Background
The CoThrive blog’s origins lie in the Corpus Callosum newspaper column I wrote for over two decades for the Jackson Hole News, Jackson Hole Guide, and ultimately the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
In late May, 2018, I announced my candidacy for Jackson’s Town Council. When I did, the News&Guide and I agreed to suspend my until after the election.
Happily, I won my race, but being an elected official creates its own conflicts. As a result, until I leave office, I will not be writing for the News&Guide.
Hence this blog: CoThrive. Its organizing principle will be an idea I’ve become increasingly obsessed with over the past few years: To the best of my knowledge, since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago, the Tetons/Yellowstone region of northwest Wyoming is the only community, region, or nation on Earth to develop a successful post-agrarian economy without fundamentally compromising the health of its ecosystem.
That’s a remarkable concept. At a number of levels. Both locally and globally. Not least of which is that much of this good fortune is due to dumb luck, specifically the region’s geographic remoteness and abundance of public land.
Yet at its most elemental level, this only-place-in-250-years idea illuminates the most fundamental fact about our regional community: If Jackson Hole and the surrounding area wants to continue to thrive as a human community, we have no choice but to figure out how to keep our ecosystem healthy.
Unfortunately, there is no roadmap for us to follow. Indeed, 250 years of history suggest we’ll fail in that effort. Rather than succumb to pessimism, though, I decided to launch CoThrive as a real-time tool to help all those who care about this region figure out that which no community has ever done before.
And if we get it right, our roadmap can become a guide for other places looking to co-thrive.
“Co-thrive” is a term I coined to describe the state in which a human community and the ecosystem in which it lies simultaneously thrive. Building on this theme, the CoThrive blog will primarily focus on the Tetons region’s human community, its ecosystem, and the nexus between the two. Because the issues facing the region are so complex, however, and because no one really knows how to achieve a state of co-thriving, I’ll also use the CoThrive blog to explore ideas and events outside the bubble that is the greater Tetons/Yellowstone region.
Logistics
CoThrive is a logical extension of the work of my Charture Institute, whose five-part focus is “Learn. Teach. Inspire. Act. Fund.”
The goal of the CoThrive blog is to feature at least one lengthy analytical piece per month, with additional smaller features offered on an irregular basis. Whether the actions of the flesh can match the willingness of the spirit, though, remains open to question.
Because of this uncertainty, for the remainder of 2019 CoThrive will be offered for free. That will give the blog four months to hit its stride, allowing us to figure out both a publishing schedule and a pricing model that work for both the readers and us. Until then, enjoy it with our compliments.
That noted, while CoThrive may be free to readers, it is not free to produce. Far from it. Please support our work by making a tax-deductible donations – click here.
To contact us, please call (307) 733-8687, e-mail js@charture.org, or write us at P.O. Box 4672, Jackson WY 83001