We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Hotter and hotter, stormier and stormier

Click here to access article by Gabriel Levy and friends from People and Nature.

Meteorologists’ conclusions about global weather in the decade 2001-2010 were published yesterday, and they make uncomfortable reading: the 2000s was the warmest decade since modern measurements began in 1850, and the world experienced “unprecedented high-impact climate extremes”.
Now we are finally starting to see reports of horrendous wildfires reported in mainstream media. Better late than never? I'm not so sure.