Transforming Toward Sustainability via Earth Blog
Climate change, peak oil and all the other unfolding crises associated with pollution and resource depletion are all symptoms of one problem. There has been a fundamental change in the relationship between people and the Earth. We no longer have new frontiers to expand into when resources get scarce or our waste becomes intolerable. This change marks the maturity of the human species. Well-being now requires an equally fundamental change in how we manage our societies.
As long as the goal of expanding production and consumption is considered legitimate, we are in danger of overshooting planetary limits and collapsing. When sustainability gains legitimacy, as our primary goal, the possibility will emerge for evolving a mature social form, capable of long-term well-being. It is a...
It use to be that stockpiling food and supplies, owning land and canning garden produce, and otherwise preparing for likely societal turmoil caused by ecosystem failure [search], resource scarcity [search], economic failure and other unknowns was seen as a bit kooky. But no longer as a "New Survivalism" emerges [ark] in response to the increasingly self-evident fact that the civilization we take for granted to be a thin veneer. What is increasingly evident is that stores of foods, tools and other supplies conducive to self-sufficiency [search] is just prudent -- a type of insurance. People are relearning what it means to prepare for self-sufficiency and investing in energy frugal homes [ark], seeds and other self-evidently worthwhile protections for them and their family. There is no need...