Did you happen to see this in last week's Whatcom Independent?

Higher gas prices are only the tip of the iceberg
Another View by Myron Wlaznak
Myron Wlaznak is a community activist and a retired business executive.
http://www.whatcomindy.com/oped_story.php?subaction=showfull&id=12108697...

"...Gasoline prices are on a relentless climb into the stratosphere – $8 a gallon by 2010 is my guess. What we need is not better gas mileage but a completely retooled outlook on life.

There will be an increase in use of mass transit, but by and large, folks will be staying home a lot more, watching TV, and hanging out. We will all be living a little closer together – natural infilling – and we will be on each other nerves a lot more, too.

Close living creates a whole host of people-related problems that our local planners haven’t even begun to consider.

How do you deal with that neighbor who leaves the blinking Christmas lights shining in your bedroom year-round, the dog barking outside all day while the owner takes the bus to work, the noisy drunken neighbors stumbling in and out from midnight to 4 a.m., paper-thin apartment walls that allow even whispers to slip through, loud stereos and TVs, and stinking garbage right outside your window?

The upshot of these rising prices is that we will have to live with each other for a long, long time before solutions to address our energy needs emerge. America’s brain trust is hardly a world leader in this area so we’d better get used to seeing a lot of each other – up close and personal.

There you have it, a few things for the Neighborhood Planning Academy and the proposed Peak Oil Task Force to think about. For me, Tuesdays and Thursdays have become no driving days."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

The article above describes some of the challenges that appear to be headed our way. Peak Oil will most likely necessitate close living, and Myron Wlaznak is correct to point out many of the likely difficulties associated  with interacting more intimately with our neighbors. Of course there will be many benefits as well, which is why Sustainable Bellingham's mission is to promote Relocalization.

In my volunteer work on the Vision Team of Sustainable Bellingham, and in my involvement in the community as a 'peak oil activist,' I've come to see a huge need in relation to our collective push toward a more sustainable community - a need that most of have not put much energy into addressing. As people in general, we desparately need to learn and grow in our abilities to get along with one another, understand one another, and communicate with one another. We also need to learn and grow our skills in helping to bring about social change in our community.

Last fall Angela and I attended Alan Seid's Nonviolent Communication (NVC) workshop series. After having seen a video presentation by NVC founder Marshall Rosenberg, we were interested in developing some of these skills, so we signed up for this class. What we learned in this NVC series dramatically improved the communication between Angela and I, and as a result dramatically improved an already wonderful marriage. What surprised me, however, was how deeply and broadly NVC principles can apply to our lives. It helps us identify our real feelings and our real needs. Identifying real feelings and needs - what a concept! Tough to do sometimes, actually, but when done, I've found the results to be profound.

Getting to know Alan was also a real pleasure. Alan's college experience was a self-designed degree in sustainabilty, but he explained to us that his real learning occurred a few years later when he took seven years off from work to search out and learn the best sustainability tools available. He realized early on in studying sustainability that there are some big holes in the movement regarding human interactions. There's a lot of work being done on the "exterior" stuff - systems, methods, and structures of sustainability, but not a whole lot of focus on the "interiors" like decision making processes, agreements, how to interact and resolve conflict, efficient and harmonious group processes, etc. These interior tools and processes have become Alan's specialty.

When Alan mentioned he was looking for people to help him produce his workshops, I wasn't looking for more things to get involved with. However, the chance to work with Alan seemed to me to be a great learning opportunity, and I really believed he had a lot to offer our community, and I wanted to be a part of that. I truly believe that the trainings he offers will impart tools and skills that are desparately important at this time. I believe this is the generation that is moving into a post-carbon future, a time of unprecedented changes in living and working arrangements. As Myron Wlaznak said in the article above, "we'd better get used to seeing a lot of each other - up close and personal." And we'd better start putting a lot of effort into improving vital interpersonal skills.

With that in mind, please consider our next workshop on June 7 & 8, "Tools for Social Change: Integral Sustainability and Life Practice." The Integral Framework of Ken Wilber will be explored in it's relationship to sustainability and will be interwoven with three other exceptional tools:
Nonviolent CommunicationSM,
Permaculture and Financial Integrity. In this workshop Alan will
present each of these tools and also explore how their value is
enhanced when combined within the Integral model. See the blurb here:
http://www.relocalize.net/tools_for_social_change_integral_sustainabilit...

David MacLeod

The "Resolution to Establish a Peak Oil Task Force to study and make recommendations regarding the consequences of diminishing energy resources on Bellingham and Whatcom County" passed the Bellingham, WA City Council unanimously on Monday, May 19, 2008.

Councilmember Jack Weiss introduced proposed changes - a compromise with County Councilmember Sam Crawford's Resolution that City Environmental Resources Manager Clare Fogelsong had worked out, in hopes that the city and county could pass this resolution unanimously. Other council members stated that if they were to vote on these changes, they would want to study them. They were more comfortable with the original resolution we had prepared, so they voted on and passed the original resolution instead. However they wanted Jack to communicate to the County Council that if the county passes a different resolution, they would be willing to re-look at this to make them compatible.

Comments from council members:

Louise Bjornson: Commented about being amazed how many people in Bellingham are talking about and working on turning vacant land to gardens. This is a tribute to Sustainable Bellingham's recent work in this regard, as well as Bill Dean's efforts. She also brought up again John Rawlins' comment about needing a Farmer's Market expanded 100 times, and she wanted the Task Force to emphasize these food related issues. Jack assured her this would be an important focus, probably getting more attention than the other areas.

Terry Borneman commented about the enormous amount of fossil fuels it takes to grow food. 10 calories of fossil fuels for 1 calorie of food.

Jack Weiss emphasized this task force is about being prepared as prices increase and supply decreases - not about evaluating national energy policy.

Louise Bjornson also stated that this also fits in with emergency preparedness planning and local self reliance issues.

On Tuesday, May 20, 2008, The Whatcom County Council voted unanimously to adopt a Resolution to establish an "Energy Resource Scarcity Task Force to study and make recommendations regarding the consequences of potential changes to the supply of energy resources on Whatcom County and the City of Bellingham." A compromise had been reached negotiating the differences between the original "Peak Oil Task Force Resolution" put forward by Council President Carl Weimer and the "Energy Resource Scarcity Task Force Resolution" offered by Councilmember Sam Crawford.

I gave my spiel in the public comment period that the proposed task force would primarily be about our community facing the long term challenges associated with energy uncertainty, and coming up with recommendations on how best to address these challenges on the local level (nod to Daniel Lerch). One other person (unknown to me) also spoke briefly in favor of the task force. Like the City Council meetings, no one spoke against it.

At one point during the long Council meeting, Council member Barbara Brenner used the peak oil presentation as one reason to oppose the Council action on Water Resource Program Level of Service options. Not an exact quote here, but she basically said, "How can we charge people money for non-essentials after that doom and gloom peak oil presentation?"

When the combined compromise Resolution finally came up, Councilmember Sam Crawford said he was "Excited to see it move forward," and thanked City Councilmember Jack Weiss, City Environmental Resources Manager Clare Fogelsong and the others who were willing to negotiate a compromise Resolution so that he could support it. Barbara Brenner also liked the compromise Resolution, as it provided a "broader approval and ownership," although I believe she said she would have supported the original Resolution.

Daniel Lerch, Program Manager of Post Carbon Cities for the Post Carbon Institute has commented, "I think this is the first instance of two local government bodies joining forces to initiate an energy depletion task force. We've added an entry to our Actions page at http://postcarboncities.net/peakoilactions, and will get copies of your resolutions up shortly."



Many thanks and Congrats to those working with me for all for all the hard work on this project, and providing the City and Ccounty with Resolutions that passed unanimously, with the Mayor and County Executive's support!

David MacLeod

On Monday May 5, 2008, the Bellingham City Council will vote on a Resolution to establish a Peak Oil Task Force. In the coming weeks, Whatcom County Council will consider a similar Resolution.

Why is this important? I'll borrow from Daniel Lerch, of the Post Carbon Institute to answer that question. If I had to sum up his book "Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty" in just a couple of paragraphs, it would be as follows.

“The issue is that we are likely entering a period of increasingly frequent and large fluctuations in oil prices and supply,” Lerch has said. "We have changing demand and supply factors, instability in oil producing regions, and inherent difficulties in forecasting oil production."

The proposed task force would primarily be about our community facing the long term challenges associated with Energy Uncertainty, and coming up with recommendations on how best to address these challenges.

The long term challenges include attempting to answer the following questions:
How will the global economy adjust?
How will this impact our regional and local economy?
How can our local municipalities set meaningful budgets?
How can our local municipalities make long range land use and transportation plans?
How can our local municipalities best serve its citizens and the local business community?

How will we be able to do all of the above with such uncertainty in the price of the most important material to the global economy?

Obviously there are aspects of this issue that need to be dealt with on a federal level, but as Metro Councilmember (Portland’s regional govt) Rex Burkholder said, “It’s local government that has the job of looking out for citizens’ interests on a day-to-day basis...Threats of major disruption of our oil supply, or skyrocketing costs for fuel, are direct threats to our communities. We have to respond. We can’t wait for leadership from Washington.”

Lerch: "Identifying and mitigating community vulnerabilities is one of the more important - if often unwritten - expectations we have of our local governments...Changes in a fundamental economic factor like the price of oil - or a fundamental environmental factor like average temperatures - can have unexpected system effects that are difficult to predict.

"...the challenge for municipalities is not to predict the future, but to approach the future with the right tools and the right information."

Below is how the local news media is covering the story.

The Bellingham Herald: City Council to look at gas-price effects
Goals include education and emergency Plan

NW Citizen article by Craig Mayberry: Peak Oil Task Force

See also previous discussion on transportation that included Peak Oil at NW Citizen:

The Joke Is On Us

Transportation Discussion Continued

See what Portland did, setting the template for Peak Oil Task Forces:
http://www.portlandonline.com/osd/index.cfm?c=42894

And a wealth of info about municipal planning for Post Carbon Cities

The Resolution and the accompanying Briefing Paper can be found in the city's pdf file of the evening's agenda:

ftp://ftp.cob.org/council/packets/2008/05_may/05/packets/05may2008_AB17942.pdf

 

 

 

 

Visioning a Sustainable Future: Some Ideas That Inform and Inspire Me
Compiled by David MacLeod

I was asked to speak to a class at Fairhaven College last week, to consider a long term vision/hope/dream of a healthier, more sustainable world. Below is a compilation of material  I put together that informs and inspires my thinking.

David 

Relocalization: A Strategic Response to Climate Change and Peak Oil
By Jason Bradford

Relocalization advocates rebuilding more balanced local economies that emphasize securing basic needs. Local food, energy and water systems are perhaps the most critical to build. In the absence of reliable trade partners, whether from peak oil, natural disaster or political instability, a local economy that at least produces its essential goods will have a true comparative advantage.

In general, common themes include decentralization of political and economic structures, less material consumption and pollution, a focus on the quality of relationships, culture and the environment as sources of fulfillment, and downscaling of infrastructural development.

Relocalization is based on a systems approach that doesn’t solve one set of problems only to make another problem worse….Relocalization is based on an ethic of protecting the Earth System--or Natural Capital-- knowing that despite our cleverness, human well-being is fundamentally derived from the ecological and geological richness of Earth.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2598

Powerdown Excerpts
by Richard Heinberg

The four principal options available to industrial societies during the next few decades are:

Last One Standing – The path of competition for remaining resources.
Powerdown – The path of cooperation, conservation, and sharing. Powerdown would mean a species-wide effort toward self-limitation.
Waiting for a Magic Elixir – Wishful thinking, false hopes, and denial. Most of us would like to see still another possibility – a painless transition in which market forces come to the rescue, making government intervention in the economy unnecessary.
Building Lifeboats – The path of community solidarity and preservation. The fourth and final option begins with the assumption that industrial civilisation cannot be salvaged in anything like its present form, and that we are even now living through the early stages of disintegration.
After a certain point, money is likely to lose value, and immediately useful goods will instead become the basis of trade. These “new monks” would need… the practical arts of the growing and preservation of food, metalworking, the keeping of animals, the making and use of hand tools, the making of clothing, the building of houses, and so on. It would be important to keep scientific knowledge about how ecosystems function, or about chemistry, physics, astronomy, geology, and geography. The survivors will have to establish seed banks to preserve the genetic heritage from millennia of bioregionally-adapted agriculture. Perhaps the single most important thing to conserve for future generations would be the moral lesson inherent in the growth and collapse of industrial civilization. Nature is teaching us once again.

Ultimately, ignoring the population issue will be a catastrophe for human rights, since population pressure is reliably one of the primary drivers of environmental destruction. Population pressure and resource depletion are not side issues; they are the issues.  Almost no one speaks frankly about the crisis ahead of us.

The Movement largely ignores the core dilemma facing humanity because it has no politically agreeable solution for it. The elites have no solution either, but they do have a fallback strategy: competition, repression, and war. It is a terrible strategy, and someone needs to propose a workable alternative.  

http://www.energybulletin.net/2291.html

Powerdown Revisited
by Richard Heinberg, Oct. 2007
After a few years of further thought, it seems to me that my description of these options could stand some modification. I would now say that our future options consist of three broad scenarios.

...Here are the three scenarios that I see as most likely.

1. Feudal fascism. This is basically similar to the Last One Standing option in Powerdown, though now I would frame it somewhat differently. A strong central government will organize work - though not in a way that many people will enjoy. Think agricultural work camps and slave-labor factories.
2. The Eco Deal. Economist Susan George calls this option “Environmental Keynesianism” (see her essay at www.globalnetwork4justice.org/story.php?c_id=313). For a snapshot image, think of the 1930s New Deal revisited in the context of global ecological crisis.
3. Bottoms Up. There is a strong likelihood that, at least in some nations or regions, strong central government will not survive the end of cheap energy - especially if electrical grids fail. In that case, neither the Feudal Fascist nor the Eco-Deal strategy would play out; instead, localities would be on their own. Local governments and citizen groups would have the task of maintaining order and flows of basic necessities. ...

In any case, two things are absolutely clear: business as usual is not one of the options; and the more we do now to prepare at every level, the better off we all will be.

http://www.energybulletin.net/35739.html

Post Carbon Living: Beyond Technofix
by Richard Heinberg
http://www.energybulletin.net/41231.html

Plan C: Community and Curtailment
by Pat Murphy

Plan A - Business as Usual

Plan “A” is the most widely discussed option concerning energy depletion and climate change. It is often called the “business as usual” plan. It represents the growth-oriented paradigm …Individual self-interest is its underlying philosophy and its basic thesis is the capitalistic doctrine of “substitution,” which means that we can never run out of a resource because the free market will always find an alternative; i.e. technology will always find a solution to every problem.

Plan B - Clean/Green Technology

Plan B proponents can be described as advocates of “clean or green” technology. Plan B advocates are more or less happy with the status quo, particularly their lifestyle, and hope to simply replace non- renewable energy products with renewable ones.

Plan A and B types do not see any particular action to be done by consumers. For them, it is the responsibility of government and corporations to make the necessary changes. They do not hold themselves accountable for the energy crisis nor responsible for the poor choices made.

Plan D – Die Off

Those who expect Plan D believe it is too late to avoid catastrophe. These people tend to be very discouraged by our energy and climate change problems. The scenario is associated with the term “Die-off” – thus Plan “D.”

Plan D assumes there is no viable solution to peak oil and climate change, that economic growth, population and consumption will continue to increase unabated and that mankind can expect economic collapse, chaos, wars and other forms of violence – possibly even mass starvation. They tend to focus on individual and family survival and the need for defense of whatever sustainable communities can be formed.

Some dismiss this view with a few flip remarks, but there is reason to take it seriously – a major population die-off is not out of the question. Wars over dwindling fossil fuels, possibly involving nuclear weapons, are only the most precipitous events that could occur. The effects of climate change on agriculture, exacerbated by the loss of fossil fuel inputs could result in widespread hunger and unrest. We have passed the carrying capacity of the planet and remedies are not at all obvious. A negative perspective is not an unfounded one.

Plan C - Curtailment and Community

Plan C differs from Plans A and B by assuming that the relatively recent availability (a blip in geological time) of fossil fuel energy has caused a temporary detour in the evolution of humankind. Fossil fuels have led to a two-century long addictive fascination with oil-based technology and machines, which in the future can no longer be sustained.

Under Plan C, the first priority for society as a whole is to drastically reduce our consumption of fossil fuel energy and products derived from it. We must “curtail.” That means buying less, using less, wanting less and wasting less. Curtail means to “cut back” or possibly to “downsize.” It is more reflective of the seriousness of our current situation than the probably more politically acceptable word “conserve.” Conservation often implies a relatively small reduction in consumption, possibly recycling or buying compact fluorescents or maybe buying a hybrid car. If conserve is to be used as a synonym for curtail, it would be appropriate to preface it with some modifier such as “radical” conservation or “extreme” conservation or “rapid” conservation.

http://www.energybulletin.net/20501.html
http://www.communitysolution.org/

The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community
by David Korten

Developments distinctive to our time are telling us that Empire has reached the limits of the exploitation that people and Earth will sustain. A mounting perfect economic storm born of a convergence of peak oil, climate change, and an imbalanced U.S. economy dependent on debts it can never repay is poised to bring a dramatic restructuring of every aspect of modern life. We have the power to choose, however, whether the consequenses play out as a terminal crisis or an epic opportunity. The Great Turning is not a prophecy. It is a possibility."

Empire is not inevitable, not the natural order of things. Korten draws on evidence from sources as varied as evolutionary theory, developmental psychology, and religious teachings to make the case that “Earth Community” — a life-centered, egalitarian, sustainable way of ordering human society based on democratic principles of partnership — is indeed possible.

Korten believes spiritual renewal is a necessary for the Great Turning to occur. He writes "To navigate successfully the turbulent waters of the Great Turning, we must revisit and update the stories by which we communicate our common understanding of our human origin, purpose, and possibility." He argues that we need to move beyond the "Religion of the Strict Father" that tends to support domination heirarchies, and we also need to move beyond the strictly mechanistic view of pre-20th Century conventional scientific wisdom. "Religion and science are two contending sources of the creation stories by which we humans define ourselves, our moral codes, and the meaning of our existence," he writes. "In keeping with the win-lose dynamic of Empire, the struggle for power between the two competing establishments has trumped the search for truth. this leaves the rest of us to choose between two partial stories or to live in divided allegiance between them. To guide our steps on the pathway back to life, we need a shared creation story for our time that honors the whole of the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of the species."

Magazine article summary of The Great Turning here:
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1463

Online videos of David Korten's slide show presentation on The Great Turning here:
http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/lectures/781 and David Korten on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=david+korten&search=Search

Making Other Arrangements to Survive the Long Emergency
James Howard Kunstler

http://sustainablebellingham.org/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=BanquetOfConsequen...
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7203633/the_long_emergency

Rob Hopkins
Transition Culture: An evolving exploration into the head, heart and hands of energy descent
How might our response to peak oil and climate change look more like a party than a protest march? Transition Culture explores the emerging transition model in its many manifestations

“Environmentalists have often been guilty of presenting people with a mental image of the world’s least desirable holiday destination – some seedy bed and breakfast near Torquay, with nylon sheets, cold tea and soggy toast – and expecting them to get excited about the prospect of NOT going there. The logic and the psychology are all wrong.”

Rob admits,” I am aware that being one of those people who can read a desperately depressing book about peak oil and societal collapse and draw from it the inspiration and motivation to do something practical puts me in an extremely small minority.”

http://transitionculture.org/

“Happy Relocalisers”, Doomers, Wheelwrights and the concept of Resilience
by Rob Hopkins
http://www.energybulletin.net/24055.html

Review of “Transition Handbook” by Rob Hopkins
http://www.energybulletin.net/41091.html

The Five Stages of Collapse
by Dimitri Orlov

Stage 1: Financial collapse. Faith in "business as usual" is lost. The future is no longer assumed resemble the past in any way that allows risk to be assessed and financial assets to be guaranteed. Financial institutions become insolvent; savings are wiped out, and access to capital is lost.

Stage 2: Commercial collapse. Faith that "the market shall provide" is lost. Money is devalued and/or becomes scarce, commodities are hoarded, import and retail chains break down, and widespread shortages of survival necessities become the norm.

Stage 3: Political collapse. Faith that "the government will take care of you" is lost. As official attempts to mitigate widespread loss of access to commercial sources of survival necessities fail to make a difference, the political establishment loses legitimacy and relevance.

Stage 4: Social collapse. Faith that "your people will take care of you" is lost. As local social institutions, be they charities, community leaders, or other groups that rush in to fill the power vacuum, run out of resources or fail through internal conflict.

Stage 5: Cultural collapse. Faith in the goodness of humanity is lost. People lose their capacity for "kindness, generosity, consideration, affection, honesty, hospitality, compassion, charity" (Turnbull, The Mountain People). Families disband and compete as individuals for scarce resources. The new motto becomes "May you die today so that I die tomorrow" (Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago). There may even be some cannibalism.

Although many people imagine collapse to be a sort of elevator that goes to the sub-basement (our Stage 5) no matter which button you push, no such automatic mechanism can be discerned. Rather, driving us all to Stage 5 will require that a concerted effort be made at each of the intervening stages. That all the players seem poised to make just such an effort may give this collapse the form a classical tragedy - a conscious but inexorable march to perdition - rather than a farce.
...While attempting to arrest collapse at Stage 1 and Stage 2 would probably be a dangerous waste of energy, it is probably worth everyone's while to dig in their heels at Stage 3, definitely at Stage 4, and it is quite simply a matter of physical survival to avoid Stage 5. In certain localities - those with high population densities, as well as those that contain dangerous nuclear and industrial installations - avoiding Stage 3 collapse is rather important, to the point of inviting foreign troops and governments in to maintain order and avoid disasters. Other localities may be able to prosper indefinitely at Stage 3, and even the most impoverished environments may be able to support a sparse population subsisting indefinitely at Stage 4.

Although it is possible to prepare directly for surviving Stage 5, this seems like an altogether demoralizing thing to attempt. Preparing to survive Stages 3 and 4 may seem somewhat more reasonable, while explicitly aiming for Stage 3 may be reasonable if you plan to become one of the Big Men.
http://www.energybulletin.net/40919.html

Review of “Re-inventing Collapse” by Dimitri Orlov
http://www.energybulletin.net/40989.html

Dan Armstrong, Mud City Press (author of Prairie Fire):
What suggestions would you give our readers regarding relocalization and collapse preparation?

First, know who you are. Know your strengths, know your weakness. Verify your real needs and adjust your mind and your emotions to embrace change. If peak oil or financial crisis will do anything good, it will be teaching Americans to live with less and to waste nothing. Learn to welcome this like a drink of cool spring water.

Then take a good long look at where you live. Does the bioregion you live in have the capacity to feed itself? Does it have a secure water system? Is there a high potential for drought?  What will it look like if civil order is lost? These are basics. Figure them out.

If you are satisfied with where you live, work on personal and community self-reliance. If there is a crash of any kind and you have three months worth of food and water, you will not have to take part in the first stages of crisis and the violence of cleaning out food stores shelves. Know your neighbors. Be prepared to rebuild with the people that live around you. Prepare to work cooperatively. Even plan large cooperative neighborhood meals to practice working together.

Should the global economy collapse and business as usual come to stop, the hard shell of infrastructure will remain. In a way, much like William H. Kötke describes in his article The Revolution that is Arising from the Earth, workers from closed manufacturing plants can return without management and form a work cooperative to get the up plant producing again. This is what we'll need once the smoke has cleared: cooperation.
http://www.energybulletin.net/41031.html

Living Simply in A Post-Peak World
by Vicki Robin, Sept. '06
"We're standing in times that, as my friend Tom Atlee says "are getting better and better and worse and worse faster and faster." ... the most important thing somebody can do is actually take in at a deep emotional, physical, and body level, the better and better and worse and worse, and allow the better and better and worse and worse to speak to them in such a way that they feel inspired to take a step towards whatever their solutions are. In other words, it activates. If you can actually live with the conditions of our time, it activates an inspired commitment to be where the tide is turning. Not to stand outside and say, "Is this getting better or worse? Better or worse?" You know we're not spectators in this world. The tide is turning for better or worse through us in every moment.
http://sustainablebellingham.org/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=LivingSimplyInAPos...

Ken Wilber and Alan Seid: Integral Sustainability
The Integral Vision articulated by Ken Wilber is to cultivate body, mind, and spirit in self, culture, and nature. In order to reach the goal of sustainability, we have to work collectively - creating mutual understanding without coercing people. Human consciousness grows from Ego-Centric to Ethno-Centric to World-Centric (where Ego-Centric is all about ‘me’, Ethno-Centric is about people ‘like me’ and World-Centric is a holistic view of all things and people).
Video interview with Whatcom County’s Alan Seid, “A Sustainability Renaissance Man”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_iYoGRhjUw

Rhizome Theory
By Jeff Vail
Rhizome takes it name from plants such as bamboo, aspen, or ginger that spread via a connected underground root system. As metaphor, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari used rhizome to refer to a non-hierarchal form of organization. I have extended this metaphor, refering to rhizome as an alternative mode of human organization consisting of a network of minimally self-sufficient nodes that leverage non-hierarchal coordination of economic activity. The two keys concepts in my formulation of rhizome are 1) minimal self-sufficiency, which eliminates the dependencies that accrete hierarchy, and 2) loose and dynamic networking that uses the "small worlds" theory of network information processing to allow rhizome to overcome information processing burdens that normally overburden hierarchies.
http://www.jeffvail.net/

In response to Mara Mitchell's insightful Guest Spot in the Feb. 14th Whatcom Independent,
Charles Antholt's letter to the editor (Feb. 21) argues essentially around one question: "Are we worse off?"

It seems to me that there are more important and fundamental questions to consider. Start with the following. How long can we sustain our current pattern of living? If the planet is worse off, does it bode well for the preceding question? Are we enjoying more than our fair share of the earth's resources at the expense of our children and grandchildren?

As Ms. Mitchell correctly points out, our current culture is built on the availability of cheap and abundant fossil fuels. As these become more expensive and scarce, how long will we be able to continue the party? Dr. Albert Bartlett likes to say that "the greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." At what point does exponential growth collide with the realities of finite resources on a finite planet?

See Dr. Albert Bartlett's presentation on Arithmetic, Population, and Energy at globalpublicmedia.com. Then jump over to www.energybulletin.net/6969.html to see an excerpt of William Catton's work on carrying capacity. As he notes, "Posterity doesn't vote, and doesn't exert much influence in the marketplace. So the living go on stealing from their descendants."

Is Ecology the Issue?

by John Cobb, excerpted from the 1972 book "Is It Too Late: A Theology of Ecology"

The ravages committed by man subvert the relations and destroy the balance which nature has established; …and she avenges herself upon the intruder by letting loose upon her defaced provinces her destructive energies…When the forest is gone, the great reservoir of moisture stored up  in its vegetable mold is evaporated.... The well wooded and humid hills are turned to ridges of dry rock…and… the whole earth, unless rescued by human art from the physical degradation to which it tends, becomes an assemblage of bald mountains, of barren, turfless  hills,  and  of swampy and malarious plains. There are parts of Asia Minor, of Northern Africa, of Greece, and even of Al­pine Europe, where the operation of causes set in ac­tion by man has brought the face of the earth to a des­olation almost as complete as that of the moon. . .. The earth is fast becoming an unfit home for its no­blest inhabitant, and another era of equal human crime and human improvidence . . . would reduce it to such a condition of impoverished  productiveness, of shattered surface, of climatic excess, as to threaten the depravation, barbarism, and perhaps even extinction of the species.1

These words, which were written over a hundred years ago by George Perkins Marsh, today ring with re­newed urgency. America finally heeded the warning of Marsh and saved some of its great forests from irreversible destruction. But new means of destroying the en­vironment, unforeseen   by Marsh,   threaten   now   to realize  his  worst  fears.   Irven Devore  and  Richard  B, Lee write  that  "it  is still  an  open question  whether man will be able to survive the exceedingly complex and unstable conditions he has created for himself." 2 And  David  Lyle  suggests  that  "the human race  has, maybe, thirty-five years left." 3

If the threat to survival is as serious as these sci­entists  suggest,   then   suitable  adjustment  of our  na­tional priorities is the most urgent business of the sev­enties. The   United States   cannot   solve  the   world's problems alone, but without American leadership the problems cannot be solved. We are the world's greatest consumers and polluters. We have done more than any­one else to release radiation and new chemicals into our environment. We have the resources to do some­thing about  the  new  problems.  Other issues are ur­gent, but this one is imperative.

The danger in focusing attention on a single issue and raising it as one of supreme importance is that it might seem to detract from the importance of other issues. Those who are struggling for the rights of blacks, or browns, or reds, or students, or women; or for freedom in Brazil, or Greece, or the Soviet Union; or for the survival of Israel or justice for Arab refu­gees; or for peace in Southeast Asia, feel abandoned and cheated when their erstwhile allies move on to another cause while these battles are far from won.

An   allegory   will   give   perspective.   Picture   the world as a ship on a long voyage.  The ship has first
class and steerage accommodations. The crew directs it’s attention to the comforts of the first class passengers, who have plenty of space, luxurious accomodations, and superabundandant food of great delicacy and richness. In steerage men and women are crowded and uncomfortable. The food is tasteless and poorly cooked.  Some suffer malnutrition. Contagious diseases break out, and medical help is inadequate. Tempers are high, and fights occur. First class passengers occasionally look down on the steerage deck below with amusement and even with pity, but for the most part they prefer to forget the existence of these other passengers and to enjoy the gracious living for which they have paid. The fact that most of the steerage passengers are of other cultures and races makes this easier.  

Many of the steerage passengers dream of someday transferring to first class and a few even succeed in doing so. But most resign themselves  to the impossibility of such a move. They live in impotent envy, taking out their anger on each other. Finally, a few among them begin whispering that this is unnecessary. Why should they be crowded and poorly fed when there is so much space and food wasted on other decks? Why not share all the space and food equally?

Many ridicule the idea as impossible, but others listen. Of these, some want to seize by force the space and food they need, while others propose appealing to the innate sense of fair play on the part of the first-class passengers. At first these win out, and a few changes result from their humble and modest requests. The food supply and medical attention are improved. The first-class passengers expect gratitude, hut in fact the slight success only intensifies the demands for an equal share.

I will not detail the struggle as it grows bloodier and more bitter. The crew is called in by the first-class passengers   to   maintain   order   and   guarantee   their privileges—for which, after all. they have paid.  And the crew obliges with all too little reluctance. The few first-class   passengers   who   sympathize   with   those   in  steerage  are  increasingly ostracized.  More  important, many of the children of the first class passengers believe in the cause of the steerage passengers and try to help them. Some of these also fall victim to the crew, while   the   parents  generally  think   they   have  gotten what they deserve.
Several   times   during   the   struggle   the   news   is heard that the boat has sprung a leak. A few members of the crew are dispatched to see about it. They report that it is not too large a leak yet, although it is grow­ing. Most suppose that the captain will see to it and go on about their business and pleasure. But the cap­tain is too busy trying to keep order, and the few who continue inquiring about the leak are ignored.

The untended leak becomes larger. Some of the ship's supplies  are  soaked  in  salt water  and  ruined. Even the boat's speed is slightly affected. New leaks begin to appear. Although life continues luxurious in first class, some notice that the ship lists a little. Some of the shipboard games are adversely affected. Shuffle-board is abandoned. More voices are raised about the urgency of action, but when the crew shoot some of the children, a new controversy breaks out which dis­tracts attention.

The first-class passengers feel guilty about the kill­ing of these children, but they cannot bring them­selves to admit that they are in the wrong. They devote their energies to self-justification. The children are deeply hurt by this attitude on their parents' part. Until now they have felt that the ideals on which they have acted were those of their parents as well and that if only the parents saw the situation clearly the would aid the steerage passengers instead of using force against them. With far less confidence, the steerage passengers have shared this hope. But the willingness of the parents to kill their own children in order to maintain their privileges, and the subsequent justification of this act,.is profoundly disillusioning. A  few turn to unalloyed violence. Most relapse into angry but lethargic resignation.

The ship continues to list. Almost everyone recognizes it now. But in the aftermath of the intense emotions generated by the other conflicts, no one seems to care very much. Leaders vie with each other to announce their concern, but not one dares to  speak realistically of the risk or of the vast cost of dealing with it. The people have no stomach for great sacrifices. Their idealism is spent.

This is where we are now. What happens next is still unsettled. We may continue to fragment into disgruntled minorities while frantic efforts on the part of our leaders to hold us together leave little energy to deal with the spreading leaks. Only when the water covers the lower decks will the passengers turn their attention, too late, to the problems of a sinking ship. With bluer mutual recriminations they will struggle for places in the inadequate lifeboats, while the sinking ship carries most to their death. Another possibility is that the crew and first class passengers will wall off part of the ship in such a way that although the lower decks fill with water, the steer­age passengers drown, and most of the supplies are low, the ship can stay just barely afloat. In this way many of the first-class passengers can survive, although at a level of subsistence inferior even to that of the steerage passengers when the boat was intact.

A third possibility is that the ship’s captain, as a man of wisdom and courage, will persuade  all the passengers of the necessity of immediate massive action.  Unnecessary supplies are then quickly thrown overboard, including many of the weapons used by the crew to control the steerage passengers. All able-bod­ied men join together in a massive effort to pump out the water and repair the leaks. In the process, the mu­tual antagonisms subside. New leadership patterns are established. All the passengers and the crew, as well, become a single community living frugally but harmo­niously together.
Granted,  only  a   miracle  could   realize   this  third possibility.    Politicians   would   have   to   refrain   from playing upon the mutual antagonisms of our polarized society and challenge us to extremely unpopular sacri­fices.   Masses of people would  have  to vote  for and follow these politicians. Business and industry would have   to   adopt   new   criteria   by   which   to   measure achievements, and all of us who are dependent on the present system for our luxuries would have to accept a simpler style of life. Is all that really possible?

No one knows; but the unforeseen and the unex­pected do occur.  Indeed, the rise to consciousness of the    ecology/population    crisis   itself   illustrates    the openness of the future, the occurrence of the unpre­dictable,  the surprising fruition of forgotten seeds.  I myself have  been  aware of its seriousness only since the summer of 1969. Yet even in that summer and fall one who was concerned felt like a voice crying in the wilderness. No popular national magazine had taken up the issue.  The Church seemed silent.  Politicians avoided the question. Only a few weary ecologists, na­ture lovers, and demographers kept up the apparently fruitless struggle to alert the nation before it was too late. The very word ecology was hardly known.

As late as February of 1970, Richard Register could point out the frightening analogy between the human reaction to ecological deterioration and a frog's reaction to the heating of his watery environment:
There is an experiment well known among biologists in which a frog is placed in a large container of water And the temperature is slowly raised. The change is so gradual that the frog shows almost no sign of realizing what’s happening. Then, almost peacefully, in temperatures approaching the boiling point, the frog dies—not with a bang, not with a whimper, but in pathetic ignorance.

There is another experiment well known among the inhabitants of Los Angeles in which several million people are placed in a large flat basin bordered by an inversion layer at the desert fringes of that basin. Millions of cars and millions of tons of asphalt and cement are slowly added. The change is so gradual that the population shows almost no sign of realizing what’s happening…4

But Register’s own article was a part of an upsurge of interest. The news media widely took up the new cause. New organizations arose and others gained fresh momentum and vitality. Politicians vied with each other in showing their concern. Ecologists and naturalists were in great demand. Ecology became a household word, and cars sprouted bumper stickers urging people to "control your local stork.”
But there are already signs of waning interest! One hears flippant talk of someone having taken his eco-trip and being ready for something else. The events in Cambodia and at Kent State displaced eco­logical concerns on the college campuses.

At a superficial level this is inevitable. As soon as we move from description of the problem to proposals for action, we lose much of our confidence and convic­tion. No one really knows enough to answer our ques­tions. Economists and ecologists often speak at cross-purposes, and we must listen to both. The issue is tied up  with  every  other   issue,   and   any   step   we   take toward its solution  has  ramifications   in   other   areas that are often bitter indeed. Many leftists are resentful about the emergence of this concern, since it distracts attention from their call for a social revolution. Right­ists regard it all as a Communist plot, since the prob­lems cannot be solved without radical changes in our way of life.

It is profoundly unfortunate for our national health that our attention span is so limited. The prob­lems of crime, race, and violence do not disappear when we turn to something else. Similarly, our envi­ronment will not recover from our assault upon it when we stop thinking about it.

For a while at least, our new attention to the en­vironment will probably generate new interests. Now that we notice such matters, we find ever new indica­tions of the seriousness of the situation. The recent discovery of mercury in our rivers is a case in point. The disappearance of various species of wildlife will not now go unheralded. We will be observant of our weather to see how it is being affected by our actions. The attention of the world focuses on the army as it dumps nerve gases into the ocean. If supersonic trans­ports are as destructive as many expect, that destruc­tion will not go unnoticed. There will be more public clamor against the commercialization of our remaining wilderness.  Industry will have to consider more care­fully how it disposes of its wastes.

But the question remains whether all this will lead only to a series of ad hoc measures designed to meet particular emergencies when public opinion de­mands it, or whether it will lead to careful planning and rethinking of our national life. The latter can occur only if a new vision of man and his place in re­lation to nature comes into being, a vision that would naturally express itself in a changed style of life.

From "Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology," By John B. Cobb, Jr., 1972
Revised, 1994:
http://www.cep.unt.edu/eebooks.html#send1
http://www.amazon.com/too-late-theology-ecology/dp/0962680737

1. George Perkins Marsh, Man and Nature, ed. David Lowenthall (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1965), pp. 42-43.
2. Esguire, LXVIII, September 1967, pp. 116-18 ff.
3. Brookhaven Biology Symposium, 1969.

Lynnette asked me to post the following.

Van Jones ..AND Socially Just? video and discussion event - Appreciations
by Lynnette Allen

Tuesday evening was cold and windy outside but I came away from the Van Jones video and discussion feeling very warm and encouraged. (I think It is auspicious that this event occurred when it did, just before the caucus date and just after the Martin Luther King celebrations... and that today is my 70th birthday!)

I remember the thoughts I'd had during the discussion. I saw people of all colors, cultures, sexes, ages and beliefs sitting down together and telling each other their stories, and listening deeply, acknowledging and accepting--getting to really know each other. With that bond established, I envisioned us joining and going to work on our common goal of sustainability.

We had a small but excellent turnout for this event.
Thanks to all who came and all who participated.

So many helped create this event.
I want to thank the core planning team, Karen Hamaleinen, Joan Bishop and Dan Martin.
I want to thank Marie Marchand and the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center for providing the laptop and other equipment we needed and Marie for facilitating the discussion.
Thank you to the SB team members who helped at the event--Tiffany, Tom, Karen, Beth, Craig, Jeff, Rich and David.

Many authors and leaders of the greening-our-communities movement are embracing this whole systems, natural systems, view that shows how sustainability is dependent on not just the survival and well-being of the resources of the planet but also upon people's social well being and harmonious relationship, and that both of these are dependent upon an understanding that we, the planet and all beings are dependent on the thing that holds it all together and keeps it going, that is mysterious, that we may not understand, but that is everything--life itself.

This view reveals that we can't have success addressing one aspect without the others. I think that is what we haven't been seeing, have lost touch with--we've tried to divide it up and address each aspect separately and we have continued down a slippery slope to where we now find ourselves. But we are seeing that when we "get" it and "get together" what looked impossible, is possible--healing and making whole again our society and our home.

The tripartite vision of "an ecologically sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulfilling presence on this planet" of the Pachamama Alliance, is reflected in the comprehensive visions of David Korten, in his book The Great Turning, and of Thom Hartmann in his book The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, as well as by Tim and Sally Erickson, producers of the What A Way To Go movie and organizations like the Bioneers, IONS, For The Grandchildren, Sustainable Global Leadership Alliance and many others. It is outlined by Paul Hawkins in his book Blessed Unrest, and now there is going to be the largest class ever offered, Oprah's, based on Eckhart Tolle's book, The New Earth. It is catching on!

There is a documentary film on the evening of Feb 21st sponsored by Bellingham IONS at Wise Awakening on this same subject that I believe is an excellent follow up to the Van Jones video.

Lynnette

Getting Things Done, The Art of Stress Free Productivity by David Allen

Alan Seid gave me a copy of this book, and Chuck Robinson at Village Books also highly recommends it. I’m about half way through the book now, and I’m excited about implementing the tools from this book – common sense tools that are not overly complicated, but look to be extremely effective in getting you and your stuff organized so that you can achieve more productivity and less stress. From the blurb: “Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve effective productivity and unleash our creative potential. In "Getting Things Done Allen" shows how to:
Apply the "do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it" rule to get your in-box to empty
Reassess goals and stay focused in changing situations
Plan projects as well as get them unstuck
Overcome feelings of confusion, anxiety, and being overwhelmed
Feel fine about what you're not doing”
Buy from Village Books to support your local bookseller and Sustainable Bellingham:

Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing,  by McKenzie-Mohr, Doug , Smith, William

Robyn DuPre, Executive Director of RE Sources for Sustainable Communities, introduced me to this concept of using community-based social marketing to overcome barriers to long lasting behavior change related to sustainability issues. This book points out that “the diversity of barriers which exist for any sustainable activity means that information campaigns alone will rarely bring about behavior change.” The tools that are effective include gaining commitments from individuals that they will try a new activity; and developing community norms that encourage people to behave more sustainably. From the blurb: “This ground-breaking book is the primary resource for the emerging new field of community-based social marketing, and an invaluable guide for anyone involved in designing public education programs with the goal of promoting sustainable behavior, from recycling and energy efficiency, to alternative transportation.”
Buy from Village Books to support your local bookseller and Sustainable Bellingham

Sustainable Bellingham Vision (Where we want to go):
To promote and participate in the co-creation of sustainable community in Bellingham and the surrounding bioregion, in partnership with other groups and individuals.

Sustainable Bellingham Mission (How to get there):
To reach the goal of Sustainability, we advocate for the process of Relocalization – becoming self-reliant (not self-sufficient) at the local level and rebuilding communities based on the local production of food, energy, and goods as well as the relocalization of governance and culture. Relocalization includes a firm commitment to reducing consumption and improving environmental and social conditions.

Because our current Sustainable Bellingham Mission statement is about Relocalization, I want to make sure everyone has a good understanding of what this term actually means.

After viewing The End of Suburbia in 2004, the first activity I’m aware of by the group that came together to become Sustainable Bellingham, was to host a day long workshop with the founders of the Post Carbon Institute: Julian Darley and Celine Rich. We then became affiliated as a Post Carbon Outpost – now renamed as The Relocalization Network. The Post Carbon Institute came up with the term “relocalization,” I suspect, to distinguish it from the term localization, which is commonly used in computer software, but is also used in response to economic globalization. “Economic Localization” concerns itself primarily with counteracting economic globalization.

The tagline the Relocalization Network now uses, to put the term into the smallest nutshell is “Reduce Consumption; Produce Locally.”

Here's how the Relocalization Network defines the term:

“Relocalization is a strategy to build societies based on the local production of food, energy and goods, and the local development of currency, governance and culture. The main goals of Relocalization are to increase community energy security, to strengthen local economies, and to dramatically improve environmental conditions and social equity.

The Relocalization strategy developed in response to the environmental, social, political and economic impacts of global over-reliance on cheap energy. Our dependence on cheap non-renewable fossil fuel energy has produced climate change, the erosion of community, wars for oil-rich land and the instability of the global economic system.

The Relocalization Network helps Local Groups develop community activities and programs that can be used locally and as working models for other communities when the effects of energy decline become more intense.”
http://relocalize.net/about/relocalization

Our Sustainable Bellingham website has always contained a page on Relocalization, which contains the following content:

Relocalization

To reach the goal of Sustainability, we advocate for the process of Relocalization. RELOCALIZATION means becoming self-reliant (not self-sufficient) at the local level and rebuilding our communities based on the local production of food, energy, and goods as well as the relocalization of governance and culture. It moves one step further than the strategy of Localization (increasing the local production of goods and services in order to fight the detrimental effects of globalization) in that Relocalization also makes a firm commitment to reducing consumption and improving environmental and social conditions. In this way, communities begin to develop a greater degree of economic self-reliance and stronger sense of community.

The Goals of Relocalization:

* Increase community energy security
* Strengthen local economics
* Dramatically improve environmental conditions and social equity
* Operate well inside eco-system limits
* Address the fears of scarcity and redefining the concept of “needs” and “enough.”
* Implementation of the Earth Charter – a sustainable framework and progress measure

The Results of Relocalization:

* A self-reliant local economy run by local stakeholders.
* A healthy community for ALL.
* A healthy and intact ecosystem that can sustain us.
* An increase in local manufacturing and energy production.
* Living wage jobs that fulfill the desire for right livelihood, and opportunities to reclaim lost skills.
* Healthy food grown locally on family farms.
* An improved quality of life—meeting the basic needs of all.

In these times of uncertainty, are you interested in actively helping to create the systemic change necessary to ensure the continued quality of life we enjoy so much here in Whatcom County? Yes, this is a challenge. But, together, it's one we can meet. We have more in common than our needs for clean air and water, and nourishing soil.

We can work locally to create a microcosm of sustainability than can serve as an example for all the people that are fleeing the areas they live in now because they've been destroyed. Together, we can build a society that is ecologically wise and socially just. Our grandchildren will thank us for it.

Join us--because it is going to take us all to create the change we want to see in the world.

Sustainable Bellingham is a member of the Post Carbon Institute's Relocalization Network.
http://www.relocalize.net/groups/bellingham

For more, read Global Relocalization - A Call To Action, from the Post Carbon Institute.
http://www.postcarbon.org/informed/relocalization

And Relocalization: A Strategic Response to Climate Change and Peak Oil, by Jason Bradford of WELL.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2598

And Relocalization and Reconnection, by Dave Ewoldt.
http://sustainablebellingham.org/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=RelocalizationAndR...

Village Books:
http://villagebooks.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp?affiliateId=vb00...

Buying books through links from our website and emails will not only "Support your local independent bookseller," but Sustainable Bellingham will benefit as well with a small commission.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Peak Everything, by Richard Heinberg, $24.95
Peak Everything addresses many of the cultural, psychological, and practical changes we will have to make as nature rapidly dictates our new limits. This latest book from Richard Heinberg, author of three of the most important books on Peak Oil, touches on the most important aspects of the human condition at this unique moment in time.

A combination of wry commentary and sober forecasting on subjects as diverse as farming and industrial design, this book tells how we might make the transition from the Age of Excess to the Era of Modesty with grace and satisfaction, while preserving the best of our collective achievements. A must-read for individuals, business leaders, and policymakers who are serious about effecting real change.
http://villagebooks.booksense.com/NASApp/store/Product?s=showproduct&aff...

Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World(Bioneers)(Trade Paperback)
by Stone, Michael K. ( Editor ), Barlow, Zenobia ( Editor ), Orr, David W. ( Foreword by ), $16.95

Reorienting the way human beings live on the Earth and educating children to their highest capacities have much in common, say the thinkers and educators behind this groundbreaking book. With contributions from distinguished writers and educators, such as Fritjof Capra, Wendell Berry, and Michael Ableman, "Ecological Literacy "marries theory and practice based on the best thinking about how the world actually works and how learning occurs. Parents and educatorseverywhere who are engaged in creative efforts to develop new curricula and improve children's ecological understanding will find this book to be an invaluable resource.
http://villagebooks.booksense.com/NASApp/store/Product?s=showproduct&aff...

Building Powerful Community Organizations: A Personal Guide to Creating Groups That Can Solve Problems and Change the World(Trade Paperback) by Michael Jacoby Brown, $19.95
Intended for individuals who want to start, strengthen, or revitalize a group to address a community issue, this indispensable guide includes a series of practical steps that help build a successful community organization and offers sample cases that more clearly illustrate each step. In addition to addressing common problems that are often encountered, the book also discusses how to run engaging meetings, recruit and motivate community members, raise necessary funds, and turn a passion into a powerful tool for social change.
http://villagebooks.booksense.com/NASApp/store/Product?s=showproduct&aff...

Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community(Trade Paperback) by Bill McKibben, $13.00

Bestselling author Bill McKibben turns activist in the first hands-on guidebook to stopping climate change, the world's greatest threat
Hurricane Katrina. A rapidly disappearing Arctic. The warmest winter on the East Coast in recorded history. The leading scientist at NASA warns that we have only ten years to reverse climate change; the British government's report on global warming estimates that the financial impact will be greater than the Great Depression and both world wars--combined. Bill McKibben, the author of the first major book on global warming, "The End of Nature," warns that it's no longer time to debate global warming, it's time to fight it.
Drawing on the experience of Step It Up, a national day of rallies held on April 14, McKibben and the Step It Up team of organizers provide the facts of what must change to save the climate and show how to build the fight in your community, church, or college. They describe how to launch online grassroots campaigns, generate persuasive political pressure, plan high-profile events that will draw media attention, and other effective actions. This essential book offers the blueprint for a mighty new movement against the most urgent challenge facing us today.
http://villagebooks.booksense.com/NASApp/store/Product?s=showproduct&aff...

“If what we want is to stop the destruction of the life of this planet,
then what we have been doing has not been working. We will have to do
something else.” Something else, as in something really else, as in “now for something completely different” else. Not the same old tricks in a new shade of muddy green." - Tim Bennett

I think I'm noticing a trend. As the state of the planet continues to degrade apace, there's a sense that we're seriously running short on time. There seems to be not only a growing sense of unease about the situation we're in, but a growing willingness to speak about it in a very personal way. Perhaps it was the honesty and bravery displayed in the What a Way to Go documentary, that refused to tack a "happy chapter" onto the film; and that this has emboldened more people to speak honestly about the situation and reveal personal worry...fear...anger...confusion. I admire the bravery of each of these souls willing to speak their truth.

David

Rick Dubrow: "No Happy Chapter Here" (Cascadia Weekly, Dec. 5, 2007)
"So what’s my reality?
It’s very gloomy. ...The sad reality...is that our environment continues to degrade ...
I am repulsed by the health of our environment and an economy/culture that denies its responsibility for
its continued deterioration. But I will not ignore its symptoms and deny reality. I will not live numb and
distracted, even if remaining awake hurts.
My truth is that we’re in a world of hurt and that baby steps need to be left for babies."
On the Level

Robyn DuPre: "Where Am I Going and Why Am I in This Handbasket"? (Re-Sources Fall/Winter 2007 Newsletter)
"It's not about your children anymore - it's about you. That's right, it is not about the future anymore. It is about now. It is time to save the world for yourself...It's no longer about some far distant future. It is about now and I, for one, am scared awake and wondering how to get out of this hand basket my culture has created. It is time to act, to change our lives while perhaps salvaging the things that we say we care about: community, our children, big trees, clean cold oceans, fresh tomatoes. Really, our actions matter. Be part of the change today. Please."

Tim Bennett: "I Don't Know" (What a Way to Go blog: Conversations with Todd, December 6, 2007)
“I don’t know how best to help, Todd. Every time I publish a blog…
every time… I’m terrified. Will this blog help? Will it hurt? Will it
serve the life of this planet? I don’t know. All I know is that I stuck
in my picket pin. I said that I would show up and say what’s true for
me. So I keep doing it, even though it scares the shit out of me. But I
don’t know. This conversation right now… should I write about it?
Should I publish it? Will it help? Sally and I have both noticed that
often, when we express our own fear, our own confusion, our own sense
of helplessness or grief or despair or anger, the people around us
react strongly to that. As if they depend on us to remain steady and
calm. It’s like, ‘Shit, we’re staring into the collapse of fucking
civilization! Tim and Sally have been staring it down for years now.
They’ve even made a movie about it. If they can’t hold it together, how
the hell do I?’”

“So what can I say that will help? I have to say what’s true for me,
and what’s true for me is that I don’t know what I’m doing half the
time. What’s true for me is that I’m often terrified. What’s true for
me is that I’m grieving. What’s true for me is that I am so angry that
I want to scream. Does it help, to say that? Does it help people to
know that? So that maybe their own confusion and fear and grief and
anger can be normalized, rather than held as somehow weak, or somehow
wrong? Does it help? I don’t know!”
Conversations with Todd

Carolyn Baker: Redifining Positive: Collapse from Beyond the Human-Centric Perspective (CarolynBaker.net, December 6, 2007)
Any person who wants to "maintain a
positive attitude" in this culture-the culture of civilization that is
killing the planet-killing people and things that we all love-that
person is not only irrational and deeply afflicted with denial, but he
is exactly like a member of an abusive family system in which physical
and sexual assault are occurring in the home on a daily basis, but that
family member insists on "thinking good thoughts" and resents anyone
and everyone who says what is so about the abusive system.
CarolynBaker.net

George Monbiot: A Sudden Change of State (The Guardian, July 3, 2007)
Reading a scientific paper on the train this weekend, I found, to my
amazement, that my hands were shaking. This has never happened to me
before, but nor have I ever read anything like it. Published by a team
led by James Hansen at Nasa, it suggests that the grim reports issued
by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change could be absurdly
optimistic...I looked up from the paper, almost expecting to see crowds stampeding
through the streets. I saw people chatting outside a riverside pub. The
other passengers on the train snoozed over their newspapers or played
on their mobile phones. Unaware of the causes of our good fortune,
blissfully detached from their likely termination, we drift into
catastrophe.
Monbiot.com

George Monbio: What is Progress? (The Guardian, December 4, 2007)
The government proposes to cut the UK’s carbon emissions by 60% by
2050. This target is based on a report published in 2000(3). That
report was based on an assessment published in 1995, which drew on
scientific papers published a few years earlier. The UK’s policy, in
other words, is based on papers some 15 years old. Our target, which is
one of the toughest on earth, bears no relation to current science....But I am not advocating despair. We must confront a challenge which
is as great and as pressing as the rise of the Axis powers. Had we
thrown up our hands then, as many people are tempted to do today, you
would be reading this paper in German. Though the war often seemed
impossible to win, when the political will was mobilised strange and
implausible things began to happen. The US economy was spun round on a
dime in 1942 as civilian manufacturing was switched to military
production(25). The state took on greater powers than it had exercised
before. Impossible policies suddenly became achievable.

The real issues in Bali are not technical or economic. The crisis we
face demands a profound philosophical discussion, a reappraisal of who
we are and what progress means. Debating these matters makes us neither
saints nor communists; it shows only that we have understood the
science.
Monbiot.com

 

 

 

 

From Adam Brock, of Wild Green Yonder:

...Daniel Lerch, author of the recently released book “Post Carbon Cities,” might be the best messenger for yet for the peak oil cause. I attended one of Lerch’s presentations at the NYU law school last Wednesday, and while it wasn’t quite up to Inconvenient Truth standards, I found it to be the most digestible explanation of peak oil I’ve encountered yet. Unlike Albert Bates, the engaging but decidedly forest-hued peak oiler that spoke in New York about a month ago, Lerch came across as practical-minded and sympathetic to skeptics. His target audience is planners and municipal policymakers, and he framed the dimensions of the peak oil crisis in language familiar to those groups.

The talk began with a few fundamentals: the demand for oil is accelerating, while the supply seems to have hit a plateau. Sooner or later, supply will outstrip demand, causing oil shortages that will get ever more severe as the remaining reserves become more difficult and expensive to extract. This much, to me, seems pretty hard to refute.

But why do most peak oilers predict that this energy gap will wreak havoc on the economy? Can’t we just scale back our consumption slightly for now and eventually replace the gap with energy efficiency and renewables? That’s certainly the popular consensus among politicians and grass greens. To quote Denver mayor John Hickenlooper, who hosted a peak oil conference in 2005, “I don’t think it’ll affect the consumption of consumer products. It’s not gonna have a dramatic negative impact on our economy - we’re just gonna drive less.”

But according to Lerch, oil shortages are a lot less simple than having to turn down the A/C and line up to refill the gas tank. For one thing, models predict that once production starts slipping, it’ll slip fast – far faster than it’ll take to replace our needs with wind, solar or even nuclear. And as Lerch explained, In the last five decades we’ve become dependent on petroleum in countless ways, and seemingly insignificant disruptions in supply can have far-reaching repercussions. During the summer of 2006, for example, the spike in oil prices doubled the price of asphalt, a low-grade petroleum product. Routine road repairs were suddenly wildly overbudget, and many municipalities were forced to defer maintenance on their roadways....

Read Adam Brock's full review at Wild Green Yonder:
http://wildgreenyonder.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/post-carbon-cities-and-t...

Also, check out other city related news:
http://www.energybulletin.net/37162.html

Recommended Reading

Peak Everything: What A Way To Go
 Guest Opinion for the Whatcom Independent, 10/11/07, By David MacLeod
...
we're living on a planet with physical limitations and finite resources
at a time when the compounding effect of population growth is finally
being felt and experienced. Meanwhile, we live in a culture that
worships at the altar of hyper consumption and endless economic growth.
So, we have skyrocketing CO2, peak oil, and past peak on clean water,
seafood, wood, resource minerals and metals, and the list goes on and
on. On a whim, I decided to Google 'Peak Everything.' What I found was
a new book by the leading peak oil educator Richard Heinberg, with that
exact title: "Peak Everything." 
Heinberg covers all of the above issues, and argues that we must begin
now to make radical changes to our attitudes, behaviors and
expectations.

Covering some of the same territory is the new and powerful documentary film, What A Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire.
Sustainable Bellingham and Whatcom Community College are proud to be
bringing it to town on October 12th... Yes, these topics can feel
overwhelming. This film will help us move through and beyond the
overwhelm by engaging us with some important questions, which will be
further explored with the filmmakers after the screening. What do we
truly want? Can we find a new vision that will empower us to do what is
necessary to survive, and even thrive, in the coming decades? As is
said in the film, “We are much more than we've ever been allowed to
believe.”
http://www.sustainablebellingham.org/index.php?page=What_A_Way_to_Go_Article

A REVIEW OF THE DOCUMENTARY "What A Way To Go: Life At The End Of Empire"
by Carolyn Baker, ThePeoplesVoice.org I didn’t say it would be easy; I just said it would be the truth. - Morpheus, from “The Matrix” If anything is not easy to watch but absolutely the truth down to one’s toenails, it is
Tim Bennett’s and Sally Erickson’s doggedly transparent documentary, “What A Way To Go: Life At The End Of Empire.”
Nothing less than a 123-minute cat scan of the planet and its
twenty-first century human and non-human condition, this documentary is
indeed, “in your face” but with reverence, poignancy and solemnity yet
sending world-class denial artists running to re-watch “Little Miss
Sunshine” another one hundred times. While viewing it, I could see in
my mind Carl Jung puffing on his pipe and pensively whispering under
his breath, “Human beings can only handle so much truth.” ...In
the final moments of the documentary, Bennett offers an invitation to
the viewer: “Let’s jump off the train and build a boat…a lifeboat, an
ark, a galleon of adventure and imagination destined for unknown lands.
Build it now. The ice is melting. The waters are rising. We’re going to
have to let go of the shore.” http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2007/03/01/p14846

Wake up! Don't Hit the "Snooze" Button!
by Rick Dubrow, Cascadia Weekly, Oct. 3, 2007
The
American Dream appears to include an assumption that the well-being of
the Earth is an optional choice when we make decisions that might
effect our environment! Optional? What!?!?
WHAT!?!?!&#(!#%(^&!%(&^
...If Cathy lived nearby I’d
offer to pay her way – a bargain at $25 - to the upcoming Oct. 27th
Pachamama Symposium in Bellingham called “Awakening the Dreamer,
Changing the Dream” (www.awakeningthedreamer.org).
Wake up and smell
the effluent, Cathy! Don’t hit the snooze button and fall back asleep!
Yes, the American Dream appears to include an assumption that the
well-being of the Earth is an option! The dream needs to change, don’t
you think?
http://www.a1builders.ws/rss/cascadia_weekly_025.pdf

Futurewise Whatcom
Rick Dubrow, Thu, 30 Aug 2007 13:08:11 PST  Format: audio/mp3  File Size: 41,991,546 bytes
Growth:
there's no issue more critical than this hot potato! Whatcom County has
formed the first official chapter of the effective, state-wide
organization called Futurewise (formerly named '1,000 Friends of
Washington'). Futurewise Whatcom is driven to insure that the Growth
Management Act (GMA) benefits our citizens rather than special interest
groups. We need such a group at the same table as the development
community when decisions are being made about landuse. The future of
this great county depends upon the intelligent placement of future
inhabitants and the infrastructure they require. Learn about growth,
this group, and how you might get involved!
http://www.a1builders.ws/rss/on_the_level_006.mp3

Peak Oil Update
America's top oil suppliers tightening taps on exports
Global supply gap, surging prices will shift attention to oil deposits north of border
CNN Money, Oct. 2, 2007
Six
of the largest oil suppliers to the US are poised to cut their global
exports by nearly 2 million barrels a day by 2012, ramping up pressure
on supply and price, and intensifying the focus on one of the last
great deposits open to private investment: Canada's oil sands...
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/TO36002102007-1.htm

As the
world burns
Published on 3 Oct 2007 by MuseLetter / Energy Bulletin.
by Richard Heinberg
...Maybe
the best place to start is with a general comment. It’s getting pretty
damn obvious that the world is sliding head-first into the abyss at an
accelerating rate, with most Americans as oblivious as ever. The latest
indication of impending doom is a festering credit crunch brought on by
the inevitable puncturing of a bubble puffed up over the past few years
through the issuance of thousands of patently idiotic subprime,
adjustable-rate, and interest-only mortgage loans.
The deeper story
is that this is just the last of a series of bubbles that the US
Federal Reserve has inflated in order to sustain for as long as was
humanly possible a fundamentally unsound national financial condition.
...Of
course, another big event this month was oil’s nose-bleed ascent to
record-high prices, over $82US per barrel. Part of the price hike
resulted from the dollar’s weakness, but—as Goldman Sachs has pointed
out—the main reason was simply that demand is up while supply is down.
The May 2005 peak for the rate of production of regular crude and the
July 2006 peak for all liquids are still holding. It may be that the
technical maximum global rate of flow for liquid fuels is still a
couple of years away, but in effect the peak is here now...
http://www.energybulletin.net/35309.html

Gaviotas: The village that could save the planet
Paul Kaihla, Business 2.0 Magazine via CNN Money
How two men plan to extend the ecological miracle that is Gaviotas, Colombia, across the rest of the Third
World
....Gaviotas,
the ecovillage Lugari launched in 1971. It's one of the most improbable
field experiments in the annals of science and engineering: a
freewheeling center of innovation devoted to building a sustainable
society in one of the globe's least hospitable climates. Built from
scratch in a treeless corner of the country, this community of
scientists, tinkerers, and refugees - now numbering more than 200 - has
created a verdant rainforest where once there was nothing but scrub
grass. It has also devised and deployed dozens of inventions with a
frequency and success rate that puts some of America's most storied
technology companies to shame...
http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/26/technology/village_saving_planet.biz2/index.htm

Sustainable Bellingham Announcements

A
middle class white guy comes to grips with Peak Oil, Climate Change,
Mass Extinction, Population Overshoot and the demise of the American
Lifestyle.     A special screening and dialogue with the filmmakers!  

What a Way to Go:  Life at the End of Empire, a feature-length documentary by Tim Bennett and Sally Erickson, will screen at:

Date: October 12  
Intro: 6:45  Film: 7:00pm   Discussion with the filmmakers: 9:00pm Where: WCC Heiner Auditorium, 237 W. Kellogg Road   
Cost: Free Presented by Whatcom Community College and Sustainable Bellingham,
with co-sponsors The Pickford Cinema, RE Sources for Sustainable
Communities, Village Books, The Community Food Co op, A1 Builders,
Adaptations, and Futurewise Whatcom.

 

“A
powerful new documentary film that will help us move through and beyond
the overwhelm by engaging us with some important questions.” (full article here)
   David MacLeod, Whatcom Independent Guest Opinion

  "An
important film is coming to town...come on by on Oct. 12th and watch
me, another middle aged white guy, come to grips with the middle aged
white guy on the silver screen." (full article here)                                       Rick Dubrow,                                        On The Level, Cascadia Weekly

“Nothing less than a 123-minute cat scan of the planet and its twenty-first century human and non-human condition.” (full review here)
Carolyn Baker, www.carolynbaker.org    “Perhaps the most important media message of our time.” (full review here)