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…
Breathe in the gap
There’s a significant gap between the direction of contemporary society, and ecologically-sound lifestyle habits. Take a deep breath and begin to reconnect with true reality. Why this is important The mainstream consumerist world zooms along in its frenzied more-more-more track,…
Why do I care about seeds?
A fascination with little tiny objects – that’s probably how it started. I remember collecting seeds in my mother’s garden as a child. I’d gather minuscule flat honey-tan alyssum seeds. In my pocket linings I’d hoard round red-brown glossy seeds from a special…
Here’s how to sidestep those doomsday economic forecasts
Lately the news has been full of dire reports about the economy (LATimes article, Baker article, Stanford/Berkeley study) Let’s get back to Resilience. Sufficiency. How can we thrive, economically, despite these dire reports? If you run a small business (or are…
What do GMOs have to do with Resilience?
In so many ways, GMOs deplete any resilience in our food supply. GMOs are perhaps the ultimate pinnacle of petroleum-dependent agriculture. These plants are laboratory-engineered specifically to work together with petro-chemicals: herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers. Headed into a world with increasingly…
Part III: Local Resilience through Collapse
Economic resilience = creating highly resilient structures which will enable our local communities to survive, hopefully with a relative level of peace and security. Like anything in the work of trying to further this transition, we need to consider the…
Resilience
The idea of resilience comes from the study of ecology. It’s really about how systems, settlements, withstand shock from the outside … that they don’t just unravel, and fall to pieces. … It’s about building modularity into what we do,…
About “Economic Resilience”
When it comes to change-making, I tend to be the person you’ll find wielding a shovel, either literally or figuratively. Although I spend plenty of time talking in meetings, I feel happiest when I’m out there getting things done. With…
As close to a closed-loop system as possible
Ultimately, to maintain ongoing soil fertility, we are faced with figuring out how to put as much material back into the soil as we drew out of it. We must offset soil losses by building up soil gains. Soil losses:…
There’s too much to learn!
I’ve been hearing this line lately, as Transition Los Angeles works with people to help them adapt toward post-petroleum lifestyles. “There’s too much to learn!” But look at what you already know. Look at the massive amount of knowledge you…
