OK, So What's This "Shift" Got To Do With Me?

It has come to our attention that "being green" isn't going to stop what's unfolding right under our noses right now. Lots of us have been recycling our cans, putting in the twisty light bulbs and maybe even joining conservation activist groups. Many of us who are unemployed (about 30% in the US these days) would still prefer to have a green job, getting paid to help save water and energy. All to the good.

Meanwhile global warming marches on, half of all the world's wealth has gone into the pockets of the richest 1%, and forced migrants flee from Mexico (where the world's richest man lives) across the fortified US southern border wall. Our Congressional reps endorse a full-speed headlong gallop off the cliff of peak oil, and Homeland Security steps up its 10-year "End Game" surveillance and deportation of any forced migrant without a driver's license. And of course, what little national wealth is left is drained by two trillion-dollar wars in the Middle East.

If you've been strangely uneasy about the state of the world these days, seeing the big picture become a bit unstable (or a lot unstable), you are not alone. The premise of this blog, our podcast and our Facebook page is that we have entered a global period of dramatic shift, where we leave the dimension of reasonable predictability about our communities and resources, and move into the dimension of limited predictability. (Even the phrase "pole reversal" might not just be a metaphor. The North Magnetic Pole has been moving generally southward, a little more each day.) We've entered a period when our environmental protection, our jobs, our information needs and much more, are no longer being supplied by the global economy, global corporations, or our governments, which are gridlocked and dysfunctional at every level. If we want it, we must create it locally.

Ultimately, our very survival may depend on it. Having any quality or dignity to our survival will depend on it. 

That's the premise. Our mission is to bring our listeners and our readers first a sense of urgency, then bring you activists and visionaries whose work is to move you -- to take responsibility for bringing together your community, and take action in preparing a transition into sustainable neighborhoods and transformed local economies. Or, if you like, you can just get entertained and educated.

We interrupt this empire... with a little 'Shift' shaping. The shift is not only coming, we are already in it. And some of us are actively shaping it.