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You Got to Let Go of Remote Control: The Wake-Up Call is in Your House!
Don't ever doubt the power of just one mind.
Or the world-wide power of just one rhyme.
Don't ever doubt the force of the bassline.
Or a record gone round to burn the house down.
You got to let go of remote control! You got to let go of remote control!
You got to let go of remote control! You got to let go of remote control!
Hey world, you know you got to put up a fight
Hey world, you rumble in the jungle tonight
The literature on societal collapse has expanded in timely fashion in the past couple of years, with the publication of Jared Diamond's best-selling Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed; Thomas Homer-Dixon's widely praised The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization; John Michael Greer's illuminating The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age; and Dmitri Orlov's hugely entertaining Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects.
Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from "Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Vacant-Lot Gardeners Are Inventing the Future Today!" by Chris Carlsson, published by AK Press, 2008.
[In] this bike subculture there's no person who is the best, who is winning, or getting the most money. It's a pretty equal community in that everyone can excel, but not have to be the top dog -- Robin Havens
Your article about Ithaca HOURS in the December 5-9 issue stimulated my thoughts about that longest lasting of local currencies. You ask, "Has the HOUR passed?" I'd like to suggest that its time has arrived.
HAVANA - After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cuba planted thousands of urban cooperative gardens to offset reduced rations of imported food.
Now, in the wake of three hurricanes that wiped out 30 percent of Cuba's farm crops, the communist country is again turning to its urban gardens to keep its people properly fed.
"Our capacity for response is immediate because this is a cooperative," said Miguel Salcines, walking among rows of lettuce in the garden he heads in the Alamar suburb on the outskirts of Havana.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Jim Richards is no kid, but he loves to ride his bike. At 51, he has become a cycling commuter, pedaling 11 miles from his home in the suburbs to his job in downtown Knoxville.
"It really doesn't take that much longer" than driving, he insists.
And he gets 40 minutes of exercise twice a day without going to the gym, which he attributes to a 20-pound weight loss.
Even those who believe there's plenty of oil left in the ground to meet rising demand are warning that the final crisis could come uncomfortably soon
Breathing a sigh of relief as the price of gasoline plummets toward $2 a gallon and maybe beyond? Thinking $100-a-barrel oil was just a passing inconvenience? Think again.
"...business as usual will not continue for much longer. Massive change is inevitable."
- Lester Brown
This quote from Lester Brown, perhaps the most astute environmental analyst of our time, characterizes the great need of our time for radical change in how we structure and live our lives. For those of you who might not know about Lester Brown's work, he is known for his sound, sober, scientific analyses and the remarkable accuracy of his projections. In this article he helps us to realize the massive scale of the ecological task that lies ahead.
Executive Summary
Our continued national dependence on fossil fuels is creating a crippling vulnerability to both long-term fuel scarcity and catastrophic climate change.
The current economic crisis requires substantial national policy shifts and enormous new government injections of capital into the economy. This provides an opportunity for a project whose scope would otherwise be inconceivable: a large-scale, coordinated energy transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.
Americans love restaurants. This year it's estimated they will spend $558 billion dining out. But restaurants also eat resources. They account for 33% of all US retail electricity use, and the average restaurant goes through 300,000 gallons of water a year.
