Perhaps the most potentially catastrophic consequence of Y2K would be major nuclear power plant accidents, nuclear bomb explosions, or toxic releases. Please see our Y2K Toxics/Nukes page.
Why the Year 2000 Problem is an Environmental Issue by Tom Atlee. A broad overview of a dozen major opportunities and dangers that Y2K presents to the environmental and sustainability movements (as well as all the rest of us!). See also:
The
social/ environmental implications of Y2K by
David La Chapelle
Y2KO: the Year
2000 Computer Crash -- Knock Out for Industrial Society Or Merely
a Global Depression? by Mark Robinowitz - a strong progressive
introduction to Y2K, unique in its description of environmental
disaster possibilities and what could be done to prevent them.
Includes links and quotes.
Strategizing for Community: Preparedness for Y2K-induced collapse
The Year 2000 Problem and Sustainability by Tom Atlee. An extensive description of the kinds of things communities could do to prepare sustainably for Y2K.
Let's Use Y2K as a Doorway to Resilience and Renewal by Tom Atlee. Adventures in a permaculture site provide insights into the nature of resilience and how to build it in communities facing Y2K. From Just in Case: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Y2K Crisis, Edited by Michael Brownlee, Barbara Stahura and Robert Yehling. (Origin Press, 1999, $16.95)
Sustainability, Y2K, and the
New World Order by Thomas Greco. We are about to enter a metamorphosis
into a partnership-based integral culture.
Protecting Ithaca from Computer
Chaos by Paul Glover. A description of how one town could
meet the Y2K crisis with planning and action for sustainability.
Y2K and Our Big Bet by Larry
Shook provides exciting evidence that we
can establish decentralized, sustainable agriculture and energy
systems throughout the U.S., if we just decide to do it in
time. Actually, there's a whole page on this site of articles
about sustainable agriculture and Y2K.
How to Think about Y2K -- for those
who realize it is going to be a pretty big deal and who've always
wanted a better world by Tom Atlee. Because
the structures of "business-as-usual" will probably
be seriously interrupted by Y2K, there is an opportunity to "move
the rudder" of our civilization towards community, resilience,
justice and sustainability. This article outlines why and how
this can be done.
The Year 2000 Problem: An Opportunity to Build Sustainable Community
Eight Steps to U.S.
Y2K Food Security: An Open Letter to President Clinton by
Carla Emery. In this letter Emery, who has been telling people
how to get back to nature since the '70's, offers a detailed and
do-able plan to prepare for Y2k and reduce starvation and panic.
And since government may not follow her advice, she's
starting to link farmers to citizens, herself.
A call for a progressive Y2K
Agenda (in progress) by Tom Atlee. Liberals and progressives
have a vested interest in how the Y2K crisis unfolds. Very good
or very bad things might happen. This article describes those
dynamics and how they play out in each of more than a dozen progressive
issues -- from sustainability to feminism, from workers' rights
to spirituality.
Your unique role in addressing Y2K
by Tom Atlee. With Y2K, interconnectedness is both the problem
and the solution. Find out how your connections and capabilities
are the key to addessing this issue.
Y2K
Movement Analysis and Recommendations by Laurence Victor.
This book-length manuscript describes what it would take to midwife
a new, sustainable post-Y2K civilization that is prepared for
more collective challenges in the coming century (such as radical
global climate change). Victor poses the need for personal and
group learning and co-evolution, as well as task-orientation.
He includes deep theoretical material as well as extensive programmatic
recommendations. A must-read for activists.
The Challenge of Nurturing Self-Organized
Y2K Responses is Tom Atlee's analysis of the dynamics used
by the Y2K movement to organize itself.
All Together Now: The "Y2K
Neighborhood" takes on the "Millennium Computer Bomb"
by Larry Shook. This article is as emotionally compelling and
inspiring as the Petersen/Wheatley/Rogers piece is convincing
and visionary. This is what it feels like on the inside, to wake
up to the reality of Y2K. Shook explores how the media has missed
this remarkable story of human challenge and human healing that
is unfolding in our communities.
Y2K Questions for Campaigning
Politicians and Elected Government Officials
"Rachel's Environmental & Health Weekly" Y2K Summary - A good overview of the facts of Y2K by a respected environmental research journal.
The Vegetarian Approach to Food Shortages Associated with Y2K by Mark Warren Reinhardt, author of The Perfectly Contented Meat-Eater's Guide to Vegetarianism
Learn how to build healthy soil by composting human waste with informational links from The World of Composting Toilets. Although it may seem a bit odd at first, all human waste can be safely composted to create healthy soil in which to grow food. There exists a good amount of literature on the subject.
Monsanto's Genetically Modified Seeds Threaten World Food Production