The Econ Puzzle’s Debut
This week marked the trimphant wrap-up of our Human Ecology class at Otis College of Art and Design. It was a great group of students this semester, and their enthusiasm shone through in their final projects. We celebrated with people…
New directions in Change-Making
Happy Earth Day! As you’ve undoubtedly heard a million times before, “Earth Day is every day.” And at ECM that’s certainly the case. That’s why today is a great day to highlight change-making projects that you can be a part…
Living with Climate Change
originally published by Transition Culture No water. That pretty much sums up living with climate change around here, in Los Angeles. California is currently experiencing “the worst drought in 500 years.” We had one minor “rain event” in October just before…
Collapse? Maybe not.
It’s all a matter of perspective. In a previous post I argued that economic contraction is necessary and in fact underway. Is this “Collapse” — that scary term that so many authors love to throw around? I find the C word to be counterproductive.…
Economic Descent, hopefully with skillful means
This post is in response to one by Rob Hopkins, which was in response to one byDavid Holmgren. In case I don’t use sufficiently ‘skillful means,’ please let me begin with stating: I am not advocating for intentionally creating an…
Why ECM is indifferent to traditional politics
Sometimes a few paragraphs from an article seem to bolt off the screen at you. A section from an article by Kurt Cobb summed up nicely why ECM isn’t into traditional politics. Why, since ECM’s inception, we have made every…
Powerdown: Let’s Talk About It
We’re caught in the squeeze right now. Climate change is advancing at an incredible speed. We know we should do something, but we lack the political will to do what it takes to hold it to 2°C. UN committees are now being…
What do GMOs have to do with Resilience?
In so many ways, GMOs deplete any resilience in our food supply. GMOs are perhaps the ultimate pinnacle of petroleum-dependent agriculture. These plants are laboratory-engineered specifically to work together with petro-chemicals: herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers. Headed into a world with increasingly…
Revolt and Change our lives
It’s a sign of a really good essay when bits of it linger with you for days after you’ve read it and it keeps popping up in your mind. Naomi Klein’s “Why Science is Telling All of Us to Revolt and…
Growing Strong in Los Angeles
DATELINE SEPT 2020: The last of my blackeyed peas are planted, the summer’s harvest of tomatoes is drying in the solar cooker, and I’ve gathered in the seeds of chard and cilantro. Time to take a break from late summer’s heat,…