And now for something completely different… Here are two interesting thoughts I read today: Rees quotes Antonio Damasio (here, p.6): [For humanity to survive the sustainability crisis] we must rely on highly-evolved geneticallybased biological mechanisms, as well as on supra-instinctual survival strategies that have developed in society, are transmitted by culture, and require for their …
Category Archives: future worries
Resilience Gardening: Water and Animals
The last couple of days I’ve been in the garden. Mostly I’ve been cleaning up. I do most of my Fall cleanup in Spring, so that the fallen leaves can replenish and blanket the soil during Winter.  Soon I’ll put the leaf shredder to the humongous leaf piles.  That shredded stuff is great for the compost bins. …
Cushions
The farmer in his field A while ago we finally took the step and enrolled in a year-long CSA, starting this Spring, at Siena Farms. We visited the farm in Fall and fell in love with the fields and the farmers. I loved especially the fact that the owner, Farmer Chris, puts effort and money …
The Story and the Now
I found an old journal (last part of 2007) in a stack of novels hidden behind a chair in my little “office”. I am usually very careful with my journals, keeping them together and safe. This one isn’t the usual black moleskine but a fancy cloth one given to me by a friend, and that’s …
Perspective from the Creatures of the Soil
A Fugue. I’m reading the newly arrived Life in the Soil. Actually, I’m devouring it. And it’s not even that particularly well or passionately written. I started wondering about this as I marveled over acellular slime molds and trichomycetes and realized that I often take refuge in books about soil and geology when I am down …
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Freaking out: IEA: 5 years or that’s it!
Okay, so now I am freaking out. The IEA  now says that we have five years to change our fossil fuel infrastructure or we’re headed for irreversible climate change, or  the world will “lose for ever” the chance to avoid dangerous climate change. “The door is closing,†Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA), …
Salvage
Another “hot” day, in the high 60s. Yesterday we reached 70. Â Talking with people as I go about town it occurs to me that we love it. Of course, who wouldn’t, right? Well… A couple of warm days in November and we’re happy because we can open the windows and leave our jackets at home. …
Bill McKibben at Occupy Boston
Last week Thursday a group of us from Transition Wayland carpooled and took the train into Boston to add our numbers to the 99% at Dewey Square. Â The special occasion was Bill McKibben’s visit. He was there to let the 99% know that the 1% is ruining it for the 100% for the sake of …
How Many Came? Waiting for Numbers
That question is easier to answer: 8 became 20 became 45 became 1500. On the Walk to Walden, 7 humans and 1 horse. As we walked in the humid, mosquito-filled 80F weather, through Wayland, Lincoln and Concord, more joined. By the time we reached there were about 20 of us, and at Walden Pond we met up …
Batten Down the Hatches
So that flaming ball of churning energy is probably heading for us, driving wind, heavy rain and the threat of tornadoes ahead of it. We hardly felt the weather that spawned the tornadoes that destroyed Springfield and Monson, not too far from here, in western Massachusetts, in June. But that doesn’t mean it will spare …