Listen to the MP3 audio file
The Solari Report – 05 Feb 2009
A member of the Solari network just called me. Several years ago, inspired by our warnings, she moved to a home that is much more self-sufficient. She has a generator, a well, and local food sources.
Her neighbor has a house-guest who is taking refuge from the ice storms in Kentucky: the woman’s home has been without heat, electricity, or water for the past week. The National Guard recently informed her daughter back in Kentucky that it might be another 4-6 weeks before power is restored. Apparently, there are more than a quarter of a million people in this situation.
There is nothing rustic about me. I love technology and modern comforts. That said, I do not want to be dependent on centralized systems and I do not want you to be, either. Centralized systems are simply not dependable. I encourage you, wherever you live and whatever you do, to embrace redundant and local systems.
On this Thursday’s Solari Report, I will be discussing how we can organize to build greater local resiliency with Albert Bates, a leader in Transition Towns and Financial Permaculture. In “Money & Markets”, I will connect the dots between the global financial coup d’etat and this week’s headlines, including the deterioration in our infrastructure. I’ll also discuss the importance of diversifying our investment of time and money.
In “Let’s Go to the Movies,” we will be talking about Avi Lewis’ and Naomi Klein’s documentary The Take. If you want a birds-eye view of what can happen when a financial system and currency collapse, here it is.
You can listen live or access the recording and archives whenever you want.
Learn more about The Solari Report and subscribe here.
I hope you’ll join us.
Another AMAZING man, an unsung hero and an inspiration in seemingly hopeless times…
http://www.dolectures.co.uk/speakers/michael-braungart
Thanks for the resource of Paul Glover.
A message in from the amazing Paul Glover with some great links, particularly if you live in my original hometown, Philadelphia.
Catherine:
Have been following your progress.
Kentucky today, NYC tomorrow.
Here’s my cover story for Philadelphia City Paper addressing these urgencies: “Prepare for the Best” http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/01/29/philadelphia-green-future
I’ve been teaching Green Jobs, and Metropolitan Ecology, at Temple University.
Here’s my monthly newsletter about greening Philadelphia’s economy: http://www.greenjobsphilly.org/news
Power companies in the midwest used to perform preventative maintenance every year, including cutting trees and branches which might be a problem in an ice storm (the weight of the freezing rain brings down power lines & even trees). But starting about 5 to 7 years ago, they stopped the preventative maintenance with the reasoning being it was cheaper for the power company to just send crews after the fact even if more people are inconvenienced.
There seems to be a minor ice storm in the midwest about every 3 winters or so. Maybe this one is that much worse because the power companies stopped maintenance years ago. The human effect of this storm is much worse than any I can recall in recent memory.
FOUR TO SIX WEEKS WITHOUT POWER. WOW.
The Amish in Kentucky are much better prepared, barely effected by the storm.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/ICE_STORM_AMISH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-02-04-16-31-01
Catherine, do you ever get discouraged? I hope not. May this be a word to the staff around you to keep you lifted up! You encourage us to be patriots. I feel the work you are doing is just about the most important for our country right now. Thank you.
There are many who are pursuing similar aims. Libertarians like Ron Paul (click here for Ron Paul’s list of Cures for our Economy) and Austrian economists like Hayek, von Mises, Rothbard, Block, for example (see http://www.mises.org and http://www.lewrockwell.com). Many of the Austrian economists are highly eloquent and vocal: they write a lot and frequently and work hard to spread their points of view.
To discover that the excellent ideas and suggestions which fill Catherine’s Solari writing are not just a collection of neat ideas but form part of an economic and political philosophy has been surprising, satisfying and very encouraging.
Dear Catherine ( may I call you Catherine?? ): What I find most enamouring about your viewpoint, besides the obvious disdain for those who have persecuted you over the years, is that you are competent to describe the innate character of the power elite so well that it exudes from the page. Yes, as a class of individuals it appears that this culture and mindset have throughout history amassed such great wealth, that for us mere mortals, it has somehow solidified because we aspire to the status much like Thorsten Veblen’s treatise The Theory of the Leisure Class and why we don’t overthrough the oppressors but aspire to their position by any means ( rather than a bloody socialist revolt ala Lenin/Trotsky )..even today I wonder when the taxpayers might revolt..and yet even though their eyes are wide open to the fraud and outright criminality (ie.: Mr Paulson’s three page immediate demand for the $700b particularly without oversight- or else martial law will be imposed ) it seems that we wish they actually get away with the crime…Today Mr. H. Markopolous went before the Congressional Committee investigating Mr. Madoff to confront the SEC and to tell his tale of woe…also, Sybil Edmunds is languishing in the background with a similar inside view of corruption about another aspect of this culture of crime and now we are to believe that the judicial system will provide the remedy ( convict Madoff and others?? ). But he is merely a small piece of the pie..the pervasive character flaw is with the entire Wall Street and financial system leaders thoughout time who allowed this pervasive systemic greed to become the cornerstone for what our “democracy” represented….The back room deals and the high end lifestyles ( ala WALL STREET-THE MOVIE ) have allowed many to become richly endowed for activities only sustained by the power elite ( the club–members only ). The mega-rich and the ultra-rich are still being coddled by the political functionaries ( notice that the CEO pay package limitation announced today is not retroactive ). The $150m inaugeration needed a $450m repair of the Mall sod??? since eliminated from the “stimulous bill “. I have a list of activites and commonly accepted principles that must be eliminated from our lexicon before any REAL change can transpire: 1) the end of the divine right of kings/queens principle, 2) and end to fractional reserve banking, 3) an end to the system of obscene credit, usury, and interest rates. 4) the repeal of the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, 5) a reversal to the SCOTUS ruling in Santa Clara County v. Union Pacific Railroad ( 1886 ),( and in particular the head note naming corporations as a “person” with all rights reserved ), 6) A return to the system of tariffs and demand side economics, 7) the elimination of greed, 8) the return to a lifestyle where people can gather and promote a healthy worldview, 9) a return to true democratic principles 10) I’m cetain there are more to the list ( more to be added by others )… as always, Richard D. Gordon CP
Some of us work in the downtown of big cities and live in the surrounding neighborhoods so we don’t have to commute. How can someone who lives in say Lincoln Park in Chicago or someone who owns a rowhome in the Bella Vista neighborhood of Philadelphia decentralize? Is it possible to get off the grid under such circumstances?