[Local_activists] Collapse 47

[Wanda Ballentine]

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/what-not-to-recycle-2
Happy National Recycling Week. Here's What Not to Recycle.
Throwing the wrong type in the recycling can mess up a whole batch.
Broken glass to a recycler -- regardless of 
whether they're recycling paper, plastic, 
aluminum or, ironically, even glass -- works its 
way into everything and winds up making a big 
mess. Broken glass should simply be thrown away, 
especially if it's from broken windows, drinking 
glasses, Pyrex or mirrors. Or you can make use of 
it in mosaics. Earth911 is an amazing resource 
for how, where, and what to recycle, beyond the 
typical things collected curbside in your area.
These types of glass should never be put in your 
recycling bin.  "glass" from glassware, ceramics, 
window panes, or mirrors.  When recycling paper, 
don't toss in greasy pizza boxes or paper 
containers for liquids - milk cartons and coffee 
cups. Wrappers for food packaging should be sent 
to TerraCycle, which collects dozens of brands of 
typically unrecyclable packaging and products, 
even Sharpie pens!  The Terra Cycle video is 
fascinating  http://www.terracycle.net/

http://www.alternet.org/story/148796/as_the_country_falls_apart%2C_it%27s_time_for_our_revolution?page=entire
As the Country Falls Apart, It's Time for Our Revolution
A call to arms from Ted Rall's new book, "Anti-American Manifesto."
Though small in numbers, anarchists and 
"deepgreen" anti-civilization environmentalists 
are highly influential in what passes for the 
American Left, publishing well-regarded books, 
magazines, and blogs that inspire many people. 
Deep-green types fantasize about a collapse 
scenario that will save the world without anyone 
having to lift a finger. They imagine an 
involuntarily deindustrializing economy that 
allows the earth to heal while people gather to 
form small clans and low-impact villages based on 
ideals of equality. Here is a quote from Jan 
Lundberg, a deep-green proponent of "peak oil" 
theory: "New social norms and tribal law will 
help break from the past and possibly outlaw 
incipient reversion to the failed system of 
exploitation of people and nature. In any case, 
the 'new' model of sharing and cooperation will 
outdo in productivity any vestiges of the old 
models of selfishness and trying to insulate 
oneself or one's family from the surrounding changed world."
That would be nice, but I don't see how the 
deep-green idyll could logically follow the 
disintegration of the United States government. 
Theoretically, people might form intentional 
communities (the current term for communes) 
and/or polyamorous clans of one hundred to one 
hundred fifty in Ecotopia (the term for a 
theoretical independent Pacific Northwest), 
living off the land, all local and 
sustainable-like. But these utopian societies 
won't be able to count on being left alone to 
live peacefully. The millions of partisans who 
follow Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and right-wing 
televangelists happen to be the best-armed people 
around, and they despise just about everyone who 
doesn't think and pray like them. They will see 
collapse as affirmation of their beliefs that 
secular liberalism is destructive. They will also 
see it as an opportunity to create a new, ordered 
world atop the ashes. They will act to stop 
teenage sluts from getting abortions, teach 
niggers a lesson, and slaughter those spics, 
dots, and everyone else who doesn't fit into 
their vision of what and who is right. Anarchists 
may opt out of revolution, but counterrevolution will come to them.
Interview with Ted Rall
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31510813/#40134425

http://www.energybulletin.net/media/2010-11-01/peak-oil-vs-pathological-optimism
Ecoshock:  Peak oil vs. pathological optimism
Why are we "the Doomers" for thinking oil is 
limited? Clinical psychologist 
<http://www.peakoilblues.com>Kathy McMahon ("the 
Peak Shrink") finds people all over the world are 
worried about fossil civilization collapsing. In 
this hot new speech, get answers for our own sanity, in a crazy world.
Download the audio for this episode 
<http://209.217.209.33/%7Eesnet/downloads/ES_101029_Show_LoFi.mp3>here.
14 MB End music "End of the Age of Oil" by David Rovics.
Extra 20 min interview Alex and 
Kathy<http://www.ecoshock.org/downloads/peakoil/ES_McMahon_Interview_LoFi.mp3> 
here.
Full 80 minute speech 
<http://www.ecoshock.org/downloads/peakoil/ES_Mahon_Speech_1_LoFi.mp3>Part 
1 and 
<http://www.ecoshock.org/downloads/peakoil/ES_McMahon_Speech_2_LoFi.mp3>Part 2.

http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2010/11/the-empires-decline-where-do-we-stand.html
The Empire's Decline — Where Do We Stand?

http://www.energybulletin.net/media/2010-11-10/peak-moment-184-yes-ready-anything
Peak Moment 184: YES! Ready for anything VideoAudio
Interview with YES! Magazine executive editor 
Sarah van Gelder and Publisher Fran Korten.

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/
Ethical Consumer - challenging corporate power since 1989
Interesting website

http://www.utne.com/Politics/Nothing-Grows-Forever-Endless-Growth-Economy.aspx?utm_content=11.09.10+Environment&utm_campaign=Emerging+Ideas-Every+Day&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email
Nothing Grows Forever
Meet the economists who are rewriting the gospel of consumption

http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/09/now-available-localisation-and-resilience-at-the-local-level-the-case-of-transition-town-totnes-devon-uk/
Ingredients of Transition:  ‘Localisation and 
Resilience at the Local Level: The Case of Transition Town Totnes (Devon, UK)’

http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/12/ingredients-of-transition-social-entrepriseentrepreneurshipIngredients 
of Transition: Social Entreprise/Entrepreneurship
The model of community initiatives that are 
dependent on external funding from philanthropic 
organisations, governments and external grant 
giving bodies is becoming increasingly redundant 
as economies contract and budgets shrink.  In a 
wider context, we are still living off the 
surplus generated at a time of high Energy Return 
on Investment, which enabled surplus to be 
redistributed.  That window of opportunity is 
starting to close as we enter a time of declining 
net energy and economic contraction.  There is 
often a resistance within community 
organisations, especially those with an 
environmental agenda, to think about how they 
might operate in such a way that pursues their 
ethics but also functions as an enterprise, 
generating revenue for the ongoing development of 
the organisation, but that resistance needs, increasingly, to be overcome.

http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/01/ingredients-of-transition-how-others-see-ushow-we-communicate/
Ingredients of Transition: How Others See Us/How We Communicate
People who are passionate about issues that 
necessitate change in others (most green issues 
fall into this category) can sometimes lack an 
awareness of how they communicate their message. 
For many, green campaigners can appear fanatical, 
naive, uninformed, smug, judgemental, patronising 
or offensive (very few embody all of these, but I 
have seen talks by one or two people who managed 
it). Communicating Transition without such an 
awareness can, ultimately, be self defeating.

http://carolynbaker.net/content/view/1837/1/
Sharon Astyk - Loving Your Neighbors and Working with Them
Because rather than talking about "working" with 
your neighbors or "getting along" or "building 
community" - all languages I use at times, I did 
want to talk about the problem of actually loving 
them, despite the difficulties that the word 
"love" evokes. I think it is the correct word, in 
fact. Instead of thinking of "love" as a 
particular feeling you have to evoke, we think of 
it as a larger structure for our relationships, 
an economy if you will, in the, literal sense of 
the world, a way of organizing our world.

http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/09/can-totnes-and-district-house-itself-the-potential-of-local-building-materials-to-build-resilience/
The potential of local building materials to build resilience

http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/682/1/
Floating Hostels to the Rescue - for Homeless Too
Jan Lundberg
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/cob-construction-could-be-for-you.html
The Eco-Friendly Building Method You’ve Never Heard Of
Probably have - cob construction

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/finding-fulfillment-in-a-12x12-house.html
Finding Fulfillment in a 12×12 House

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-11-04-how-the-places-we-live-make-us-sick-and-how-they-could-heal-us-i
How the places we live make us sick, and how they could heal us instead
Healing Cities Working Group of planners and health professionals in Vancouver.
"eight pillars of a healthy community:"
     * Complete community (land use, density)
     * Healthy mobility (transit)
     * Healthy buildings (green buildings)
     * Thriving landscapes (open space)
     * Green infrastructure (water, sewers etc)
     * Healthy food system (organic agriculture, nutrition)
     * Healthy community (facilities, programs)
     * Healthy abundance (sustainable economic development)

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/11/11-6
Coalition Pushes for Amendment to Controversial Senate Food Safety Bill
Cornucopia Institute:  Over 125 national, state, 
and grassroots organizations are notifying 
members of the United States Senate that an 
amendment proposed by Sen. Jon Tester (MT) and 
Sen. Kay Hagan (NC), is critical to ensuring that 
the food safety bill being considered by the 
Senate does not injure the livelihoods of 
family-scale farmers and undercut consumers' 
opportunity to find fresh, local farm produce and 
locally artisan food products.

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6351/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1637
Sign on to the Slow Money Principles

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/a-farm-vacation.html
A Farm Vacation
Learn by doing

http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/healing-vets-through-sustainable-farming-the-farmer-veteran-coalition/
Healing Vets through Sustainable Farming: The Farmer Veteran Coalition
The Farmers Veteran Coalition offers employment 
training and places to heal for America's 
veterans on American farms. Returning veterans 
need employment and often, a calm place to go, 
while the older generation of farmers are 
retiring, leaving the land unworked. The 
Coalition serves as a clearinghouse for training, 
and works to connect veterans with ways to 
finance their agricultural education along with 
farm- and food-related job opportunities.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/pamela-omalley-chang/bees-for-my-backyard
Bees for My Backyard

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-bloom-food-waste-20101107,0,2596256.story
Help the planet: Stop wasting food
The average family of four, conservatively, 
throws out an estimated $1,350 annually - this 
also wastes the fossil fuel that went into 
growing, processing, transporting and 
refrigerating it.  2% of all U.S. energy 
consumption went to producing food that was never eaten.
That waste of resources continues after we throw 
away food. There is the energy required to haul 
the discarded food to the landfill. And once 
there, food decomposes and creates methane, a 
greenhouse gas 23 times more potent a heat 
trapper than carbon dioxide. Landfills are the 
second-largest human-related source of methane 
emissions, and rotting food causes the majority 
of methane there. It's climate change coming directly from your kitchen.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/store-fresh-vegetables-zm0z01zsie.aspx
How to Store Fresh Vegetables
You can learn the best crops to grow or buy, and 
how to store fresh vegetables year round.

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Gardening/diggin-it/2010/1110/How-to-store-autumn-s-bounty-of-vegetables-and-fruits?
How to store autumn's bounty of vegetables and fruits
Winter's coming. Here's how to preserve the 
fruits and vegetables you grew or bought at 
farmers’ markets, including how to build a root cellar in 30 minutes.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/the-food-storage-secret-our-grandparents-knew/article1782897/
The food storage secret our grandparents knew

http://vimeo.com/16513455
Farmageddon Trailer
The food police at work.

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/local-eating-in-winter.html
Eat Local, Even in Winter

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2010-11-10/local-food-movement-elitist
Sharon Astyk - Is the local food movement elitist?
the accusation that local food is elitist is 
actually a product of the industrial food 
infrastructure - that is, the requirements of an 
industrial food system, the presumption that the 
basic structure of food production should be 
industrialized is what makes the price of good 
food higher. The accusation that local food isn't 
"serious" because it costs more is an accusation 
in bad faith - the reason it costs more is 
because the same system makes it cost more.

http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-11-04-bpa-is-bad-for-your-semen-and-other-stories
BPA is bad for your semen, and other news about 
our favorite endocrine disruptor

http://www.anh-usa.org/genetically-engineered-foods-and-new-action-alert/
Genetically Engineered Foods — New Action Alert!
t should come as no surprise, then, that 
genetically engineered foods are causing terrible 
genetic changes in mammal offspring.  Scientists 
are seeing birth defects, high infant mortality 
rates, and sterility in hamsters, rats, and 
livestock fed genetically engineered soy and 
corn. Some hamster pups even begin growing hair 
inside their mouths. What we eat changes the 
biology of our children and our children’s 
children, and may harm them irreparably.

http://www.truth-out.org/war-over-genetically-modified-crops-gets-ugly-birth-defects-superweeds-and-science-intimidation64915
War Over Monsanto Gets Ugly

http://www.motherearthnews.com/sustainable-farming/home-cheesemaking-business-ze0z10zhir.aspx
Home Cheesemaking: From Hobby to Business
Artisan cheesemakers who aspire to make their 
passion a profession will face many challenges on 
the way to establishing a successful business. 
Find out what to consider before taking the leap.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/11/11/rothsay-energy-challenge/
Minn. town takes on energy conservation challenge
High school students spark town drive to reduce energy use by 15%.
How about your town??

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2010/1105/An-ARE-YOU-SMARTER-THAN-AL-GORE-energy-quiz/Which-laundry-method-saves-more-energy
Take this energy quiz - you’ll be surprised

http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-11-01-electronic-gadgets-come-from-somewhere
Like your dinner, your gadgets come from somewhere
Think about the social and ecological ruin that 
accompanies your electronics.  In addition to 
electromagnetic pollution, of course, 
http://www.livevideo.com/video/CB56B375D3AC48C2859D784A9C717059/international-emf-conference-2.aspx, 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8kJYHSuig8

http://storyofstuff.org/electronics/
Annie Leonard on The Story of Electronics
which also doesn’t include electromagnetic pollution

http://www.energybulletin.net/media/2010-11-11/online-course-building-sustainable-health-systems-essential-role-public-health
Online Course: Building Sustainable Health 
Systems: The Essential Role of Public Health

http://www.anh-usa.org/cdc-report-on-life-expectancy-latinos-live-longest-what-might-this-tell-us-about-medicine/
CDC Report on Life Expectancy—Latinos Live 
Longest. What Might This Tell Us About Medicine?
might suggest that the standard medical 
treatments available through health insurance are backfiring.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A754720101108
Look out, your medicine is watching you
Novartis AG plans to seek regulatory approval 
within 18 months for a pioneering tablet 
containing an embedded microchip, bringing the 
concept of "smart-pill" technology a step closer.

http://www.survivalblog.com/2010/11/expired_medications_-_part_3_g.html
Expired Medications - Part 3: General Principles,

http://www.motherearthnews.com/modern-homesteading/emergency-survival-kits-zm0z10zvau.aspx
Emergency Survival Kits
Power outages 
 severe storms 
 no worries! With 
a little planning, you can keep your family calm 
and safe during short-term emergencies.

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/8-ways-to-reuse-old-t-shirts.html
8 Ways to Reuse Old T-Shirts

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/recycle-yarn-rip-out-a-sweater-and-reuse-it.html
Recycle Yarn: Rip Out a Sweater and Reuse It!

http://www.toxictoysrus.com/
Toxic Toys R Us

https://secure2.convio.net/pcrm/site/Donation2?idb=0&df_id=6860&6860.donation=form1&autologin=true&s_subsrc=H10-E91a&JServSessionIdr004=14ohn1q882.app209b
Test your toxicology knowledge!  While you’re at it.

http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/scientists-antibacterial-soap-triclosan-dangerous-environment-people/
Science Shows Antibacterial Chemicals are Dangerous to People and Environment

http://www.counterpunch.org/healy11082010.html
An Interview with Wendell Berry -"Everything Worthy is Under Fire"
  Listen, we’re all petroleum dependent

  But we didn’t choose to have that life, it was thrust upon us.
  No, we didn’t choose it. But we’ll always be 
subject to the question whether or not we’ve done 
enough to stop it. Whether or not we’ve taken it 
too much for granted. After all when I started 
driving in 1950 nobody had even raised any of 
these questions. So our fossil fuel addiction was 
begun in a kind of innocence, but also in a kind 
of ignorance. And that ignorance has come to a 
drastic kind of enlightenment by now, so we do 
have to raise these questions about our own behavior.

http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/176080-the-ultimate-roller-coaster-ride-a
Richard Heinberg - 300 Years of Fossil Fueled Growth in 5 Minutes

http://www.businessinsider.com/uh-oh-the-internet-is-running-out-of-space-2010-11
The Doomsday Scenario You Haven’t Heard About
The Internet is running out of room. Fast.?

http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/what-would-you-do-if-your-income-disappeared/
What Would You Do if Your Income Disappeared?

http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-community/voluntary-simplicity-elgin-xe0hir.aspx
Voluntary Simplicity: Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich
Simplicity is not about a life of poverty, but a 
life of purpose. By embracing an existence 
characterized by ecological awareness, frugal 
consumption and personal growth, we can change 
our lives — and, in the process, change the world.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/5939/
Mutual Aid - Backyard measures for drastic times
by Derrick Jensen
And now here’s the real, real point: It only took 
me an hour. And it was a fun hour—an hour I spent 
serving my landbase instead of playing a game on 
a computer, or answering e-mail, or watching 
television, or getting pissed off and flaming 
someone in an online forum because of a column 
that person wrote for Orion, or wasting time in 
some other way that does absolutely no good for 
the real, physical world.  The obvious and even 
more real point is that we can all find an hour 
or two per week we can give to our landbases.

http://www.survivalblog.com/2010/11/the_value_and_practice_of_jour.html
The Value and Practice of Journaling
Knowing we have faced and survived specific 
difficulties in the past, as recorded in our 
journal, we can be inspired and empowered to 
survive them again in the future.    Our personal 
writings can also serve as an instruction manual 
for others.  In looking at my own family history, 
one of my late ancestors often made dandelion 
soup during a time of hardship.  However, she 
never documented the recipe so her version of the 
dish has been lost forever.  In a different time 
and place, such knowledge could have meant the 
difference between life and death for another person.

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/?id=329318&t=
Fascinating interview with Jon Stewart Rachel 
Maddow interviews him, and they discuss the 
differences, similarities, strengths, failures 
and and intentions of regular news and comedic coverage of the news.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k
Quantitative Easing Explained
Hilarious but unfortunately true