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by Peter Crabb
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In the wake of the failure of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to deliver anything other than business as usual, questions about the intentions and efficacy of official powers—government, the U.N., nonprofits, and corporate puppet masters—should be foremost on our minds. The conclusion that they won’t do what needs to be done to save our planet from anthropogenic destruction seems to be inescapable. So, as Culture Change Editor Jan Lundberg bluntly put it, “The real state of affairs is truly, ‘It's up to us.’”
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by Jan Lundberg
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The unnatural dominant culture, coldly spewing its noise and heat, subjecting
us to dirty machines and pavement, no longer makes sense in terms of our
needs as humans. But don't let it get you down and make you give up.
Play your guitar, enjoy the company of friends, or whatever else
restores your humanity. Perhaps the songs and the
conversations will lead to some liberation and justice, alleviating
the pain of this senseless system running our lives into the
ground. But we must do even more. Finding a "better job" is no
solution long-term, however much we think we need money to survive. |
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by Albert Bates
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My COP15 Journal: Day Sixteen, Dec. 19
"Goodbye Africa, goodbye south Asia; goodbye glaciers and sea ice, coral reefs and rainforest; it was nice knowing you, not that we really cared. The governments which moved so swiftly to save the banks have bickered and filibustered while the biosphere burns."
— George Monbiot, The Guardian, Dec. 18, 2009
Last Day: When we arrived in Copenhagen 16 days ago, we were met by Ross and Hildur Jackson, our hosts at a farm near Birkerød, just outside the city. |
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by Jan Lundberg
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Although one yearns for global warming to indeed not exceed 2 degrees Celsius (or less, as African countries demand), the take-home message from the Copenhagen COP meeting is that polluters and growth mongers, large and small, will not let up. This is because they are not being forced to -- whether by their own peoples or by natural forces such as ecological or economic collapse. Most diabolical is the intention to switch energy as the main strategy for climate protection, when it will not work.
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by Albert Bates
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 Wednesday, December 16, 2009
My COP15 Journal: Day Thirteen
A few years ago, when the Local Agenda-21 group for Copenhagen (Agenda 21 was the name of the sustainable development plan the UN launched at the Earth Summit in Rio) started to look at what kind of changes might be needed to place the city on a more sustainable path through the challenges of the coming century, they requested a guided tour of Christiania. |
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by Sarah (Steve) Mosko
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Editor's note: Don't skip this article just because you may not have a
lawn to turn into a veggie patch. Mosko provides fabulous background,
such as the post-WWII development that "chemical weapons
manufacturers funneled stockpiles of compounds used for making
poisonous gases and explosives into making pesticides and nitrogen
fertilizers." Southern California remains a crazy place, so let's hope
Mosko is heard: "The energy required for desalination far exceeds that
for water importation." - JL
Which consumes more fossil fuels, lawn maintenance with gas-powered
tools or lawn watering? |
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by David Rovics
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"Copenhagen police ended up preemptively arresting nearly a thousand people Saturday. Another 230 protesters were preemptively arrested on Sunday during a demonstration to block the city’s ports." - Dec. 14, Democracy Now
The signs up all over the airport and various places elsewhere in town are calling it Hopenhagen, but everybody I know is calling it Cop-enhagen, which seems far more appropriate. The international media have been giving this lots of coverage, and rightly so. |
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by Jan Lundberg
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 Albert Bates, climate-change author and teacher in permaculture, has continued his blogging and photography from Copenhagen. Here is an excerpt of his latest entries and pictures since we covered his Days 1 and 2 on Culture Change, Dec. 6th: |
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by Miguel Valencia
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Liberating the Social Imagination to Liberate Our Villages
Dec. 9, 2009 at the People's Climate Summit: Klimaforum09
Our villages and cities are dying because of intense development. Everywhere in México, the same force is at work. It weakens our
villages, sickens and kills their inhabitants. It destroys our
communities and makes a mockery of our traditional commons. |
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by Jan Lundberg
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For decades the nations of the southern hemisphere have asked for -- or have been portrayed by social justice activists as needing -- a piece of the industrial pie. A related theme has been the drive to not have to pay for the overconsumption of the North. "Development" often meant World Bank projects to facilitate power consumption for spreading the use of appliances and cars. In the run-up to Copenhagen the idea of funding poor countries for climate mitigation has gained popularity, but it may really be about corporate business. How feasible this is with the global economy's imploding -- from the end of cheap energy and peaking of funny money -- is forgotten as plans count on just more growth.
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by Peter Goodchild
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Editor's note: It goes without saying that Culture Change readers are interested in sustainability and non-cruelty, and stand for peace and nonviolence. However, Peter Goodchild's new piece is a tour de force, touching on fish-hook making, constructing traps, preparing hides, etc., from his first-hand experience, and is a quintessential do-it-yourself (DIY) resource. - JL
Yes, I know, the only meat you’re allowed to eat is the kind that sits in a Styrofoam tray and is covered with cling film. Buddhists aren’t allowed to kill fish, so they leave them to die on the beach. Now let’s get down to business.
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by Keith Farnish for Culture Change
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 I’m looking forward to the rhubarb growing season; it happens when you least expect it, as tiny shoots start to emerge from the soil, embellished in the most delightful crinkles, and bursting with every shade of pink, red and green you could imagine. You can almost smell it stewing in the pan as its red shoots push upwards and outwards. My father, a great fan of this hardiest of plants, has replanted part of the driveway of his house with half a dozen roots, ready for the spring – Rhubard crumble rather than cars, any day.
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