Environmental Change-Making:

How to Cultivate Environmental Paradigm Shift in Your Community

by Joanne Poyourow and the Reverend Peter H. Rood, Jr.

Environmental Change-Making is a book packed with resources.  Below is an index to sources, both online and off, which you can use to create environmental progress in your local area. 

Our Change-Making group in the Westchester area of Los Angeles is continually discovering more positive solutions.  We update the index below, together with its underlying material, as our meetings and events cycle through the topics.

The following index follows the topics set out in Environmental Change-Making Appendix 2.

Understanding the Problem

• Global Warming Impacts: 
  • The Union of Concerned Scientists www.ClimateChoices.org
  • See it visually:
    • "Cumulative Global CO2 Emissions" from T.A. Boden, DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• Peak Oil:
  • "Peak Oil Primer," from Energy Bulletin.  www.EnergyBulletin.net/primer.php
  • See it visually:
    • Peak Oil: "Oil and Gas Production Profiles"   from the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO)
    • Put it in perspective:  "The Hydrocarbon Age: A Fleeting Epoch in History"
    • Possible energy descent outcomes:  "Energy Futures" diagram by David Homgren.  Summary of his explanation here.
• Biocapacity:
  • "Humanity's Footprint" by the Global Footprint Network
  • State of the World (annual) by WorldWatch Institute.
  • See it visually: 
    • "Demand vs. Biocapacity" from the Global Footprint Network.  The biocapacity of the earth is always 1, as in “one planet,” represented by the horizontal blue line. In 1961, humanity used about half the planet’s biocapacity. By 2003 we were using over 1.25 times the biocapacity of the earth. This global ecological deficit of 0.25 earths is called our “ecological overshoot."

• The Task of Social Change:

  • PowerDown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World, by Richard Heinberg
  • See it visually:
    • Possible energy descent outcomes:  "Energy Futures" diagram by David Homgren.  Summary of his explanation here.
• Your Personal Share:
  • Take the "Affluenza Self-Diagnosis Test," from Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, by John de Graff, David Wann, Thomas Naylor.
  • Take the Ecological Footprint Quiz, by Redefining Progress.

What Is Greener?

• "Use Sustainability As Your Yardstick" (pdf)
• [Definitions of Sustainability]
• Permaculture Principles, by David Holmgren
• "Permaculture, A Beginner's Guide," by Graham Burnett.  Extracts viewable online here.
• Permaculture in a Nutshell, by Patrick Whitefield

Practice the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)

• Books:  Seek books through interlibrary loan (Reduce), through your local independent bookseller (reLocalize) or at www.BookFinder.com (Reuse)

Conquer the Car

• "How to Green Your Car" (pdf)
• [fuelefficiency.gov]

• Biofuels:

  • "The most destructive crop on earth is no solution to the energy crisis," by George Monbiot, The Guardian, 5 Dec 2005.
• "ReLocalizing Your Urban Lifestyle" (pdf)

Re-Learning to Feed Ourselves

About the book Environmental Change-Making

• about the book
• Table of Contents
• Excerpts (coming soon)

• Author biographies:

  • Joanne Poyourow
  • The Reverend Peter H. Rood, Jr.