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Sustainability

A Town In Transition, And Local Community Resilience

April 8, 2025 Chris Rhodes, Resilience. , , ,
A large town, not yet a city, Reading (UK) is typically seen as a commuter hub, with thousands travelling into London every day to get to work. Reading itself may seem unexceptional, even bland, with not much going on there. But, on looking a little closer, Reading has real community, a group of local people who are coming together to create real change. While many of our problems are global – e.g. the climate and biodiversity emergency, declining fossil fuels, dwindling resources, pollution, overconsumption, food insecurity, inequality – there is much we can do at the local level to make things better.

The Seven Fundamental Drivers Of Overshoot

March 17, 2025 Nate Hagens, Resilience. , , ,
Humanity is in overshoot. The last 50 years have marked a unique period in history during which our species has been able to access, extract, and consume natural resources at a rate faster than the Earth is able to regenerate them. As humanity continues to grow its population beyond the carrying capacity of its environment, the associated excess consumption is degrading the health of Earth’s ecosystems. By over-consuming our environment—and ecosystem stability—in the short-term, we are putting our planet’s long-term stability and capacity to provide for future generations in jeopardy.

Action On Climate Change May Look Different Than You Expect

February 23, 2025 Vijay Kolinjivadi and Aaron Vansintjan, Counter Punch. , , ,
Talk a walk through the Los Angeles’ Arts District, and you’ll learn that there’s nothing contradictory about trying to save the world and living a luxury lifestyle. Start your tour with the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), which proudly displays a banner stating: “the future begins here.” LACI is “a non- profit organization creating an inclusive green economy” and run “by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs.” They are also supported by a “community” that includes not only the City of Los Angeles but also BMW, Wells Fargo, United Airlines, and JPMorgan Chase.

High Hopes For Hempcrete

February 3, 2025 Aldyn Chwelos, The Tyee. , , ,
Lisa Sundberg and Peter Holmdahl want to change the construction industry in North America by using one of the oldest cultivated plants in human history: hemp. Sundberg is an activist from Trinidad, California, with a background in industry development. She met Holmdahl, a Swede with a background in business development and sustainability, through a shared commitment to expanding the use of hempcrete (also known as hemp lime). This building material made from industrial hemp byproduct is gaining attention for its sustainable properties.

The Missing Link In Europe’s Sustainable Food Future

November 25, 2024 Anna Scavuzzo and David Dessers, Resilience.org. , , ,
As we face increasingly urgent global challenges, including climate change, urbanisation and growing inequality, Europe must transform its food systems to ensure resilience, sustainability and inclusivity. The Strategic Dialogue for Agriculture, convened by President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was designed to depolarise the contentious debates surrounding food and agriculture. It brought together a wide range of stakeholders who unanimously adopted a comprehensive set of recommendations for the future of Europe’s food systems.

Bioregional Fibersheds And New Fashion Commons

November 3, 2024 David Bollier. , ,
Look behind the glitz and glamour of global fashion, and you will find an ecologically harmful, anti-social industry largely unable to shed its capitalist dynamics. Its factories generate huge amounts of pollution and rely on underpaid, abused sweatshop labor. Fast fashion fills up landfills with mountains of cheap clothing discarded after a few uses. To keep consumption and sales going, fashion's relentless marketing machine peddles fantasies of luxury, rail-thin bodies, and sex appeal.

Coming Soon To A Country Near You: The Not-So-Subtle Shift To Adaptation?

October 24, 2024 Erik Assadourian, Resilience. , , , ,
he shift to adaptation is coming. And when it comes it will be Earth-shaking—where collectively, those with resources start to give up the struggle to stop climate change, and instead focus primarily on protecting their own proverbial asses. Fortunately, we’re not quite there yet. In fact, returning to the report The Wall Street Journal mischaracterized, mitigation finance is growing far faster than adaptation finance, reaching $1.3 trillion annually in 2021-2022, double the $653 billion averaged in 2019-2020. Adaptation finance, on the other hand, grew to $63 billion, a 28% increase year-on-year, but because mitigation finance grew much more, adaptation finance dropped from 7% to 5% of the total.

Degrowth: Beyond Education For Sustainable Development

October 15, 2024 Amerissa Giannouli, Resilience. , , ,
Large-scale development projects, innovative green technologies, artificial intelligence, and trips to Mars are often seen as central solutions to the climate crisis leading to diverse socio-ecological and economic implications. Despide their inconsistencies and conflicted outcomes, their influence is so strong that our present approaches and vision for the future seem constrained by them. This short essay aims to explore opportunities and entry points that could mobilise personal and collective transformations in how we think and act, with the goal of fostering a more ecological and socially just response to the climate crisis.

Beyond Hegemony

September 29, 2024 Jeffrey Sachs, Scheer Post. , , ,
We are at a new phase of human history because of the confluence of three interrelated trends. First, and most pivotal, the Western-led world system, in which countries of the North Atlantic region dominate the world militarily, economically, and financially, has ended. Second, the global ecological crisis marked by human-induced climate change, the destruction of biodiversity, and the massive pollution of the environment, will lead to fundamental changes of the world economy and governance. Third, the rapid advance of technologies across several domains—artificial intelligence, computing, biotechnology, geoengineering—will profoundly disrupt the world economy and politics.

Earth Is Close To Passing Seven Of Nine Planetary Boundaries

September 26, 2024 Paige Bennett, EcoWatch. , , , ,
Scientists have found that Earth may soon pass another planetary boundary, meaning it could be operating outside of the safe limits for seven of the nine defined planetary boundaries. The Planetary Health Check report, prepared by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), is a new assessment that determines the state of the planetary boundaries. For its first edition, the report found that Earth is near the boundary for ocean acidification. “Our updated diagnosis shows that vital organs of the Earth system are weakening, leading to a loss of resilience and rising risks of crossing tipping points,” said Levke Caesar, scientist at PIK and a lead author of the report.

A Radical Way To Change The UN Security Council, Including Its Name

September 16, 2024 Stephen Crilly, Scheer Post. , , ,
What conditions might compel the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to relinquish their veto power? In exchange, what conditions might the other member states agree on to make it happen? These are important questions to pose to the public as the 193 member states negotiate a Pact for the Future for the upcoming Summit of the Future to ensure the organization’s usefulness for generations to come. Let us hope that the P5 — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — as well as other member states have the wisdom to institute reforms as soon as possible. Some Council reform proposals consider adding individual countries as permanent members, such as India or Brazil.

Young People Will Save The World; We’re The Last Generation That Can

September 14, 2024 Keara Sosa, Counter Punch. , , ,
The past 20 years have been critical in the fight for bold and sustainable climate solutions. The next five years will be even more vital — and young people like me are fighting hard to make sure our leaders get it right. Research shows we have about five years left to avert global warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius, the tipping point when even more severe climate disruptions could exacerbate hunger, conflict and drought worldwide. Climate change — long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil — impacts our livelihoods and our lives. It harms our health and well-being and threatens our access to vital resources, from water to food to housing.

A Tale Of Two Yarn-Makers Reviving The Local Mill

September 3, 2024 Marissa Tiel, Resilience. , , ,
For nearly a decade, the Spinsters were a fixture at the Bellingham Farmers Market. Their booth was easy to find: market goers just needed to look for their brightly coloured yarns in vibrant cyan and deep magenta. Founders Kate Burge and Rachel Price commuted to the market by bike — neither one owned a car at the time — and set up most Saturdays. The duo, who named their company Spincycle, specialized in a type of craft practised by few others in the early 2000s: kettle-dyeing and hand-spinning wool into beautiful skeins. Unlike most commercial yarns, which are spun and then dyed, the yarn Burge and Price create is dyed first, before it’s spun into yarn.

Human Rights Abuses In $40 Billion Tuna Industry Still A Major Problem

September 1, 2024 Greenpeace USA. , , , , ,
Fourteen out of 16 major US grocery retailers received failing grades in Greenpeace USA’s latest scorecard on tuna supply chain practices, highlighting ongoing issues in human rights and sustainability on the high seas. The new report, The High Cost of Cheap Tuna 2024, 3rd Edition, finds that while some retailers have made improvements in sourcing tuna, U.S. retailers’ current human rights and sustainability practices are failing. Of the 16 retailers, only Aldi and HyVee passed the scorecard and Trader Joe’s finished last, with a 12% score. Trader Joe’s score reflects the retailer’s failure to respond or complete a survey and its website providing almost zero transparency on its sustainability and human rights practices.

‘Sustainable Square Mile’ Tests Power Of Biden’s Billions For Climate Justice

August 28, 2024 Adam Mahoney, In These Times. , , , ,
Two days after a series of tornadoes ripped through Chicago’s South Side, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without electricity, Naomi Davis and Suzanne Waddell met in the front yard of Emmett Till’s childhood home to assess the damage. Fencing had been blown down. Their organization, Blacks in Green, founded by Davis in 2007, owns the historic landmark. It will open as a playhouse, community farm and museum in 2025, honoring the life the 14-year-old deserved to have. Even in 92-degree heat, people stopped by to take photos, a regular occurrence that reminds Davis of the larger duty marginalized people in America have ​“to remind each other of our greatness.”
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