James Samuel

After watching this video, I followed the link to the Natural Homes site, and discovered this beautiful gallery of photos (below), which led me in turn to the Facebook gallery with explanations of each photo according to that most inspiring book “A Pattern Language“. I was given this book by my wife when I was [...]

Are we in a period of increasing unpredictability, the present being a taste of things to come? Does this chaos provide an opportunity to be part of shaping the future, being a co-creator of the desired and plausible future?

Here’s the Prezi I created to guide the five hour Social Media session with Otago Polytechnic’s heads of department. I’m posting it here as a resource for the people who attended that event, as there are a number of videos and links we didn’t have time to explore fully on the day. View this on [...]

Earlier this year, Loo was awarded the Prime Minister’s Science Media Communication prize. This enabled her the time and resources to invest in a exploration of New Zealand – the people, their visions, their needs, their sense of identity. It is my [Jaime's] job to help Loo, uncover the ways to make it possible. To unravel the ecosystem of amazing people and abundant opportunities.

www.ooooby.org went live last night! This is the story of the first Ooooby food box, which is connecting growers and eaters in a community in a most efficient manner. It’s about the growing and intersecting communities of interest using the readily available technology and readily available resources, to organise. With a focus on the small, intensive, local growers who use the most natural soil regenerating methods, the Ooooby Box is facilitating the distribution of healthy food for local consumption.

An old Ministry of Works depot on the highway in Turangi, is being developed as a permanent Eco Show and a New Zealand version of a Centre for Appropriate Technology.

Hosting this Biosphere Reserve meeting on the Marae, seemed entirely appropriate given that the move to become a Biosphere Reserve is a move from the western-dominant anthropomorphic world-view to one that puts humans in their rightful place as part of, not apart from, ecology.

Human growth has strained the Earth’s resources, but as Johan Rockstrom reminds us, our advances also give us the science to recognize this and change behavior. His research has found nine “planetary boundaries” that can guide us in protecting our planet’s many overlapping ecosystems.

I first read Rob’s post then this response from John (excerpted below), I couldn’t help but feel a desire to see the two of them in the same room, clarifying their respective points, and coming to a mutual respect for the valuable work each is doing. Dialogue is something I have long felt has such an important part to play in creating a different sort of future than the conflict-ridden recent history we have witnessed.

The Transition Towns movement attracts me because of what I perceive as a shared understanding that the current dominant paradigm of “I”, while it is inherently destructive is only that – a paradigm. I find in Transition Towns, people who are informed and, with eyes wide open, are embracing a paradigm of “we” and building the future we want to see – the best one we can imagine, knowing we are all in this together.