Seen from a British point of view. It’s occurring to me that actually this economic downturn and the radical change this is likely to make to our lives could actually be a good thing. For one thing there is obviously a respite for the global atmosphere due to economic growth shrinking. OK so that’s coincidental and not planned shrinking but it perhaps widens the fast closing window of opportunity for us to put in place the kinds of radical changes we need to reverse runaway climate chaos. I tend to think that what some are seeing as a temporary set-back… Read More
Continue ReadingCute Quiz
Try this for size.
Continue ReadingTaking a Short Break
(Credit to Dave Walker) I’ll be back in a few days.
Continue ReadingThink Global–Buy Local
The idea of local economies is in the air. A few days ago I met with someone I met at my last book talk. It turns out he is working to establish a local economy in the town next door to Lexington where I live. Then in the last few days, two very interesting items about local economies turned up in my daily alerts and RSS feeds from websites featuring sustainability in some form or another. [WorldChanging](http://www.worldchanging.com/) has a story about local currencies, noting their emergence in faltering economies.The economic function of such currencies is to enable people under severe… Read More
Continue ReadingBowing to Peer Pressure
Marketplace has this interesting audio . A growing body of research shows the most effective way to get people to go green is not through do-good appeals, but rather peer pressure. Sarah Gardner reports on the latest research findings. It makes interesting listening and is worth the five minutes it takes. I do accept the findings that peer pressure is effective in bringing about changed behavior, but I also believe that this behavior modification method leaves existing belief structures in place. It good for reducing unsustainability. Great. But it does little or even may hinder the move to sustainability since… Read More
Continue ReadingHandle With Care
Complexity researchers, Reinette Biggs, Stephen R. Carpenter, and William A. Brock, in a new article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Only the abstract that follows is freely available to the general public. They point to the danger of waiting until signs of collapse cannot be ignored. By then the collapse may be inevitable. (Hat tip to Garry Peterson) Ecological regime shifts are large, abrupt, long-lasting changes in ecosystems that often have considerable impacts on human economies and societies. Avoiding unintentional regime shifts is widely regarded as desirable, but prediction of ecological regime shifts is notoriously… Read More
Continue ReadingLearning from India
In an interview on the E-Commerce Times, environmental educator Trudy Heller shows how we can learn sustainability from other parts of the world. In Shillong, I would leave the guest house each morning and walk out into a scene from a sustainable economy. In the driveway and walkways, four or five women were employed sweeping up debris that had fallen from the trees during the previous night’s rain. Each woman worked with a biodegradable sweeper made of broom grass, a locally grown agricultural product. This tableau of a sustainable economy was striking to my Western senses. The system provided employment,… Read More
Continue ReadingMore Buzzword Talk from the UK
Still finding stories about sustainability becoming a buzzword. From the Guardian: The Centre for Policy Studies has published its 2009 lexicon of “contemporary newspeak” (ie irritating jargon) and it seems to have identified “sustainability” as the worst offender. In his preface, Bill Jamieson writes: Few words have become more heavily used or abused in government or corporate affairs than “sustainable”. It now occupies a lofty position in the towering hierarchy of buzzwords. It is commonplace today to stick the word “sustainable” in front of almost anything, to talk of “sustainable development”, “sustainable transport”, “sustainable housing”, “sustainable communities” and so on.… Read More
Continue ReadingSeeing (RED)©
A few weeks ago during a break at a conference I was attending, I wandered into the Starbucks in the hotel lobby and ordered a coffee. I am not much of a coffee drinker these days, but I felt the need for some liquid refreshment. I generally prefer Peets anyway because they have great teas, and still make espresso the right way by hand tamping. Starbucks’ push button technology smoothes out all the variations that makes life interesting. But what really caught my attention was the paper insulating band. The first item I noticed was a promise to donate a… Read More
Continue ReadingNipping “Green” in the Budzword
[Green Inc.](http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/) sort of [recognizes](http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/language-watchdog-is-fed-up-with-green/) some irony in the name of their blog. > Do blogs like Green Inc. (and its predecessor, T[he Business of Green](http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/on-the-color-of-money/)) have something to answer for? > People and companies employing the word “green” in environmental contexts are guilty of “mis-use, over-use, general uselessness,” according to Lake Superior State University in Michigan, which last week unveiled its results from an [annual survey](http://www.lssu.edu/banished/) – it’s 34th – of words that should be banished. > > “Environmental buzzwords are getting the axe this year,” the university said in a statement. “‘Green’ and ‘going green’ received the most… Read More
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