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Whatcom County Redefines Prosperity (A Letter from the Future) by Jan Spencer and Samantha Chirillo, edited by Kate Clark for Whatcom County
Jan Spencer's Suburban Permaculture, One Back Yard at a Time, on Peak Moment TV (Video)
Jan Spencer's "Global Trends - Local Choices, DVD Trailer
Energy follows its bliss by John Michael Greer, The Archdruid Report
Efficiency and Resilience: After Jeavons Paradox, the Piggy Principle by Marco Bertoli, The Oil Drum
The Attack on Climate Change Science by Bill McKibbon, TomDispatch.com
Whatcom County Redefines Prosperity (A Letter from the Future) by Jan Spencer and Samantha Chirillo, edited by Kate Clark for Whatcom County
What might a letter from the future look like like if it were sent in, say, 2030, after developing Transition Whatcom and after numerous smaller communities and neighborhoods started their own Initiatives, encouraging local leaders to make forward-Âlooking, sustainable decisions? A visioning experiment might yield the following results:
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“Dear Citizens of Whatcom County 2010,
Here are the best words and encouragement from the future we have to offer.  By mid-2010, we admitted that the economic disarray confronting the nation and Whatcom County was not a recession. It was the end of a period of history — economic growth as we knew it was ending. Combined with a changing climate, erratic energy supplies and the natural environment in steep decline, we admitted it was time to redefine our cultural and economic needs...Â
[Please join us at 7pm March 5th at the RE Sources Sustainable Living Center to hear Jan Spencer present on "Global Trends - Local Choices."]
Jan Spencer's Suburban Permaculture, One Back Yard at a Time, on Peak Moment TV (Video)
Peak Moment 37: Jan Spencer shows his quarter-acre permaculture project transforming a typical suburban lot. Jan will be in Bellingham March 5th. Jan Spencer's "Global Trends - Local Choices, DVD Trailer
Jan Spencer discusses creative, uplifting and peaceful ways to take care of human needs that the planet can sustain over the long term.
"Global Trends" refers to climate change, resource depletion, social disequity, the environment in steep decline and destabilizing global relations. This presentation will highlight the choices available to us in a rapidly changing world. DVDs will also be for sale. This video is a Trailer for the DVD and gives a preview to his presentation in Bellingham March 5th. Energy follows its bliss by John Michael Greer, The Archdruid Report
Industrial civilization is a complicated thing, and its decline and fall bids fair to be more complicated still, but both rest on the refreshingly simple foundations of physical law. That’s crucial to keep in mind, because the raw emotional impact of the unwelcome future breathing down our necks just now can make it far too easy to retreat into one form or another of self-deception. Plenty of the new energy technologies discussed so enthusiastically on the internet these days might as well be poster children for this effect. I think most people in the peak oil community are aware by now, for example, that the sweeping plans made for ethanol production from American corn as a solution to petroleum depletion neglected one minor but important detail: all things considered, growing corn and turning it into ethanol uses more energy than you get back from burning the ethanol. It’s not at all surprising that this was missed, for the same variety of bad logic underlies an astonishing amount of our collective conversation about energy these days. Efficiency and Resilience: After Jeavons Paradox, the Piggy Principle by Marco Bertoli, The Oil Drum
Energy efficiency is one of the themes most discussed by those who are interested in issues regarding energy and the environment. The key question is how effective these proposed solutions will be. Will these technological solutions labeled as ‘energy efficiency’ (i.e. an increase in power plants generation efficiency, cogeneration, home insulation, more efficient electric motors, cars, light bulbs, etc.) really lead to a decrease in the global demand for energy? The Attack on Climate Change Science by Bill McKibbon, TomDispatch.com
The campaign against climate science has been enormously clever, and enormously effective. It’s worth trying to understand how they’ve done it.
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