Local Action for a Sustainable Tomorrow

This interview took place yesterday on DemocracyNow.org and does the best job of explaining our current economy and the need to support farmers’ markets. I highly recommend viewing it or reading the transcript. David Korten: “Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth” http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/26/david_korten_agenda_for_a_new As President Barack Obama reveals more... (read more)

Exposed: the great GM crops myth Major new study shows that modified soya produces 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/exposed-the-great-... Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to... (read more)

Grain Farmer Claims Moral Victory in Seed Battle Against Monsanto Percy Schmeiser’s decade-long legal odyssey has finally come to an end - and he’s got a cheque for $660 to prove it. The 77-year-old Saskatchewan farmer and his wife, Louise, became international folk heroes for their legal struggle with agribusiness giant Monsanto... (read more)

Stuffed and Starved: As Food Riots Break Out Across the Globe, Raj Patel Details “The Hidden Battle for the World Food System” Global food prices have risen dramatically, adding a new level of danger to the crisis of world hunger. In Africa, food riots have swept across the continent, with recent... (read more)

Farm Bill Hog-Ties Local Producers ". . . consumers who would like to be able to buy local fruits and vegetables not just at farmers' markets, but also in the produce aisle of their supermarket, will be dismayed to learn that the federal government works deliberately and forcefully to prevent... (read more)

Tell Your Representative to Support Clean Energy Tax Incentives The House of Representatives may vote as soon as tomorrow (Feb. 27) on the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008 (H.R. 5351). This critical piece of legislation would eliminate $18 billion in tax breaks to the oil industry to... (read more)

Nanosolar Ships First Panels After five years of product development – including aggressively pipelined science, research and development, manufacturing process development, product testing, manufacturing engineering and tool development, and factory construction – we now have shipped first product and received our first check of product revenue. We are grateful to everyone... (read more)

In July 2006, the world's oil rigs pumped out crude at a rate of nearly 85.5 million bbl. a day. They haven't come close since, even as prices have risen from $75 to $98 per bbl. Which raises a question of potentially epochal significance: Is it all downhill from here? It's... (read more)

YELLOW SPRINGS, OHIO – Former professor and author David Korten told close to 300 applauding peak oil activists that they are not a fringe minority but the leading edge of a super-majority “and it's time we start acting like it.” Korten issued his rallying call in October at the “Fourth U.S.... (read more)

08:00 PM Modern Marvels: Renewable Energy. In the young 21st Century, two realizations are dawning on the world's population: we are hopelessly dependent on petroleum, which is only going to get more expensive; and global warming, caused mainly by our burning of fossil fuels, will impact civilization in... (read more)

The ATTRA project, NCAT’s sustainable agriculture information service, is in a serious funding crunch. The project normally is funded by a federal grant from the US Department of Agriculture. Unfortunately, this year, Congress has been delayed in passing its budget bills. This includes the Agriculture Appropriations bill which has provided... (read more)

Do you know someone who could benefit from the State's weatherization program for low-income households (monthly income below $1,064 for first person and $462 for each additional person)? Home weatherization is part of LIHEAP: Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program. The person must be a home owner to be eligible for... (read more)

DemocracyNow.org spends the hour with one of the world's leading scientists studying climate change, Tim Flannery. An Australian mammologist, palaeontologist and field zoologist, he has discovered and named more than thirty new species of mammals. He has been described as being in the league of all-time great explorers such as... (read more)

We gathered at a hotel near the Convention Center, some 525 of us from 18 countries and 36 states attending the Association for the Study of Peak Oil-USA’s 3rd annual conference. The PowerPoints flashed by at mind-blowing speed as speaker after distinguished speaker shared the latest thoughts and insights into... (read more)

Introduction: Preparing for Peak Oil Every day, businesses, government agencies and households around the world plan and make decisions based on the assumption that oil and natural gas will remain plentiful and affordable. In the past few years, powerful evidence has emerged that casts doubt on that assumption and suggests that... (read more)

WE DON'T need environmental evangelicals to tell us that sustainable development is a good idea. Yet, if that is our goal, we are heading in the wrong direction - with the exception of Cuba. So says the first study to examine the ecological impact of changing lifestyles around the globe.... (read more)

There are maybe 20 of the 30 some sustainable community groups around Puget Sound planning to attend this two hour session in Fremont. This is part of a conversation around building a network to start linking these "communities on the water", as Vic Opperman in... (read more)

There are quite a lot of people thinking these things over, and the only thing keeping us from having a local sustainability group is that no one has made the commitment to organize it. However, there's quite a bit that has gone on here over the past couple of... (read more)

Ray Leonard of the Kuwait Energy Company was the speaker who, for me, stole the show. He offered, prefaced with a few caveats, insights from within the oil industry, setting out how what the oil industry tells the public and what it actually thinks are very different. One got a... (read more)