Humans are more than the one-trick pony our obsession with technological fixes depicts us as. We are adaptable, and have the capacity to approach our problems from a variety of angles. We also have the capacity to exercise restraint when necessary. And we can break the cycle of the labour-saving paradox, if we think outside the tool-box.
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This is the first of three articles on understanding complexity, and how our energy, economic and ecological systems, like unruly children, tend to defy our attempts to change them.
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So I first learnt about peak oil back in 2005, when The End of Suburbia was shown at an activist skillshare. And while I didn’t go into denial per se, I didn’t really accept it. It was like if anyone had asked me about it, I would’ve said, “yeah peak oil’s really full on, I don’t know what we’re gonna do about that”. But at the same time, it didn’t impact the way I was living my life, or my strategy for changing the world in any way at all. Of course I already knew all about climate change, supposedly wasn’t in denial of that either, yet was still choosing to work on projects that were largely irrelevant to it.
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Nuclear Armageddon is here. We’ve bought a lie about the alleged safety of nuclear energy. The lie was promoted on the basis of another lie, one we should’ve recognized immediately under the auspices of, “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” The latter lie is the promise of electricity too-cheap-to-meter.
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Dare it be said, but, the good news is that with the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather the electrical power grid is destined to be out of action more and more, and for longer and longer durations. The really good blackouts, those bitchin’ two or three day outages that annoy the crap out of the power junkies, will render your workplace totally inoperable.
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It is entirely feasible for the suburbs – where most of us live – to adapt to a low carbon future. Technology is already available to implement a powerdown strategy, involving home retrofitting, local food production and low carbon transport. Permaculture design principles provide a proven template for adapting the suburbs to support a local sharing economy.
These tools are ready. We need to create a catalyst for widespread community action.
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Inspired by Shani Graham’s recent TEDx talk titled Take a street and build a community, Kari McGregor met with the sustainability guru, co-founder of Ecoburbia and spearhead of the Hulbert Street Sustainability Fiesta to get some insight into what it takes to build community.
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This is the second of three articles on understanding complexity, and how positive feedback loops are leading inexorably to civilization’s collapse – and what we can and can’t do about it.
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This is the third of three articles on understanding complexity and how positive feedback loops are leading inexorably to civilization’s collapse – and what we can and can’t do about it.
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SHIFT magazine 