Sep 9, 10
Video blog from Strong Angel 3
Hi, Worldchangers. I've finally uploaded the long-awaited video blog from Strong Angel 3. You can see the Strong Angel 3 video on YouTube. It's about 25 minutes long, and was edited by the wonderful Lindsey Darby (the cute girl in the cowboy hat). It includes interview footage with several participants talking about the high points of the event, and we think you will find it very interesting. One key theme of Strong Angel was the need to build relationships and goodwill between the...
Personal Factor Four: Organizing Real Environmental Action With The Internet
Once in a while, somebody notes that the Internet should be materially contributing to solving the world's problems. I think the notion has been around since about 1965. I'd like to raise some ideas for you, WorldChanging's Open Thinktank, to think about, speculate on, contribute to and improve. Our goal is to get to a personal Factor Four improvement in your environmental impact and mine by using the collective intelligence and collective action that the internet enables...
How Much More Can We Do With Less?
Just how much more can we do with less? I recently read an article which discussed a company which went to a 32 hour work week with no drop in productivity. (the story is taken from The Time Bind by Arlie Hochschild)
The Unexpected Nature of Peace
Current research on a new generation of nuclear weapons has stirred up some controversy. For example, will new bombs create an incentive to renew nuclear testing abroad?. The seed of the story, however, is that the new bombs are "reliable replacement warheads" - not designed for greater blast or range, but designed to be able to sit on a shelf unused for longer periods without becoming dangerous. In our new, relatively peaceful world, we are now designing neuclear weapons explicitly to be...
WorldChangers at Burning Man
I'm trying to make up my mind about going to Burning Man this year. I've been going on and off for about 10 years. There's some quite nice ecological stuff about Burning Man - the sheer harsheness makes all resource use visible, and camps like Alternative Energy Zone are very nice playgrounds and testbeds for green technologies. Are any other WorldChanging readers thinking of going this year? Are there fun activities planned for Burning Man you want to tell other readers about? Use the...
Thoughts on Limited Liability
One of the persistent threads running through environmentalism is the notion of "Corporate Responsibility." I've been thinking through some of the issues involving how corporations are formed and how the nature of the corporation affects how the economy assesses and handles risk and I'd like to present an idea for comment and examination. The seed of the idea is that the limited liability corporation is a government subsidy to risky investments and as such may be partly what drives the...
The Unplugged - A Speculative Fiction
A Video News Report from 2030. Anchor: Touting their movement as a combination of the economic theories of Mahatma Gandhi and the political science of Buckminster Fuller the Unplugged have now reduced the GDP of the United States of America by 20% over their 15 year programme. Opponents of the movement call Unplugging an unscientific and cult-like political movement, but proponents say that "Unplugging" was the best decision they ever made. Let's hear from Jack Huston, a former investment...
Macroeconomic modeling and rising oil prices
Earlier today I found myself wondering about how rising oil prices will impact the global economy. I was interested in details: how, for example, the relative prices of oranges and bananas might be changed, based on their respective oil inputs. This might seem like a dumb question, but these kinds of differential price changes could be really important in understanding the post-cheap-oil world. There is some macroeconomic modeling data available, but it discusses prices of only $35 per...
Envisioning a Leapfrogged World
I'm going to take a brief shot at outlining what a "Leapfrogged" world might look like, one in which smart use was made of available technologies. In a sense, this Leapfrogged World is already around us, it's just very heavily mixed in with both the traditional-technologies world and the direct-copy-of-worst-practices world. In particular, I'll be covering what can be leapfrogged, what cannot be leapfrogged, some thinking about the embedded capital base of the first world, and "invisible...
Imagining 22nd Century Environmental Policy
What will environmental policy look like in the 22nd century? This is a deceptively simple question but, for me at least, it has proven to be a window into a whole new way of seeing the environmental challenges of the present. This essay explores three ideas: 1. A World Without Mistakes 2. Planetery Specifications 3. Global Democracy
Get good news for a change.
worldchanging was founded on the idea that real solutions already exist for building the future we want. it's just a matter of grabbing hold and getting moving.
About Worldchanging
Have an idea or know about a great new tool or solution? We want to know about it!
Suggest a Story
Submission Guidelines
Design:
Matt Chapman
Logo Design:
Egg
Hosting, Development, and Technical Management:
