by @HeatherSmith Heather Smith on 09/12/2024 at 8:38 am
a bunch of great resources here for building community and understanding the “assets” that a collective has once you look – ABCD (asset based community development) Tool Kit | Resources | ABCD Institute | DePaul University, Chicago Resources

by @HeatherSmith Heather Smith on 09/12/2024 at 12:51 am
New Atlas – 6 Dec 24

Stellantis lithium-sulfur EV batteries: cheaper, lighter, more range

In a potentially game-changing move for the EV industry, Stellantis and Zeta Energy Corp have teamed up to develop the next-generation EV battery with more range, more power, 50% faster charging, and at less than half the cost.

by @HeatherSmith Heather Smith on 29/11/2024 at 12:39 am
and here are some thoughts I wrote in another context – what do you think?
(I am working with some friends on climate adaptation and community resilience. I can’t fully embrace Clive Hamilton’s view that we need to focus on this, but I can embrace his conclusion that working together at the community scale is essential)
Connections that protect.
The time we’re in
It’s hard for us to imagine our lives and the world around us beyond business as usual. But business as usual changes quickly these days – have you noticed? We are in an age of acceleration, consuming what was once our planet’s abundance at ever faster rates and leaving mountains of waste – in the oceans, the atmosphere and the land. Even if we knew how to stop, enormous climate disruption will remain with us for the rest of our lives and the regeneration task will take centuries.
Ignoring and despairing don’t help
Most of us are tempted to look at the problem and then look away. It is always easier to focus on the day to day. It is always easier to imagine that it is someone else who need to pull the lever of change.
Many of us feel a deep sense of dread and powerlessness.
But the problem is coming to us. Climate events will increasingly become part of our lives and we are not ready.
If we are not prepared for climate surprises, we will not bounce back, change and recover.
And it’s not enough to be individually prepared. The social impacts of change will fray the fabric of our society into frightening tatters.
Community protects
Although some work is underway to make our places and people strong, it is nowhere near enough at the scale required, and national, state and local coordination is lacking.
Preparation is key. We know that those communities who are better prepared, with stronger social networks and developed systems, respond better during a crisis and recover faster afterwards.
But building of trust and institutional resilience, and the strengthening of civil society, culture, and systems takes time, investment and practice. Time we scarcely have.
Community empowers
The best way to build community is to work together on a project. It can be a climate ready project but working together on anything will help strengthen relationships ready for when you need them.
Many of the investments a community can make to prepare for climate events, can be done in ways to help reduce our emissions and ensure our energy systems work better. For example, emergency power to community buildings and telecommunications, can be done with solar and battery power, giving everyone better functioning community services.
Community makes sense
And working together helps us all make sense of the enormous changes we confront. When we make sense of the future, we also have a deeper understanding and stronger motivation to build it in better ways.

by @Juliette Juliette Milbank on 27/11/2024 at 10:24 pm
I like the review you linked to. It was a thoughtful analysis that helped pull the essay together for me and reaffirmed what I like about Saul’s perspective: the evidence and analysis is there to show that the transition is eminently doable, at least on a logistics and economical basis. But although providing hope and giving foundation for actions, logistics will need a bit of help to ensure things happen when the system also needs to accommodate some change (if not yet wholesale change) and there are people in the system who will lose a privileged position.

by @Juliette Juliette Milbank on 27/11/2024 at 10:03 pm
Yep, I agree with all of that!