An overview of how cities developed and overwhelmed their environments seems pertinent now as we ponder what our future living environments may become. We can do nothing of course and just await whatever happens in a most non-adaptive and fatalistic way. Some believe that we can keep growing into more Read more…
One of the main features I talk about with living sustainably is that everyone will need to live more localized. This then raises the question whether the governing systems will also need to be more localized as well. There has been a growing trend globally in the last 130 years Read more…
Over the years, during lectures and many talks I have given, one question that always comes up is could we actually make the transition to sustainability or is it just a pipe-dream. Obviously the question usually comes from people who think a sustainable future is some half-life of a harsh Read more…
I was clearing out boxes of books I had brought back home from my academic office after I retired and came across ‘The Mis-measure of Man’ by Stephen Jay Gould. In this book Gould lays out the rationale and justification for how scientists used ‘good’ science to ‘prove’ that intellect Read more…
Jared Diamond writes in his book The World until Yesterday about how indigenous peoples lived for most of human existence in tribal societies. He doesn’t paint a utopia, yet explains why the tribal system worked overall. Relatively recently in human history we moved from hunter-gatherer tribal systems into farming communities Read more…
I’m busy ice-climbing this week enjoying the beauty of the mountains of Colorado! More regular posts once I get back from playing. I live comfortably in a house much to big for my needs, although it is one of the more modest ones in my neighborhood subject to Home Owners Read more…
As I have been trying to emphasize, healthy food makes healthy humans. Michael Pollan says that when you walk into a modern store, you should avoid the center isles that carry all the processed and dangerous crap (I use that C-word purposefully) and head to the fringes of the store Read more…
As an introduction to what we can do to ensure clean and healthy food (in next post), I would like to ask a simple question: How long does it take for a food crisis to occur? While I have had colleagues argue this with me, I say 3-4 days! My Read more…