Banff Transition

The Road Down from Empire: “Here in the Appalachians, at least, there’s something about the month of January that encourages sober thoughts.  Maybe it’s the weather, which is pretty reliably gray and cold; maybe it’s the arrival of the bills from the holiday season just ended, or the awkward way that those bills usually arrive about the same time that the annual crop of New Year’s resolutions start landing in the recycle bin.  Pick your reason, but one way or another it seems like a good time to circle back and finish up the theme I’ve been developing here for most of a year now, the decline and fall of America’s global empire and the difficult task of rebuilding something worthwhile in its wake.”

Global Guerrillas: “I don’t have to spell out the implications of this.  I want to have my drone before the government makes them illegal.”

‘Russian Times: “[W]hat we are seeing is the structural crisis of the system. The structural crisis goes on for a long time. It really started more or less in the 1970s and will go on for another 20, 30, 40 years. … [Capitalism] has worked in some ways marvelously well for 500 years. It has been an extremely successful system in what it was trying to do but it has undone itself as all systems do.”

Global Guerillas: “Here’s some interesting analysis from the IMF regarding global unemployment, which may lead (in their words) to a social explosion. The Great Recession has left gaping wounds. High and long-lasting unemployment represents a risk to the stability of existing democracies. …

“One potential future is that the social pressures of D2 will shred what’s left of the social contract in the Western democracies. That would mean that the only way out (for those of us unwilling to be passive) is to build something new.  Something that mitigates our connection to this global system.   My best attempt at a solution to this conundrum is the resilient community.  A resilient community that can protect and sustain us.  A community that can provide prosperity and a future worth living in.  A community that can out compete successfully at a global level while protecting its members from the viciousness of an unconstrained invisible hand.”

Vancouver Sun: “Documents reveal federal researchers, whose work is financed by taxpayers, need approval from Ottawa before speaking with media. … The Harper government has tightened the muzzle on federal scientists, going so far as to control when and what they can say about floods at the end of the last ice age”

Post Carbon Institute: “A good guess would be that 95+ percent of the people living to earth today do not understand that the oil age has started drawing to a close and that massive change stemming there from are already underway. …

“The second phase of our great transition will come a few years later when it has become obvious to all that the world’s oil supply has started to decline. When this day comes, the political debates should shift to a search for solutions to the reality of surviving without fossil fuels. Concerns about ‘burdensome’ taxes, social issues, creating good jobs, and setting the country to growing again will melt in the face of concerns about national survival and social stability.

“For now however, we are mired in a period when politicians debate and run for office seemingly without an appreciation of serious underlying issues such as resource depletion, overpopulation, and global warming. For now the political debate is shaped in terms of the short vs. long run benefits for the voters – with the short-run beating concerns for future generations hands down. Any action that is perceived to hurt the pocket books of one’s current constituents such as increasing the cost of energy or raising taxes is considered a non-starter.”

Peterborough [Ontario] Examiner : “APRIL 2009 — Peterborough is the only city in Canada recognized by the international Transition Town movement, Irwin said.”

Santa Cruz News: “In late May, a small grassroots organization called Transition Santa Cruz convened for an evening meeting at the police station on Center Street. The subject of the hour was how the community could bolster Santa Cruz’s public transportation system and steer residents away from sprawl and dependency on cars for every outing and errand.”