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'Obama admin. clearly never wanted Copenhagen talks to work,' says Bill McKibben following latest NSA revelations concerning climate talks While climate activists from around the world gathered outside the UN climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009 called for "System Change...
Good ole’ Costco made national news again during this year’s State of the Union. Why? Because Costco is a corporate empire that pays livable wages.
Vera Scroggins, an outspoken opponent of fracking, has been legally barred from the new county hospital.  Also off-limits, unless Scroggins wants to risk fines and arrest, are the Chinese restaurant where she takes her grandchildren, the supermarkets and drug stores where she...
"I believe, inherently, that the structures of society are driving us mad. Though most of us believe ourselves to be fairly well-adjusted, healthy individuals, we are all patients in the asylum together now."
The economic and legal system rewards corporations that bulldoze, stripmine and burn. A new law against ecocide could halt this destruction. Designer Vivienne Westwood expressed anguish and alarm at the worsening state of the planet, at a press conference yesterday. "The...
Friends, put on your flak jackets. It's time to drop some honesty on yet another uncomfortable topic: love.
Don’t ask anyone to “accept” the bad parts of you. Instead, strive to improve those parts. Make yourself worthy of the love they’ve offered you. I was perusing my Facebook Newsfeed today and I came across a status that said this: “Yea I’m a b*tch but deal with it. I wont be...
Do you agonize over the little venial eco-sins of everyday life? Every gallon of gas, every extra minute of a hot shower, each flush?
Liquid Democracy is one of the boldest contemporary innovations in democratic decision-making. The idea uses web technology that allows users to interact in new ways. Its primary innovators are located in Berlin, and Germany has been the first to adopt and apply Liquid...
Imagine the following exercise: You enter with your spouse, partner or good friend. The purpose is to deepen and improve your relationship through honest communication -- a mutual assessment for growth.
Last week, in the midst of what appears to be infinite fascination [2] about Lena Dunham’s nudity, I saw a fundraiser for the documentary “Free the Nipple [3]“ and also, by coincidence, talked to Facebook spokespeople
This is an image of a 19th century wood engraving called "Slaves in Brazil: The Terrible Torture of a Slave", from 'Journal des Voyages'. [3] It depicts a black slave being boiled alive above a huge cauldron.
Four years ago today, historian, professor, activist, author, and playwright, Howard Zinn passed away at the age of 87.  For those of us who are familiar with his work, he has been a great source of inspiration.  Zinn's book, A People's History of the United States, is...
Is it enough for our lives, our economy, our cities to become “sustainable”? If being sustainable means no more than being able to maintain the status quo of strife and never having enough, of contests over who gets the most of the scarce resources available, then aiming for...
This article summarizes the ideas of Daniel Quinn, first written about in The Story of B, which was a sequel to Ishmael. The longer, original essay can be read here, and comes highly recommended, especially if you find yourself disagreeing with the summary
There are plenty of reasons to boycott factory farms, including your health, animal welfare and the environment.
When I was seven, I was given an Apple Macintosh in the hope that Mavis Beacon would teach me how to touch type. It was an unreasonable expectation, for I was actually more interested in escaping to the fantasy lands of computer games such as Dungeons and Dragons, and Lode...
I’m exhausted. I can’t keep up with the latest social justice outrage.
One might not expect a website called weedblog.eu to be particularly profound. However, in addition to posts about “the best weed you ever smoked” and “the latest cannabis discoveries that governments don’t want you to know,” the site recently posted a map that elegantly...
How would you like to increase your spending power by 10 times (or more), relieve student debt by more than 90 percent, increase Social Security benefits, lower taxes, increase pay for teachers, and lower loan amounts for homes and small business to 1-2 percent?
Awake from your slumber of cynicism! Awake from your slumber of despair!
They operate in the green glow of night vision in Southwest Asia and stalk through the jungles of South America.  They snatch men from their homes in the Maghreb and
On Thursday, January 9 a dangerous toxin, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, leaked from a busted tank and into the Elk River in West Virginia. It is believed that nearly 7,500 gallons of the toxin made its way from the 40,000-gallon tank into the river. It’s unclear how much...
The internet as we know it is dead.
How many of us seek out a relationship, want to find companionship with someone because we are afraid of loneliness? How many of us think that we could be with anyone we want but are, in moments of doubt, afraid that no one will love us?
Is Facebook flirting with fascism? The question might prove difficult to answer with a resounding “yes or no,” but, to those who have been keeping track of its recent censorship practices, the answer appears to lean heavily toward the affirmative.
In restorative justice, those who commit crimes have to face the consequences of their actions. After this Colorado policeman tried it out, he came to believe it's part of the answer to America's prison problem.
Cuts to food stamps and jobless benefits predictable result of 'neoliberal assault' on American people As Congress decides this week whether to re-institute emergency jobless benefits for millions of Americans and closes in on negotiations for a Farm Bill that could see...
Earthships are 100% sustainable homes that are both cheap to build and awesome to live in. They offer amenities like no other sustainable building style you have come across.
At first glance, Quiet Time - a stress reduction strategy used in several San Francisco middle and high schools, as well as in scattered schools around the Bay Area - looks like something out of the om-chanting 1960s. Twice daily, a gong sounds in the classroom and rowdy...
Considerations such as 'what do you really care about' and 'who do you serve' should be drivers of sustainability, not profit.
It's a new year, but one thing hasn't changed: The economy still blows. Five years after Wall Street crashed, America's banker-gamblers have only gotten richer, while huge swaths of the country are still drowning in personal debt, tens of millions of Americans remain...
The results are in: No amount of "green capitalism" will be able to ensure the profound changes we must urgently make to prevent the collapse of civilization from the catastrophic impacts of global warming.
Time and time again, US presidents have been impeached or forced to resign for all the wrong reasons.
Deciding to offer Web Design in a Gift Economy changed my life. Here’s how.
We live in extraordinary times. All around us the old world is crumbling, while the new one struggles to be born. Crises and catastrophes are rocking our planet like never before. Rebellions and revolutions are stirring the system to its very core. And yet, while the tidal...
Today marks the beginning of health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act’s new insurance exchanges, for which two million Americans have signed up.
The vague cultural concept doesn't translate easily into English, but it has helped Denmark become the 'happiest country on Earth' despite long, dark winters.
The news: Norway is well on its way to digitizing every book in its National Library and making them all free to access for any Norwegian citizen. That means hundreds of thousands of books will be available to anyone accessing the collection online with a Norwegian IP address.
Things are getting better and better and worse and worse faster and faster simultaneously.” – Tom Atlee
London, May 2009.  A small experiment involving thirteen homeless men takes off. They are street veterans. Some of them have been sleeping on the cold tiles of The Square Mile, the financial center of the world, for more than forty years. Their presence is far from...
Nurses, philosophers, and trade unions have over the past 12 months all shared some fascinating ideas on how we can make our societies more equal — and much better — places to live.
Does the concept of a living planet uplift and inspire you, or is it a disturbing example of woo-woo nonsense that distracts us from practical, science-based policies?
Give them an apartment first, ask questions later. Utah has reduced its rate of chronic homelessness by 78 percent over the past eight years, moving 2000 people off the street and putting the state on track to eradicate homelessness altogether by 2015. How’d they do it? The...
That they are crass, brash and trashy goes without saying. But there is something in the pictures posted on Rich Kids of Instagram (and highlighted by the Guardian last week(1)) that inspires more than the usual revulsion towards crude displays of opulence. There is a shadow...
Tax-avoiding, consumer-exploiting big business leaders are largely responsible for these abuses. Congress just lets it happen. Corporate heads and members of Congress seem incapable of relating to the people that are being victimized, and the mainstream media seems to have...
Ruth Potts is the co-author, with Andrew Simms, of a pamphlet called The New Materialism, founder of Bread, Print and Roses, and organiser of the recent 'Festival of Making'. She describes her work as "inviting people to fall in love with stuff in a good way".  We sat down...
Over the past decade that I have spent trying to get my head around the suicidal trajectory which modern societies seem to be locked into, I have struggled to understand how we turn this thing around. Human decision-making, especially for the really big decisions, is as much...
Undergraduates ask me how to keep from getting cynical and demoralized, and my first question is how much mainstream news media they consume each day.
“We have to nationalize the banks. We have to get rid of the government. We need to have access to the internet seen as a human right. We need to have a new Constitution," said Birgitta Jonsdottir, founder of the Icelandic Pirate Party. Jonsdottir, a lifelong political...
Sometimes I feel nostalgic for the cultural mythology of my youth, a world in which there was nothing wrong with soda pop, in which the super Bowl was important, in which America was bringing democracy to the world, in which the doctor could fix you, in which science was...
In the insular world of Manhattan media, there’s much handwringing over the latest blow to print publications
Because climate change is caused by the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted when fossil fuels like coal and oil are burned, saving energy is an important way to slow and even stop the build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere. Most people can save the most energy by reducing the amount of...
Q. I always buy organically raised beef, when I do buy beef. I read that ground beef you get is a mixture of beef from different animals. How do I know the beef I am getting is, in fact, organically grown? Could it be mixed with other feedlot beef? Also, when it comes to...
Brian Ashley of South Africa's Amandla magazine says that in the battle to overcome inequality and achieve social justice, we will need many more Nelson Mandelas. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Amandla magazine...
This Thursday, December 5, workers at fast-food restaurants around the country will be striking for higher pay and better working conditions. Their primary demand is an increase in their base hourly wages to $15 an hour.
Here is an image that was recently being passed around on a conservative, Tea Party group on Facebook.
Low wage fast food employees across the country are joining forces Thursday, taking to the streets to say: "Low pay is not okay."
By now you’ve probably heard horror stories about how the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare, has forced so many people to lose their insurance policies. You’ve heard that affordable health insurance policies are being canceled and replaced with policies...
In Canada the HWY 11 Land Defenders are are fighting against fracking on land in Mi'kmaq Territory. An encampment successfully blockaded SWN seismic trucks and the police moved in to evict them. With arrests and an injunction in place resistance is becoming more difficult...
One million voices for the law of ecocide
In one of comedian Chris Rock's routines, he observes: "You know what that means when someone pays you a minimum wage? You know what your boss is trying to say? 'Hey, if I could pay you less, I would, but it’s against the law.'"
Did you know that Seoul, South Korea is one of the world’s key sites for post-growth economic re-development? No? Neither did I, until I saw for myself.   I was pleased to be invited to give the keynote address at a conference titled “Reshaping the Way We Live,” put on by...
In Costa Rica, publicly-owned banks have been available for so long and work so well that people take for granted that any country that knows how to run an economy has a public banking option. Costa Ricans are amazed to hear there is only one public depository bank in the...
For much of human history we lived close to the natural world. As civilization evolved we became increasingly urbanized, and most of us now live in cities. As we’ve moved away from nature, we’ve seen a decline in other forms of life. Biodiversity is disappearing. The current...
9 November 2013: A disheartening but predictable loss for GMO labelling in Washington, where Monsanto, DuPont and other big corporate interests jumped in and spent millions, sometimes evidently illegally, to defeat Initiative 522 to label groceries containing genetically...
With focus on rehabilitation and more reasonable sentencing, nation shutters four state-run jails
One night a young man and his grandfather walk down to a pond where they sit amongst trees and the swaying cattails at the foot of the water. The grandfather looks out reflectively at the stars, the wrinkles of his eyes squinting in his old age, and he looks back to his...
The future of the human species - if there is to be a future - must be radically green, red, black and female.
An overriding concern of many people participating in protests since 2010 has been the financial system. From the September 17, 2011 protests against financial institutions and the symbolism of Occupy Wall Street to the widespread discussion of alternative currencies, money...
In the past, media was protected in most democracies because in order to govern themselves, people need access to accurate and timely information on all topics relevant to their governance. The news needs to be the match that starts analysis and action which doesn’t stop till...
I do not want to appear disrespectful or ungrateful, but should we meet on the street one day, do say "Hello," or "Fine day" or other such nicety, but please do not thank me for "my service" as a United States Marine. I make this request because my service, as you refer to...
From telenovelas about Latin America’s missing girls to a series on conflict resolution in wartorn lands, soap operas are surreptitious agents of social change in the developing world. When veteran Hollywood screenwriter Deborah Jones saw that the director of photography...
Many countries in the world see the U.S. as the single greatest external threat to their societies. During the latest episode of the Washington farce that has astonished a bemused world, a Chinese commentator wrote that if the United States cannot be a responsible member of...
It's a sign of a really good essay when bits of it linger with you for days after you've read it and it keeps popping up in your mind. Naomi Klein's "Why Science is Telling All of Us to Revolt and Change Our Lives Before We Destroy the Planet" is one of those. Her theme?...
This is a subtly revised set of remarks given at “The Point is to Change It” conference on November 1, 2013 at the University of San Francisco. The event was co-sponsored by Project Censored.
Food scientists are shedding light on items loaded with toxins and chemicals–and simple swaps for a cleaner diet and supersized health. Experts from different areas of specialty explain why they won’t eat these eight foods.
A new book (Double Down: Game Change 2012, by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann) claims that  US president Barack Obama told his aides during his last election that he’s “really good at killing people.” He’s right. For example, last Friday a drone strike targeting...
Frankly, I have a hard time understanding what goes on in the heads of “progressives.” On the one hand, they constantly complain — and rightfully so — about the power of big business and corporate domination of our society and economy. But on the other, their rhetoric is full...
In December 2012, a pink-haired complex systems researcher named Brad Werner made his way through the throng of 24,000 earth and space scientists at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, held annually in San Francisco. This year’s conference had some big-name...
The "courage" of Edward Snowden is "contagious," according to lawyer and transparency advocate Jesselyn Radack, who says that additional employees at the National Security Agency are now coming forward with what they consider objectionable practices by their employer.
An obsession with growth has eclipsed our concern for sustainability, justice and human dignity. But people are not disposable – the value of life lies outside economic development
In one vision of the distant future, after global warming has melted the ice caps and left the planet covered in water, Kevin Costner grows fish gills, lives on a trimaran, and battles pirates as he sails in search of the legend of “Dryland.”
In "historic" briefing, Rehman family gives heartbreaking account of drone killing of 65-year-old grandmother... to five lawmakers Despite being heralded as the first time in history that U.S. lawmakers would hear directly from the survivors of a U.S. drone strike, only...
“Did you ever ask yourself how it happens that government and capitalism continue to exist in spite of all the evil and trouble they are causing in the world?” the anarchist
“Reformism” is one of those words that’s hard to pin down sometimes. It’s usually taken to mean advocating for “reform within the system” — in other words, the bad kind of reform.
It’s been the thing lately, among certain establishment liberals, to dismiss libertarians as “Koch-funded shills.” We’ve heard a lot of it from Mark Ames and Yasha Levine at NSFWCorp, for example.
Thomas Nestel, the Philadelphia Transit Authority police chief, is aghast over the refusal of bystanders to help a transit cop — Sam Wellington — being beaten up by one of their fellow citizens that he’d been trying to arrest. “I was horrified. I was frightened for my cops.”
Kevin Carson dismisses the NWO conspiracy theory narrative of world government, which in many ways resembles a kind of 'cartoon evil' as it is often depicted. There is a more grounded way to look at it.
The current US debate about health-care funding can be understood as concerned with meeting the challenge of doing three things at once:
Social unrest over police actions, poverty and corruption have grown Black Bloc ranks When a tear-gas canister rattled around at Andrea Coelho's feet, a masked young man picked it up and tossed it back at police. Right there, the kindergarten te
A strange thing happened during the October 2013 battle in the US Congress over a government shutdown and threat of default. The Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, denounced the Republicans as “anarchists.” So did Elizabeth Warren, one of the most liberal Senators. As did...
This article is about every person who has ever ingested a mind-altering substance but didn't want to die from doing so.
Here in India, even in the midst of all the violence and greed, there is still hope. If anyone can do it, we can. We still have a population that has not yet been completely colonized by that consumerist dream.
The U.S. military, according to one former diplomat with a frontrow seat to its drone policy in Yemen, is creating new terrorists in that country at breakneck speed.
France's holistic, psychosocial approach to treating ADHD-type symptoms.
Well I’m in the working world again. I’ve found myself a well-paying gig in the engineering industry, and life finally feels like it’s returning to normal after my nine months of traveling.
We are in trouble, folks. If the record high temperatures, extreme droughts, and hi
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