From Perilous to Possible

I sent an  email  to a spiritual friend and he sent back an article from the site ... OrganicConsumersAssociation.org

I went to the site and saw quite a few articles that told grim tales about the dangers to our food supply. But it was not all bad news.  As one system falls apart another is in its infancy. One article deeply interested me and I did a copy/paste.

As it turns out a bottom-up revolution has begun in many places. It may appear soon near me. Or I may start it going.

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  Straight to the Source
  

OCA is happy to announce a new grassroots-powered campaign called Organic Transitions, inspired in part by the UK's fast-growing Transition Towns movement. Organic Transitions is designed to mobilize organic consumers and local communities to start planning and implementing "transition" strategies so as to survive and thrive in the turbulent times ahead, with organic food and farming providing the healthy cornerstone for a new, more localized and sustainable green economy.

First the bad, or shall we say the really bad, news. Not since the Great Depression have Americans been challenged by anything comparable to the current unfolding disaster: economic meltdown, global warming, climate chaos, escalating energy and resource costs, looming shortages, endless war, biodiversity erosion, and deteriorating public health--metastasized and abetted by a corporate elite and indentured federal government that apparently doesn't know what to do, or, worse, doesn't care. Even with likely regime change on November 4, we are in very deep trouble, according to leading scientists, economists, agronomists, and public health experts.

Fortunately a critical mass of people are waking up to the fact that we must get organized and find holistic solutions, not mere band-aids, for our crisis. Millions of us are heartened by the indisputable fact that organic, green, commonsense solutions for all of our life-or-death problems are at hand, including appropriate technology and innovative public policy and legislation. We don't have to wait for Washington bureaucrats or corporate marketers to tell us what to do. We can join together with our fellow citizens and begin the absolutely essential process of organizing Organic Transitions committees and campaigns in our local areas, starting with local organic food buying clubs, house parties, and study and action circles.

Times are indeed grim and frightening, but certainly not hopeless. We still have a strategic window of opportunity to take back control over our political, cultural, and economic institutions; to create millions of urban and rural green jobs; to transform our educational systems; and to make a smooth transition from fossil fuels, climate chaos, and resource wars to a renewable, peaceful, solar-based agriculture and economy. But time is of the essence.

There is no longer any doubt that we must quickly move away from fossil fuels and greenhouse gas pollution if we are to avoid climate catastrophe. Likewise there is no doubt that we are quickly running out of cheap oil, and other essential resources such as water, forests, wetlands, and plant and animal biodiversity. You are likely familiar with the term "Peak Oil", the notion that global oil production has peaked and will now become inexorably more expensive and scarce, even as global demand continues to rise. What you may not realize is that we stand on the cusp of Peak Everything, where nearly all of our essential natural resources are reaching their limits.

 

I am a hippy that never dropped out. I have held on to impossible idealism and will not give up. I think the human race is a ticking time bomb and we are at the last tick. So what is the good of slow careful pragmatism that allows time for it all to (more...)
 

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