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ALTERNATIVES

The commons: A credible strategy for building a radically different world

29th June 2016

David Bollier writes: How are we to imagine and build a radically different world when the incumbent system aggressively resists change? Our challenge is not just articulating alternatives, but identifying strategies for actualizing them. The commons —a paradigm, a discourse, an ethic, and a set of social practices— holds great promise in transcending this conundrum….

ALTERNATIVES

Forecast: The world nears peak fossil fuels for electricity

22nd June 2016

The way we get electricity is about to change dramatically, as demand for fossil fuels comes to an end— in less than a decade. According to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecast, massive shifts are coming soon to power markets because electric cars and affordable battery storage for renewable power are arriving faster than expected….

ALTERNATIVES

Report: Coal and gas to stay cheap, but renewables still win race on costs

16th June 2016

Bloomberg reports that cheaper coal and gas will not derail the decarbonisation of world energy. By 2040, ‘zero-emission’ energy sources will form 60% of installed capacity. Wind and solar will account for 64% of the 8.6TW of new power-generating capacity added over the next 25 years, and for almost 60% of the $11.4 trillion invested….

ALTERNATIVES

Charles Eisenstein: By their fruits ye shall know them

29th May 2016

If you’ve experienced the so-called impossible, then the impossibility of humanity making the transition is no longer so clear. If someone can recover from “incurable” stage 4 pancreatic cancer, what else is possible? What is the correlate of that on the level of politics or ecology? Many young people are beginning to explore this question….

ALTERNATIVES

Video: Demain – The documentary that’s taking over France by storm

8th May 2016

The rise of the film ‘Demain‘ appears unstoppable. Viewed in France now by almost a million people, winner of the Cesar award for Best Documentary, the film has been received with standing ovations, and has inspired many to roll their sleeves up and do things. Rob Hopkins’ of the Transition Network’ interviews director Cyril Dion….

ALTERNATIVES

Like an epic novel: How the global energy transition unfolded this April

6th May 2016

Jeremy Leggett writes: A Saudi Prince talks of his nation’s “dangerous addiction” to oil. A Bloomberg guru talks of renewables “crushing” fossil fuels. Arguably the most successful entrepreneur ever turns the unveiling of an electric car into the most successful product launch in history. Plus much more that would have been unimaginable a year ago….

Shunya.net

ALTERNATIVES

Ecologise Hyderabad: Workshops for Sustainability and Equality

29th April 2016

Some of us have recently created a small group called ‘Ecologise Hyderabad’. The aim of the group is to look at the many ecological crises of the city holistically, interact with experts and social activist and run programmes to strengthen the efforts of the activists in running green programmes in different localities of the city….

Economy

Connecting the rise of Donald Trump with global resource depletion

23rd April 2016

Ugo Bardi writes: Something like Trump was unavoidable. He is best defined as the visible effect of the ongoing social phase transition. A symptom of the ongoing breakdown of the social pact in the West. A discrete change in our path in the direction of collapse, in turn precipitated by depletion of resources, especially energy….

ALTERNATIVES

‘Ideas For Going Forward’: A manifesto for a world in crisis

8th April 2016

“Some Possible Ideas For Going Forward” is a manifesto for global change, signed by leading activists, academics and intellectuals, including Noam Chomsky, to “help inspire more conversations within groups and movements that, over time, come to a synthesis… We believe only program that is fully understood and owned by grassroots participants can win lasting change.”…

ALTERNATIVES

The Church of Economism and its discontents

26th March 2016

Richard Norgaard writes: Two centuries of explosive economic growth have radically altered our world. With human activity now the major driver of geological change, the industrial era has come to be called the Anthropocene. In this essay, I instead adopt the term Econocene, thereby underscoring its ideological foundation: economism, the reduction of all social relations to market logic….

ALTERNATIVES

The Revolution is Love: A missive from Charles Eisenstein

14th March 2016

This is why so many seasoned activists succumb to despair after decades of struggle. Do you think we can beat the military-industrial-financial-agricultural-pharmaceutical-NGO-educational-political complex at its own game? But the modern environmental movement, and most especially the climate change movement, has attempted just that, risking defeat but also often worsening the situation even in its victories….

ALTERNATIVES

Announcing Ecologise Camp 4, near Thally, Tamil Nadu

16th February 2016

Dates: April 16-17, 2016 Venue: A Small Three Acre Farm (“Asta Farm”), Hosur-Thally Road, Krishnagiri District, Tamil Nadu Land custodians: Gracy Elezebeth & Vijay Kundaji Contacts Vijayendra t.vijayendra@gmail.com +91 94907 05634 Vijay Kundaji vijay.kundaji@gmail.com +91 98450 87530 Gracy Elezebeth gracyvijay@yahoo.com +91 94484 82572 “When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned,…

Grist / Amelia Bates

ALTERNATIVES

Charles Eisenstein: Climate Change, grief and carbon reductionism

13th February 2016

People are not going to be frightened into caring. Scientific evidence-based predictions about what will happen 10, 20, or 50 years in the future are not going to make them care, not enough. That requires making it personal. And that requires facing the reality of loss. And that requires experiencing grief. There’s no other way….

ALTERNATIVES

Blessed Unrest – How the largest social movement in history is restoring grace, justice, and beauty to the world

2nd February 2016

Environmentalist Paul Hawken has spent over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise the largest movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader, or location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the mainstream media. www.blessedunrest.com…

A depiction of the 'Pralaya' or Great Flood, from the Matsya Purana

Bookshelf

Economic collapse: How to face it without fear

20th January 2016

It’s indeed possible to wrap your head around the new emerging reality. It doesn’t take a financial maverick to foresee collapse and it’s by no means my discovery. I just saw the patterns emerging before most people simply because I was paying attention to facts and trends – all in public domain, some for decades….

Medium.com

ALTERNATIVES

Something extraordinary is happening, and most of us haven’t noticed

1st January 2016

Gustavo Tanaka writes: A few months ago, I broke the chains of fear that kept me locked up into the system. I now see the world from a different perspective: the one that everything is going through change and that most of us are unaware of that. Here are 8 reasons why I believe this….

ALTERNATIVES

Announcing Ecologise Camp 3 at Sirsi, Karnataka

30th November 2015

Dates: January 23-25, 2016 Venue: ‘No Man’s Land’ Farm, Danandi Village, Sirsi Taluk, Uttara Kannada Dist., Karnataka Host: George Varghese, grgvrghs@gmail.com; +91 9481278348 “When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.” – Native American saying We now live in…

ALTERNATIVES

The Bioeconomy: A Primer

8th November 2015

The bioeconomy refers to production and use of renewable biological resources as well as economic activities, both within and between countries, related to the invention, development, production and use of biological products and processes. Read the original document Download e-book: The Bioeconomy – a Primer (pdf – 1 MB) Key Points The bioeconomy is industry’s response to…

ALTERNATIVES

Announcing Ecologise Camp 2, Dharwad, Nov 14

5th November 2015

Date: November 14 -15, 2015 Venue: Suman Sangam– A forest farm (village Daddi Kamalapur (Dharwad — Panaji (Goa) highway) Dharwad, Karnataka, India) Host: Dr. Sanjeev Kulkarni (Note: Registrations are closed for this Camp. If you want to register for the next one, contact the organisers named below) Ecologise Camp The Ecologise Camp is a programme through which those living…

ALTERNATIVES

First Ecologise Camp at Nakre, near Udupi, Karnataka

28th July 2015

The Ecologise Camp is a programme through which those living in cities can explore living in an ecologically more sensitive and sustainable manner. Specifically, it is a programme involving stay and work on an organic farm for varying periods, as a volunteer. The programme will be preceded by a weekend orientation workshop , during which the…