“If you don’t know something is possible, you can’t choose to do it.” – Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L.Hunter Lovins Natural Capitalism The TED Talk below is over 2 years old, but I recently watched it again and it is just as relevant now as the first time I saw it. If a small, isolated country like Bhutan can practice sustainability on a national scale, what might a wealthy, industrialized nation accomplish? Knowing that something is possible, we can choose to do it. Or, we can choose not to do anything. One choice moves us forward as a species. The …
“If you don’t know something is possible, you can’t choose to do it.” – Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins Natural Capitalism Talk alone is pointless. The best ideas in the world are meaningless unless acted upon. Something must be done. There’s an old proverb that says, “You must give your prayers legs.” Hoping and praying and wishing for a thing will accomplish very little unless you do something. You can pray to your god for years asking to win the lottery, but you have to buy a ticket to have any chance of winning. If we want a …
“Why are organizations, everywhere, whether political, commercial, or social, increasingly unable to manage their affairs? Why are individuals, everywhere, increasingly in conflict with and alienated from the organizations of which they are part? Why are society and the biosphere increasingly in disarray? Today, it doesn’t take much thought to realize we’re in an accelerating, global epidemic of institutional failure. Not just failure in the sense of collapse, such as the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall, or corporate bankruptcy, but the more common and pernicious form: organizations increasingly unable to achieve the purpose for which they were created, yet continuing to …
Many great minds have molded and influenced the ideas found within the Cooperative Community Core Content. My principle contribution has been that of assembling the various pieces into a cohesive whole and explaining it as best I can in plain English. That being the case, I wish to give credit where credit is due. The origins of this material can be traced to the work of Shaye Stevens, with whom I worked for four years. His years of research into the various aspects of modern human civilization led to the discovery and understanding of not only what works, but how …
“Solving the land question means the solving of all social questions.” – Leo Tolstoy Having studied sustainability for some 25 years, I’ve had the opportunity to examine many so-called “intentional communities.” These are typically founded by groups of people that, for various reasons, decide to try and create their own community from houses, to land, to businesses. However, most are lacking a solid economic component (called the working environment). Having environmentally sound homes and surrounding yourself with people who love the earth as much as you do will only accomplish so much. In the end, it only serves to create …
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – Buckminster Fuller What good is it to gain control of the economic rudder and have lots of locally controlled capital generated by accountable, sociocratcially operated, employee-owned companies, if we continue to devastate the environment and build more of the same awful subdivisions and sprawl? Surely someone has devised a better plan than hacking land up into small pieces, surrounding it with concrete, building houses and selling them for as much money as possible. In my own town, …
“The economic revolution will be moral or it will not succeed. The moral revolution will be economic or it will not succeed.” – Father Don Jose Maria Think about it. A democratically operated and sociocratically organized, Mondragon-styled cooperative, would have the advantages of a corporation, but geared toward positive contributions to the community, and would be able to replace imports and create exports to stabilize, expand, and diversify a local economy. Such an enterprise would truly be a boon to any municipality and a great opportunity for the employee-owners that worked there. However, creating such a thing requires money. I’ve …
Ever wonder how cities, towns, and villages are created in the first place? Do towns spawn companies or do companies spawn towns? Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Obviously, a company requires employees, so having a town with potential workers in it is beneficial. On the other hand, people will only live where they can find work, so businesses must be operational in order to provide employment and attract inhabitants in the first place. Is it then necessary to have a company in order to create a community? Or, does the community create the company? You’ll recall from …
A new HBO documentary by director James Redford reveals that solar power and alternative energies are actively being accepted by Americans despite the persistence of climate change deniers. This is good news for all of us.
As Devita Davison notes in the video below, Detroit is in a unique position to make the most of urban agriculture. However, this is more than a trend. As populations continue to increase and arable land becomes increasingly scarce, all communities will have to being growing food within city limits. By the end of this century, no one will consider building a subdivision without including space for food production. No developer will erect a high rise without a green roof and at least one floor dedicated to growing food. This won’t be a choice. It will be a necessity.