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Now out! Toward
a Bioregional State: the Book! Currently available everywhere books sold online (amazon.com, bn.com, etc. digital or paperback versions); plus, bookshops: available for booksellers wishing to stock it for bulk purchases! Look! Biostate book already over Mao Zedong's Little Red Book! |
written from Madison, Upper Rock, Wisconsin
(find your bioregion/watershed, and health/toxics information) |
This is a site of letters
similar to the Federalist Papers, though it is written by a bioregional "Publius."
Publius was the pen name adopted by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James
Madison, as they made their arguments in popular newspapers for their popularizing
of the United States Constitution, in the 1780s.
However, unlike them, this is a bioregional Publius who wants democracy in practice
instead of democracy in the abstract, and one who wants sustainabilty instead
of unsustainability.
We are facing a similar project presently, I am arguing--how can we achive a
democracy that is environmentally sustainable, when the present frameworks of
democracy are what are leading us into environmental degradation? The following
is a list of requirements, as well as arguments for why these requirements should
be adopted, and why the present forms of government in the United States are
leading us toward environmental degradation, low voter turnouts, and unrepresentative
parties.
However, what I am arguing is that these are general structural requirements
for all states as they move towards sustainability, instead of talking
only about the United States. The United States can be considered the running
example in these letters though. Structurally, the state in general requires
changing, instead of only a change on the the level of political party ideas
for instance.
These bioregional letters
propose how existing unsustainable states could be 'made over' into sustainable
states: typically, a different topic is addressed in each letter.
There are 27 bioregional Publius letters--so far. State structures are far from
the only aspect of importance, though they are a formal requirement. (I am working
on other issues beside the state--science, finance, and consumption; see a
list of the letters and bioregional
maps of Wisconsin political districts, or read them in the order they were
created by following the pages below for continuity, since they build upon themselves
instead of represent separate topics.)
The 20th letter is a petition
that 'ecologizes' the U.S. Constitution, compiling into a single document all
the formal framework ideas for working towards sustainability. See the link
from the list of all letters, above.
This site is devoted to the formal state, and what kind of formal state is required
for sustainability. I begin with discussing why the Electoral Congress is important
to keep, as it is a relatively current issue:
Work toward sustainability:
bioregional voting districts
that reflect your experience of
health and environmental risk
