A bold venture
Remember cuban Permaculture Designer Roberto Perez talk about it? So here is a TV series of the BBC, called ‘Around the World in 80 Gardens’ featuring Cuba’s urban agriculture, as well. If you want to look at more stuff in that direction: click here! - Let’s take the ideas that are out there and let’s not wait until there is a need for ‘food-security’… . Urban food growing makes sense in any direction. Find some links here.
‘Art, Ecology & Education provides pathways to an integrated and sustainable way of living. We participate in the development and integration of an ecologically conscious and systemic worldview.
Using a holistic and transformative approach in our work, we support individuals and groups in the process of transition towards a life sustaining society.’
Upcoming workshops (in german and english):
12+13 July CHANGE - a different worldview for sustainable living
20-24 August ‘EFTERFESTEN Gathering for Sustainability’, Sweden
3-7 September SHIFTING TERRAIN - dancing new ways of perceiving
20+21 September PERMACULTURE - the Basics
Next AEE Evening at the HUB, Berlin:
9 July, 8pm, CSA / Community Supported Agriculture - Conscious consumption one step ahead
Art, Ecology & Education (www.art-ecology-education.org) works as international, intercultural consortium based in Berlin.
Participate in shifting the paradigm / feel free to get in touch!
Meadows ist Wissenschaftler und Mitautor des Buches ‘Grenzen des Wachstums (1972). Das Interview findet ihr hier. Es wurde von einem Redakteur der ‘Welt’ gefĂĽhrt und dort am 22. Juni auch veröffentlicht. Mittlerweile gibt’s zu dem Artikel eine lebhafte Diskussion in den Kommentaren…
Mein persönlicher Eindruck: Ich mag Meadows. FĂĽr mich macht er klare und nachvollziehbare Aussagen. Und die Kommentare der (deutschen Welt…) Leser finde ich - sehr vielfältig und deshalb interessant. Bin gespannt ob / wann sich hier mehr selbst organisiert wird…
Hier sind noch ein weiterer Sound Of Sirens Artikel, der sich mit dem Thema von Meadows’ Interview auseinandersetzt: ‘Enjoy life while you can’? (Interview mit James Lovelock) … sowie ein Artikel aus dem Guardian: ‘World carbon dioxides levels highest for 650.000 years, says US report’ (Mai 08). Any Meinung?
Check them out!
The Global Oneness Project is a web-based video initiative exploring how the simple notion of oneness can be lived in our increasingly complex world.
We’re traveling the globe interviewing creative and courageous people who base their lives and work on the fundamental understanding that we are all connected and thus bear great responsibility for each other and our shared world. Our living library of films is available for free from our website or on DVD for events and educational use.
We are committed to documenting what is being born during this time of planetwide transformation. While we are confronted with unmistakable signs that our current way of life is no longer sustainable, inspiring and innovative people and programs are blossoming in all areas of our collective society. From a pay-it-forward café in Ahmedabad, to a youth program that brings African wisdom to Los Angeles, from the General Secretary of the Andean Nations, to the spiritual guardian of Ayers Rock, our film subjects live and work with many of the following values, attitudes, and beliefs:
* We are responsible to each other, the earth, and future generations.
* There are enough resources for us all, if we share.
* Free exchanges of information allow for greater, collective creative potential.
* Love, care and compassion have the power to transform the fabric of society.We hope that by showing the diverse ways oneness is expressed—in the fields of sustainability, conflict resolution, spirituality, art, economics, indigenous culture, and social justice—others will be inspired to create solutions to personal and community challenges from their own lived understanding of oneness.
They are aware and that’s why we like them! Wonder when others dealing with masses of people search for alternatives…
This is from their website, entry of the 2nd of may (www.radiohead.com)
Radiohead take to the road on Monday (via a plane, unfortunately) to start in Florida with the first show of their 2008 tour.
Following on from their posting on the 19th December and the commissioned report (pdf on the site) on touring and CO2 generation, we’ve developed a new section of the site that gig goers can visit: the most gigantic flying mouth for some time.
Here you can try out our carbon calculator and compare different transport methods for getting to and from the venue. The list of tour dates will give you public transport information where available, and where not, there may be venue incentives for car sharing. There will also be weekly postings from Radiohead’s production team on how the band has addressed their own touring carbon footprint and made it easier for fans to reduce theirs. You can discuss our successes and more importantly, our failings at waste-central, post up more local travel information where we haven’t and make friends with other people going to your show.
Hopefully see you on the tour!
I also found a quote of an ‘Wired’ - interview with Thom Yorke:
“At the moment we make money principally from touring. Which is hard for me to reconcile because I don’t like all the energy consumption, the travel. It’s an ecological disaster, traveling and touring… We did one of those carbon footprint things recently where they assessed the last period of touring we did and tried to work out where the biggest problems were. And it was obviously everybody traveling to the shows…
“Especially in the US. Everybody drives. So how the hell are we going to address that? The idea is that we play in municipal places with some transport system alternative to cars. And minimizing flying equipment, shipping everything. We can’t be shipped though.”
They are in Berlin on July 8th. We’ll bike there, I guess…
Find the songs of their new album here.
As flashy as the title may sound, let’s give them another flashy name, let’s call them renegades of architecture. Working with what is there (which is mostly considered garbage) they are creating sustainable and affordable housing. As Michael Reynolds, the architect who builds ‘earthships’ since the seventies (with much opposition of local authorities, so that you wonder about their interests…) put it: ‘I don’t care about anything but the fucking planet!’
Earthships are earth-sheltered autonomous buildings made of tires rammed with earth, which are usually arranged in “U” or horseshoe shaped modules. Each tire is rammed full of earth manually using a sledge hammer. Windows on the sunny side admit light and heat. The open end of the “U” shaped structure faces South in the northern hemisphere, and North in the southern hemisphere, so that the house will catch maximum sunlight in the colder months. An Earthship is designed to interface with its environment wherever possible and create its own utilities. (via Wikipedia)
See the trailer of the documentary ‘Garbage Warrior’ by Oliver Hodges, featuring Reynolds and his struggles.
Also: These buildings are affordable and you can participate and learn how to make them more and more all over the world. Google ‘earthship’, search for it on youtube, check out our links - and spread the word! Again: This is do-it-yourself stuff! You don’t have to wait. You just find some people and you can take on the responsibility to create a more sustainable future now…
How to find Earthships and Garbage Warriors:
Brighton Earthship (England)
Earthship Austria
Earthship Biotecture (US)
Earthship Biotecture (Europe, site in french and english)
not too far from Earthships: Bubble Buildings (german, english, spanish)
Some miscellaneous articles coughed up by my rss reader today:
Finally, Walt Handelsman sums it up:
Picture by newsday.com / Walt Handelsman
Die Energy Watch Group veröffentlichte im Mai ihren neuen Bericht. Ausserdem ist heute, am 22.5.08 der Rohölpreis so hoch wie noch nie. Und in den letzten 12 Monaten ist der Preis um 100 Prozent gestiegen. Eigentlich ein guter Grund sich entsprechende Sound Of Sirens Artikel nochmal durchzulesen.
Hier ein kurzer Auszug aus dem neuen Bericht der Energy Watch Group:
Die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse
Peak Oil ist ‘jetzt’
Seit einiger Zeit tobt eine heftige Debatte um das weltweite Ölfördermaximum („Peak Oil“). Institutionen mit großer Nähe zur Energiebranche, wie etwa das Consulting-Unternehmen CERA, betreiben eine Kampagne zur „Entlarvung“ der „Peak-Oil-Theorie“. Die vorliegende Studie gehört zu einer langen Reihe von Arbeiten, die innerhalb und außerhalb der ASPO (Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, etwa: Vereinigung zum Studium des Fördermaximums von Öl und Gas) entstanden sind und zeigen, dass das Ölfördermaximum keinesfalls mehr als „Theorie“ bezeichnet werden kann, sondern eine Realität ist, die sich bereits vor unseren Augen abspielt.
…Den Analysen unseres Szenarios zufolge ist das weltweite Ă–lfördermaximum 2006 eingetreten…
…Die wichtigste Erkenntnis ist, dass die Ă–lförderung nach dem Peak einen steilen RĂĽckgang erleben wird.
This is an interview with Chris Johnstone, a psychologist, specializing in the psychology of change.
It was held on the day of the unleashing of Transition Town Lewes in England. Johnstone feels inspired by communities creating their own energy descent plan and gives an insight into the Transition Towns Initiatives and its larger context.
Find the other parts of the interview.
Find more Sound Of Sirens articles connected to Transition Towns.
Ok, there have been a lot of videos lately on Sound Of Sirens. Still, Vandana Shiva is making a point about the global food crisis which i consider very important to be known and understood. For more background info read her book: Earth Democracy (auf deutsch: Erd-Demokratie). By the way: The IMF is the International Monetary Fund, which is an international organization that oversees the global financial system. The headquarters are located in Washington, D.C. USA…
Just click on the play button and let her speak for a minute…She is clear, honest, accessible, intelligent,…
Read also SOS on Tour article on a talk of Vandana Shiva at the Schumacher College in march ‘08 (in german).
Find more articles of her here.
This is one of her book publications: ‘Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace’ / ‘Erd-Demokratie. Alternativen zur Neoliberalen Globalisierung’.
This is definitely worth publishing in both laguages, so here we go again.
The following text is the conclusion of the Oilreport done by Energy Watch Group in October 2007:
The major result from this analysis is that world oil production has peaked in 2006. Production will start to decline at a rate of several percent per year. By 2020, and even more by 2030, global oil supply will be dramatically lower. This will create a supply gap which can hardly be closed by growing contributions from other fossil, nuclear or alternative ener