Beginning in late August 2011, Ed began publishing “The October Thing,” a series of email messages about aspects of the future designed to provoke discussion among participants of the upcoming Sustainable Futures Seminar. We have reproduced each email here, together with its public responses. Our hope is that this format will be more conducive to discussion than simply emailing each other.
October Thing #1 – Love and Marriage and a Baby Carriage – August 25, 2011
October Thing #2 – Singularities and Discontinuities – August 27, 2011
October Thing #3 – Agriculture – August 28, 2011
October Thing #4 – Diasporas- August 28, 2011
October Thing #5 – Computer Brains – August 29, 2011
October Thing #6 – Pathogens and Warfare – September 10, 2011
October Thing #7 – Rich World, Poor World – September 10, 2011
October Thing #8 – Terror and Transition – October 14, 2011
October Thing #9 – Give Me the Simple Life – September 11, 2011
October Thing #10 – Peaks – September 25, 2011
October Thing #11 – Potatoes and Israel – October 2, 2011
October Thing #12 – More Comments and a Request – October 2, 2011
October Thing #13 – Transportation – October 2, 2011
October Thing #14 – Medieval Characteristics – October 2, 2011
October Thing #15 – Another Change of Plan – October 14, 2011
October Thing #18 – The Virtual World – November 16, 2011
Big News: Kyle Crider won the World Environment News “Letter to the Editor” competition with his entry entitled “The First Rule of Intelligent Tinkering.” Here’s the link: http://planetark.org/enviro-news/competition.cfm
When you read “About Kyle,” you’ll see a well-deserved tribute to Ed.
Congrats, Kyle! We are proud of you.
On November 21, 2011 at 9:30 p.m. CST, J. Kiersten Ellis posted the following comment:
Ed, why didn’t I think of that? Here’s something fresh on my mind that I
want to share with the group.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyLJdKgxxZE&feature=youtu.be.
Kiersten, thanks for sharing the video. I had no idea a group had organized to reclaim and reuse the wood lost in the tornadoes; so glad to hear it. Lee and I have had our own experience with mulching wood. Our land had been heavily logged for pines before we purchased it. We invested in a mulcher and have gone out into the woods many times to salvage debris and turn it into mulch for our garden and orchard. Yes, we are using petroleum to do this, but we are using the byproduct to hasten the return of organic matter to the earth so we can grow food without using herbicides.
Hopefully, the approach adopted by Friends of Hurricane Creek will catch on as the default method of clearing storm-ravaged sites.
Thanks for reposting the video Amanda and thank you for sharing your experience with this! With your expertise, you would be a prime volunteer for the Friends of Hurricane Creek’s project.
I appreciate your confidence, Kiersten, but our little mulcher is not in the same category as that bad boy I saw them using in the video! But it’s great for around the farm. We’d love for the group to come visit us sometime to see what we’re up to. Trying to do everything organically and sustainably, as much as possible.