Watch as Marcin (bio) explains the connection between artificial material scarcity, a decent economy, and autonomy. Part of a longer speech published in segments on the Marion Institute's YouTube channel here.  His TED talk on a civilization starter kit, part of Open  Source Ecology, is here on Earthsayers.tv.

The Marion Institute is a member based non-profit that acts as an incubator for a diverse array of programs and projects that delve into the root cause of an issue and seeks to create deep and positive change.

http://bit.ly/storyofbroke — The United States isn't broke; we're the richest country on the planet and a country in which the richest among us are doing exceptionally well. But the truth is, our economy is broken, producing more pollution, greenhouse gasses and garbage than any other country. In these and so many other ways, it just isn't working. But rather than invest in something better, we continue to keep this 'dinosaur economy' on life support with hundreds of billions of dollars of our tax money. The Story of Broke calls for a shift in government spending toward investments in clean, green solutions—renewable energy, safer chemicals and materials, zero waste and more—that can deliver jobs AND a healthier environment. It's time to rebuild the American Dream; but this time, let's build it better.

Inspired by the idea that "when one teaches, many learn," Ryland King, a 2012 Brower Youth Award Winner, founded Environmental Education for the Next Generation, a program that recruits college students to teach elementary school kids about our environment. King wanted to "promote sustainable action throughout communities, from the youngest members of society up" and so he designed an eight-week curriculum for college students to teach first and second graders. The curriculum, which is aligned with the California State Board of Education's content standards, includes topics like "The Importance of Bees," "Composting," and "Water Conservation." In less than three years, 400 college student volunteers have taught more than 3,000 elementary school students in 200 classrooms across California. King hopes that by 2015 college students will be teaching at least 14,000 elementary school students a year.

Dr. Newman is the Director of Clinical Research in the Emergency Department at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and an Iraq war veteran. In addition to being widely published in medical journals he has written health care articles for the New York Times and is the author of Hippocrates' Shadow: Secrets From the House of Medicine. He is also the editor-in-chief for two online publications, TheNNT.com, (The Number Needed to Treat)a resource for health care evidence summaries. Presented by TEDxColumbiaEngineering

Laurence Kemball-Cook's Talk, "Turning Our Cities Into Human Power Plants", at TEDxBerlin 2012 "Future 3.0".  Pavegen embeds power generating technology into pavement so that the energy we generate when we walk is usable making human action an alternative source of energy.

Since 2000, the middle class has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth and shed some -- but by no means all -- of its characteristic faith in the future. Our new report, released Aug. 22, 2012, explores how middle-class Americans view themselves, as well as their outlook on the future and on the presidential candidates who are courting their votes.

To read the full report, go here.

Saturday, June 9th at the Strategies for a New Economy 2012 Conference historian and political economist talks about finding ways to build new institutions that are capable of managing the wealthiest nation in history as our present system is stalmated politically, stagneting economically, and in decay.  People think something is wrong, making rethinking possible as painful as it might be.  He talks about the Cleveland experience of building profits into the community and supported by purchasing institutions still in place.

Emphasis on the "we" in this speech aired by Democracy Now, the Green Party's convention's keynote address delivered by Gar Alperovitz, a professor of political economy at the University of Maryland. He is co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative. Alperovitz is the author of, "America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy." In his remarks, Alperovitz stressed the importance of third-party politics to challenge a corporate-run society. "Systems in history are defined above all by who controls the wealth," Alperovitz says. "The top 400 people own more wealth now than the bottom 185 million Americans taken together. That is a medieval structure."

Sustainability doesn't have to be complicated, the idea being to change your behavior and move from consumer to conserver.  This short video is an example of tips and suggestions for conserving energy.  Ed Begley, Jr. is an actor and environmentalist. Read more about him here. This series is sponsored by a non-profit, Energy Upgrade Los Angeles This program is funded in part through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Sir Partha DasGupta discusses natural capital and what it means in terms of economy.  We have generally ignored our ecosystems including farm land and forests.

Sir Partha DasGupta. Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Cambridge, has written an article entitled "Nature's Role in Sustainable Economic Development" for the issue of Philosophical Transactions B "Personal perspectives in the life sciences for the Royal Society's 350th anniversary". In this podcast Wendy Barnaby interviews Sir Partha about his article and how nature should be taken into account when looking at economic development.