Eco-Friendly at Lower Cost
Posted by Sonja Ebron
Conventional wisdom says environmental improvements cost money, that we can’t do anything about climate change without sending prices skyward. The most exciting thing I ever heard from Al Gore was that protecting the environment would provide economic benefits as well, but I was never clear on how that would work. Industry has begun to understand that our response to climate change will force them to think in new ways. There’s good news that may help manufacturers move faster.
We Have To Make Other Arrangements
Posted by Sonja Ebron
James Howard Kunstler is a pessimist on the effects of peak oil, no doubt about it. But he’s mostly right about the changes needed to survive the next few decades. For many years, Kunstler has served as the leading doomsday forecaster on the American economy and way of life, due to our unwillingness - perhaps inability - to grapple with the facts of declining access to cheap oil. He is certainly not alone in predicting the current crisis and the economic sand castles we’ve built on cheap energy, but his straight talk has only recently been welcome in mainstream media.
Georgia Avenue Food Co-op
Posted by Sonja Ebron
I had the great pleasure of visiting one of the Georgia Avenue Food Co-ops last week. The first co-op was started 17 years ago by Chad Hale and Brian Lowring, current and former pastors of the Georgia Avenue Church in the Grant Park/Summerhill area of Atlanta. The number has now grown to four co-ops serving 200 families. Designated members collect food for their co-op each Tuesday and Thursday from the Atlanta Food Bank, then distribute it among the families in the basement of the Georgia Avenue Church. Most of the families are headed by women, including many grandmothers raising grandchildren. I found myself inspired and encouraged by their example of cooperative economics.
