Off the Grid
Off the Grid
Is "More Jobs" Sustainable or Necessary in the Post-Peak Oil World?
Jan Lundberg: "Considering climate destabilization and the potential for greater global devastation from war, the society we need must center on the community's providing essentials from the local ecosystem. For that to work, egalitarian social structures are necessary. They involve a different kind of work -- shall we say, living -- that is tribal or ecovillage living...
Mar 14, 2010, 2:43pm
Off the Grid
Shit Happens
Keith Farnish: "One day the systems will start to fail and the sewage will back up, either because of energy failure or simply that the stressed out system can't cope with the influx of waste...It wasn't that long ago that the most common type of toilet in the USA was the Outhouse.
Oct 27, 2009, 4:59pm
Off the Grid
Wealth is a System of Concentration
Chuck Burr: Wealth is not what we are taught. Wealth is not stuff; it is a fiercely protected system of concentration. Wealth is a verb, not a noun. It is the act of the hoarding, and is a key pillar of our culture...
Our modern Taker system is fiercely protected. You can't end private property by taking the property of the wealthy.
Oct 20, 2009, 3:18pm
Off the Grid
If Money Can't Buy Love, Can It Buy Health Care?
Jan Lundberg: "Injecting self-care and community-care into the current "health care debate" requires redefining the power of the individual and the concept of community. If a maximum of community is desirable, tribal bonding (i.e., organized mutual aid) ought to be considered ideal...
Sep 8, 2009, 4:31pm
Off the Grid
Car-Reduced and Car-Free Pedestrian Habitats
"It will take a long time for the US to embrace pedestrians, bicycling, and electric carts as substitutes for cars in our communities. And yet an inevitable change is coming that will significantly increase environmental quality, and restore real community and economic viability.
Jun 26, 2009, 1:36pm
Off the Grid
The 8 green steps to Solartopia
Harvey Wasserman: 1. BAN WASTE AND WAR: Nothing may be produced that cannot be fully recycled or that will not completely bio-degrade. This includes weapons whose sole purpose is death and destruction, and whose manufacture and use must be ended by a global community that knows war to be the ultimate act of ecological suicide.
May 27, 2009, 5:11pm
Off the Grid
Walking Restores the World and Humanity
Bill Bunn: "The entire scheme of nature, and the human’s place within it, is built around the understanding that humans use their legs to move. It's a great unspoken assumption. The earth expects humans to walk.
Apr 2, 2009, 11:53am
Off the Grid
American taste for soft toilet roll 'worse than driving Hummers'
The Guardian, UK: Extra-soft, quilted and multi-ply toilet roll made from virgin forest causes more damage than gas-guzzlers, fast food or McMansions, say campaigners...More than 98% of the toilet roll sold in America comes from virgin forests
Feb 27, 2009, 11:08am
Off the Grid
The Old World Is Crashing Down, Welcome Back the Older
Jan Lundberg: "This is the time we have been waiting for. Some of us, anyway. We wanted a better world, and we might just get it. The old one had to fall and get out of the way, and this must be finished for the sake of our faltering climate and for our own sakes. Meanwhile the old guard is floundering around...
Feb 14, 2009, 11:35am
Off the Grid
Downward Spiral's Silver Lining: End of Lonely Plastic Culture
Jan Lundberg: "The sooner we get started in dismantling the present failed system, and be our own leaders, the more of us and our fellow species will survive to continue what might still be the endless dance of evolution. The answers are here today, but must be sought out. In time, however, they will become obvious
Feb 9, 2009, 10:11am
Off the Grid
Peak-oil Activist Approach for the Coming Change in Culture
Jan Lundberg "The unpleasant truth of US society's waste and excess has been widely known since the 1960s, when the "Sixties Movement" meant lifestyle change more than mere politicking. Awareness of stifling consumerism and materialism spurred a rejection of "plastic society"...
Jan 24, 2009, 10:52am
Off the Grid
Think Again: Climate Change
Bill McKibben: "Act now, we're told, if we want to save the planet from a climate catastrophe. Trouble is, it might be too late. The science is settled, and the damage has already begun. The only question now is whether we will stop playing political games and embrace the few imperfect options we have left.
Jan 8, 2009, 10:27am
Off the Grid
A Better Way of Making a Living For Humanity
Chuck Burr: "The question is actually, not "what are we going to do?", but is "how are we going to make a living?"...The answer is tribalism...tribe members have a strong incentive to share what they have made or found with other tribal members. This gives everyone else a strong incentive to share as well.
Jan 2, 2009, 10:56am
Off the Grid
Vt. Engineer Designs A Good Life for $5,000 a Year
Kevin O'Connor: Today's global financial cloud got you feeling gray? Vermonter Jim Merkel sees a silver lining. "This belt-tightening is good for us," he says. "We're swimming in a society that's super consumptive. Right now is such a beautiful opportunity for us to become sustainable."
Nov 24, 2008, 11:57am
Off the Grid
Manipulation and Technology Sadden, Revolutionary Changes Gladden
Jan Lundberg: "Sorry to spoil the Democrat victory-party's afterglow, but U.S. society is still subject to the masquerade of objective news coverage and editorializing that cover up the deepest problems. We the people did not usher in a non-corporate state on November 4th.
Nov 14, 2008, 11:36am
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