Banff Transition

Green Left Weekly: “There is no such thing as a green car… Unsustainable would barely describe the car’s environmental failure if the rest of the world were to adopt US patterns of car ownership and driving behaviour. So why is the car such a protected species, culturally celebrated and immune from radical policy review? Because, the authors say, the car is integral to the capitalist economy and thus any criticism of the car is taboo. Since 1925, the automotive industry has been the leading sector of the US economy, and, of the world’s 10 largest corporations, three are car manufacturers and six are oil companies.”

Low-tech Magazine: “Recycling animal and human dung is the key to sustainable farming
Flushing the water closet is handy, but it wreaks ecological havoc, deprives agricultural soils of essential nutrients and makes food production dependent on fossil fuels. For 4,000 years, human excrements and urine were considered extremely valuable trade products in China, Korea and Japan. Human dung was transported over specially designed canal networks by boats.”

Open Source Ecology: “Open Source Ecology is a movement dedicated to the collaborative development of tools for replicable, open source, modern off-grid ‘resilient communities.’ By using permaculture and digital fabrication together to provide for basic needs and open source methodology to allow low cost replication of the entire operation, we hope to empower anyone who desires to move beyond the struggle for survival and ‘evolve to freedom.’”

ScienceNOW: “Thanks to warming temperatures in Colorado, yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) have been getting up earlier from hibernation each year, giving them more time to feed. As a result, they grow about 10% bigger than they used to. That extra weight helps the marmots survive longer, giving each group time to produce an average of 14 more little yellow-bellies a year than did their predecessors.”