To paraphrase Helena Norberg Hodge: As the effects of economic policies that ignore the needs of people and ecosystems become glaringly apparent, rebuilding community and local economies becomes more and more urgent. The global market economy is mostly made up of speculative investors and giant transnational corporations which, by their very nature, have but to generate maximum profits in as short a time as possible. The market economy, characterised by absentee ownership and foreign direct investment, results in rising social and environmental breakdown (with regards to Cape Breton Island, keep in mind all the illegal logging, the innumerable illegal quarries, the endangered status of cod, and the toxic Tar Ponds). However, even though business and government leaders continue to push their outdated economic models on the world, resistance is growing by leaps and bounds. New coalitions are bringing together indigenous people, labour unions, environmentalists, farmers (and rural people), and students from the minority-world* and the majority-world** alike. This growing resistance is further strengthened by many thousands of grassroots initiatives that are reweaving the fabric of community, restoring ecosystems and rebuilding localised economies.

From the mouth of Gael Garcia Bernal: the conclusion is that it's ridiculous how the borders exist. They're administrative, terrible, bureaucratic borders that don't do more than separate people and benefit a few. One of the best things you can learn from a trip is that borders don't exist and that you can be anywhere.

* rich overdeveloped “First World”
** “Third World”

Callout for indigenous environmentalists in the Atlantic provinces

The Sustainable Campuses Project of the Atlantic Sierra Youth Coalition (SYC) is looking for indigenous participants. Leave your comments here or contact Jeremy Ewing at sustain@acadiau.ca. Check this all out on the web http://axe.acadiau.ca/sustain. The project is just beginning and your participation at this time could have an enormous effect.

For the SYC sustainable campuses listserve (to stay in the national loop) go to: https://webmail.uoguelph.ca/horde/util/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sierraclub.ca%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fsyc-sustainable_campuses&webmail=e44d994e49c48f60cf8efcf94566a6e0

Hello.

I'm starting this blog on a whim, with a vision. A fantasy. I want to reach out into the corporatized, globalized internet and draw out voices. I want to find more people out there who love real democracy and champion the causes of environmentalism. By "real democracy" I mean neither electoral showbiz nor market economics (nor industrialism nor capitalism)… Real democracy is participatory self-government by consensus. I believe that localised, grassroots democracy is necessary to generate ecological society.