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CURATED ECOLOGICAL NEWS Esteemed resilience mentor and activist, Joanna Macy, eulogized
“It is with profound sadness but also with great love and joyful memory that I mark here the passing of my teacher Joanna Rogers Macy, who departed this Earth on July 19, 2025, at the age of 96. “An unparalleled eco-philosopher, Buddhist scholar, systems theorist, and activist, Joanna dedicated her life to illuminating the interconnectedness of all life and empowering individuals and groups to confront the ecological and social crises of our time with courage and compassion. “Joanna’s intellectual journey was deeply informed by her studies in Buddhism, particularly the concept of interdependent co-arising, and general systems theory. This unique synthesis formed the bedrock of her groundbreaking work, which sought to address the psychological and spiritual dimensions of environmental despair. “She helped me and countless others understand that our pain for the world, far from being a sign of weakness, is a natural expression of our profound connection to life itself. From the late 1970s, Joanna developed what became known as ‘Despair and Empowerment Work’, later evolving into ‘The Work That Reconnects’. “Her teachings emphasized the power of collective wisdom and the inherent capacity within each person to contribute to the healing of our world. She leaves behind a vibrant global network of facilitators and practitioners who continue to carry forward the Work That Reconnects, ensuring her profound wisdom and empowering methodologies endure. “How did she keep going, all those many years? She gave a brilliant clue in an interview where she remarked that, as things collapse, she kept going so that when things get even harder, ‘when things fall apart, we won’t turn on each other’.” More at: “Joanna Macy realized, far sooner than many of us, that cultural evolution is driving humanity inexorably toward ecological and social collapse. She called the emerging catastrophe the ‘Great Unraveling’. “Rather than devote her energies toward analyzing the risks to people and nature in gruesome detail or devising political and technological ‘solutions’, Joanna asked the most pertinent of questions:
• How can I live so as to minimize suffering during this perilous moment?
• How can I maintain sanity, and help others to do so?
• What is my responsibility to future generations and other species?
The answers she arrived at proved inspiring to hundreds of thousands of people around the world. She brought compassion, practical insight, and earthy spirituality to a world that needs those qualities more each day. “Last year, when I started getting attention for the We Are The Great Turning podcast that we made, I would get caught in these big waves of impostor syndrome. I’d get love from people about what we created and part of me would recoil, crumble. I didn’t know how to let it in. It frightened me. “When I talked to Joanna about it, she said something I’ll never forget: ‘Honey, your only job is to take all of the power or influence that folks might want to give you and use it in service of the Great Turning’. She was helping me remember that it’s not about me, and I think this is a great reminder for all of us. How often do we ignore or give away the abundance of love, support and resource available to us because we’re afraid of it?” More at: “I awoke for no reason at 11:45 on Saturday night, July 19, just as the message notifying us of her passing landed in my inbox. But it wasn’t until the next morning, opening the Caring Bridge thread, now with over 130,000 visits, that I had a good and solid cry . . . for her loss, for the world without her, for a moment of feeling utterly bereft and so profoundly alone, as if I had lost my footing and was now falling into empty space; tears of resolve to embody the Turning; tears of grief and tears of healing. Tears of love given new footing. “How do we live with such great loss? The same way Joanna encouraged us to meet every issue, every new beginning, every setback. First with gratitude, for life, for all we have, for all that is not lost. Second, by honoring our pain for the world, going into it, meeting it, allowing ourselves to be enveloped, not only by personal pain, but by the universal pain of all sentient beings. ” Joanna often expressed the three possible responses to the crisis:
• throwing our bodies into the gears of the Machine,
• creating new institutions, and
• changing our own consciousness.
Here at Resilience.org we mostly see blossoming evidence of new institutions and increasingly sophisticated strategies to resist the capitalist juggernaut. “The entire Buddhist path is about perpetually arriving at a non-existent destination. Joanna embodied the union of Path and Result, the awakened nature of love itself. Being with her, there was no distraction, no retreat into ego. The disappearing destination puts identity on very shaky ground, just where it belongs! The paradox of there being no there there lays bare the modern world’s desperate pursuit of permanence in a vast field of impermanence.” More at: “Joanna Rogers Macy leaves a legacy that will long continue to inform and energize both the work of healing the world from the frenzy of industrialized capitalism, and the complementary movements to come home to the true nature of our being. For, as she would say, we are embedded in the web of life. “At the height of the ‘cold war’ in the 1970s, after her own awakening to the dangers of nuclear power in particular, Joanna made a discovery: when a group of concerned people spoke to each other their fears, their terror, and even their despair, a spirit of connection arose in the group, and a clarity of focus and release of energy fueled strategic planning and action. “Others were making this same discovery (psychologist Chellis Glendinning in particular was an early collaborator). The resulting ‘despair work’, with its ‘despair and empowerment workshops’, countervailed the numbing of terror and overwhelm, and the forces of the military/industrial growth culture which would have us live out our lives entirely within its story of fear and domination. “Joanna loved to have a good time. Playfulness and its twin, imagination, infuse the Work That Reconnects. She poured her passion into the work, and as a result her many collaborator-friends formed among themselves a vibrant network of love. She leaves us a toolkit – the Spiral of the Work That Reconnects and the fundamental framing and practices and stories that make the body of work what it is.” More at: Mutual aid organizing for neighborhoods, communities, activists
“Our communities are facing many crises, from worsening climate disasters to fascism. It’s clearer than ever that building robust and sustainable mutual aid networks is necessary to care for each other and build power. “Working with our partners and collaborators, we designed a free and virtual mutual aid learning series for early 2025. It became abundantly clear that this training and peer support network was needed when over 1,500 people attended the first session! “We’re excited to debut Mutual Aid 101 Toolkit: Solidarity, Survival, and Resistance | Shareable, an introductory toolkit for mutual aid organizing — from starting a group to sustaining it for the long haul. This toolkit breaks down the recordings from the four live sessions hosted in February and March 2025. You can choose to watch the videos, read the key takeaways and summaries, or a mix of both.” More at: Rather than monster truck EVs, how about micro cars?
“Many European automakers are still producing tiny economy cars to scurry around tight city streets. These ‘microcars’ represent a significant departure from the traditional view of road transportation in the United States. These minuscule (often all-electric) vehicles are designed to blitz through city streets without jamming up the roads. “Look at the rise of Kei trucks here in the United States over the past five years alone. Oregon is one of many states vying to allow the limited use of Japanese Kei trucks on public roads, following in the footsteps of Texas and Colorado. Should new legislation pass, Oregon will become the 31st state to open most of its public roads to Kei trucks. “Implemented in 1949, Kei vehicles were built to satisfy a Japanese automotive standard limiting automobiles be no more than 11.2 feet long, 4.9 ft wide, 6.6 ft tall, and feature engines no bigger than 660 cc, [with] a maximum of 63 horsepower. “For context, these trucks generally feature six-foot-long beds, which are comparable to those of just about any brand-new Toyota Tacoma, Ford Ranger, GMC Canyon, etc. Obviously, they can’t manage the same payloads, but many of the Kei trucks feature folding bed sides. More at: AI eats electricity for breakfast
“Regular energy consumers, not corporations, will bear the brunt of the increased costs of a boom in artificial intelligence that has contributed to a growth in data centers. “Between 2024 and 2025, data center power usage accounted for 174% of increased power costs, a June report for PJM Interconnection found. PJM manages the electrical power grid for 13 states and Washington, D.C. This spring, customers were told to expect roughly a $25 increase on their monthly electric bill. “‘The growth in data center load requires a different approach than simply asserting that it is just supply and demand’, the report said. The large AI companies like Amazon, Meta and Microsoft use vastly more energy than other kinds of computing. Training a single chatbot uses about the same amount of energy as 100 homes over the course of a year. “‘Can you, ChatGPT exist without fossil fuels?’ I asked. ‘Great question — and the honest answer is no’. AI is expanding rapidly — from casual consumers to businesses leveraging its power. It’s hard to even wrap your head around the amount of energy required to satiate the curiosity of 5 billion people. “Every time you prompt Midjourney or ChatGPT to generate an image, an explanation, or an email, the host company’s servers run thousands of calculations to deliver the goods. This process uses vast amounts of energy. To keep the servers from overheating, water systems are often used to absorb the heat and carry it off to cooling towers to evaporate. “One ChatGPT-generated email uses enough energy to power 14 LED bulbs for an hour — and enough water to fill a bottle. “The scope of AI’s energy demand has significant implications for environmentalists’ dreams of hitting net-zero [fossil fuels]. You start to see why the madness of net-zero is being rejected so strongly. There are, quite simply, unprecedented energy questions being asked of the world. And it turns out that ‘what if we made less energy’ isn’t a serious answer. Or an answer at all. “During a speech at the Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, the president said his advisers had told him just how important energy was to the future of AI. Trump said, recalling a conversation with White House AI czar David Sacks, ‘What, are you kidding? That’s double the electric that we have. Take everything we have and double it’. “All this new demand from AI is welcome news for the natural gas industry in the US, [which] has been facing a mounting supply glut for years. Natural gas from the Appalachian region has faced market challenges from ultra-cheap natural gas from the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico. “The industry is doing their best to sort of create this drumbeat or this narrative around the need for AI data centers. Since taking office, Trump has used AI as a lever to open up opportunities for fossil fuels, including a well-publicized effort to resuscitate coal in the name of more computing power. “Tech companies aren’t necessarily on the same page as the Trump administration. This demand isn’t necessarily driven by a big concern for the climate. Financial analyst Lazard said that installing utility-scale solar panels and batteries is still cheaper than building out natural gas plants.” More at: How to eliminate plastic packaging?
“Packaging is an unavoidable feature of modern life. It’s so embedded in our products and systems that even the most environmentally-minded consumers struggle to avoid it entirely. Yet packaging accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste. “In today’s episode, Nate is joined by Wes Carter, president of Atlantic Packaging, to discuss the pressing need for radical transformation in the packaging industry, and how his company has become a leader in sustainable packaging innovation. “Wes Carter, why is there increasing public awareness and urgency the way that our society packages goods? I’ll, start out by saying sustainability is a part of my DNA. I mean it is what I call the sustainable revolution in the supply chain. But that is not where I started my career almost 25 years ago. “But I was on a surfing trip to Southeast Asia, and the plastic pollution that I was witnessing was radical. And I’m looking around in the lineup and there’s plastic everywhere, and most of it is packaging. And there was just this moment where I was like, man, this is all coming from the supply chain that we’re a part of. “First of all, we have to acknowledge that if we are creating materials that have an opportunity to end up as pollution, then my belief is that we have an inherent responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen. “Cost and convenience and comfort aren’t necessarily bad things. They’re just terrible masters. And so today, to me, sustainability is really the acknowledgement that we are nature, not something separate from it.” More at: Steady state economy: facilitated by local currencies
“The use of the phrase ‘steady state economy’ requires a clear definition of economic growth. Economic growth is an increase in the production and consumption of goods and services. It is generally indicated by increasing gross domestic product (GDP). Economic growth entails increasing population times per capita consumption, higher throughput of materials and energy, and a growing ecological footprint. Economic growth is distinguished from ‘economic development’, which refers to qualitative change independent of quantitative growth. “If we’re going to mainstream the steady state economy, a strategic partnership between the Transition Movement and steady state advocates would be mutually beneficial. Transition initiatives are in need of a lexicon that articulates what we’re transitioning to — that is, the degrowth transition to a steady state economy. “Sometimes steady state advocates simply fall into the trap of preaching to the wrong audience. Rather than having conversations with our neighbours, we jet-set to cosmopolitan centres only to argue with neoclassical macroeconomists. Among audiences where competitive overconsumption is accepted as a prime motivator, the steady state economy could not possibly be an easy sell. The culture shift is happening elsewhere. In fact, the culture shift is likely occurring among a sizeable number of citizens in your own community. Enter the Transition Movement, a neighbourhood-based movement for low-carbon, climate-resilient action and reform. “This likely resonates with proponents of degrowth towards a steady state economy. Clearly, if we wait for government, it will be too late. If we act as individuals by embracing materially simpler lifestyles, it will be too little. But if we foster a community of like-minded partners, our efforts may be just enough, just in time. “Alternative finance is crucial for building a successful commons movement. The organisers of the third annual Collaborative Finance Gathering, June 16-20, have decades of experience implementing community currencies. ‘We’re doing this to bring people from the community currency movement together with people in the blockchain/web3 movement to cross-pollinate our ideas’. “Collaborative Finance is about settling obligations between parties in a network without resorting to state money. This can be done in a completely analogue way, or with sophisticated digital technologies. “If communities take issuing and settling credit into their own hands, the value lies in the relationships, and cannot be as easily co-opted as conventional money. At the same time, they must guard against, or find ways to deal with, accumulation of credits and debt. “One of the main obstacles to creating networks like that might be in our own minds. In highly individualised Western societies, the necessary trust and connection can be hard to come by, with people tending to stick with what they are used to. Still, I believe that trust and connection can be learned again, as it is in our human nature.” More at: | 
