Archives
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The Story Behind Kufunda – an African Learning Community
What follows is a transcript of an interview by my friend Christine Brauitgam of Maaianne Knuth, the founder of the Kufunda village in Zimbabwe. I edited the interview for length and clarity. You can listen to the entire interview here. – Bob Leonard Hello this is Christine Brautigam. I was a guest, volunteer, and […]
Relentless
Three years ago we moved from south Florida to Portland OR. I knew we were vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in Florida where we lived two blocks from the Gulf of Mexico. Sea level rise, increasing heat (it was already HOT), and more severe storms. Hurricane Irma was the last straw. We were […]
La’au Ha’awi: Planting Hope on Maui
edited by Jon Biemer A modest cadre of dedicated folks on the island of Maui, Hawai‘i, just completed an elegant initiative to provide local food, sequester carbon dioxide, and reduce transportation carbon emissions. Plant a lot of fruit trees where they will be appreciated. Volunteers planting fruit trees at Ka Hale […]
Interconnected and Interdependent – a New Normal
“If man chooses oblivion, he can go right on leaving his fate to his political leaders. If he chooses Utopia, he must initiate an enormous education program… immediately.” – R. Buckminster Fuller We have to stop focusing on artificial dualities and past battles and move forward at every level. How do we categorize ourselves? […]
Our Climate Crisis Demands Cooperation and Collaboration
Climate is an unusually broad topic — the causes, impacts and solutions require expertise across vastly different subjects. We tend to solve problems in a linear, hierarchical, siloed fashion. We disassemble complex systems into discrete modules that are easier to understand. That leads to specialization and a separation between disciplines. If we examine the problems […]
Building Community Climate Resilience
Local communities come together to recover from disasters. It is human nature to help when we see others in distress. We’ve all seen it dozens of times. Strangers pitch in together and lift a car that has pinned a woman. People go door to door after a hurricane to find those who need assistance. The […]
Climate Resilience – Infrastructure
As climate change impacts become more severe, cities and communities are seeking to become more resilient. One obvious place to start is infrastructure (roads, bridges, water treatment facilities, etc.) that are designed to last fifty years or more. If we can make our investments in infrastructure resilient to the impacts of climate change, they will […]
Climate Resilience Requires Global Cooperation
The one factor most likely to affect how well we endure a global crisis is the quality of our cooperation and collaboration. A great deal depends on whether we exhibit pro-social attitudes and responses, or we panic and blame. We must recognize that we’re all in this together. By cooperating and collaborating, we can salvage […]
Climate Resilience is Key to Avoiding Collapse
“Climate resilience is the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate. Improving climate resilience involves assessing how climate change creates new, or alters current, climate-related risks. We can take steps to better cope with these risks.”1 Humanity has a lot of problems. Climate change, political […]
