Fall 2013 Slow News Summary

I'm back to regular life, and gradually catching up on all the writing I've been putting off! I'd like to thank my friends and followers who stuck by me through my foray into covering the municipal election for the Local Good, which we did on the principle that engagement with local politics is consistent with locavorism. I know my twitter and Facebook feeds were pretty #yegvote-heavy from August through October, and I'm sure anyone not in Edmonton who is still following me was muting the hashtag by the end. Here's a summary of what I learned in the process. It was pretty interesting, but I'm delighted to be taking my other interests off the back burner. Speaking of...

On sustainability and environment:

Let's start with the bad news. Arctic sea ice is not recovering. Ice on Arctic islands is melting for the first time in 44000 years. Over 80% of terrestrial ecosystems are at risk from climate change, and ocean acidification likely means all ocean ecosystems are also at risk - and many marine species are already under intolerable pressure from overfishing and plastic pollution. The global food supply is also at risk from climate change, and National Geographic's interactive sea rise map demonstates that unless we can turn things around, many of the world's coastal cities will eventually end up underwater. The most recent IPCC report (even with revisions) is very clear that climate change is anthropogenic and only drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions can prevent unprecedented consequences. The somber tone and stark language being used by scientists trained to speak conservatively with lots of caveats is striking; it brings to mind cold-war-era language around the possibility of triggering a nuclear winter.

So, we have an enormous challenge ahead of us, an enormous responsibility to bear - and an enormous opportunity. The solutions we create as we build our cities and live our lives and move toward a zero-carbon-emissions future will need to be innovative and exciting. Let's do this thing.

An augmented-reality sundial bench by Joshua Barnes, shown at London Design Festival 2013, via designboom. An app allows users to record memories associated with the shadow cast by the dial.

On slow design, slow making, and slow home:

• This introduction to slow design from Fast Company has been widely shared, and deservedly so.
• There are some exciting things happening in slowLab's network of slow designers, and Americans can still watch their video & donate to support their work toward an updated theoretical framework and set of tools for exploring and evaluating slow design here. (I've been chatting with slowLab's Carolyn Strauss about the planned Slow Dialogue for Edmonton and I think we'll be ready to book a space and unveil that event soon.)
• Check out this gorgeous collection of photos of American makers. (Trust me, it's worth the annoying slideshow format interrupted by ads.)
• "Toward A Slower Internet" reviews the Cybernetic Meadow collection - also check out the Consortium For Slower Internet's principles, which echo the ideas of slow design and slow tech. 
• Olivia Sprinkel muses on the cultural shift to "Slow Moving Creative Good". A neat way of thinking about both the principles of slow design and the wider slow movement.
• Scaling up the circular economy, which I guess is what we're calling cradle-to-cradle design nowadays.
• An older post profiling the New Antiquarian movement, which you might recognize yourself in.
• From the suburbs-don't-have-to-suck file, an article about bicycle-friendly exurbs.
• Changes to Etsy’s terms have set off a lot of soul-searching among makers about what ‘handmade’ really means; check out Oh My Handmade's post (and the many comments!) and this op-ed in the New York Times for a taste of the debate. 
• You lucky readers in the UK can still probably grab a ticket to participate in Slow Textiles Group's My Nature Symposium this coming Saturday.

Balmaseda ‘Tafoni jacket’ at the ‘Art of Slow Fashion’ event in New York (photo by Abigail Doan, from her wonderful LOST IN FIBER Tumblr)

On slow fashion:

• Emma Watson asks, “Why is it special to have something you know wasn’t made under terrible conditions by a 12-year-old girl for 20 pence an hour?”
• Good news! "The True Cost" documentary has been funded as of yesterday!
• How gorgeous is Slow Factory's collection of made-in-North-America-by-collaboration-with-craftspeople sustainable silk garments? Check out their post on why slow fashion is important to them.
• I love this DIY from new slow fashion blog tortoise & lady grey for a tea-dyed-and-hand-printed t-shirt. 
• We all love to score a deal at a thrift shop, but there's trouble with second-hand clothes.
• Zady do the fashion math on cost-per-wear.
• Sally Fox's wonderful organically-grown naturally-coloured cotton is being grown and sold again - check out her new FoxFibre website. (The socks are so comfy.)
• Why sustainable fashion needs better aesthetics.
• Rachel from The Year Of Slow Fashion has redesigned her blog, rechristened it Slow Your Style, and introduced a new Slow Sunday post series. Lovely!
• Recovering Shopaholic invite you to join the slow fashion movement.
• I'm totally geeking out over these tissue-cultured textiles.
• Lululemon can seriously go to Hell.
• An old post from 2011 that I just ran across profiles the Matsubas, founders of clothing company Gungendo and pioneers of the Slow Clothes movement in Japan. 
• Levi's is introducing a slow fashion influenced line using a new 'Dockers Wellthread' ethical and sustainable manufacturing process.

On slow food:

• So, the new Pope called Slow Food International founder Carlo Petrini.
• Terra Madre Day - December 10th - is coming quickly. Find (or register) a local event or learn about this year's theme, saving endangered foods, on the Slow Food website.
• A fascinating post about automation in the food industry.
• Recipes I need to try, via other bloggers in the Canadian Food Experience Project: pickled beets, pumpkin pie filling from scratch, and maple apple jelly. (My own most recent posts from the challenge are here, here and here).
• Some great slow food posts from slowmama: How To Eat Your Greens, Homemade Summer Sodas, Slow Cooker Apple Butter, and Holiday Breakfast Casseroles.

On slow travel:

• Six reasons mass tourism is unsustainable. Hmm.
• How fast can you slow travel?
• An incredible story of taking a leap of faith and travelling without any luggage.
• Young Adventuress writes about burning out from constant short-term travel as a professional travel blogger, and slow travel as her path back to feeling balanced.

On slow living, slow parenting, slow money, and so forth:

• You have got to check out Courtney Carver's wise words on slowing down.
• On the peer-to-peer sharing-economy front, you should check out both the BitLock Kickstarter and NeighborGoods (who have expanded their range rather significantly).
• Author Carl Honore did a special for radio where he helped families slow down. Find the episode guide for "The Slow Coach" here - if you're in the UK maybe you can listen, too.
• Introducing slow public relations, and slow TV (which will soon make its' US debut).
• The abundance of slowness.
• The value of slowing down at work.
• Another post on slowing down.
• I love this post from slowmama about teaching our kids to be citizens of the world, and this one on the importance of play, and this one about letting children fail.