About

Adaptive Earth is the love child of an Icelandic study abroad experience focused on climate change and sustainability, and me: Sass Linneken, a married mother of three and non-traditional Environmental Writing and Media Studies graduate of Unity College, the first college in the USA to divest from fossil fuels.

As part of my Icelandic learning curve I decided to weave what I accomplished during my time abroad into a creative senior thesis that involves a number of media components including a Facebook page, this resource blog and website, and a short documentary film that is currently in the process of being re-imagined and re-edited. The aim is to educate and empower those who stumble upon the film and web presence about climate change and how to build sustainable solutions through the lens of socially just community building.

This project is not just an educational endeavor for myself, it is also a stab at trying to protect the world my children and future grandchildren are inheriting.

As a mother and citizen of Earth I’m scared – climate change is no longer up for debate and is no longer a future problem; it’s already here.

As part of this project I applied for and won the Nicholas Holt Challenge Scholarship through my school, which enabled me to purchase a professional grade video camera and media software to document my experience studying abroad with the Center for Ecological Living and Learning. I spent 12 weeks in the first part of 2014 living in Sólheimar, a tiny ecovillage located in Selfoss, Iceland, that as the first of its kind is almost completely self-sustaining. All lessons learned were filtered through the framing of climate science and sustainable community development.

The Adaptive Earth project that’s been born and continues to grow from this experience produced a short documentary film that underscores a message of sustainability through reducing consumption and finding value in getting back to our roots, and through this website seeks to offer as many useful resources to the public as possible. The angle here is not to just help people fight AGAINST climate change, but also to help them fight FOR a healthier, more sustainable, more just system in the process. We will not stop climate change by reducing carbon emissions alone – we need to change the system that prompted our addiction to using fossil fuels in the first place. Iceland is on the leading edge of climate change policy and I went there to try and bring home a message that we can do better here in America. Not only can we do better we NEED to do better.

I try to update the FB page often with treats ranging from articles on the latest climate findings, to how to build a cheap root cellar, to DIY re-purposing of common household items. For more extensive resources that include where to go to find out about sustainable farming, transition living, how to connect with environmental direct action groups and non-profits, and tons more, click on the tabs in the menu bar or visit the Adaptive Earth Resource Page to see all these resources in one place.

Love, light, and solidarity ♥

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**To help me continue to fund this project, please visit the page that helped me get it off the ground in the first place: http://www.gofundme.com/get-sass-to-iceland

**To see a list of my credentials please feel free to visit my LinkedIn page: www.linkedin.com/pub/sass-linneken/77/175/82b/

**To contact me, please feel free to email: Sass521@gmail.com

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***In memory of Kathy Lattimore: http://www2.cortland.edu/departments/english/kathy-lattimore.dot***