My path to environmentalism and sustainability

"The Future comes apace" - William Shakespeare

Growing up, among my passions was a love for the genre of science fiction. The yarns of Robert Heinlein, Arthur Clarke, Isaac Asimov not to mention the countless other imaginative and prescient authors of the 50's, 60's and 70's...leading up the the writers of today, painted a world of breath taking change, beauty and menacing danger to mankind. The abstract worlds of the future they painted are, in many ways, quickly becoming the tangible world I find myself living in today.

The warnings those early stories gave, echo in my head each day as I read about peak oil, changing climate, population growth, degradation of environment and the rapid rate of technological change we are experiencing today. While there are many aspects of the challenges we face which cause me great concern, I still maintain much of the same sense of wonder and optimism about the future we are entering, as I did as a teenager, first dipping the big toe of my imagination in the swirling water of the competing futures that science fiction offered.

I am now in my fourth decade on this shared trip through space and time, and I see that I must become an active participant in the daunting task of influencing the organic process of societal change in a direction which offers the best possibilities of survival of our world and our species.

None of us is alone in this whirling maelstrom of chaotic advancement. The unimaginably complex set of variables the problems of our future present seem insurmountable at times. But one fact remains above all others. We will all share the fate our future brings. We must shoulder our burdens and make the corrections to the path of our shared civilization and to our individual lives necessary to secure the blessings of a bountiful common future for life on earth.

In furtherance of that goal, to promote a sustainable common future, and to provide an outlet to my frustrations, fears, hopes and dreams, I will gather and share the flotsam of information on advancing sustainable technologies floating through the collective consciousness of the web as well as comment on local initiatives happening in and around my own community of Conway, Arkansas and the social and political currents which are shaping our shared outcomes.