Jan 16, 2012
Greetings all – especially those of you who might live in Coburg (Melbourne), or thereabouts. I’m guessing many of you have heard of Transition Initiatives, but for those who haven’t, the basic idea is this: it doesn’t look as if our governments are going to do anything significant with respect to peak oil or climate change, or the other problems we are facing, so we are...
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Unleashing Transition Coburg: From Oil Dependence to Local Resilience
Jan 11, 2012
I managed to get an article on peak oil published in a mainstream newspaper today (The Age). It’s available here: Peak Oil Can Fuel a Change for the Better.
Thanks to all those who came down to the talk in City Square last night. During discussion time, when the audience was throwing ideas and perspectives around, I found myself reflecting on how amazing it was that a large group of people were...
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Peak Oil Can Fuel a Change for the Better
Jan 11, 2012
Peak Oil, Energy Descent, and the Fate of Consumerism
My new paper ‘Peak Oil, Energy Descent, and the Fate of Consumerism’ can be downloaded here, and it has also been published on the Energy Bulletin. I’ve reposted the abstract below. Abstract: Western-style consumer lifestyles are highly resource and energy intensive. This paper examines the energy intensity of these consumer lifestyles and considers whether such lifestyles could be... read more
Jan 8, 2012
Greetings all, and happy new year,
I’m giving a talk on peak oil and consumerism in Melbourne’s City Square this Tuesday 10 January, at 7pm. The talk will go for around 40 mins followed by about 40 mins discussion. For those of you in Melbourne, it would be great to see some of down there if you can make it. I’ve posted an overview below and will publish the paper in a few days...
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Free Public Talk in Melbourne’s City Square
Dec 19, 2011
Ten Most Popular Posts of 2011
As the year draws to a close, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the readers of this website for their support and contributions. Our community is now over 1,000 strong, and I’m very much looking forward to exploring voluntary simplicity, and all it entails, with you in 2012. Now, more than ever before, we need to be reimagining the good life beyond consumer culture. I have plans to relaunch... read more
Dec 8, 2011
At a time when the world’s most respected scientists affirm that ordinary Western-style consumption habits are indeed destroying the planet, what attitudes should we have toward the corporate event known as Christmas? Should we still be seeking salvation through over-consumption? Or is it high time to embrace some form of enlightened material restraint?
The materialistic orgy that is Christmas, of...
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The Best Books I’ve Read This Year: Need Ideas for an Oppositional Xmas?
Nov 29, 2011
Voluntary Simplicity and Transition vs. Empire
This post is a short excerpt from a paper of mine considering the role the Simplicity and Transition Movements might play in resisting the forces of globalization and producing a degrowth or steady-state economy. The age of globalization is upon us, and it could be that any attempt to realize a degrowth or steady-state economy will face forms of resistance today that may not have been faced as recently... read more
Nov 9, 2011
With a day to pass before my students submit their second assignment for marking, this morning I set out on my bike to survey the neighbourhood for a plot of unused land to cultivate, in the manner of a Guerrilla Gardener. I already had my eyes set on a couple spots, so soon enough I found myself hoeing the earth as a soft rain began to fall. It was very pleasant, indeed.
The plot is approximately 2 metres...
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The Strangest Thing Happened at Cherry Grove
Nov 5, 2011
To those of you in the Northern hemisphere, who are heading into the depths of winter, this post may be a bit offensive. My apologies in advance.
The temperature today in Melbourne, Australia, reached a toasty 29 degrees (celsius) and that signifies the beginning of the season of solar hot water – but solar hot water the simpler way. Yes, ’tis the season for the outside shower!
In these...
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Solar Hot Water: The Simpler Way
Nov 2, 2011
Occupy Melbourne may have fallen out of the news, but several hundred people have still been meeting everyday on the steps of the State Library to continue their grassroots activities. It remains a vibrant community of passionate and compassionate people, and the energy levels have not been dampened but only enhanced by the executive beating we received a couple of weeks ago. Recently I set myself...
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One Vision of Occupy Melbourne
Oct 27, 2011
In 2009 I published (on a not-for-profit basis) an anthology of articles on simple living, entitled Voluntary Simplicity: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture. It includes 20 chapters from leading advocates of simple living, including Clive Hamilton, Juliet Schor, and Henry Thoreau, among many others. I’ve just noticed that Fishpond is having a sale and currently my text is only $16...
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Voluntary Simplicity: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture
Oct 21, 2011
The Battle of City Square: This Is What Democracy Looks Like
I got a call this morning around 7.30am informing me that the police were planning to evict people from City Square at 9am. So I jumped on my bike and did what my conscience demanded of me. What else is one to do? It is 7.15pm as I write these words, and I now have a badly sprained neck, having been forcibly removed from our peaceful protest in City Square by the riot police some time after midday. I’ll... read more
Oct 20, 2011
Ignite: An Unspoken Address to the Occupiers (Occupy Melbourne)
A PDF of my 4,000 word statement can be downloaded here: Ignite. I woke up in City Square again this Thursday morning. The sun was rising, the vibe was characteristically joyful and positive, and the conversation was critical and engaged. Not only that, seeing the City Square full with tents was an inspiring spectacle, one that never gets old, and it must surely be prompting some reflection among those... read more
Oct 17, 2011
Notes on the Occupation – Occupy Melbourne
This post is a continuation of the last one – but this time with the benefit of lived experience. Here are my thoughts on the experience so far. (For my 4,000 word defence of the movement, please click here: Ignite.) For the purpose of ‘occupying Melbourne’ in solidarity with the global movement, I headed down to City Square in Melbourne this weekend, arriving on Saturday morning before the start of... read more
Oct 11, 2011
Occupy Wall Street / Occupy Melbourne: Are We the People We Have Been Waiting For?
(A PDF of my 4,000 word defence of Occupy Melbourne can be downloaded here: Ignite.) I presume you have all heard about the occupation of Wall Street that began a few weeks ago in New York? Thousands of people have been staging an extended protest – an occupation – of Wall Street, voicing their diverse objections to a global financial system that has gone amuck. It may well be, however, that some of... read more
