William Powers, Author of Dispatches from the Sweet Life

Author, Speaker, Professor, Activist

  • home
  • Books
  • Articles
  • Bio
  • blog
  • News & Events
  • Speaking
  • Resources
  • Media
  • contact
 RSS
New World Library
(2018-09-04)
304 pages
ISBN: 978-1608685646

Order the Book  

IndieBound
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
New World Library

Recent Posts

  • The Happiness-Carbon Link: Article in the Solutions Journal
  • A Salon, in the Spirit of Thomas Berry
  • You as Creature: What is biocentrism?
  • The End of Normal?
  • An Alarming Trend in Eco-Crimes

Archives

What’s Your 12×12? New Book-Inspired Eco-Art

May 30, 2013 by William Powers 2 Comments

ABOUT Project 12×12

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Winner of Solstice “Twelve by Twelve” Book Giveaway

June 27, 2012 by William Powers Leave a Comment

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!”

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Uncategorized

On the Art of Living Small

May 2, 2012 by William Powers Leave a Comment

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!

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Forget Shorter Showers

April 26, 2012 by William Powers 2 Comments

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”?

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Keystone Fight Uniting Tea Partiers With Environmentalists

February 28, 2012 by William Powers Leave a Comment

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.

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Uncategorized

‘Buy Nothing Day’ is this Friday (At least make it Buy Local Day!)

November 23, 2011 by William Powers 2 Comments

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.

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Seven Ways to Have More by Owning Less

August 15, 2011 by William Powers 4 Comments

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.

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Ecovillages, cohousing communities, residential land trusts, and more

July 26, 2011 by William Powers 2 Comments

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.

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Thank you Red Squirrels and Herons!

June 22, 2011 by William Powers 2 Comments

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.

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Because We Are

June 1, 2011 by William Powers Leave a Comment

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,

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Next Page »

Copyright © 2022 William Powers