Author: Resilience.org

Like Dante in the inferno, for humanity in the first decades of the 21st century, the only way is through. In The Ministry for the Future, writer Kim Stanley Robinson imagines that path, telling the story of a world that somehow manages to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.

The truth is that high urban density and abundant housing are entirely compatible with a lush tree canopy.

if indigenous thinking is truly going to save the world it’ll be a long-haul thing in which people learn or relearn how to become indigenous to their local place in locally specific ways.

This potential to reproduce collective life is precisely the aspiration of community feminisms, but it is also the aspiration of agroecology!

How might we collaborate to design a highly interactive and creative online learning environment to share, in a popular, accessible format what we have been learning over the 8 years?

The following is excepted from To Catch the Sun: Inspiring Stories of Communities Coming Together to Harness Their Own Solar Energy, and How You Can Do It Too! by Lonny Grafman and Dr. Joshua M. Pearce.

We can either choose degrowth and actively work towards it, or we choose collapse by continuing with business as usual.

It’s been more a year and a half in the making, but I’m pleased to announce the release of my new book, The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking: Tools for the Transitions Ahead!

Jason Tartt, a farmer in West Virginia, says the Mountain State is fertile territory for honey production and maple and fruit orchards in the flood plains. Tartt, who is Black, sees his role as both developing economic opportunity through farming and supporting other Black farmers in West Virginia.

To clear the way for these groups to be “allowed” to use the lots for the community’s benefit, LA residents have to make their requests known, a mission that Ben Tyson, Director of Rise Together, a nonprofit working to inspire and educate voters, is pursuing.

People are yearning for authentic engagement. Although deliberation is hard work, it leads to much-needed rewards.

Agroecological approaches are anchored in human rights, rooted in culturally and ecologically diverse knowledge systems, and have the potential to build the community resilience necessary to deal with both the forces of climate change and corporate control.

Given the unfolding tragedy, a moratorium on climate change research is the only responsible option for revealing and then restoring the broken science-society contract.

Yes, there is need for a more holistic kind of economics, but alongside that, there needs to be a cultured recognition of how interdependent this field is with other forms of study and experience.

Economic inequality has forced millions of people into lives that are unsustainable. Low-wage workers from across the country share their thoughts on a better life.

Despite months of struggle by water protectors, the tar-sands oil of Alberta, Canada is flowing through Enbridge Inc.’s controversial Line 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota. But for indigenous-led water protectors, environmental activists and concerned citizens who stood with them, the fight against the “black snake” is far from over.

Together, as activists, farmers, foodies, beekeepers and more, we sent a clear message to European leaders: Sustainable food and farming is possible, many farmers are already living the change and we as civil society know the recipe to change food and farming.

President-elect Gabriel Boric is a testament to Chile’s changing tides. No longer afraid, a new generation—with help from the old—took to the streets on October 19th, 2019 to win back the rights that the Pinochet dictatorship had stripped away.

What should be the characteristics of valuable work in the 21st century, both the type that happens in an office and outside it? How should we work in an age where corporate fossil fuel extraction and private consumption is ruining the planet?

A “White Saviour” Deal for Nature responds to ecological breakdown by prioritising a pristine and historically flawed imaginary of wilderness over the real struggles of people for basic needs, dignity, and justice.

Perhaps the question that demands living with simply requires me (and others who feel a sacred bond with Gaia) to keep living with it and trying to share it with the world—and encouraging others in the Gaian community to do the same.

How can one celebrate heroic individualism in response to a film that shows how stupid that is (in the first comet deflection attempt) and how deadly it can be (in the abortion of that attempt to allow an entrepreneur’s greedy dream of risking the human race to mine the asteroid)?

What roles does spirituality play in food sovereignty struggles? To what extent do spirituality and religion support or impede movement building?

The only people that are against these ideas are the capitalist class. The obstacle is not ordinary people. The obstacle is capital. That’s the terrain we need to be fighting on.

“What can I do?”, “How hard should I try?”, “Why aren’t we all on the streets, night after night, fighting for change?”… Perhaps, all we can say at the end of it all is that asking these questions is an important part of the process. A sign that you’re still fighting, still human. You have … Continue reading “Some thoughts on strategy, and climate change, and feeling like you’re not trying your hardest…”

We need to work out new ways of living—on individual, local, regional, national, and international scales—to prosper without economic growth and to develop our human potential without robbing the opportunities of future generations.

The climate movie Don’t Look Up has a lot to teach activists, in fact anyone concerned about our future.

Max Ajl’s recent book published this year by Pluto Press, entitled A People’s Green New Deal, is a welcome and important contribution to an increasingly crowded and confused conversation on “green” futures.

The fossil fuel production gap — the difference between global fossil fuel production projected by governments’ plans (red line) and those consistent with 1.5°C- and 2°C-warming pathways (blue and green lines), as expressed in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions released when the extracted fuels are burned — remains large.

Practiced and shared well, grief gives voice and value to the diversity of the life journey, expressing and crystallising the whole, often painful canvas of lived experience.

We must adapt to climate changes in future, and we are adapting already. But if the adaptations are merely ad hoc and not thoughtfully considered, they are more likely to be maladaptations than great adaptations.

The presumption that food should be a commodity departs from millennia of human history in which societies found ways to share food and ensure that people had enough to eat.

Democracy is a “we,” not a “they.” Especially at the local level, inclusion does not simply mean everyone is “represented,” it means offering authentic opportunities for people to be involved individually and personally.

In this piece, we argue how ecofeminist theory can help understand nuances and draw insights on the Paris Agreement’s dominant narratives.

Fossil fuel companies often reach for the tools of greenwashing, but this particular instance unintentionally drops a tiny hint on a completely different story in the background.

In this, his latest book, historian Kenneth O’Reilly tells the story of what he persuasively argues is one of humankind’s most underappreciated resources.

As I’ll explain, Manchin’s torpedoing the Senate debate and vote on the House-passed version of the bill is contrary to the interests of the people of West Virginia—especially those who can no longer rely on the coal industry for their livelihood.

I wouldn’t normally be straining myself to get a post out on New Year’s Day, but (checks archive) blow me if today isn’t the tenth anniversary of this blog’s inception.

Prices jumped more than 1% on the first trading day of the new year ahead of an OPEC+ meeting on Tuesday to discuss production policy.

I just watched Don’t Look Up! on Netflix. While the movie has a number of flaws, on the whole I recommend it for the insights it contains in its parody of human attention deficit disorder.

Climate wise it’s clear that as we limp from ‘21 to ‘22 those who want to protect the economy from needed climate mitigation are still firmly in control.