Food and Agriculture
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Climate Crisis; Cultural Commons; Food and Agriculture; Indigenous People; International; Media and Internet Josh KunLos Angeles, CA — OnTheCommons.org Member |
Climate Crisis; Food and Agriculture
Can Cattle Save Us From Global Warming?
A small band of activists and scientists believe that farming done the right way can remove carbon from the atmosphere. Read more...
Environment; Food and Agriculture
Why Are There So Many Floods?
The question on everyone’s minds here in the Upper Midwest is: What’s causing these floods? In 1993, Des Moines and many Mississippi River towns were devastated. Then in 1997, Grand Forks, North Dakota, was nearly wiped off the map as the Red River rose to record highs. Last year, huge floods struck southern Minnesota in the midst of what had been a serious drought. And now, a number of cities in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri have been submerged. The damage would be even more catastrophic without heroic citizen efforts at piling sandbags along the levees—a moving example of the community commons at work. A resident of one these communities wearily told a reporter: It seems like we are having one of these 100-year floods every few years now. Are these recurring floods an act of nature? Of God? Of global warming? Grist, the on-line environmental magazine, offers another reason. More than 160,000 acres of farmland in Iowa alone was taken out of the Conservation Reserve program between 2007 and 2008. Land once planted with grasses, which absorb the Midwest’s plentiful cloudbursts, were plowed up for cornfields, which drain the rainfall directly into local waterways. That water rapidly found its way to the Cedar River, Iowa River, Wisconsin River and eventually the Mississippi. Photo: 12th and M Street in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by Dan Becker, USGS, via Flickr, licensed under a Creative Commons BY license. http://www.flickr.com/photos/endofmorose/2606559414
See Grist
Climate Crisis
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Climate Crisis; Cultural Commons; Food and Agriculture; Indigenous People; International; Media and Internet Josh KunLos Angeles, CA — OnTheCommons.org Member |
Climate Crisis; Food and Agriculture
Can Cattle Save Us From Global Warming?
A small band of activists and scientists believe that farming done the right way can remove carbon from the atmosphere. Read more...
Climate Crisis; Science and Health
Paul Revere in a Labcoat
Washington, D.C.
Dr. James E. Hansen's courageous truth-telling about climate change. Read more...
Cultural Commons
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Climate Crisis; Cultural Commons; Food and Agriculture; Indigenous People; International; Media and Internet Josh KunLos Angeles, CA — OnTheCommons.org Member |
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Commons Strategies; Community Life; Cultural Commons; International; Politics and Government Jethro HeikoPhiladelphia, PA — OnTheCommons.org Member |
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Commons Strategies; Cultural Commons; Media and Internet Rick752 of EasyListSomewhere in New York — Commons Champion |
Indigenous People
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Climate Crisis; Cultural Commons; Food and Agriculture; Indigenous People; International; Media and Internet Josh KunLos Angeles, CA — OnTheCommons.org Member |
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Food and Agriculture; Indigenous People; International Jesús León SantosMexico City, Mexico — Commons Champion |
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Climate Crisis; Commons Strategies; Cultural Commons; Environment; Indigenous People; International; Knowledge Commons; Media and Internet; Politics and Government Laura SimesCanberra, Australia — OnTheCommons.org Member |
International
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Climate Crisis; Cultural Commons; Food and Agriculture; Indigenous People; International; Media and Internet Josh KunLos Angeles, CA — OnTheCommons.org Member |
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Commons Strategies; Community Life; Cultural Commons; International; Politics and Government Jethro HeikoPhiladelphia, PA — OnTheCommons.org Member |
A Mini-bus Named Self-Defense
The spirit of the commons thrives on a Caribbean island, and the best way to experience it is riding to town in a van Read more...
Media and Internet
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Climate Crisis; Cultural Commons; Food and Agriculture; Indigenous People; International; Media and Internet Josh KunLos Angeles, CA — OnTheCommons.org Member |
Commons Strategies; Media and Internet
What's Happening with What We Got: DJ Spooky's Quest for the Commons
Filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein's Blog Moves In Read more...
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Commons Strategies; Cultural Commons; Media and Internet Rick752 of EasyListSomewhere in New York — Commons Champion |
Commons Strategies
Commons Strategies; Media and Internet
What's Happening with What We Got: DJ Spooky's Quest for the Commons
Filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein's Blog Moves In Read more...
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Commons Strategies; Community Life; Cultural Commons; International; Politics and Government Jethro HeikoPhiladelphia, PA — OnTheCommons.org Member |
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Commons Strategies; Cultural Commons; Media and Internet Rick752 of EasyListSomewhere in New York — Commons Champion |
Community Life
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Commons Strategies; Community Life; Cultural Commons; International; Politics and Government Jethro HeikoPhiladelphia, PA — OnTheCommons.org Member |
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Commons Strategies; Community Life; Cultural Commons; Everyday Life; Food and Agriculture Liz SeymourGreensboro, NC — OnTheCommons.org Member |
Community Life; Everyday Life; International
Fewer Traffic Signs, Better Safety?
When social interactions are more powerful than rules. Read more...
Politics and Government
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Commons Strategies; Community Life; Cultural Commons; International; Politics and Government Jethro HeikoPhiladelphia, PA — OnTheCommons.org Member |
Everyday Life; Politics and Government
This Guitar Fights Enclosure
David Rovics' musical tribute to the commons. Read more...
Commons Strategies; Cultural Commons; Politics and Government
Using Sousveillance to Defend the Commons
Technology is letting citizens “watch from below” and so make power more accountable Read more...
Everyday Life
Everyday Life; Politics and Government
This Guitar Fights Enclosure
David Rovics' musical tribute to the commons. Read more...
A Mini-bus Named Self-Defense
The spirit of the commons thrives on a Caribbean island, and the best way to experience it is riding to town in a van Read more...
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Commons Strategies; Community Life; Cultural Commons; Everyday Life; Food and Agriculture Liz SeymourGreensboro, NC — OnTheCommons.org Member |
Science and Health
Knowledge Commons; Science and Health
Tapping into the Power to Share
Health Commons aspires to build a new ecosystem for research Read more...
Climate Crisis; Science and Health
Paul Revere in a Labcoat
Washington, D.C.
Dr. James E. Hansen's courageous truth-telling about climate change. Read more...
Knowledge Commons; Science and Health
Generic Drugs, an Endangered Commons
Big drug companies are using their clout to stifle and delay generic competition. We pay billions of dollars more. Read more...
Knowledge Commons
Knowledge Commons; Science and Health
Tapping into the Power to Share
Health Commons aspires to build a new ecosystem for research Read more...
Knowledge Commons; Science and Health
Generic Drugs, an Endangered Commons
Big drug companies are using their clout to stifle and delay generic competition. We pay billions of dollars more. Read more...
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Knowledge Commons; Politics and Government Carl MalamudSebastopol, California — Notable Commoner |
Water
Commons Strategies; International; Water
Water for All
Talkin’ About a Commons Revolution Read more...
How We Bought the Idea of Bottled Water
The New York Times Book Review’s front-page review of Elizabeth Royte’s Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It (Bloomsbury) is full of striking nuggets of information from what people are now calling “the water wars.” • The CEO of Quaker Oats, which markets Propel Fitness Water and Gatorade, once declared, “the biggest enemy is tap water.” • The National Coalition of American Nuns opposes bottled water on the moral grounds that life’s essential resources should not be privatized. • One expert quoted in Bottlemania calculates, “The total energy required for every bottle’s production, transport and disposal is equivalent, on average, to filling that bottle a quarter of the way with oil.” • Elizabeth Royte estimates that the U.S. will need to spend $390 billion to repair and maintain water systems by 2020.
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Cultural Commons; Everyday Life; Water Rachel BreenMinneapolis, Minnesota — OnTheCommons.org Member |
Environment
Environment; Food and Agriculture
Why Are There So Many Floods?
The question on everyone’s minds here in the Upper Midwest is: What’s causing these floods? In 1993, Des Moines and many Mississippi River towns were devastated. Then in 1997, Grand Forks, North Dakota, was nearly wiped off the map as the Red River rose to record highs. Last year, huge floods struck southern Minnesota in the midst of what had been a serious drought. And now, a number of cities in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri have been submerged. The damage would be even more catastrophic without heroic citizen efforts at piling sandbags along the levees—a moving example of the community commons at work. A resident of one these communities wearily told a reporter: It seems like we are having one of these 100-year floods every few years now. Are these recurring floods an act of nature? Of God? Of global warming? Grist, the on-line environmental magazine, offers another reason. More than 160,000 acres of farmland in Iowa alone was taken out of the Conservation Reserve program between 2007 and 2008. Land once planted with grasses, which absorb the Midwest’s plentiful cloudbursts, were plowed up for cornfields, which drain the rainfall directly into local waterways. That water rapidly found its way to the Cedar River, Iowa River, Wisconsin River and eventually the Mississippi. Photo: 12th and M Street in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by Dan Becker, USGS, via Flickr, licensed under a Creative Commons BY license. http://www.flickr.com/photos/endofmorose/2606559414
See Grist
Community Life; Cultural Commons; Economics and Markets; Environment; Knowledge Commons
Economic Relocalization
Thoughts on the inevitable power of corporations and other powers that could hold them in check. Read more...
Climate Crisis; Environment; Politics and Government
U.S. News & World Report Highlights “Cap-and-Dividend”
Peter Barnes explains why fairness must be a part of the global warming solution. The latest U.S. News & World Report features a two-page interview with On the Commons fellow Peter Barnes (“A Climate Change Proposal with Cash”) on how best to deal with global warming. Barnes points out the flaws in the pending “cap-and-trade” schemes for curbing carbon emissions. He also explains, in a Q&A with reporter Marianne Lavelle, why a better system would give citizens a dividend of between $1,200 and $6,000 a year for a family of four. U.S. News says “cap-and-dividend” is “an idea garnering increasing attention as Washington begins to grapple with global warming.” “It's necessary to have a higher carbon price but not necessary to take that money out of the pockets of janitors and nurses and reporters,” said Barnes. “It will kill the whole thing, and that's the last thing we need. The politicians need to come up with a way of raising carbon prices without screwing the poor and the middle class. And [cap-and-dividend] is, I think, the best way to do it.”
Economics and Markets
Economics and Markets; Politics and Government
The Fight Against Privatization
Two blogs showcase the latest business attempts to make money from public infrastructure. Read more...
Community Life; Cultural Commons; Economics and Markets; Environment; Knowledge Commons
Economic Relocalization
Thoughts on the inevitable power of corporations and other powers that could hold them in check. Read more...
Economics and Markets; Everyday Life
Birthdays, Business and the Modern Mom
What should we teach our daughters about economic fulfillment? Read more...
