ABOUT Project 12×12
Winner of Solstice “Twelve by Twelve” Book Giveaway
Thanks to everyone who responded to the summer solstice question on the William Powers Books Facebook page. There were so many wonderful responses to the question: “As summer begins, what feels inspiring or hopeful to you today?”
As promised, I chose one comment at random. And the winner is (drumroll please!)….
Britton Tuck, a student in Georgia, USA. She wrote: “What inspires me is seeing my fellow Earthship Biotecture Academy students make great strides in the way of promoting Earthship/off-grid living. I’m so inspired by these individuals and their passion to spread the word about how to lead a self-sustainable lifestyle!”
On the Art of Living Small
Thanks to Jim Flemming and NPR’s “To the Best of Our Knowledge” for featuring an interview about Twelve by Twelve: A One Room Cabin, Off the Grid & Beyond the American Dream on their program this week.
You can listen to the 9 minute interview here. I hope you enjoy it!
Forget Shorter Showers
Forget Shorter Showers
Why personal change does not equal political change
by Derrick Jensen
From Orion magazine
WOULD ANY SANE PERSON think dumpster diving would have stopped Hitler, or that composting would have ended slavery or brought about the eight-hour workday, or that chopping wood and carrying water would have gotten people out of Tsarist prisons, or that dancing naked around a fire would have helped put in place the Voting Rights Act of 1957 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Then why now, with all the world at stake, do so many people retreat into these entirely personal “solutions”?
Keystone Fight Uniting Tea Partiers With Environmentalists
If you’re following the Keystone pipeline battle, you’ll find this development interesting! -Bill
In Washington, DC, the fight over the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline mostly divides common enemies: Republicans and Democrats; environmentalists and fossil fuel interests; big business and the federal bureaucracy.
But though the project exists in a state of suspended animation, TransCanada — the company that wants to connect the tar sands in Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico — is preparing to build anyhow. In particular, on the portion of the pipeline that would link Nebraska to Texas, TransCanada has threatened to use disputed eminent domain powers to condemn privately held land, over the owners’ objections. And that’s creating unusual allies — Occupiers, Tea Partiers, environmentalists, individualists — united to stop TransCanada from threatening water supplies, ancient artifacts, and people’s basic property rights.
‘Buy Nothing Day’ is this Friday (At least make it Buy Local Day!)
It’s the 20th annual Buy Nothing Day, an all-out offensive to unseat the corporate kings on the holiday throne.
Historically, Buy Nothing Day has been about fasting from hyper consumerism – a break from the cash register and reflecting on how dependent we really are on conspicuous consumption.
This year’s Black Friday will be the first campaign of the holiday season where activists are setting the tone for a new type of holiday culminating with #OCCUPYXMAS. As the global protests of the 99% against casino capitalism continues, why not take the opportunity to hit the empire where it really hurts…the wallet.
Seven Ways to Have More by Owning Less
Inconspicuous consumption, or what lunching ladies have to do with social web karma. By Maria Popova.
Stuff. We all accumulate it and eventually form all kinds of emotional attachments to it. (Arguably, because the marketing machine of the 20th century has conditioned us to do so.) But digital platforms and cloud-based tools are making it increasingly easy to have all the things we want without actually owning them. Because, as Wired founder and notable futurist Kevin Kelly once put it, “access is better than ownership.” Here are seven services that help shrink your carbon footprint, lighten your economic load and generally liberate you from the shackles of stuff through the power of sharing.
Ecovillages, cohousing communities, residential land trusts, and more
Several folks on my Facebook fan page have been asking: How do I get started with living outside the Flat World in sustainable community? What are some resources?
Well, here’s one. A website called Intentional Communities serves the growing communities’ movement, providing resources for starting a community, finding a community home, living in community, and creating more community in your life.
And Intentional Community is simply an inclusive term for ecovillages, cohousing communities, residential land trusts, communes, student co-ops, urban housing cooperatives, intentional living, alternative communities, cooperative living, and other projects where people strive together with a common vision.
Thank you Red Squirrels and Herons!
Today I leave the Minnesota woods after a marvelous fiction writing retreat.
The view from my writing desk in the cabin
During my too-short stay at Pine Needles—it was supposed to be longer but my schedule only allowed twelve days— I made friends with the folks around the cabin: raccoons, red squirrels, eastern grey squirrels, chipmunks, muskrats (I watched a muskrat couple frolic in the water, mate, take baths, and build their dam), bats, and white-tailed deer. Oh, and then there were the abundant water turtles, a large snake, and fresh-water mussels.
Because We Are
My friend Eva just sent this to me from Bolivia, and I thought you might enjoy it. It appears at the end of Satish Kumar’s book, “You are, therfore I am”.
"You are, therefore I am," Satish Kumar
“Because We Are”
I am because we are, the five-toed,
the elegant-fingered, the ones
whose brains flower like coral
whose dreams span earth and move out –
I am because we animals
love to run and huddle, because
our tongues love to lick skin,
nuzzle and enter each other’s
mouths, clean milky young,