William Powers, Author of Dispatches from the Sweet Life

Author, Speaker, Professor, Activist

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New World Library
(2018-09-04)
304 pages
ISBN: 978-1608685646

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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

“Mommy, I want something ‘wrapped in garbage, please”

December 27, 2010 by William Powers 9 Comments

Now we’re really stuck. The snow keeps dumping on my sister’s family dome on ten glorious white acres in Richmond, VT.

My sister lives in this dome in Richmond, Vermont

Flights are cancelled for the next days, and my parents, myself and everyone else here visiting for the holidays is stuck in Vermont.

And? My nephews—Leo (7), Huck (4), and Roy (2)— certainly don’t mind the blizzard. They dwell blissfully in the now, sledding down the hill toward the freezing creek and playing with legos by the wood burning stove. No TV for distraction here, just old-fashioned play and books and simple toys. Oh, and Another Culture.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 12x12, bioregional production, environment, fossil fuel, Leisure Ethic, organic farming, permaculturalists, sustainability, twelve by twelve, william powers

Beyond the Russian Grain Ban—Stan Crawford’s Garlic Farm (Part I)

August 6, 2010 by William Powers 2 Comments

Is there a better way?

Russia, crippled by intense drought that has withered millions of acres of Russian wheat, moved today to ban exports of its grain. This is a fifth of the world’s market, and comes at a time when grain prices are already up 90%.

This dangerous mix of global warming (this is Russia’s worst heat wave since record-keeping started there 130 years back), the precariousness of chemical-industrial agriculture, and the fickleness of world trade flows got me thinking, once again: Is there a better way?

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 12x12, A Garlic Testament, bioregional production, chemical-industrial agriculture, corporate-led globalization, flat world, fossil fuel, global warming, Jack Kerouac, Musak, On the Road, permaculturalists, permaculture, Russia, Russian Grain Ban, Stan Crawford, twelve by twelve, wildcrafters, william powers, world trade

On the Road in Arizona

June 2, 2010 by William Powers 6 Comments

I’m on the road in Arizona this week, meeting with people to talk about Twelve by Twelve. But like everywhere else, we’re also talking about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The over half-million gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf each day is terrible, but not terribly surprising. After all, we’re also losing several thousand acres of rainforest every day, heating the climate by a fraction of a degree each day, and losing an indigenous culture every two weeks as jungle homelands become cattle clear-cuts.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 12x12, Arizona, bioregional production, biosphere, carbon footprint, cattle clear-cuts, composting, environment, Environmental Era, flat world, Gulf of Mexico, indigenous culture, jungle homelands, Oil Spill, organic farming, permaculturalists, permaculture, solar energy, solar panel, sustainability, sustainable community, twelve by twelve, william powers

What’s it like to live in a 12’ by 12’, off-the-grid house?

May 12, 2010 by William Powers 24 Comments

Three years ago, I returned to America after a decade of aid and conservation work in Africa and Latin America. Abroad, I’d seen, starkly, the grave impact the global economic system was having on our environment—Amazon rainforests clear-cut for fast-food cattle, African rivers poisoned by multinational mining—and began asking myself a daunting question: How could humanity transition to gentler, more responsible ways of living by replacing attachment to things with deeper relationships with people, nature, and self?

Fortunately, I stumbled upon someone with some clues: Dr. Jackie Benton (a psudonym, per her request). I met this slight, sixty-year-old physician, she was stroking a honey bee’s wings in front of her twelve-foot by twelve-foot, off-the-grid home in North Carolina.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 12x12, bioregional production, Dr. Jackie Benton, environment, flat world, fossil fuel, global warming, globalization, Humanure Handbook, nature, organic farming, permaculturalists, permaculture, small houses, sustainability, twelve by twelve, wildcrafters, william powers

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