Yesterday I presented at the International Seminar on Fires hosted by the Agro-Environmental Court of Bolivia held in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. My presentation was entitled ‘The Ecological Economy, Biomímesis, and the Prevention of Fires’.
COP30
The Throwaway Planet: Not
Four years ago I was enrolled in one of my required courses at ASU for my MS in Biomimicry degree. We had a final class project in which we could do just about anything. I chose to make a film. I was reminded of this when I saw this recent article How the Biosphere 2 experiment changed our understanding of the Earth on the BBC website. I used footage that was taken from that experiment in my film to show the folly of man’s hubris in relying upon technology to replace Nature’s life support systems. 
Global Crisis and Radical Alternatives: Challenging the Dominant System for a Just and Sustainable Future
The world is going through a crisis of unprecedented global scale engendered by a dominant system that has resulted in deepening inequalities, increasing deprivation in old and new forms, the destruction of ecosystems, catastrophic climate change, ruptures in socio-cultural fabrics, and the violent dispossession of living beings.
However, there is an increasing emergence and visibility of an immense variety of radical alternatives to this dominant regime, contesting its roots in capitalist, patriarchal, racist, statist, and anthropocentric forces.
These range from initiatives with a specific focus like sustainable and holistic agriculture, community led water/energy/food sovereignty, solidarity and sharing economies, worker control of production facilities, resource/knowledge commons, and inter-ethnic peace and harmony, to more holistic or rounded transformations such as those being attempted by the Zapatista in Chiapas and the Kurds in Rojava. Alternatives also include the revival of ancient traditions and the emergence of new worldviews that re-establish humanity’s place within nature, as a basis for human dignity and equality.
– excerpt from the Global Tapestry of Alternatives
Government Institutionalized Hate & Repercussions
Two recent polls.
Poll: 82% of Israelis Back Gaza Expulsion, Nearly Half Support Biblical Massacres
and
Paul Robeson
Highly recommended film I just stumbled across. Paul gets short thrift in this country, and for good reason. He was one of the most amazing activists with deeply held uncompromising convictions this country has ever known. One of the giants alongside W.E.B. Du Bois, Bayard Rustin, Malcolm X, Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, and others. He was also a polymath speaking fourteen languages, an actor, a world renown singer, a newspaper publisher, public speaker, and a star football player, among many other talents.
Green Building Movement Founder Sim van der Ryn Passes
I recently learned that Sim van der Ryn passed away. Sim’s work influenced me greatly. In the mid-80s I was studying passive design architecture at CSU Sonoma and was affiliated with the Farallones Institute. I also was the last caretaker/tour operator of the Integral Urban House in Berkeley, California. For some strange reason I remember one Farallones Institute Board meeting he had arranged to be held on a houseboat in Sausalito. The last saw Sim at the 2019 fortieth reunion of the Farallones Institute.
In the supermarket of democracy, choice is an illusion. Is there a real alternative?
Liberal democracies are abject failures. The evidence is mounting everywhere we look.
In the supermarket of democracy, choice is an illusion. Is there a real alternative?
FINAL STATEMENT: ANTICOP 2024
I was fortunate in being able to attend ANTICOP 2024 in Oaxaca, Mexico a couple of weeks ago. Getting outside of the United States and being with other activists from around the world is always rejuvenating and renewing. Themes that were explored at ANTICOP included globalization, extractivism, militarism, land and water grabs, community displacement, government inaction towards climate change, and the commodification of nature. All this just before the 29th United Nations Climate Change conference, which will be recorded in the history books as one of the greatest ruses of all time.
Final conference statement (from the organizers)
Celebrating Fascism
Last week there was a rally in Madison Square Garden led by presidential candidate Donald Trump celebrating fascism. There was a similar rally held there in 1939 celebating the rise of Nazism in Germany. Fascism in on the rise here in the USA. The place where it could “never happen”.