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

December Thoughts on Gratitude

December 13, 2010 by William Powers Leave a Comment

On my Facebook page, I asked you to share “one thing for which you’re grateful.” I’m grateful for such a positive outflow of responses. They illuminated this rainy day. As promised, I randomly picked one out and that person–Jane Holbrook of Beaufort, North Carolina– has won a signed copy of Twelve by Twelve!

One woman writes: “I’m grateful to still be alive to watch my grandson grow up! I clinically died giving birth to my daughter 27 years ago. I am awed and amazed to still be here!” What a beautiful story.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 12x12, carbon footprint, environment, global warming, gratitude, permaculture, small house, sustainability, tiny house, voluntary simplicity

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

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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