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

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Peak Water in the American West

Click here to access article by Peter Gleick from ScienceBlogs.

We are informed of another approach to ecological limits in the American West by this author. City reservoirs are going dry, dam levels are lowering, fights over water supplies are increasing, etc. However he offers only a short-term set of proposals for correcting the problem. The fundamental problem which he, and most other people insist on ignoring, is an economic system that demands growth.