"California’s Green Dream" by Agnès Sinai

America is waking up to the reality of peak oil and climate change. In California there are very different responses to the crisis: some pin their hopes on new technology, while others advocate a radical change of lifestyle. Agnès Sinai writes "The transformation of the East Bay into a green corridor may still be a dream, but there is a movement to look beyond the hi-tech mirages and create a population of happy gardeners."

Le Monde Diplomatique (July 2009)
http://mondediplo.com/2009/07/11california


"Gonzo Gastronomy" by Arun Gupta

Indymedia journalist Arun Gupta examines how the food industry has made bacon a weapon of mass destruction. "The system of industrialized hog (and beef and poultry) farming that has developed over the last 40 years turns out to be ideal for breeding novel strains of deadly pathogens."

AlterNet (July 23, 2009)
http://www.alternet.org/story/141498/


"The Real Unemployment Rate Hits a 68-Year High" by John Miller

Although you have to dig into the statistics to know it, unemployment in the United States is now worse than at any time since the end of the Great Depression. Read more of John Miller's analysis.

Dollars & Sense (July/August 2009)
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0709miller.html