What do we have on the ship that's good?

After nearly a week immersed in Wendell Berry and discussions with my colleagues about the state of the world, I am starting to get fatigued with a steady diet of doom and gloom.  At least my friend T. has a sense of humor, though an admittedly dark one: he calculated that with a 2.3% growth rate in energy usage, we have 1100 years before the surface of Earth gets as hot as the surface of the Sun.  Gotta love that exponential.

Still, it gets me thinking that I need some carrots to go with my stick.  I've seen all the data, I understand the projections, and I know everything is going to hell in a hand basket.  The climate is shifting, we are running out of oil, the population is exploding, people can't get enough food and water, wars, famine, disease, death.  And we had better do something about it, or else.

Faced with all of this, I am reminded of the quote from Gene Kranz when faced with the disaster of Apollo 13: "What do have on the ship that's good".

Some things I have noticed here in Seattle:

1. Dozens and dozens of people on their bicycles, rain or shine.  The density of riders is not as high as other cities, like Bejing or Amsterdam, but it is high enough that nearly all the streets have bike lanes and road signs (with mileage!) for the riders.
2. Mass transit is packed, and I have been having a relatively easy time of getting from A to B (though UTA still trumps KC Metro for service, go Utah!)
3. Pike Place Market has booths from local farms.
4. Nearly every neighborhood has a year-round farmers' market.
5. My friends don't think we are crazy, and want to get a few chickens at their house (and damn the covenant!)

Compared to the Seattle we left eight years ago, things have really changed.

With so many positive changes, I thought I would spend some time reading about the future as we want it to be, rather than as we fear it to be.  I did a web search, and found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0USn7eufXps

And, surprisingly, that seems to be as good as it gets.

So, perhaps it is time to invent something that isn't already on the Internet?  Where is S. when you need her?