II. Play Website with Me?

(Part II of III)

In my last post, "Global, Local, Conscious," I suggested what you might expect from this website. Now, for the flip-side, let's consider what you might have to offer that could make it happen.

Like all LCGG and GTiA activities, this website is a volunteer effort. In one of my earlier manifestations I was, for 15 years, a trainer and supervisor of volunteers (as crisis hotline workers, team-family therapists, teen advocates), so I hope I've learned a few things worth sharing.

One thing I've come to know is that volunteers, if motivated and supported, can be as capable as any professional. For example, you might not think you have what it takes to write for a newspaper or magazine. I'm just as sure that you can and I'm willing to help you prove it. After all, a website like this one is today's local paper or national gazette. And you've read, heard or seen ten million news articles in your lifetime. Do you really think you can't write one? 

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Green Group Greeting

... to the new Lake Chapala Green Group website.

This is a wonderful time to be living at Lake Chapala. Our climate and natural beauty are spectacular and we have so much to be grateful for. The Lakeside area is also fortunate to have a diverse group of people who bring talent and energy to our community.

Many of us have a common interest in creating a sustainable way of life that will protect the planet for generations to come.  The Lake Chapala Green Group was created to become the center for information and education on sustainable living topics and programs. We hope to become the model for innovation and progress in this area and to share this knowledge and energy with other communities around the lake.

I am proud to announce the launch of our new Lake Chapala Green Group website. We have lofty goals for this website and our organization and believe it shows the commitment we have to continue with educational programs and outreach to our community. Please take a look around the new site. I hope you will find it informative, helpful and fun.

Greg Ochs
Founder, Lake Chapala Green Group

I. Global, Local, Conscious

This is Part I of a Series on Contributing to this Website.

"Think globally, act locally," Wikipedia tells us, may have been been a directive to the environmentally-aware as long ago as 1915. This Green Group website has been designed to pursue those twin goals. As world citizens we need to know about and understand the latest ecological catastrophe and to keep abreast of advances in green technology. Global concerns are reflected on the site by such features as Fresh Green News, Green Talk Radio, Books and Book Reviews, and an occasional article on green topics at large. We hope those features will inform and inspire you and keep you coming back whenever you need a "Green Day." 

Acting locally, we will be your prime source for announcements of events for LCGG, GTiA and other local groups, the place for news on our own plans and activities, and a pipeline to grassroots efforts elsewhere that may inform our own local efforts. We hope to continue the conversations begun on our earlier web presence and to be a locus of communication and community through the Green Group Discussion Forum. 'Have a green idea? Here's where you'll find others to help you make it happen. 

To "Think globally, act locally," I would add "Live consciously." It matters whether each of us turns off the lights when we leave the room, uses the bike instead of the car, or buys the locally-grown organic lettuce. It matters too that we reach out to our Mexican neighbors with a sensitivity to the gifts they bring to our mutual interest in living green and living well. (To that end the Lake Chapala Green Group website welcomes contributions in Spanish and includes a "widget" for imperfect but serviceable Google translation of any page into multiple languages.) Perhaps it matters most that those who are becoming conscious of what it will take to live responsibly and joyfully in a world of diminishing fossil fuels have a place to meet online as well as in person. We hope you like the place. We know you'll like the people!

Bob Craft

Continue to next post in this series: II, Play Website with Me?

Article: Sliding Down the Oil Curve

Sliding Down the Oil Curve: 

"The Chicken Little Scenario"

This is Part 1 of a series of articles by Rick Cowlishaw, LCGG Steering Committee Member, on Peak Oil.

We are very close to the point when the maximum rate of global petroleum production is reached, after which the rate of production enters its terminal decline. Most of the world is dependent on oil with no substitute in the near future. If global consumption is not mitigated before the peak, an energy crisis may develop because the availability of conventional oil will drop and prices will rise, perhaps dramatically. Page 1.

Read or download Part 1 of Sliding Down the Oil Curve.

The Medicine Farm



Ajijic, Jalisco, MX, July 4, 2010. In mid-June, more than twenty members and friends of Green Transition in Action (GTiA) and the Lake Chapala Green Group (LCGG)—Lakeside community groups focused on sustainable living—convoyed north on the Chapala-Guadalajara highway to the high country around Ixtlahuacán. There they visited what one might call the "Medicine Farm" of José Guadalupe Vásquez Maderos.  

Here, for more than a year, José has been growing medicinal herbs and other healthful plants. The wide-open view and the abundance of production belie the fact that the farm comprises only two hectares. It is, however, a model of efficient, organic, growing practice, and features at least 30 plant species that are regularly harvested.

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