waking up to the new world

Sweden is to take the biggest energy step of any advanced western economy by trying to wean itself off oil completely within 15 years - without building a new generation of nuclear power stations. more>

When I read this front page news it gave me another jolt of reality. The more I read the more I agree with those who describe the change as something akin to an exponential inclination, I suspect that change is coming faster than we care to admit to ourselves and each other.

It also gave me a sense that the top down style of societal structure is working to at least some degree, somewhere. Maybe New Zealand could function in this way, but I doubt it. We don't put that much faith in our leaders, and tend to a more grass roots culture. Maybe our way through the coming years will be expressed through greater cooperation between people in their local communities, with some wider reaching threads of trade and exchange of resources and skills, woven together by a few from within each region.