More About This Site

I have to share some good news with all my loyal fans -- this blog has experienced its first major breakthrough on the long, hard road of building web traffic! Two days ago I noticed a huge spike in the number of new visitors to the blog, so I assume someone out there in the blogosphere has jumped onboard the 'Lifeboat' and linked to this site. At least that's what I'm telling myself. Anyway I was excited, so it was with great enthusiasm that I decided to give all of my new readers some more info. about this site. Enjoy! :)

This site is intended to empower individuals and communities to take bold action in response to our worsening ecological predicament. Human population and consumption are rapidly outstripping the carrying capacity of the planet. The signs are all around us – every ecological indicator shows that human activity is putting enormous stress on the biosphere.

And we all know the folly of destroying our only life support system....yet we carry on, hypnotized by a million diversions, paralyzed by fear or simply ignorant to the reality that we are all complicit servants of a profligate culture, a culture that has set us on a collision course with mass die off. The time for a mainstream, popular critique of this culture is long overdue.

I firmly believe that such a critique can liberate us from the destructive patterns of habitual consumption that define modern civilization. I want to contribute to that critique. And my goal is for this blog to become a thriving grassroots forum facilitating discussion about local, community action that can make a difference. We have no time to waste!!

Disavowing consumer culture will require that we restructure and rescale our global economy as well. An economy that is driven by feckless consumption, dirty production and supply chains that criss-cross the globe is an economy that’s categorically unsustainable.

Simply put, the global economy is far too large. We need to shift our focus away from the blind pursuit of economic growth, toward the goals of economic downsizing, re-localization, and restructuring. Only then can we collectively engage in an orderly retreat from this peak of population and consumption.

Right now Americans borrow, borrow, borrow, spend, spend, spend – thus lining the pockets of the modern day oligarchs whom we call CEOs. Instead we need to save, invest and produce in America, for America.

It’s time to rebuild a productive domestic economy that can deliver necessities to the masses without reliance upon imports. It’s time for us to voice dissent to power; time to question our most fundamental assumptions about wealth and value; time to push hard for the change we need. The true power in every society lies with the people.

Humanity is currently undergoing a great cultural shift precipitated by a host of ecological constraints. We are living in a time of unprecedented change, and our collective response is critical – it’s evolve or die time.

Will we choose to build stronger communities to share scarce resources? or will we allow civilization to unravel through a series of bloody resource wars?

Will we proactively make the sacrifices required to create a more ethical economy? or will we stand by while famine and disease continue to ravage the poor and while the cancer of economic growth continues to eat away at the scant remaining natural resources of the planet?

How long will we go on stealing from future generations?

These are the most pressing ethical questions of our time, and the only answers that matter are actions. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.... what will we do now?