OnTheCommons.org

The question on everyone’s minds here in the Upper Midwest is: What’s causing these floods? In 1993, Des Moines and many Mississippi River towns were devastated. Then in 1997, Grand Forks, North Dakota, was nearly wiped off the map as the Red River rose to record highs. Last year, huge floods struck southern Minnesota in the midst of what had been a serious drought. And now, a number of cities in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri have been submerged. The damage would be even more catastrophic without heroic citizen efforts at piling sandbags along the levees—a moving example of the community commons at work. A resident of one these communities wearily told a reporter: It seems like we are having one of these 100-year floods every few years now. Are these recurring floods an act of nature? Of God? Of global warming? Grist, the on-line environmental magazine, offers another reason. More than 160,000 acres of farmland in Iowa alone was taken out of the Conservation Reserve program between 2007 and 2008. Land once planted with grasses, which absorb the Midwest’s plentiful cloudbursts, were plowed up for cornfields, which drain the rainfall directly into local waterways. That water rapidly found its way to the Cedar River, Iowa River, Wisconsin River and eventually the Mississippi. Photo: 12th and M Street in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by Dan Becker, USGS, via Flickr, licensed under a Creative Commons BY license. http://www.flickr.com/photos/endofmorose/2606559414

See Grist

25 Jun 2008 / David Bollier

Food and Agriculture

Stalking the Wild Apple

John Bunker seeks to recover some of the 10,000 apple varieties that once flourished in the U.S. Read more...

18 Jun 2008 / Jay Walljasper

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Science and Health

Knowledge Commons; Science and Health

Tapping into the Power to Share

Health Commons aspires to build a new ecosystem for research Read more...

27 Jun 2008 / David Bollier

Climate Crisis; Science and Health

Paul Revere in a Labcoat

Washington, D.C.

Dr. James E. Hansen's courageous truth-telling about climate change. Read more...

26 Jun 2008 / Jay Walljasper

Knowledge Commons; Science and Health

Generic Drugs, an Endangered Commons

Big drug companies are using their clout to stifle and delay generic competition. We pay billions of dollars more. Read more...

20 Jun 2008 / David Bollier

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Knowledge Commons

Knowledge Commons; Science and Health

Tapping into the Power to Share

Health Commons aspires to build a new ecosystem for research Read more...

27 Jun 2008 / David Bollier

Knowledge Commons; Science and Health

Generic Drugs, an Endangered Commons

Big drug companies are using their clout to stifle and delay generic competition. We pay billions of dollars more. Read more...

20 Jun 2008 / David Bollier

Knowledge Commons; Politics and Government

Carl Malamud

Sebastopol, California

— Notable Commoner
— Commons Champion

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Environment

Environment; Food and Agriculture

Why Are There So Many Floods?

The question on everyone’s minds here in the Upper Midwest is: What’s causing these floods? In 1993, Des Moines and many Mississippi River towns were devastated. Then in 1997, Grand Forks, North Dakota, was nearly wiped off the map as the Red River rose to record highs. Last year, huge floods struck southern Minnesota in the midst of what had been a serious drought. And now, a number of cities in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri have been submerged. The damage would be even more catastrophic without heroic citizen efforts at piling sandbags along the levees—a moving example of the community commons at work. A resident of one these communities wearily told a reporter: It seems like we are having one of these 100-year floods every few years now. Are these recurring floods an act of nature? Of God? Of global warming? Grist, the on-line environmental magazine, offers another reason. More than 160,000 acres of farmland in Iowa alone was taken out of the Conservation Reserve program between 2007 and 2008. Land once planted with grasses, which absorb the Midwest’s plentiful cloudbursts, were plowed up for cornfields, which drain the rainfall directly into local waterways. That water rapidly found its way to the Cedar River, Iowa River, Wisconsin River and eventually the Mississippi. Photo: 12th and M Street in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by Dan Becker, USGS, via Flickr, licensed under a Creative Commons BY license. http://www.flickr.com/photos/endofmorose/2606559414

See Grist

25 Jun 2008 / David Bollier

Community Life; Cultural Commons; Economics and Markets; Environment; Knowledge Commons

Economic Relocalization

Thoughts on the inevitable power of corporations and other powers that could hold them in check. Read more...

4 Jun 2008 / Dave Sohigian / 7 comments

Climate Crisis; Environment; Politics and Government

U.S. News & World Report Highlights “Cap-and-Dividend”

Peter Barnes explains why fairness must be a part of the global warming solution. The latest U.S. News & World Report features a two-page interview with On the Commons fellow Peter Barnes (“A Climate Change Proposal with Cash”) on how best to deal with global warming. Barnes points out the flaws in the pending “cap-and-trade” schemes for curbing carbon emissions. He also explains, in a Q&A with reporter Marianne Lavelle, why a better system would give citizens a dividend of between $1,200 and $6,000 a year for a family of four. U.S. News says “cap-and-dividend” is “an idea garnering increasing attention as Washington begins to grapple with global warming.” “It's necessary to have a higher carbon price but not necessary to take that money out of the pockets of janitors and nurses and reporters,” said Barnes. “It will kill the whole thing, and that's the last thing we need. The politicians need to come up with a way of raising carbon prices without screwing the poor and the middle class. And [cap-and-dividend] is, I think, the best way to do it.”

See US News & World Report

2 Jun 2008 / Onthecommons.org Editors

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Water

Commons Strategies; International; Water

Water for All

Talkin’ About a Commons Revolution Read more...

25 Jun 2008 / Jay Walljasper

Water

How We Bought the Idea of Bottled Water

The New York Times Book Review’s front-page review of Elizabeth Royte’s Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It (Bloomsbury) is full of striking nuggets of information from what people are now calling “the water wars.” • The CEO of Quaker Oats, which markets Propel Fitness Water and Gatorade, once declared, “the biggest enemy is tap water.” • The National Coalition of American Nuns opposes bottled water on the moral grounds that life’s essential resources should not be privatized. • One expert quoted in Bottlemania calculates, “The total energy required for every bottle’s production, transport and disposal is equivalent, on average, to filling that bottle a quarter of the way with oil.” • Elizabeth Royte estimates that the U.S. will need to spend $390 billion to repair and maintain water systems by 2020.

See New York Times Book Review

18 Jun 2008 / Jay Walljasper

Cultural Commons; Everyday Life; Water

Rachel Breen

Minneapolis, Minnesota

— OnTheCommons.org Member

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Economics and Markets

Economics and Markets; Politics and Government

The Fight Against Privatization

Two blogs showcase the latest business attempts to make money from public infrastructure. Read more...

16 Jun 2008 / David Bollier

Community Life; Cultural Commons; Economics and Markets; Environment; Knowledge Commons

Economic Relocalization

Thoughts on the inevitable power of corporations and other powers that could hold them in check. Read more...

4 Jun 2008 / Dave Sohigian / 7 comments

Economics and Markets; Everyday Life

Birthdays, Business and the Modern Mom

What should we teach our daughters about economic fulfillment? Read more...

29 May 2008 / Kathleen Maloney

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Indigenous People

Food and Agriculture; Indigenous People; International

Jesús León Santos

Mexico City, Mexico

— Commons Champion

Climate Crisis; Commons Strategies; Cultural Commons; Environment; Indigenous People; International; Knowledge Commons; Media and Internet; Politics and Government

Laura Simes

Canberra, Australia

— OnTheCommons.org Member

Environment; Indigenous People

Native Americans Buying Lost Land

Casino profits fuel new push to reclaim stolen tribal commons. White Americans’ lust for money cost Native Americans their land in the 19th Century, as pioneers hungry to make their fortunes out West continually pressured the federal government to open up Indian territory for settlement through illegal occupation and unfair treaties. In an ironic twist of history, white Americans’ continuing lust for money is allowing Indians to regain some of their lost tribal commons. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that profits from Indian-owned casinos are being used by tribes to buy back substantial tracts of ancestral lands—not just in Minnesota but also California, New York and other states.

See Read the source

8 May 2008 / Onthecommons.org Editors

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Sapporo, Japan

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

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