Thank you to all who made our Community Resilience Roundtable such a powerful experience.  Updates on the Roundtable will be posted here soon–for now, enjoy the last “pre-Roundtable” blog from Joe Solomon, Roundtable Core Member.

Hi friends.

I’m a bit new to the world of resiliency, and cannot wait to join so many others in the islands of Alaska to explore this rich topic.

My background is as a frog catcher, wildflower spreader, once theatrical clown, and as the former social media coordinator for 350.org.  I’ve seen a number of ‘days of action’ bloom, and like many, have had the privilege of witnessing the rebirth of a politically charged environmental movement.

In preparation for our round of conversations — I’ve been trying to imagine what resiliency means, in light of resistance, and vice versa.

I wonder: what if we lived on another planet? What if the planet we lived on was being invaded by aliens? And what if those aliens were of the subtle planet-invading variety. What if their big plan was to surround our planet with force field stratified ships, and simply hover there, with arrays of cannons that endlessly pumped carbon? What if their big plan was pump so much carbon into our atmosphere, making the planet more or less uninhabitable, and cause enough climate chaos and societal chaos, so as to make conquering us that much easier? And what if they were willing to spend a number of years–decades even–weakening humanity at the knees with a hot and stormy planet? Continue reading →