>Lifeboat Time

>by John Michael GreerThe Archdruid Report (November 29 2007)Druid perspectives on nature, culture, and the future of industrial societyOne of the more notable news stories of the last week concerned the fate of M/S Explorer, a cruise ship built for polar seas that turned out to be not quite up to the rigors of the …

>Outsourcing Libraries

>by David BollierOn The Commons (November 06 2007)http://onthecommons.orgThere may be no more eloquent statement about the erosion of our civic connectedness than the news that public libraries around the country are starting to outsource their daily operations. Yes, public libraries are being privatized. This should not be entirely surprising, given how jails, highways and even …

>Opting Out of Junk Mail

>by David BollierOn The Commons (November 07 2007)http://onthecommons.orgAs the holiday season approaches and we brace ourselves for a blizzard of unsolicited catalogs, it's perhaps worth asking: Is the US Postal Service really serving our long-term interests in promoting junk mail? It is a little-known fact that the post office actively encourages junk mailers to send …

>What Was Behind the Honey Bee Wipeout?

>Everyone has a theory why the honeybees started dying off. Try malnutrition.by Gina Covina, TerrainAlterNet (October 16 2007)On Alan Wilson's table at the Oakland Farmers' Market, row after row of glass honey jars catch the early morning sun that angles down Ninth Street. Some of the honey gleams a reddish brown, some a paler amber, …

>Three Million Homes?

>Yes, I am sorry to say, we need them.by George MonbiotPublished in the Guardian (November 26 2007)It sounds preposterous: three million new homes in England alone by 2020. My instinct is to fight this project. It threatens Britain's countryside, the character of our towns, our water supplies and carbon targets. Today the Housing and Regeneration …

>Adaptive Responses to Peak Oil

>by John Michael GreerThe Archdruid Report (November 21 2007)Druid perspectives on nature, culture, and the future of industrial societyOne of the occupational hazards of writing a blog on the future of industrial civilization, I've discovered, is the occasional incoming missive from somebody with a plan to save the world. My inbox fielded another of those …

>Either / Or?

>Clusterfuck Nation by Jim KunstlerComment on current events by the author ofThe Long Emergency (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005)www.kunstler.com (November 26 2007)The great debate among those of us on the Economy Deathwatch seems to be whether the debacle we observe around us will resolve as a crash or a slow-motion financial train wreck. It seems to …

>An environmental utopia – up to a point

>We downtrodden Brits often look enviously at Scandinavian countries as models of genteel social democracy ... by Mark LynasNew Statesman (October 11 2007)The scientist across the table from me was laughing, unusually for a conversation about climate change. "You're in environmental utopia now", he beamed. This being Sweden, he was partly being ironic - but …

>Bioneers: Groundbreaking Ways to Repair the Earth

>An interview with writer & filmmaker Kenny Ausubel about taking back the planet.by Terrence McNallyAlterNet (October 19 2007)Human creativity focused on problem solving can explode the mythology of resignation and despair. It is this point of view that inspires the annual Bioneers conference that takes place each fall in the San Francisco Bay area, which …

>Eleven Things We Can Learn …

>... from the Rest of the WorldEleven lessons the West can learn that would improve our lives and create a better future for all humanity.by OdeAlterNet (October 23 2007)The world is becoming One. But the game is being played according to rules set by the West. Where colonialism ultimately failed at running the world, Hollywood …