Introducing the What We Can Do series
Right now we’re in a new era: There was 2019 and prior. And there is now. For many of us, these are two completely different realities. Maybe you’ve lost your job, or had dramatic changes to your working world. Maybe…
Stories for our time
Let’s get started with a story. Really, several stories — or versions of reality, or ways people view the world. Three Stories for our time The first set comes from Joanna Macy, who refers to herself as an “ecophilosopher.” For…
What is the “What We Can Do” project about?
This project explores What We Can Do about some of humanity’s most pressing issues. The series focuses on ACTION … 9 broad categories of things you can do. Know your Story Understand the Problems Strive for Energy Descent Fit into…
An example of change-making
I’m Joanne Poyourow, I use the pronouns she/hers, and I’m a change-maker. Back in 2005 I co-founded the Environmental Change-Makers community group in Los Angeles with Peter Rood. I’m an economist by training, and I was a Certified Public Accountant…
What resources were used in the “What We Can Do” project?
The What We Can Do project draws from a multitude of scientists, activists, thinkers, inventors. Here is info about their original source material so you can experience their own words. Abdul-Jabbar, K. (2020, July 7). Don’t understand the protests? What…
Why did you create the “What We Can Do” project?
For the past few years, since fall 2013, I’ve been teaching a course at Otis College of Art and Design, called Human Ecology, with Elektra Grant. Through my part of the course, I focused on solutions: What We Can Do.…
Welcome, 2021
New year, fresh start. Building out of the nightmare pit. So much wreckage, so much broken down around us. So much potential for rebuilding. Rebuilding in the image of all that we yearn to see … climate action, climate justice.…
I garden on Kizh lands
The land where I have planted gardens is located on the bluffs above the area where there once was a village called Sa’Angna (1)(6)(7). To the best of my understanding, these lands were taken from the Kizh nation (pronounced Keech)(3).…
Word of the day: Liminality
“In anthropology, liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning “a threshold”) is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not…
What to do during virus lockdown
So we’re all in coronavirus lockdown for an undefined period of time. What can we do, to keep from going crazy? What can we do, that soothes the nerves? What can we do to keep our minds occupied? What can…
