Guilt-free at Jubilee

Okay, we didn’t research every darned page before we picked a server/host company for this site. We were duly impressed with the feature set and ease of use that our new host, Squarespace, offers. But today I was looking around their company pages and it seems they are, at least according to the literature, in line with some of the aims of our organization. It seems our website is wind powered. Nice. You can see by that last link that they are giving it a noble try at being green.

I have always wondered what trade off is made in the paper vs. digital publishing realms. Does the massive amount of electricity required to keep all these computers on (I’m thinking worldwide here) really amount somehow to less of a footprint than the paper and chemicals and distribution required by paper publishing? I guess it is an act of faith to move one direction or the other. Of course, for a small organization like JEM, the reach of the web is far greater and more efficient for communication, especially of ideas that are always subject to development and change. If our business was to convey historical information, maybe print would be suitable. But we want to move faster than that.

It is hard to say how long our party with the fossil fuels will last. Richard Heinberg has been a voice cautioning that there is less time than is generally projected. For now, while everything is humming pretty nicely, organizations like JEM, with a message of how to willfully change habits, how to embrace a lifestyle of moderation and concern for a larger picture of reality, must use such a great tool to help people make the shift to where we need to go. At least in our case, our message is helped along by a strong breeze somewhere in New York. Maybe the answer really is blowing in the wind?

Comments

[Lee Van Ham]

What a happy serendipity to have connected with web builders who share some essential consciousness about alternative economics! Glad you discovered this, Ed, and thanks for sharing it. Whether by intent or accident, dancing with Earth is our favorite play and work.