The IPCC’s “Final Warning,” by Andy Worthington

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by Andy Worthington
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Andy Worthington’s website, Mar. 22, 2023
March 25, 2023

On Monday, the frenetic gossipy world of nonsense and distraction that, rather sadly and shamefully, constitutes most of what passes for news and culture these days paused for a moment to reflect upon the publication of the most significant document that will be published this year — the latest climate change report prepared by the climate scientists of the IPCC (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the United Nations body founded in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to provide “regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation.”

Capitalism Is Destroying Us

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Dandelion Salad

Second Thought on Aug 26, 2022

It’s never good to hear the words “total societal collapse” from a scholarly paper, but that’s exactly the phrasing used in the new UN climate report.

Must Collapse Be Inevitable? Imagining A “Half-Earth” Sustainable Economy, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, July 6, 2022
July 9, 2022

It seems vastly easier to imagine the future as a dystopian nightmare than as a time when today’s problems are mostly behind humanity. For every work of optimism, such as Star Trek, there are dozens of works imagining a nightmare world of deprivation, environmental destruction and severe repression amidst a world of people scrambling to survive anyway they can in a war of all against all.

Socialism: Creating a World to Change Our Lives by Sam Friedman (must-read)

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Dandelion Salad

Republished with permission from Solidarity and Against The Current

by Sam Friedman
Solidarity and Against The Current, January-February 2017, #186
Originally posted Jan. 10, 2017
July 26, 2019

THERE IS A growing suspicion among many people involved in movements against war, for social justice, and for an ecologically sustainable society that capitalism can only create a world of war, injustice and environmental destruction. There is widespread and growing understanding that the current social order cannot continue without catastrophe occurring —yet we lack a vision of what might replace it.

Our Way Of Life Must Die — Another World Is Possible

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The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
November 25, 2018

Greed is an addiction. Like lab rats choosing pain to get doses of opium, the greed that underlies our way of life is killing us – and make no mistake: our way of life must die. Pathological consumption is no more acceptable in human beings than in locusts. It will die or we will die. The question is only: will we go down with the sinking ship of our culture or will we evolve again, past the folly of homo sapiens’ dubious wisdom into a species willing to live in balance with our one and only planet?

Socialism: Creating a World to Change Our Lives by Sam Friedman (must-read)

Image by Cary Bass-Deschenes via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Republished with permission from Solidarity and Against The Current

by Sam Friedman
Solidarity and Against The Current, January-February 2017, #186
Originally posted Jan. 10, 2017
December 26, 2017

THERE IS A growing suspicion among many people involved in movements against war, for social justice, and for an ecologically sustainable society that capitalism can only create a world of war, injustice and environmental destruction. There is widespread and growing understanding that the current social order cannot continue without catastrophe occurring —yet we lack a vision of what might replace it.

Ellen Brown: Real Wealth – A Future We Can Bank On + Vicki Robin + Donnie Maclurcan + Helena Norberg-Hodge

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Updated: June 1, 2015

with Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
May 21, 2015

The Economics of Happiness on May 21, 2015

Ellen Brown is the founder of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books, including the best-selling Web of Debt. This is her plenary talk at the Economics of Happiness conference, held in Portland, Oregon in February, 2015. The conference was organized by Local Futures, a non-profit organization that has been promoting a shift from global to local for nearly 40 years. To learn more about the conference or Local Futures’ work, go to www.localfutures.org.

Connected – A Film for Change

Dandelion Salad

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globaldocumentary on Nov 7, 2013

“‘Connected’ is a film made by Paul and Kate Maple, a UK based family who have made it their lives for the last 4 years. Worried about the future and the seemingly insurmountable mountain of problems in the world, Paul and Kate decided to ditch their busy lives and start working out if there was any way they could help create positive social change…”

Secret Trade Agenda Threatens Shift Toward Sustainable Food System by Karen Hansen-Kuhn + Promises and Perils of the #TTIP

Dandelion Salad

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by Karen Hansen-Kuhn
www.iatp.org
October 24, 2013

After being delayed by the U.S. government shutdown, talks for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are quietly gearing up again. Tariff barriers between the U.S. and EU are already low, so these negotiations are focused squarely on achieving “regulatory coherence.”

Shutdown Solution: Opt Out of Tyranny by David DeGraw

Dandelion Salad

by David DeGraw
EvolveSociety
October 16, 2013

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It’s Time For A Do-It-Ourselves Revolution

“All countries are basically social arrangements, accommodations to changing circumstances.
No matter how permanent and even sacred they may seem at any one time,
in fact they are all artificial and temporary.” -– Strobe Talbott

How much longer are we going to protest and post online reports, rants, videos and launch campaigns that will hopefully raise awareness on issue after issue, problem after problem, as the situation gets worse?

The Story of Solutions

Dandelion Salad

storyofstuffproject on Oct 1, 2013

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The Story of Solutions explores how we can move our economy in a more sustainable and just direction, starting with orienting ourselves toward a new goal.

In the current ‘Game of More’, we’re told to cheer a growing economy — more roads, more malls, more Stuff! — even though our health indicators are worsening, income inequality is growing and polar icecaps are melting.

But what if we changed the point of the game? What if the goal of our economy wasn’t more, but better — better health, better jobs and a better chance to survive on the planet?

Shouldn’t that be what winning means?

Saru Jayaraman: Why Sustainable Food Must Include Sustainable Working Conditions for the People Who Serve Us

Dandelion Salad

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talkingsticktv on Sep 8, 2013

Talk by Saru Jayaraman author of “Behind the Kitchen Door” on “Serving Up Justice: Why Sustainable Food Must Include Sustainable Working Conditions for the People Who Serve Us” given September 7, 2013 at the Community Alliance for Global Justice 7th Annual Strengthening Local Economics Everywhere Dinner held at University Christian Church in Seattle, WA. 

Chris Hedges: As a Socialist, I Have No Voice in Corporate Media, Part 6

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with Chris Hedges
Writer, Dandelion Salad
July 21, 2013

TheRealNews on Jul 24, 2013

On Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay, Chris Hedges says an effective movement that defies power will have to be disciplined and articulate what a vision of socialism might look like.

Spinning Out Of Control by Lesley Docksey

by Lesley Docksey
Writer, Dandelion Salad
March 12, 2013

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Being born ‘with a silver spoon in your mouth’ means that you start with an advantage that others don’t have: parents with money, property, influence, business connections and so on, connections that can last for generations.  A silver spoon that appeared recently was the exceedingly generous compensation paid to British slave owners when the UK abolished slavery in 1833, though not one penny went to the freed slaves.  The ancestors of many well-connected people (including David Cameron) benefited. 

Carolyn Baker: Preparing Emotionally for the Coming Chaos

Dandelion Salad

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peakmoment·Jan 1, 2013

“The external growth of a budding economy is over. The focus on growth now needs to be on the inner world.” Carolyn Baker’s Navigating the Coming Chaos is a toolkit to prepare emotionally and spiritually for the collapse of industrial civilization now underway. First build an “internal bunker,” she suggests, to begin healing the fear, grief and despair that immobilize many people in our “culture of numbness.” From that foundation, she invites us to look at who our allies are ? people, places, possessions. Carolyn observes that many people experience a level of joy by doing this work (Episode 225).