Test Site for What Grows On in Rhode Island!

Counting the heads gathered at the center
It’s expectation made manifest
More than a million drawing future breath, watching
A man, an oath, a speech full of fight and promise,
Gathering clouds, raging storms, the urgency of now
History pulled us here, desire compresses years into a moment
New leadership, collective exhale, breathe in, hold again
For the earth, for Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, the Gulf Coast,
For the next paycheck, the next meal….

David Floyd

Endorsed by people like Bill McKibben, Lester Brown, Michael Moore, Post Carbon Institute’s clear-eyed look at energy scarcity and the United States’ real priorities is rolled out. If the Obama administration is really serious about confronting energy challenges at this critical time, pray that they are paying attention to this important document.real-new-deal.pdf

Mary Anne Hitt of Appalachian Voices talks about the ongoing disaster that is MTR, or Mountaintop Removal mining. Visit the website to see how you can help.

Fantastic piece by Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker on the work of Van Jones and his project, Green for All.

Our next South County Green Drinks meetup is Wednesday, January 14, at the Alternative Food Co-op in Wakefield. Things get going at 7pm. Bring a snack or beverage to share if you’d like, or purchase coffee, tea and baked goods at the Co-op. Come early to shop at one of the best natural food stores in Rhode Island. Also check our Events page for the schedule for the other Green Drinks meetups in Providence, Newport, and now Westerly! You can also find South County Green Drinks/PostCarbon Rhode Island on Facebook.

The Blind Spot trailer below has been replaced with a new, longer trailer. Check it out.

A month ago, we linked to a story about a grain CSA in British Columbia, with attempts to ship grain by sail-power. Once again the Northwest is in the lead with David Reid’s Sail Transport Network’s efforts to utilize sail-power for freight. Dig deep into this article in Culture Change for evidence of real visionary thinking, driven by concerns about peak oil and energy scarcity. Another nice interview by Jan Lundberg (with some great photos).

The latest and one of the best in a series of “future shock” docs, this one by Brooklyn filmmaker Adolfo Doring. Here is the trailer. Read a review at  Culture Change.From the Lundberg review:

No new posts for a few days. Happy 2009, everyone.

Nice article about Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson’s planning for peak oil. Other lawmakers, from small-town mayors to world leaders, should take note.

Article from the Christian Science Monitor on Obama’s pick of Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture.

Christopher D. Cook is a journalist and the author of “Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis.” 

This is an article in Planning magazine, the feature periodical of the American Planning Association. Author Christopher Ryan, a planner for the town of Ayer, MA, talks about the beginnings of a local sustainability movement in this area about 30 miles west of Boston. I met Chris at the Transition Towns training in Cambridge in November. Chris also writes the Localizer blog, also highly recommended.

December’s Planning magazine has a number of related articles, including one by Post Carbon Institute’s Daniel Lerch.

At a Transition Towns training I attended in Cambridge back in November, our group did an exercise where we spoke, as descendants to our ancestors, about the great transition when the world changed, what led up to the change, what our town looked like, what our role was. It was a powerful exercise in visualization.

Jason Bradford of Willits, CA, Research Fellow at Post Carbon Institute, has done much more with this program. In a presentation to a group called Leadership Mendocino, Bradford, a true pioneer in the U.S. localization movement, speaks as a person in the year 2020, looking back at an energy crisis in the year 2010, that completely changed how county citizens fed themselves from then on. He describes how the citizens had to adapt and convert to a truly local economy. We can all learn much from what he presents here.

George Monbiot, one of the UK’s leading environmental writers, has little patience for bulls**t when it comes to peak oil, or climate change. He recently confronted Fatih Birol, chief economist with the International Energy Agency, about the dramatically different projections in their 2008 report, compared with last year’s. He wisely brought two cameramen with him. Don’t miss this interview.

The exchange makes a person wonder: if we’ve been lied to about projected decline rates, isn’t it possible that we’re being lied to about the actual global peak of oil production? I’m not feeling especially trusting of Fatih Birol after watching this, and it leads me to believe that even a date of 2020 is not based on hard facts, but a desperate attempt at soft-pedalling. You be the judge.

Ryerson University is in Toronto. Here’s the link to more info on their Urban Agriculture program. Find a course listing for their Certificate in Food Security at this page. All of the core courses for the certificate (and many of the electives) are offered in a distance learning format.

A recent OnPoint program had the Center for American Progress‘ Bracken Hendricks discussing the proposed Obama economic stimulus package. He looks at opportunities and challenges in the creation of green jobs and long-term goals of transforming to a lower-carbon economy. Here’s the transcript.