Sustainability & Regeneration

From Resilience Hubs to Resilient Networks: Self-Determination at Multiple Scales

September 8, 2023September 18, 2023 by Kermit O

One of the strengths of the resilience hub — control/ownership of a physical space — is also one of its key limitations in that where the facility is compromised, so too goes most of its capacity for resilience. What I hope to discover is how this same capacity can be distributed across a wider networks of ... Read More

Philadelphia Resilience Hubs: A Strategy for Long-Term Thriving

May 10, 2023September 8, 2023 by Kermit O

The creation of resilience hubs in Philadelphia would not only do a great deal in meeting the city’s sustainability targets, it would foster short and long-term quality of life enhancements for local residents, and prepare us for inevitable stressors and shocks during the long march through the climate crisis.

North Philly Peace Park and the Continuum of Black Struggle

May 20, 2021June 23, 2022 by Kermit O

All the things that North Philly Peace Park is, and will become, are part of a continuum of collective dreaming, striving, and will toward self-determination: the heart of all Black struggle. The life of Black people in this country has always been defined by the tension between our demand for sovereignty, and the violent refusal ... Read More

ADHD, Organizing, and the Tensions of Hunter’s Mind

May 2, 2021April 29, 2022 by Kermit O

Hunter's Mind — or ADHD if you must — allows me to glimpse both the underlying systems that reinforce domination, and the ley lines along which alternative lifeways might be built. The utter soup that is my mind under capitalism requires serious organizational structure in order to even function. And so my thoughts naturally gravitate toward ... Read More

The Cynical Manipulations of the Gatekeeper

April 25, 2021June 23, 2022 by Kermit O

Even as Bill Gates writes books laying out the "solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need", his cynicism prevents him from actually believing any of it. Not only does he have no faith in people to muster the collective will to prevent climate catastrophe, he has neither faith in corporations to abandon their centuries-long ... Read More

From COVID to Climate Change: Herd Immunity vs. Institutional Distrust

March 25, 2021April 29, 2022 by Kermit O

Whatever technologies, models, and organizational structures we develop, to orient ourselves toward social and economic justice, we must also make space for the unwilling and the unable to be independent, self-determined, and safe. This means insulating them against the violent death throes of our system of capitalism, white supremacy, and imperialism, as we replace it ... Read More

Net-Zero to Net-Positive: Toward a Real Education for Sustainability

February 26, 2021April 29, 2022 by Kermit O

The moment demands a mass mobilization of people and collective will. Which means bridging gaps: in knowledge, resources, understanding, and empathy. In our conversations, and in our work around sustainability, we have to integrate those things which support and affirm our rights to healthy, dignified lives, so we even have the capacity to take on ... Read More