How do population, water, energy, food, and climate issues impact one another? What can we do to address one problem without making the others worse? The Post Carbon Reader features essays by some of the world’s most provocative thinkers on the key issues shaping our new century, from renewable energy and urban agriculture to social […]
Community matters when we are looking for responses to peak oil and climate change because of the power that emerges from working together and creating meaningful change through shared action. In a world where social capital and a sense of connection to community are in decline, it is the taking of practical action that enables […]
The idea of a community food system is much larger than just urban farming. It deals with everything, all the components that are needed to establish, maintain, and perpetually sustain a civilization. Urban farming is key in the reclamation of an Earth and ecology-based value system, and it plays an important role: We need urban […]
In 2002, after decades of trying to restart economic development like most other Rust Belt cities, Youngstown made a radical change in approach. The city began devising a transformative plan to encourage some neighborhoods to keep emptying and their vegetation to return. The plan, still early in its implementation as we write (March 2010), would […]
My “standard of living” is a fraction of what it formerly was, but my quality of life has never been higher. We live in a house less than half the size of our former house, my beloved boat is gone, and we have a garden and chickens in the backyard. Peering in from the outside […]
How can we continue feeding humanity in a future of declining resources and environmental crisis? This report explores the growing vulnerabilities of the current food system, and the steps needed to transition to a post-carbon food system. Summary The American food system rests on an unstable foundation of massive fossil fuel inputs. It must be […]
Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty (2007) was the first major guidebook on peak oil and global warming for people who work with and for local governments in the United States and Canada. It provided a sober look at how these phenomena are quickly creating new uncertainties and vulnerabilities for cities of […]