The Generator news service publishes articles on sustainable development, agriculture and energy as well as observations on current affairs. The news service is used on the weekly radio show, The Generator, as well as by a number of monthly and quarterly magazines. A podcast of the Generator news is also available.
As well as Giovanni’s articles it picks up the most pertinent articles from a range of other news services. You can publish the news feed on your website using RSS, free of charge.
Local food has health as well as economic benefits
Greenwood is the latest town in the US state of Maine to consider a law protecting local food producers from State and Federal laws that favour industrial food producers. The proposed ordinance states “We hold that federal and state regulations impede local food production and constitute a usurpation of our citizens’ rights to foods of their choice.” So far, 16 cities in Maine have passed similar audiences. Cities as diverse as Baw Baw in rural Australia and Yemen
Scientists in Oregon have discovered a “cool” blue paint that is non-toxic and remarkably stable even at high temperatures. The University has partnered with Ohio-based pigment manufacturer, Shepherd Color to commercialise the product. It will be some years before the product is tested by Toxic substances regulators and is available as a commercial pigment to ceramic or paint manufactures. Experts in the pigment industry point out that the pigment is currently at least 50 times more expensive than existing cobalt based pigments.
Climate chaos may provide further economic advantage to Europe, Science Daily reports this week.
Evocatively described as the heartbeat of the planet, the Gulf Stream is an integral part of the world’s ocean currents and keeps the North West Coast of Europe, especially Great Britain, much warmer than its latitude would indicate. In previous global warming events it has switched off, creating Ice Ages that balance the initial warming. The paper in Science Daily predicts that the Gulf Stream will not plunge Europe into an Ice Age but will keep it relatively cool, protecting it from the worst excesses of Climate Chaos and further increasing the advantage that rich countries will have over poor ones in the economic disaster that inevitably results from major climate disruption.
New York Review of books illustration of William Perry by James Ferguson
The risk of nuclear war is now the greatest it has ever been according to William Perry, US Secretary of Defense twenty years ago and weapons systems manufacturer before that. In a new book released this month, he says that The US and Russian governments have torn up the treaties that helped stabilize the world in the eighties and nineties. The US has supported the eastward expansion of NATO, both nations have built smaller tactical nuclear warheads that fall outside existing nuclear agreements and the USA has withdrawn from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and started deploying weapons along NATOs new eastern border. The result, according to Perry, is that we face the huge risk of a nuclear war that could destroy civilisation.
Camp Mountain is a great location for a bio-dynamics workshop
This experiential two day workshop gives you a balance of both practical and theory in a great setting on 5 acres at 7 Hogan Court, Camp Mountain, QLD. Its only 30 minutes from the Brisbane CBD and 5 minutes to our local railway station. Low cost local homestay is available. The property has very well established gardens and has been worked with biodynamic practices. The place has a beautiful feel, the bird sounds are ever present.
The workshop is suitable for food growers from small scale to hobby farmers who are interested in ramping up their organic food production in a sustainable way, whilst developing an appreciation of the deeper spirit of nature.Its ideal that you have some experience of organic food growing. If you have already studied permaculture, you will find the workshop extends your existing knowledge, adding a new and interesting perspective to maximising the effectiveness of your food growing activities.
The workshop content is contexualised to the food growing spaces at the venue and the presenter also works closely with each participant to ensure there is an action plan to bring all content into the context of their own food growing spaces. As such, workshop participant numbers are limited to 12 people.
During the 2 days, Saturday and Sunday, you will:
Work with our vegetable growing and orchard areasgaining practical experience of how to work with organic and biodynamic methods
Understand the philisophical framework that drives all biodynamic processes so you can work with them from a placing of knowing.
Immerse yourself in our beautiful nurturing space and be well fed with biodynamically grown food, so you appreciate the end point, healthy enlivened food
Appreciate how biodynamic methods will fit into the rhythm of your organic food growing system to produce the highest quality organic food.
London is an island in the British Isles, celebrating Brexit with gin, tonic and champagne, while Scotland and Ireland plan to Leave the United Kingdon to Remain in Europe. The working class that feed London are in revolt.
Others have predicted (a decade ago) the fall of the nation-state and the rise of the city state to replace it. City states are easier to defend than nations and they breed innovation and nurture trade.
Magacities will shape the economy of the 21st Century
The world’s mega cities have economies larger than most nations and are the hubs of commerce that fuel the globalisation that disenfranchises the working and middle classes that support Western democracy.
In these megacities, life is cheap, slavery is rife and global commerce is not always top of everyone’s mind.
To survive, these cities must maintain their food, water and energy supplies and sufficient infrastructure to remain connected to their sources of revenue.
Theory has it that these Cities will battle directly with the mercenary armies of global corporations to demarcate the ungoverned spaces between them.
BrExit brings this future one step closer to realisation.
I repeat: London is an island in a hostile United Kingdom. Scotland and Wales will vote to Leave the UK so they can Remain in the EU.
By the time that is untangled Wales will join a plethora of other subnations that enjoy ersatz independence until a new overlord decides they are worth incorporating and taxing.
In this, Crimea is two steps ahead. Russia will not hesitate to reincorporate the near, loose pieces as Europe falls apart.
China will continue its imperial project in Africa and the securing of its new silk road(s). It will bring the US to its knees financially with a gold backed currency and its trillions of dollars in US bonds.
Thus the nation state may collapse, but the Imperial project is not dead. The major change as a result of BrExit is that the corporations of the West will be forced to recentre themselves in Asia and South America as the military ambitions of the US implode with its southern border. This means lots of failed states or independent states in previously fairly orderly Western enclaves: The Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Pacific.
While the realities of this power shift sink in for the West, huge opportunities exist in South America and South East Asia. Neither are directly in the path of clashing empires and are largely sheltered from the fall out across the North Atlantic.
South America is poised for greatness but is crippled by internal chaos (largely due to US interference).
India has no choice but to lock in the coastal connections to its West and expand its trade with South East Asia. South East Asia still reels from a century of geopolitical chess (largely due to US interference) and has a major opportunity to bounce back. Indonesia is the third most populous nation in the world and remains vigorously expansionary.
We must re-read and reappraise the work of Sayyid Qutb to understand the impact of Islamism on these events. We must also understand the realities of Peak Oil and Climate Change.
We are heading for the rapids and it pays to understand the rivers that feed this cataract.
