A time to celebrate. A time to mourn. President Obama announced his rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline on November 6. Calls to celebrate the victory are in from 350.org; Sierra Club; CREDO Action; Berks Gas Truth; NRDC; and others. More than 200,000 people have been killed in the four-and-a-half-year Syrian civil war. The linked September 14, 2015 New York Times article … [Read more...] about Sustainability Doings: November 27, 2015 – “Best/Worst of Times?”
Sustainability Doings
Semi-monthly newsletter
Sustainability Doings: July 27, 2015 – “Bottoms Up”
Participatory Budgeting Starts at Home The Alliance has come into some unexpected funds recently. We've gotten an anonymous contribution of $10,000. Holy cow! Another $1,300, so far, has come from the estate of Janet Goloub and considerably more is expected. We thank them humbly. To honor their gifts, we'd like to use these funds in the best ways we can. We think it's a grand … [Read more...] about Sustainability Doings: July 27, 2015 – “Bottoms Up”
Sustainability Doings: June 22, 2015 – “Doing Democracy”
Democracy: Easier Said Than Done Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. Climate Change, while wonderfully thoughtful, insightful, and useful-information packed book, is weak in several areas one of which is the pivotal one of engaging, empowering, and enabling people, communities, NGOs, to take action via democratic organizational structures. She says, after … [Read more...] about Sustainability Doings: June 22, 2015 – “Doing Democracy”
Sustainability Doings: April 8, 2015 – “Dissidents, we?”
Maybe we are. Don't we actively challenge established doctrines, policies, and institutions? Some of us might like to call ourselves the more positive-sounding "civil society advocates" -- which seems to be a label popping up at the Summit of the Americas now going on in Panama. Being a "civil society advocate" is positively tame and a helluvalot less aggressive than being … [Read more...] about Sustainability Doings: April 8, 2015 – “Dissidents, we?”
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Sustainability Doings, 3 February 2015: ‘It ain’t broke?!’
The system IS working?! In the last issue of Sustainability Doings, dated 1/5/15, I blithely asserted: "The system is broken. Everyone knows that." But then, bright and early on 1/6/15, Karen Henninger responded: . "I do not agree that the *system* is broken. I believe that understanding is a lack of understanding [of] the system."The system IS working … [Read more...] about Sustainability Doings, 3 February 2015: ‘It ain’t broke?!’
Sustainability Doings – 5 January 2015 – “Riddle”
How is capitalism like an elephant? The system is broken. Everyone knows that. But do you know that no one knows what te hell the system is? We may be missing the obvious, like the proverbial elephant in the room, that we’re blanking out to, as if it weren’t there or was invisible to us. Or perhaps each of us is touching on only a small part of the whole system from our … [Read more...] about Sustainability Doings – 5 January 2015 – “Riddle”
Sustainability Doings – 29 November 2014 – “You In – or You Out?”
Common question to poker players mulling over whether the hand they were dealt merits the risk of putting some of their hard-earned sheckels in the pot. But "You In — or You Out?" here refers to . . . well, it's probably easiest to just take a look at what the deal here is . . . Some Notable Doings This Week: Wednesday, 12/3/14, 7-9pm, at the Forks Township … [Read more...] about Sustainability Doings – 29 November 2014 – “You In – or You Out?”
Sustainability Doings – 10 November 2014 – “Words Abound, Ideas Scarce”
Words as hindrance to thinking . . . We seem to be overrun by Madison-Avenue-push-button-unthinking-out-of-context-Pavlovian-branding words that get us to react often in ways that are inimical to our own interests. They don't spend all those big bucks on campaign advertising without a whole cache of potent words to draw upon, do they? Words and ideas and thinking and … [Read more...] about Sustainability Doings – 10 November 2014 – “Words Abound, Ideas Scarce”
Sustainability Doings – 4 January 2014
"Knock, knock!" Who's that knocking at my door on January 4, 2014, this day of perihelion 2014? Whipping around the Sun so fast on this old Earth of ours it should knock our socks off. 67,800 mph, about. But it doesn't knock our socks off, does it. What else is happening that we're not aware of because we're just being carried along, just part of the inertial system? And how … [Read more...] about Sustainability Doings – 4 January 2014