Certainly I’m not wildly optimistic but embrace what Shaun Chamberlain, author of “The Transition Timeline“, calls dark optimism, that is, being “unashamedly positive about what kind of a world humanity could create, and unashamedly realistic about how far we are from creating it today.”  FULL ARTICLE

Those who wish to eradicate America’s participation in torture do not grasp the larger picture-the picture that is even broader than the nation’s history of torture. I’m speaking of civilization itself which leads to empire which leads to every form of abuse imaginable. FULL ARTICLE

It’s happening daily now, almost hourly-rampant eruptions of violence throughout the so-called developed world. As civilization unravels, the uncivilized behavior of humans is becoming viral, and the culture of empire is quite simply going mad as its values, assumptions, and reasons for existing are evaporating with dizzying speed. For those who are and have been collapse-aware for some time, it is important not only to make sense of the epidemic violence, but to incorporate skillful responses to it.  FULL ARTICLE

My latest book, Sacred Demise: Walking The Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse has been released and is available for purchase. Below is the book’s foreword written by Sarah Anne Edwards, Ph.D. and co-author of Middle Class Lifeboat. She also teaches at Pine Mountain Institute and manages the Eco-Anxiety Blogspot. Sarah has gracioulsy consented to write the foreword for my book which is an emotional and spiritual roadmap for navigating the decline of industrial civilization. I extend my deepest gratitude to Sarah for her insight into the book’s message and for her eloquent description of it.  FULL ARTICLE

Rarely in the specialized milieu of industrial civilization does one encounter a Renaissance man or woman-someone who is well-versed in a wide spectrum of disciplines and who can expound upon them in writing that is both articulate and engaging. So when I discovered Mat Stein’s phenomenal When Technology Fails: A Manual For Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving The Long Emergency, I immediately contacted the publisher, Vermont’s own Chelsea Green, for a review copy of this fabulous tome on preparing wisely for the end of the world as we have known it.  FULL ARTICLE

This past week the New Yorker published “The Dystopians” by Ben McGrath, by whom I was interviewed back in October and who allowed me to make an appearance in the article with a brief mention of my forthcoming book. Sitting with this piece for the past seven days has been unsettling, not because I personally wanted more air time, but because of the article’s paucity of references to the female perspective regarding the collapse of civilization. Although I greatly admire Dmitry Orlov and James Howard Kunstler, and while I feel camaraderie in particular with my friends in the Vermont Independence movement, Rob Williams and Thomas Naylor, I found “The Dystopians” to be an appallingly white male extravaganza.  FULL ARTICLE

In early December, 2008 I drove to the home of Charlotte Dennett in rural Vermont to speak with her not only about her recent run for Attorney General of the State of Vermont, but also about Thy Will Be Done, a book she and her husband, Gerard Colby, had published in 1995-a book extremely relevant to the most recent, and in fact all, recent American presidential elections. I wanted to find out what motivated her to run for Attorney General of Vermont with the promise that if she were elected, she would appoint Vince Bugliosi, author of The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder, as special prosecutor to charge the lame duck President with murder, and also, to learn more about her and Colby’s research and how they became involved in the project.  FULL ARTICLE

For several months I have been meaning to write a review of Rob Hopkins’ The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience, but other things got in the way-like a planetary economic meltdown and out of control climate change that exceeds some of the most dire predictions by climate scientists. I should have spoken out earlier in support of this movement, but I didn’t. Now, as we commence this new year, I am.  FULL ARTICLE

In the short time during which Representative McDonald and I met, we could have discussed food security, health care, education, and myriad other issues which will become more formidable as the current economic crisis deepens. What I already knew about neighbors helping neighbors was greatly reinforced by my conversation with Patricia McDonald, and I’m hopeful that state, regional, and local officials everywhere in America will adopt a similar vision, namely, that this crisis can only be navigated by people committed to developing solid lifelines of compassionate, systematic preparation and cooperation.  FULL ARTICLE

Anyone who hasn’t watched “Money As Debt,” an animated DVD by Paul Grignon, should consider purchasing this extraordinary explanation of money’s origin in an economy totally dependent on debt. Almost everyone has seen footage of federal printing presses cranking out paper money, and some of us have even visited a government mint or two and have observed the process firsthand. But like so many other illusions with which the U.S. economy is replete, money is not created by government printing presses.  FULL ARTICLE