cruxcatalyst

New Crux

2011-08-31T21:37:00.005+09:30

Dear Crux Followers You may have noticed the absence of Crux in your In Box for a couple of months. I've decided, for several reasons, to move from Blogger to a self-hosted Wordpress site, www.cruxcatalyst.com and to cease posting stories to this blog. This will be a different kind of Crux - rather than reposting others' stories on a wide range of sustainability issues, I'll be focusing more on

Cohousing Up Close in Colorado

2011-06-05T01:25:00.000+09:30

Reposted in full from the Urban Ecology Australia newsletter, May/June 2011'Cohousing communities exist in northern Europe, Canada, Australia, the UK and elsewhere. There are more than 100 in the US and nearly another hundred being planned. While not officially a cohousing development, Christie Walk follows similar principles and would certainly qualify as one. Recycling, resource sharing,

No Vacation Nation

2011-06-04T00:57:00.003+09:30

This must have hit a nerve - nearly four thousand comments on this post!Reposted in full from CNN, 23 May 2011'Let's be blunt: If you like to take lots of vacation, the United States is not the place to work. Besides a handful of national holidays, the typical American worker bee gets two or three precious weeks off out of a whole year to relax and see the world - much less

Advertising Overload

2011-06-02T22:44:00.002+09:30

This clip is an amazing piece of work, it screens out all else but advertising to show how prevalent it is.Sourced from Dangerous Intersection, 1 June 2011'A Netherlands arts group, Studio Smack, put together this video which provides a stark look at all the logos and advertising one is exposed to throughout a normal daily routine.' KAPITAAL from STUDIO SMACK on Vimeo.

SOLOPEC Nations Warn Sun's Output May Fall Short Of Demand

2011-06-02T19:58:00.002+09:30

Seriously funny stuff!Excerpt from The Onion, 22 June 2005'RIYADH, MUHAMMAD ARABIA—The governing board of the Solar Output Power Exporting Countries announced Monday that, in spite of attempts to raise production levels, increased global-power consumption may begin to outstrip the sun's output by early next year. "Our solar-accumulation arrays in Muhammad Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, and Mexico are

7 Ways to Stop Wall Street's Con Game

2011-05-30T23:34:00.000+09:30

Reposted in full from YES! Magazine, 25 May 2011'Wikipedia defines a “confidence trick” as “an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, con man, confidence trickster, or con artist, and any accomplices are known as shills. Confidence men exploit human characteristics such as greed and dishonesty.”<

The Peasant Revolt

2011-05-30T16:56:00.003+09:30

Image: http://eavoss.files.wordpress.comReposted in full from Transition Voice, 24 May 2011'Has our society become so obsessed with economic growth that people have become a commodity? Two items in my morning newspaper strongly suggest the answer to be an emphatic, shameful YES. The first is a national story about how smuggling people across the Mexico

Stairs or Slide?

2011-05-27T19:34:00.001+09:30

There should be more of this! I've always said multi-storey buildings should have internal spiral slides, a la The Magic Faraway Tree!This is also a very clever piece of social media - viewed 2.2 million times, its an ad for Volkswagen, but people will share it because it makes them smile and is unexpected.Sourced from YouTube, 11 June 2010

One-Third of World's Food Goes to Waste - UN

2011-05-26T14:34:00.000+09:30

Reposted in full from The Guardian, 12 May 2011'One-third of the world's food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted each year, according to a study (pdf) released on Wednesday by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Roughly 1.3bn tonnes of food is either lost or wasted globally due to inefficiencies throughout the food supply chain, says the report, based on research by the

Masters in Economics for Transition

2011-05-26T11:50:00.000+09:30

Sourced from the new economics foundation, May 2011 'From September 2011, Schumacher College, Dartington will be offer a new MA degree course in "The Economics for Transition: Achieving low carbon, high well-being, resilient economies". This pioneering postgraduate programme has been developed by nef, Schumacher College and the Transition Network, and is offered through the

How ‘Homo-Economicus’ Destabilises Our Food Web

2011-05-26T02:15:00.002+09:30

Reposted in full from Smart Planet, 25 April 2011'Jennifer Dunne, professor at the Santa Fe Institute, is working on the first-ever effort to quantify where humans fit into the food webs in our ecosystem. Dunne, co-director for Pacific Ecoinformatics and Computational Ecology (PEaCE) Lab, says our over-fishing of blue fin tuna is a good example of how humans are changing the natural cycles of our

Enterprises Should Focus on Wellbeing Rather than Growth

2011-05-26T02:06:00.002+09:30

Reposted in full from The Guardian'When I run sessions with business executives on growth, wellbeing, and innovation, I say that people don't have to buy my analysis of the problem to buy my ideas on the solution. That's because I think we are now living in an era of "uneconomic growth" and we therefore have no choice but to redefine prosperity as being about wellbeing not growth. Actually, there is – a three-day weekend in spring. Seventy-two precious hours of freedom. Finish that book on the bedside table. Stroll the park, scour the barbecue, plant the garden. Or, if you're really ambitious, tackle the clutter in the basement. Canadians enjoy

International Energy Agency - Crude Oil Peaked in 2006

2011-05-24T00:59:00.004+09:30

From the horse's mouth of the International Energy Agency's Chief Economist, Dr Fatih Birol - crude oil peaked in 2006.' The time is running out, the oil is today our lifeline, it is everywhere in the economy, if the prices go up or if there's a supply disruption this will be definitely very bad news. .. I think it would have been better if the governments have started to work on it at least ten

Light Criticism

2011-05-23T20:50:00.000+09:30

Sourced from Anti-Advertising Agency, 23 January 2007'Advertising is the vandalism of the Fortune 500....years into NYC’s crackdown on graffiti writers and protesters, after we’ve watched our friends be detained, arrested, beat, fined, tried, and given real jail sentences, not a single corporate toy from any ad firm has had to do any time.'

Jamie Oliver - Why I Was Banned From Los Angeles Schools

2011-05-23T12:01:00.000+09:30

Sourced from The Daily Show, 7 April 2011Jamie's last point: 'They don't want me washing their dirty laundry in public...but when its public money and your taxes pay for it, then maybe transparency is quite a good thing in a democracy...' cue huge cheers of support from the audience.

Can the Market Really Provide Food Security?

2011-05-23T11:10:00.000+09:30

Reposted in full from Online Opinion, 20 May 2011'Victoria now has a Minister for Food Security – part of the portfolio of Nationals MP Peter Walsh – and the Federal coalition too has rebranded its shadow minister Minister for Agriculture and Food Security. The conservative side of Australian politics thinks there's something compelling and politically useful in this notion of food security, and

Anxiety Keeps the Super-Rich Safe from Middle-Class Rage

2011-05-22T20:31:00.002+09:30

‎'Looking in the wrong direction' is what gets us fighting over what is left and how it allocated among a range of real needs - from disability services, to people seeking asylum/refuge, to ensuring pensioners do not live hand-to-mouth, to having enough doctors and nurses - instead of collectively working on demanding a less extreme pooling of society's wealth at the top.Reposted in full from The

Top 5 Myths About Subsidies to Oil Companies

2011-05-22T14:32:00.000+09:30

Excerpt from Transition Voice, 2 May 2011'...Myth #1: Drivers will lose cheap gas Claim: “What will the oil companies – what does any company – do when its taxes go up?” asks conservative commentator Keith Koffler, echoing the industry’s Orwellian line that cutting subsidies is actually a form of raising taxes. “PASS THE COSTS ALONG TO THE CONSUMER. That is, higher gas

We're Not Broke, Just Twisted: Extreme Wealth Inequality in America

2011-05-22T01:13:00.002+09:30

SHARE. You bastards.Sourced from YouTube, 18 May 2011

Yarn Bombing: Creating Graffiti with Yarn

2011-05-21T18:58:00.003+09:30

I like it! Woolly Bully indeed!Reposted in full from New York Times, 18 May 2011'The bronze statue of Rocky near the Philadelphia Museum of Art irked Jessie Hemmons. She found the statue too big, too macho and too touristy, so last month Ms. Hemmons, a 24-year-old artist, bombed him. With pinkish yarn. Using a stepladder and a needle, Ms. Hemmons stitched a fuchsia-colored hooded vest on the

Growing Consumption a Bane for India: Chandran Nair

2011-05-19T22:24:00.001+09:30

Excerpt from The Economic Times, 16 May 2011'Author and think-tank founder Chandran Nair is a second-generation Indian-origin Malaysian based out of Hong Kong. He made news in India a few years ago at a conference in New Delhi, where he took on American political scientist Francis Fukayama over what he calls the latter's "odd view of the world based on an inherent belief in American

World Economics Association Launched

2011-05-18T16:42:00.003+09:30

Sourced from World Economics Association, 18 May 2011'The World Economic Association (WEA) was launched on May 16, 2011. It fills a gap in the international community of economists - the absence of a truly international, inclusive, pluralist, professional association. The American Economic Association and UK's Royal Economic Society provide broad associations mainly for their country's economists

OzHarvest Launches in Adelaide

2011-05-18T11:07:00.000+09:30

Food rescue charity OzHarvest launched in Adelaide on 17 May. South Australian identity and Adelaide 5AA Radio's Keith Conlon, an OzHarvest Ambassador, offers a peek into how this free service (backed by philanthropic funding) works!Sourced from 5aa Radio, 17 May 2011

UK Uncut: Turn A Bank Into A Hospital

2011-05-18T01:19:00.000+09:30

Love your work, UK Uncut!'On Saturday May 28th, join UK Uncut’s Emergency Operation and transform your local high street bank into a hospital. Tell the government to leave our NHS alone; it’s the banks that are sick.'

UK Company Implicated in Toxic E-Waste Trail from London to West Africa

2011-05-16T21:56:00.003+09:30

I know for a fact there are a few causes for concern here in Australia also. Do you know what YOUR workplace does with old computers? Would your boss want to be responsible for confidential information and records being recovered from hard drives and publicised? It's happened! In Australia, it is a FEDERAL OFFENCE under the 1989 Hazardous Waste Act to export any such

Green Map System: Open Source Model to Foster Sustainable Communities

2011-05-14T19:36:00.004+09:30

In the mid-90s, I was involved in getting the first Green Map (now lapsed) for the southern hemisphere produced for Adelaide! Open source tech and mobile applications now make this an even more powerful approach to finding green/sustainability sites and services, in any city, whatever language (as a common set of icons are used)Reposted in full from Inhabitat, 12 May 2011'Have you ever visited a

Three Types of Economic Interaction

2011-05-13T00:36:00.000+09:30

Reposted in full from Symbionomics, 11 May 2011'Economic interactions can be boiled down to three core patterns. I will make no attempt to take an ethical stance on any of them, though their ethical implications are obvious. Let me also say that this post is a gross over-simplification. However, sometimes, over-simplifications can be valuable tools for helping us see where opportunities for

The Ultimate Dog Tease

2011-05-11T00:06:00.002+09:30

Sourced from YouTube, May 2011We haven't had a funny in a while, and this one is a pearler. It has gone viral, with over twelve MILLION views in one week.

The Magic Box of Money Creation

2011-05-10T01:27:00.007+09:30

Sourced from Critical Mass podcasts, 8 May 2011Mike Freedman, currently producing the documentary film, Critical Mass, talks with Ben Curtis and Ben Dyson from Positive Money UK to talk about the way money is created, how it affects everything from politics to the environment, what's wrong with the current system and what we can do to fix it.

Collapse P*rn?

2011-05-09T23:11:00.003+09:30

The content of the message, all true (and the same a large number of people have been saying for many years), but the way the message is delivered?Excerpt from Climate Denial, 29 September 2010 'A movie that is now being launched in the UK called Collapse shows Michael Ruppert chainsmoking his way through visions of social and economic disaster. It is symptomic of the utterly

A Strategy for National Security - Sustainability

2011-05-08T23:05:00.000+09:30

Excerpt from New York Times, 3 May 2011'Here’s a proposition: The death of Osama bin Laden brings a moment to talk about something other than threats — not because they don’t exist, but because for the country to see and speak of nothing else is mortally dangerous. Col. Mark Mykleby, a senior advisor on strategy to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Capt. Wayne Porter of the Navy

The Rise of Collaborative Consumption

2011-05-06T22:37:00.002+09:30

Sourced from YouTube, 31 May 2010Rachel Botsman, co-author of "What's Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption", at TEDx Sydney, 2010Excerpt from Grist, 4 May 2011'Lots of the most interesting changes in the direction of sustainability are happening outside green politics (ie. the stuff I'm always writing about). One that's always fascinated me is the spread of sharing economies, or "

HOME Yann Arthus-Bertrand

2011-05-06T01:41:00.000+09:30

Sourced from YouTube, 13 January 2011'We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate. The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every

How to Share in a Dialogue Despite Differences

2011-05-05T20:59:00.001+09:30

Reposted in full from Shareable, 2 May 2011'“I’ve witnessed people change before my very eyes and they are softened by the experience of being heard and listening,” says Kris Miner, executive director St. Croix Valley Restorative Justice Program. Miner’s program, launched in 2001 to serve communities in western Wisconsin, facilitates dialogues between victims and perpetrators, disruptive teens

UN Sees Rise For the World To 10.1 Billion

2011-05-04T10:34:00.002+09:30

Reposted in full from the New York Times, 3 May 2011 'The population of the world, long expected to stabilize just above 9 billion in the middle of the century, will instead keep growing and may hit 10.1 billion by the year 2100, the United Nations projected in a report released Tuesday. Growth in Africa remains so high that the population there could more than triple in

15 Things They Don't Tell You About Money

2011-05-04T01:29:00.002+09:30

Dire Straits were right! Sourced from Positive Money, 29 April 2011'Inspired by Ha Joon Chang’s 23 Things They Didn’t Tell You About Capitalism (2010) where you learn for example that the Nobel Prize for Economics is not really a Nobel Prize: it is awarded by the Swedish Central Bank. 1. Governments in full sovereign control of their currencies can create sufficient money to ensure full

The Beginners Guide to Carbon (Rogue) Trading

2011-05-04T00:12:00.002+09:30

Sourced from The Ecologist, 3 May 2011'The Environmental Investigation Agency's animated film highlighting how the global trade in carbon credits is open to abuse and exploitation...As the debate over carbon trading intensifies, the real life eco-spooks have released this unique video to highlight the dangers of the current 'carbon rush'. For more info: www.eia-international.org'

Stepping Back to Civilize Ourselves

2011-05-01T23:00:00.000+09:30

Excerpt from the New Internationalist, 29 April 2011Spring is in the air. But that’s not why everyone’s so happy in Sunny England this week!The weather is more mid-summer than spring, really, with blazing sun and not a cloud in sight. The weather cheers people up enormously, no doubt. But the thing that seems to make everyone smile is the fact that they’ve all had four days off, a three-day

Boom or Bust for Our Planet?

2011-04-30T09:47:00.002+09:30

Dick Smith: "We have a real problem as our economic system is built on perpetual growth, when everyone knows you can't have perpetual growth," he says. "One day it has to stop." << That's it. That is all there is. Can we get on with addressing this instead of whining about it like a bunch of over-indulged children?!Reposted in full from Adelaide Now, 29 April 2011'A crowded planet, with more

Thought Bubbles on Population and Growth - Dick Smith

2011-04-28T00:09:00.000+09:30

Reposted in full from Online Opinon, 20 April 2011' I read with interest and not a little dismay the recent On Line Opinion article by Ross Elliott. Mr Elliott is a property developer and his views are consistent with those few who stand to benefit from ever-increasing population growth in Australia: developers, media companies and of course retailers. But for most

Plea to Control Aussie Growth

2011-04-27T23:30:00.001+09:30

Reposted in full from Adelaide Now, 26 April 2011'Zoos SA says Australia's population, economic and immigration growth are unsustainable in terms of damage to the environment. Zoos SA's Dr Chris West said that with 33,000 members who shared an interest in ecological matters, the organisation had a duty to speak out about growth and sustainability. "We can't turn the clock back but we can't

The Myth of Apathy

2011-04-24T01:37:00.000+09:30

Reposted in full from Sustainable Life Media'The conundrumAt this moment in time, there is no shortage of good ideas about how to make the world cleaner and greener.We live in an era where there is an abundance of juicy good ideas, more awareness than ever about our ecological contexts. Information about the vastness of biodiversity, creatures in the deep seas and remote corners of this planet,

The Sharing Economy

2011-04-24T00:00:00.003+09:30

"Business has spent centuries making buying really easy...we're just at the beginning of making sharing easy."Reposted in full from The Fast Company, 18 April 2011 'It's 8:30 a.m. in Silicon Valley, and Neal Gorenflo is already busy sharing. Inside his Mountain View town house, just a few short blocks from the Caltrain station where commuters pour out each morning on their

Tasks vs Work - Why Work Doesn't Happen At Work

2011-04-23T19:59:00.000+09:30

This all sounds horribly familiar! Anyone who has ever worked in an office will appreciate this - and laugh out loud in a number of places!Sourced/excerpt from TED, November 2010 'So I'm going to talk about work, specifically why people can't seem to get work done at work, which is a problem we all kind of have...we have companies and non-profits and charities and all these groups that have

On Being Wrong

2011-04-22T12:46:00.002+09:30

Sourced from TED, April 2011'Most of us will do anything to avoid being wrong. But what if we're wrong about that? "Wrongologist" Kathryn Schulz makes a compelling case for not just admitting but embracing our fallibility'

The Cooking, Eating and Business of Shared Food

2011-04-22T01:15:00.002+09:30

Another stunningly wonderful piece, reposted in full from Shareable, 19 April 2011'For conscious eaters, the dinner table is composed of thoughtfully sourced ingredients – local, organic, sustainable, etc. However, for many of us, quality food isn’t enough. Today, the chairs around the table and the people, often strangers, who fill them are equally concerned about the integrity of the food’s

Being Yourselves

2011-04-21T12:56:00.000+09:30

Neuroscientist David Eagleman's talk on the multiple selves of the brain - some great stories and insights in this one!Sourced from The School of Life, April 2011'If the conscious mind—the part you consider you—is just the tip of the iceberg in the brain, what is all the rest doing? Why can you argue with yourself, cajole yourself, and get angry at yourself? Who, exactly, is dealing with whom? Is

Economics and Our Human Nature - David Korten

2011-04-20T21:44:00.002+09:30

Reposted in full from YES! Magazine, 12 April 2011'The successful function of mature democracies, caring communities, and living economies requires caring, mature, and responsible citizens who care not only for their own well-being, but as well for that of their neighbor. Given the experience of human history, many will ask with good reason whether this might be contrary to human nature. Local politics - schools, zoning, council elections - hit us where we live. So why don't more of us actually get involved? Is it apathy? Dave Meslin says no. He identifies the 7 barriers that keep us from taking part in our communities, even when we truly care.

China's Ghost Cities

2011-04-12T21:22:00.002+09:30

Here we are facing peak oil, climate change (cement manufacture being a major contributor), loss of forests - and China is building an estimated ten cities a year, but the government isn't concerned whether people are actually living in them, because it's maintaining economic growth! This is what the UN calls 'uneconomic growth'. Another word would be 'madness'.Sourced from SBS's Dateline, 24

The Odd Challenge for Detroit Planners

2011-04-12T15:04:00.001+09:30

Excerpt from the New York Times, 5 April 2011 'When Marja M. Winters was studying urban planning in graduate school, she learned the art and science of helping cities grow. Now Ms. Winters, a native of Detroit and the deputy director of the city’s planning and development department, finds herself in an utterly unexpected role, one that no school would have thought to prepare her for: she is

Non-Geographic Mapping

2011-04-12T01:50:00.000+09:30

click on link below to access interactive mapSourced from Princeton University'The International Networks Archive is a worldwide alliance of scholars interested in developing a new system of mapping our world, based on global transactions instead of geography.'

Enjoy the Ride Takes Off

2011-04-12T00:07:00.004+09:30

The Western Australian government's road safety campaign 'Enjoy the Ride' - an inspired and very clever piece of communication! Reposted in full from the ABC, 11 April 2011'Within minutes of its launch, the 'slow down and enjoy the ride' commercial had been viewed by thousands of people around the world. The three minute Office of Road Safety ad was broadcast simultaneously on three television

Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench

2011-04-11T02:33:00.000+09:30

Sourced from Our Amazing Planet, 7 June 2010

Regime Shifts

2011-04-11T00:04:00.000+09:30

Sourced from Regime Shifts, an initiative led by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, April 2011'Regime shifts are large, persistent changes in the structure and function of social-ecological systems, with substantive impacts on the suite of ecosystem services provided by these systems...they may have substantial impacts on human well-being, and are often difficult to anticipate and costly to

How to Design a Neighborhood for Happiness

2011-04-10T23:36:00.001+09:30

Excerpt from Shareable, 25 March 2011'...The way we design our communities plays a huge role in how we experience our lives. Neighborhoods built without sidewalks, for instance, mean that people walk less and therefore experience fewer spontaneous encounters, which is what instills a spirit of community to a place. That’s a chief cause of the social isolation so rampant in the modern world that

Pocket Neighborhoods

2011-04-10T01:41:00.002+09:30

Looks terrible - I think I'd rather stick with suburban sprawl...Sourced from Pocket Neighborhoods, April 2011'Pocket neighborhoods are clustered groups of neighboring houses or apartments gathered around some sort of shared open space — a garden courtyard, a pedestrian street, a series of joined backyards, or a reclaimed alley — all of which have a clear sense of territory and shared stewardship

The Different Kinds of Ecosystem Services

2011-04-10T01:03:00.000+09:30

Useful summary of Ecosystems ServicesReposted in full from The Bank of Natural Capital, 12 October 2010'Ecosystem services are the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. We can distinguish between provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services provided by ecosystems: Provisioning Services are ecosystem services that describe the

Five Benefits of the Crowd-Sourced City

2011-04-09T20:08:00.000+09:30

Reposted in full from Shareable, 24 March 2011'With the rise of affordable consumer electronics and the explosion of the information age, the gap between professionals and amateurs has narrowed. In nearly every sector, the average Joe may have ideas and talents that are as good -- or better -- than those of the “powers that be.” When professionals give an open call to an undefined crowd, opening

The Human Cost of Comfort

2011-04-09T01:24:00.000+09:30

Sourced from Credit Loan, 2009click on link for full size image'Can you imagine living without the Internet? Well, the Internet’s not even that old. How about living without your television or telephone? Today, we take a whole range of human comforts for granted. We also don’t appreciate just how inexpensive most of our creature comforts – cling plastic wrap, anyone? – are.

The Carbon Atlas

2011-04-08T01:10:00.002+09:30

click on link to original source for interactive mapSourced from The Guardian, 9 December 2008'New figures confirm that China has overtaken the US as the largest emitter of CO2. This interactive emissions map shows how the rest of the world compares. Global C02 emissions totalled 29,195m tonnes in 2006 – up 2.4% on 2005'

Escaping from Civilisation Only a Remote Possibility

2011-04-08T00:59:00.000+09:30

Travel time to anywhere in the world...Sourced from the New Scientist, 2 April 2009'Very little of the world's land can now be thought of as inaccessible, according to a new map of connectedness.The maps are based on a model which calculated how long it would take to travel to the nearest city of 50,000 or more people by land or water.The model combines information on terrain and access to road,

The Old American Dream is a Nightmare

2011-04-08T00:46:00.000+09:30

Excerpt from Grist, 9 March 2011'...[James Howard] Kunstler has long warned of the horrendous hangover we're going to wake up with after our "cheap oil fiesta," but he's not gloating as global instability and climate destabilization become the new not-so-normal. Unlike some dystopians, he's motivated less by the desire to say "I told you so" than by the hope that we might still manage to reinvent

Before I Die

2011-04-06T22:09:00.000+09:30

This is just gorgeous...the pictures say it all.Sourced from Candy Chang, April 2011'Candy Chang is a public installation artist, designer, urban planner, and co-founder of Civic Center who likes to make cities more comfortable for people.With a lot of support from old and new friends, I turned the side of an abandoned house in my neighborhood into a giant chalkboard where residents can write on

nef’s New Economic Model selected as a Semi-Finalist for the 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

2011-04-06T01:34:00.000+09:30

click link below for larger imageReposted in full from the new economics foundation, 24 March 2011'The New Economic Model led by James Meadway and Tim Jenkins at leading independent think-tank nef (the new economics foundation) has been named a 2011 Semi-Finalist in the Buckminster Fuller Challenge, the prestigious annual design science competition named "Socially-Responsible Design's Highest

The Food Bubble is About to Burst

2011-04-06T01:18:00.000+09:30

Reposted in full from the New Scientist, 10 February 2011'We're fast draining the fresh water resources our farms rely on, warns Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute What is a food bubble? That's when food production is inflated through the unsustainable use of water and land. It's the water bubble we need to worry about now. The World Bank says that 15 per cent of

The Gen Y Guide to Collaborative Consumption

2011-04-05T20:01:00.005+09:30

Many of these links are to US sharing sites, however the concepts are universal - and there may be a local equivalent in your country (eg. Pozible in Australia in lieu of Kickstarter).Reposted in full from Shareable, 8 March 2011'When our parents graduated from college, the bachelor’s degree was a coveted badge of honor. It gave applicants instant cred (and usually a larger paycheck) no matter

GDP No Real Guide to Wealth or Welfare

2011-04-05T17:28:00.000+09:30

Reposted in full from The Australian, 31 March 2011'After the tsunami slammed the Japanese coast, economists rushed to update their forecasts for Japan's GDP. A major investment bank cut its 2011 growth rate from 1.5 per cent to 1.4 per cent, but ratcheted up its 2012 forecast from 2.1 per cent to 2.5 per cent.If that forecast turns out to be correct, by 2012 Japan's economy will be bigger than

What's Happiness Got to Do With It?

2011-04-05T02:43:00.000+09:30

Reposted from Sustainable Seattle, February 2011' Sustainability is a big word. At its core, it’s about people. It’s about whether you and I and our grandchildren’s grandchildren will be able to live on this planet and enjoy life now and forever. We often confuse sustainability with the environmental movement. We say it’s all about preserving a tract of land or restoring

Growing Concerns as Food Imports Soar

2011-04-05T01:02:00.002+09:30

Reposted in full from The Australian, 18 March 2011'Australia now imports more than a third of its fruit supply and almost 20 per cent of its vegetables, amid warnings of increasing threats to future food supply from population and land-use pressures. The proportion of imports has alarmed some Australian growers, who yesterday released a report into food security issues and called for a return

On the Origin of Corporations: From Privateers to Profiteers

2011-04-05T00:58:00.001+09:30

'As with the buccaneers and privateers of days past, Wall Street’s major players find it more profitable to expropriate the wealth of others than to find honest jobs producing goods and services beneficial to their communities.'Reposted in full from YES! Magazine, 7 March 2011'Like many Americans, I grew up believing that conservative values were about local control and personal responsibility

Wicked Problems And How To Stop Them Turning Horrid

2011-04-04T23:49:00.000+09:30

Reposted in full from OnLine Opinion, 17 March 2011'Climate change and global warming are what are known in policy circles as 'wicked problems'. Because of their complexity, 'wicked problems' are unlike problems policy makers are used to dealing with. By way of contrast, eradicating smallpox was a simple problem because once an antidote was discovered, a public immunisation program resolved the

Playspent: Understanding the Economics of Poverty

2011-04-04T23:34:00.000+09:30

Sourced from Sociological Images, 26 February 2011'Dolores R., Kelly, and Elyse all sent links to a new website, PlaySpent, designed to help people understand the challenges and trade-offs faced by low-income people with insecure employment. The “game” begins when you’ve been unemployed, have only $1,000 left in your bank account, and need to get a low wage job......The site would be an

Five Things Every Mayor Should Know Before Starting A Bike-Sharing Program

2011-04-04T23:28:00.001+09:30

Reposted in full from Shareable, 15 February 2011'Bike-sharing is a two-wheeled transit service — call it bike transit — which started in 1965 in Amsterdam and has since spread to nearly 250 communities around the world. The service allows individuals to rent a bike from one of many unattended stations, or docking points, and return it to any station. Before implementing a bike-sharing service,

How To Share A House

2011-04-03T23:05:00.004+09:30

I love, love this idea, this ethos - how much easier, kinder - not to mention cheaper - would life be if we created connections and communities this way?Reposted in full from Shareable, 14 December 2009'As a companion to her essays "The Slow Homes Manifesto" and "How to Stop Foreclosure through Homesharing," Janelle Orsi offers this nuts-and-bolts case study in the marriage of two households.

Fire and Ice: Melting Glaciers Trigger Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Volcanos

2011-04-03T22:56:00.003+09:30

'Ha, an earthquake and tsunami, that'll show all those greenies, just wait, they will try to blame THAT on global warming...!'Hm.Reposted in full from About.com, March 2011'Climatologists have been raising alarms about global warming for years, and now geologists are getting into the act, warning that melting glaciers will lead to an increasing number of earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic

Melbourne Growth Got Away From Us: Labor

2011-04-03T22:53:00.001+09:30

Excerpt from The Age, 18 March 2011'Daniel Andrews has conceded Labor lost government because it failed to meet community expectations as Melbourne's runaway population growth ''got away from us''.The Opposition Leader said Labor needed to face the fact ''we could have done more and we could have done better'' to boost services and help households tackle daily challenges.''People across the

Star Wars Imperial Walker Made From Recycled Computer Parts

2011-04-03T19:37:00.002+09:30

Sourced from Planetsave, 16 February 2011'The artist behind this great masterpiece is Sage Werbock better known as the Great Nippulini. Sage is a retired sideshow performer who now works as a professional body piercer. Sage is self-taught in the art of metalworking and has excelled at hand-forging steel and iron. He is also very proficient at stick, mig and tig welding. He tries to use recycled

Peak Oil Angst and the Lure of Techno-Utopia

2011-03-31T00:05:00.003+10:30

'Latest 'Zeitgeist' Documentary Mixes Sound Critique and Goofy Futurism' — Transition VoiceI must concur – the film’s diagnosis is pretty much on the money, but the prescription? I am highly suspicious of technological master plans that deny the diversity of humanity, and don’t really address the internal dysfunction that brought us to this point. Excerpt from Transition Voice, 30 March 2011

Rio+20: Toward a New Green Economy - or a Green-Washed Old Economy?

2011-03-30T23:21:00.004+10:30

'...20 years ago, governments at Rio were bold enough to lay out a set of commitments that might credibly have rescued us from some of the dire predicaments we are now in but they never fulfilled their own promises...those promises should not be abandoned for a hollow "green economy" that amounts to a Trojan horse for ongoing destruction-as-usual.'' Reposted in full from Grist, 24 March 2011'I've

You Can Change The World

2011-03-28T02:01:00.002+10:30

Sourced from Duarte Design, 3 March 2011Nancy Duarte's TEDx East talk on story structure in presentations:'This talk reveals the hidden structure that the greatest communicators and persuaders have used over thousands of years. Insights from literature and cinema helped reveal why the greatest communicators are riveting.'

Hospital Food With Intensive Care

2011-03-24T02:37:00.002+10:30

Reposted in full from The Telegraph, 23 March 2011'Mike Duckett doesn’t seem like an obvious revolutionary. Softly spoken and grey-moustached, he has a year to go before retirement from his job as catering manager of the Royal Brompton Hospital in west London. But his approach to food could destabilise the received wisdom about feeding people in large organisations, through a truly radical

The End of the Growth Ethic

2011-03-23T13:36:00.002+10:30

Sourced from YouTube, 18 March 2010'UBC Professor William Rees argues that the current growth ethic has put us into ecological overshoot, citing his ecological footpr UBC Professor William Rees argues that the current growth ethic has put us into ecological overshoot, citing his ecological footprint analysis tool he developed, and may result in a breakdown in civil order and conflict over scarce

Don't Worry, Be Happy

2011-03-22T20:18:00.002+10:30

I wonder what Mao would think of the Bobby McFerrin-ing of The Middle Kingdom?!Reposted in full from The Economist, 17 March 2011'The pursuit of happiness, runs one of the most consequential sentences ever penned, is an unalienable right. That Jeffersonian sentiment seems to have influenced even China’s normally strait-laced, rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), which

Bring on the Participatory Sensing

2011-03-22T20:13:00.002+10:30

Crowdsourcing environmental protection with IT...Reposted in full from Shareable, 15 March 2011'For decades, Congress has delegated the fate of our public lands, the air, water, and wildlife to federal agencies, where a familiar dynamic of regulatory capture and corruption quickly takes root. It’s depressingly routine: Industry foxes are appointed to guard the chicken house; they make politically

NeighborGoods

2011-03-22T20:02:00.001+10:30

Facilitating sharing, renting and selling among neighbours...Sourced from NeighborGoodsHow NeighborGoods Works from NeighborGoods on Vimeo.