10 Resilient Ideas

As the planet heat ups, oil becomes increasingly hard to reach, and the global economy continues to plummet, individuals and communities are faced with an uncertain future. The Fall 2010 issue of YES! Magazine showcases communities that are improvising new ways of living in an unpredictable world.

Here are 10 creative ways to build resilience for what's ahead.

A Hand-Built Home

No fortune? No skills? No problem. How a novice builder used mud–and teamwork–to make a house from scratch.

Low-Impact Urban Living

The challenges of creating urban ecovillages can also be great advantages.

Bike As You Are

Whether it's in lycra or heels, the emerging movement of "come as you are" cycling proves that anyone can bike–anytime, anywhere.

 

 

Return of the Mercantile

How a small town in Wyoming replaced a dying downtown with a community-owned shopping hub.

Processing Food Where the Food Is

Helping farmers process their produce builds local food security.

 

 

Beekeeping On City Rooftops

Urban hives allow landless city dwellers to create their own honey–and may even provide solutions to colony collapse.

 

 

Reclaim, Repair, Rebuild

How the rebuilding boom improves communities, benefits the environment, and even creates jobs.

 

 

Making Fruit Public

Art-infused activism to bring city fruit to the public.

 

Get Off The Grid

A pioneering town in Germany pulls off clean, reliable energy with stable prices.

 

Sunshine on the Menu

Come for the food, stay for the art at New York City's first solar-powered restaurant.

 

Interested?

• More profiles, stories, and ideas for resilience from our Fall 2010 issue, A Resilient Community
• Why Build Resilience?
  Cheap oil, a stable climate, and other things we can't rely on.
  
• Kindness Trumps Chaos:
  Lessons of dedication, solidarity, love, and recovery, five years after Katrina.