Maine

Emily Markides is a professor in the Peace Studies program at the University of Maine, and over the weekend she had an open house for her up and coming EcoPeace Community on Ayers Island in Orono, ME.

Markides' vision for the EcoPeace Community called ESTIA is based upon a pretty libertarian approach to peace -- by creating sustainable communities on the local level that are in harmony with nature and use renewable energy, then it will create less of a demand on foreign natural resources and make it easier for nations in harmony with each other. Instead of waiting for "Peace" to be mandated by the government, people are taking global issues on themselves by creating sustainable local communities.

The increasing rate of natural resource consumption seems to be a "vital issue of the day" that is often ignored by the elite political leadership and therefore the mainstream media. The sustainability issue is still an unanswered question, and many would argue that it is the biggest challenge facing everyone on the planet today.

It is probably safe to assume that in the context of US "National Security Interests," that oil at least played into the equation of going to war with Iraq. It also probably safe to assume that access to water and oil are going to cause many future conflicts.