Note: this is a cut’n’paste of the References section
in the original document, with some editing to correct mistakes. I have
many more references that should be reviewed and added to the list.
References
This section is basically an annotated bibliography. It doesn’t
include all the resources (mostly WWW sites, but also some books) that
I’ve visited in the course of this project – I’ve included
just those that I consider quite relevant, or have resonated with me for
other reasons. Many of the sites have links to other related sites, so if
you want to branch out, they’ll provide a good starting place.
General
- News
for a Synergic Earth: There are links here to related sites focused
on sustainability, community, etc. Quite a bit of good stuff.
- Sustainability:
Hardin Tibbs’ long paper exploring the concepts, problems, and
requirements for sustainability. I put it here due to the breadth of
its scope.
- Buckminster Fuller Institute
A repository of Fuller’s materials along with subsequent work
by associates, etc.
- Communications for a
Sustainable Future “CSF was founded on the idea that
computer networking could be used to enhance communications with the
objective of working through disparate views and ideologies to
secure a more promising future. The contents of the archives and the
quality of communications on CSF are intended to reflect this
purpose.”
Despair
Hope
- www.joannamacy.net
Joanna Macy’s site, reflecting her work as a systems theorist,
Buddhist scholar, and environmental activist (and as a synthesis of
all three).
- http://www.grameen-info.org/
The Grameen family of organizations. The Grameen bank has been
giving practical hope to poor people in many nations since 1976. I
include it here as an example of a kind of cellular growth, working
from the local outwards. There are also lessons in its practices for
community building, starting in many cases from the depths of
despairing, dysfunctional neighborhoods.
-
Skills for the Age of Sustainability: An Unprecedented Time
of Opportunity; Part of Elisabet Sahtouris’ website,
which has lots of other good stuff worth looking into.
Energy
-
ASPO: the web site of the
Association for the Study of Peak Oil. Authored and maintained
by a group of petroleum researchers and practitioners; has the
most complete and up-to-date information supporting the
proposition that the peak of global petroleum production will
occur/has occurred within this decade.
- www.oildepletion.org:
“The site is written by Dr. Roger Bentley, Senior Research
Fellow, Department of Cybernetics, The University of Reading, UK.”
This is a good place to start in examining Bentley’s work,
which is more detailed and less apocalyptic in outlook than Duncan’s
Olduvai papers.
- Howard Odum’s concept of Emergy (embodied energy); a way
of getting a total accounting of the energy cost and value of
activities and artifacts. The most complete reference is his book
Environmental Accounting: Emergy and Environmental Decision
Making. This site has a review of the concepts by
David Holmgren.
- www.altenergy.org/
- Hubbert Peak of Oil Production
“Named after the late Dr. M. King Hubbert, Geophysicist, this
website provides data, analysis and recommendations regarding the
upcoming peak in the rate of global oil extraction.”
Resources
Natural resources other than energy.
- Rocky Mountain Institute:
“Rocky Mountain Institute is an
entrepreneurial, nonprofit organization that fosters the efficient
and restorative use of resources to create a more secure,
prosperous, and life-sustaining world.”
Economics
A few of many sites, books, papers, etc., proposing ways to make
economics more humane and useful for the future.
- World Economic Forum “The
World Economic Forum is an independent international organization
committed to improving the state of the world.”
- Ecosystem Valuation
(Economists valuating ecosystems)
- The Grameen family of organizations (see under Hope). A workable
system of microcredit that’s been helping poor people to
become self-sufficient for many years.
Systems
Climate
(I haven’t looked as thoroughly at these sites.)
Population
Here are a few of many sites on the subject of population dynamics:
... and a few specific to human populations:
- The
Human Population System – uses systems dynamics modeling
techniques to explore different scenarios for humn population
growth.
-
Carrying Capacity
– an introduction and bibliography on the
planet’s carrying capacity for human populations.
Community
- The Sarvodaya Shramadana
Movement in Sri Lanka: An organization working to create
peaceful and sustainable communities under as difficult conditions
as exist anywhere. Sri Lanka has suffered from factional violence
for several years, yet the organization has been able to make
progress, and even reduce tensions in some areas. It was
influential in bringing about a ceasefire in 2002.
- Gaviotas: A
Village to Reinvent the World Another community project
undertaken in an extremely difficult area, in this case
Colombia.
- Blueprint for a synergetic society
by Flemming Funch. “HoloWorld is a hypothetical society that is scalable to any
size, from a size of one family to the size of a whole planet.”
Covers a lot of considerations involved in building such a society.
- Context Institute
“Since 1979 Context Institute, a nonprofit research
organization, has been exploring and clarifying just what is
involved in a humane sustainable culture - and how we can get there.
We invite you to join us in this adventure!” I’m just
getting to know this site, but I’ve already found some
treasures there.
- Mary Parker Follett Foundation
{Need intro to Follett, how the foundation relates.}
- The Grameen family of organizations — see under Hope.
- Issues
of Human Evolution into Global Community Elisabet
Sahtouris’ ideas on the development of sustainable
commuities.
Sustainability
A web search for this term will turn up approximately a gazillion
hits. Sustainability (or at least talking about it) bids fair to become one
of the worldwide fads of the decade. I include here a few of the sites that
have been most useful (or intriguing) to me.
- The Sustainability Institute
“The Sustainability Institute
provides information, analysis, and practical demonstrations that
can foster transitions to sustainable systems at all levels of
society, from local to global.”
- Sources of Sustainability
A collection of links to related sites.
- The Natural Step
“The Natural Step (TNS) Framework is a science and
systems-based approach to organizational planning for
sustainability. Sustainability happens when people's activities meet
the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.”
- Sustainable Communities
Network “Linking citizens to resources and to one another
to create healthy, vital, sustainable communities.”
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