Start: 4 Sep 2010 09:30 End: 5 Sep 2010 16:00 Start: 4 Sep 2010 09:30 End: 5 Sep 2010 16:00

Jim O'Gorman, the founder of Dirt Doctor is coming to Auckland!! He will be leading a weekend "Urban Eden Workshop" on August 28th and 29th, sharing his soil-focused food production methods with the community.  This workshop covers the complete Dirt Doctor method.  Those attend will also receive insights from award winning Landscape Architect Carl Pickens, who will join Jim with a two part discussion on sustainable garden design and permaculture.

» Read more Location / Venue:  Ellerslie, Auckland

Note:  This is part of a series on personal preparation to help you answer the question, "What should I do?"  Awhile back, we polled our most frequent visitors to the site and asked what improvements would be most helpful to our readers.  The strongest response was that we should make it easier for people to start preparing.

So we've decided to do exactly that.  This series on how to build personal resilience into your life is designed for people who are just beginning the process.  Those who have already taken these basic steps (and more) are invited to help us improve what is offered here by contributing comments, as this content is meant to be dynamic and improve over time.  Our goal is to provide a safe, rational, relatively comfortable experience for those who are just coming to the realization that it would be prudent to take precautionary steps against an uncertain future.  read more »

• U.S. Debt Not Sustainable
• Now Let Us Stress-Test The Central Banks
• Daily Growth Index Surpasses 3% Contraction Rate
• Jim Rickards Compares The Collapse Of The Roman Empire To The US, Concludes That We Are Far Worse Off
• Job Subsidies Also Provide Help to Private Sector
• Gold Weekly
• California's Building Bust Choking Off Jobs
• Europe's €30 Trillion Headache
• Lloyd's 360° Risk Insight Sustainable Energy Security Newsletter
• Unable To Store, FCI Wants Food Grain Exported

 read more »

One area that will need a complete re-think is the Food Bank as it is currently currently operated by Budget Services, Church Groups, and charities. Sufficient food supplies should not be left to the charity of individuals, but should be built into the system.

Our whole set up, making the provision of extra food a charity and not part of the recirculating of resources is fundamentally dysfunctionally. Like the circuation of the body; if the exhale became jealous of the inhale or vice versa and kept it from circulating in the system, it would die.

» Read more

• Already Retired Workers May Receive Reduced Pensions
• U.S. Cities, Counties are Poised to Cut 500,000 Jobs
• Debt Commission: Dealing With Federal Debt Likely To Require Tax Hikes, Spending Cuts
• City Manager To Reveal Her Plan In August To Cut $130 Million From Budget
• Illinois Has Nation's Largest Budget Deficit
• Local School Boards Tackle Difficult Budget Deficits
• Bleak Forecast For Schools Budget
• Linden Mayor Trying To Avoid $344 Average Tax Increase
• Omahans Take Mayor To Task Over Taxes
• Orange County Wants Tax Hike On Ballot
• Audit: US Cannot Account For $8.7B In Iraqi Funds
• Liability for Scrapping Yucca Mountain Could Run In the Billions
• House Poised To Approve $37B Afghanistan And Iraq War Spending Bill
• Erie County Facing Possible $36M Deficit
• County Faces $31 Million Budget Shortfall In 2011
• Hawaii Buys Homeless Plane Tickets to Mainland
• College Students Hide Hunger, Homelessness
• N.J. Food Pantries See Increase In Bare Shelves And Hungry Families
• Low Food, Financial Donations Hit Conway-Based Food Pantry
• Red Light Cameras Rake In The Cash
• China Banks Resigned To Defaults
• US CBO: US Could Face 'Difficult Choices' If Rates Spike

 read more »

• Goldman Reveals Where Bailout Cash Went
• Cities View Homesteads as a Source of Income
• Has the U.S. Lost its Grip on the Credit-Rating Business?
• Apartment Rentals Surge in U.S. on Home Foreclosures, Job Gains
• WikiLeaks: More US Documents Coming On Afghan War
• Recovery Strains Electricity Grid
• Exploring Algae as Fuel

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What is the difference between soil and dirt?

» Read more

Start: 27 Jul 2010 19:30 Start: 27 Jul 2010 19:30

Our AGM!

1. Welcome
2. Annual Report
3. Executive Summary, Annual Plan
4. Financial Statement
5. Nominations, Appointments and Resignations
6. AGM closed
7. Discussion, wine and food!

Location / Venue:  Waitati Hall, Waitati

My heart sang last night, to see members of my community look at the challenges of the future, square in the eye, and then with energy and creativity name some creative, and do-able solutions. Here's a six minute video I put together summarizing the evenings activities.

» Read more

Start: 21 Aug 2010 02:00 Start: 21 Aug 2010 02:00

Advanced Soil Biology and Microorganism Technology Workshop!!!

» Read more Location / Venue:  Mt. Victoria, Wellington

Start: 14 Aug 2010 02:00 Start: 14 Aug 2010 02:00

Weed Management Workshop!!

» Read more Location / Venue:  Mt. Victoria, Wellington

Start: 28 Aug 2010 09:30 End: 29 Aug 2010 04:00 Start: 28 Aug 2010 09:30 End: 29 Aug 2010 04:00

» Read more

Start: 7 Aug 2010 02:00 Start: 7 Aug 2010 02:00

Dirt Doctor will be presenting focused workshops in Wellington in August, see the flier for more details!

» Read more Location / Venue:  Mt. Victoria, Wellington

In my first year of teaching I had a second grade class, year 2, made up of 7 and 8 year olds. Christa arrived, along with everyone else in the class, with the school materials listed in the registration packet given out before the start of school. She also arrived ready to do whatever it took to be good at school. She was intelligent, quiet but not shy, physically active and a little competitive. Her mother worked and took good care of she and her brother in a solo parent household.

» Read more

Note:  This is the first of a series on personal preparation to help you address the question, "What should I do?"

The copy in this series comes from a book chapter I wrote for The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century’s Sustainability Crises (Richard Heinberg and Daniel Lerch, eds.) 

It is being reproduced here with permission.  For other book excerpts, permission to reprint, and purchasing, please visit http://www.postcarbonreader.com.

 read more »

• Blame Games
• Fed Would Act if Needed, Chairman Says
• Big Questions Need Answering After Stress Tests
• LBMA Closes Off Public Access To Key Bullion Bank Trading Data
• The Death of Paper Money
• Budget Forecasts Hold Fast
• Goldman Threatened With Audit
• Deflation Defies Expectations — and Solutions

 read more »

Posted Jul 15, 2010 02:25pm EDT by Michael Snyder The 22 statistics detailed here prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.

» Read more

Posted Jul 15, 2010 02:25pm EDT by Michael Snyder The 22 statistics detailed here prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.

» Read more

• China Calls Our Bluff
• Mauldin: Some Thoughts on Deflation
• Mortgage Securities It Holds Pose Sticky Problem for Fed
• Economy Set For Triple Whammy, Admits Bank Chief
• Aging Transit Systems Face Budget Crunch
• Oil Giant Fined for Shipping Sludge to Ivory Coast
• Rig Returns to Well Site as Storm Dissipates

 read more »

Start: 29 Jul 2010 18:00 End: 29 Jul 2010 19:00 Start: 29 Jul 2010 18:00 End: 29 Jul 2010 19:00

Several perspectives on resilience, panellists to present examples in their field with a roundtable discussion to follow.

5.30 drinks and 6.00pm talk

Location / Venue:  The School of Architecture & Design, 139 Vivian Street, Wellington