Paxus Calta

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American political activist (born 1957)

title: "Paxus Calta" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1957-births", "living-people", "20th-century-anarchists", "21st-century-anarchists", "american-anarchists", "american-anti–nuclear-power-activists", "civil-disobedience-in-the-united-states", "cornell-university-college-of-engineering-alumni", "date-of-birth-missing-(living-people)", "people-from-louisa-county,-virginia", "place-of-birth-missing-(living-people)", "polyamorous-people", "polyamory"] description: "American political activist (born 1957)" topic_path: "engineering" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paxus_Calta" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American political activist (born 1957) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
image	Truth is.jpg
caption	Calta at a protest at the Temelín Nuclear Power Station in the Czech Republic in 1996
birth_name	Earl Schuyler Flansburgh
birth_date
occupation	Political activist
years_active	1990s–present
::

Paxus Calta (born 1957), born Earl Schuyler "Sky" Flansburgh, is an American political activist, communitarian and writer. He has been involved with the anti-nuclear movement and is a member of the Twin Oaks Community.

Biography

Calta was born as Earl Schuyler Flansburgh, or "Sky" as a nickname, in 1957. Calta studied engineering and economics at Cornell University, where he served as a student member of the Board of Trustees and as a member of the Quill and Dagger society. Afterward he worked as a software designer, helping to found and ultimately sell two software consulting firms. In 1982, he changed his name to Paxus Calta. In 1988, he hitchhiked on sailboats across the Pacific,{{cite web | url= http://twinoaks.org/members-exmembers/members/paxus/dream.html | work= Washington Post Sunday Magazine Page W12 | date= November 15, 1998 | title= The Other American Dream | access-date= October 29, 2010 | archive-date= April 11, 2012 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120411030902/http://www.twinoaks.org/members-exmembers/members/paxus/dream.html | url-status= live | url= http://randomroads.org/story/ten-different-captains | title= Ten Different Captains | date= February 10, 2010 | work= Random Roads Magazine | access-date= February 9, 2013 | archive-date= March 7, 2013 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130307204345/http://randomroads.org/story/ten-different-captains | url-status= live

Calta was invited by a Czech deep ecology organization, Hnutí DUHA, to run the international campaign against the Temelín Nuclear Power Station from Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1991, which remained his primary home base for most of the 1990s and from where he campaigned against nuclear power. During this time, he "moved up" in the Friends of the Earth hierarchy. In 1998, Calta moved to Twin Oaks Community, located in Virginia in the United States.

Calta is a proponent of polyamory and writes{{cite web | url= http://www.einsfeld.de/leben/withOpenHands_en.pdf | title= With Open Hands: A Handbook to Open Relationships | date= 1995–96 | access-date= 2014-09-13 | archive-date= 2014-09-14 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140914025341/http://www.einsfeld.de/leben/withOpenHands_en.pdf | url-status= live | url= http://www.paulloeb.org/impossible.html | title= The Impossible will take a little while | accessdate= 25 January 2011 | quote= Paxus Calta-Star—'Not Deterred': Brief powerful vignette of an 18-year-old who launched the overthrow of Bulgaria's dictatorship | archive-date= 29 January 2011 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110129233310/http://www.paulloeb.org/impossible.html | url-status= live

Political activism

Throughout the 1990s, Calta was involved in campaigns to stop nuclear power plants in 6 countries in Central Europe. Calta was the Chair of the international campaign commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.{{cite web | url= http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/433-4/4285.html | title= Statement of the Chernobyl 10th Anniversary Campaign | date= June 16, 1995 | work= WISE News Communique | access-date= January 27, 2010 | archive-date= June 4, 2011 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110604021422/http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/433-4/4285.html | url-status= live

Calta initiated the Clean Energy Brigade project in the early 1990s in the Czech Republic in which local activists installed energy saving hardware in residential homes and public buildings at materials cost in exchange for documentation of reduced energy use. The program was later expanded to 11 Central and East European countries and is now called the International Energy Brigades. In aggregate, the efficiency upgrades from this project are abating thousands of tons of CO2 annually.

More recently, he campaigned against a planned new reactor at North Anna in Virginia and was arrested{{cite web | url= http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/nov/26/business/chi-ap-climateradicals | title= Climate crisis energizes radical environmentalists | date= November 28, 2008 | work= Chicago Tribune | access-date= January 27, 2010 | archive-date= April 21, 2012 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120421090946/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/ | url-status= live | url= https://www.foxnews.com/story/radical-greens-reject-most-climate-change-solutions | title= Radical Greens Reject Most Climate-Change Solutions | date= December 1, 2008 | work= Fox News | access-date= May 18, 2010 | archive-date= February 5, 2011 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110205164700/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,457746,00.html | url-status= live | work= Fredricksburgh Freelance Star | date= Jan 13, 2010 | title= Nuclear plant protester must serve 5 days in jail}} for protests there. On December 4, 2009 Calta critiqued Stewart Brand on NPR on the merits of using nuclear power to stop climate change.{{cite web | url= http://www.ttbook.org/book/paxus-calta-anti-nuclear-activism | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151222083758/http://www.ttbook.org/book/paxus-calta-anti-nuclear-activism | url-status= dead | archive-date= December 22, 2015 | title = Changing Climate Change| work =NPR podcast - To the best of our Knowledge | date= Dec 4, 2009}} Calta served on the board of directors of the anti-nuclear group Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) from 1997 til 2010, and as the president of the board for the last 3 years.

After the August 23, 2011, Virginia earthquake which closed down the North Anna nuclear power plant, Calta and others founded the organization "Not on Our Fault Line", for which Calta has been repeatedly a spokesperson.{{cite web | url= http://www.nbc29.com/story/15770033/north-anna-remains-closed-as-demonstrators-protest | title= North Anna Remains Closed as Demonstrators Protest | date= October 21, 2011 | work= NBC 29 Charlottesville | access-date= October 22, 2011 | archive-date= October 22, 2011 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111022112818/http://www.nbc29.com/story/15770033/north-anna-remains-closed-as-demonstrators-protest | url-status= live | archive-url= https://archive.today/20130118192356/http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9Q12UHG1.htm | url-status= dead | archive-date= January 18, 2013 | title= Group protests nuke plant outside Dominion HQ | date= September 27, 2011 | work= Bloomberg/BusinessWeek}}{{cite web | url= http://blogs.fredericksburg.com/waterearthsky/2011/09/27/louisa-group-to-protest-at-dominion-today/ | title= Louisa group to protest at Dominion today | date= September 27, 2011 | work= Fredricksberg Freelance Star | access-date= October 22, 2011 | archive-date= October 4, 2011 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111004034046/http://blogs.fredericksburg.com/waterearthsky/2011/09/27/louisa-group-to-protest-at-dominion-today/ | url-status= live

On November 30, 2011, Calta was arrested with 17 others in Charlottesville, Virginia as part of the Occupy Charlottesville protest.{{cite web | url= http://www.readthehook.com/102242/occupy-ousted-cops-take-naked-lady-least-dozen-others | title= Occupy ousted: Cops take naked lady, 15 others | date= December 1, 2011 | work= The Hook | access-date= December 10, 2011 | archive-date= December 3, 2011 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111203190600/http://www.readthehook.com/102242/occupy-ousted-cops-take-naked-lady-least-dozen-others | url-status= live

In late 2013, Calta co-founded the Point A project designed to start income sharing communities in urban centers on the East Coast of the US. These communities would be part of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities. In 2015, the Point A project launched its first new income sharing project in Washington DC called Compersia.

On 16 January 2017, Certa presented an interactive workshop on activism at Elon University. His effort was to describe methods that can be used, and motivate participants to choose their own causes. But his perspective was slanted as un-American when critically covered by the American Lens. His response to their critique provides a minor insight into the substance of his character: "Appreciate being targeted". In the summer of 2018, BBC 4 filmed part of their Utopia series at Twin Oaks, Calta was the principal guide.

Lifestyle activism

Calta authored a pamphlet about polyamory which has been translated into 5 languages.{{cite web | url= http://www.jogin.cz/S-otevrenou-naruci-rukovet-otevrenych-vztahu/ | title= Czech Translation of With Open Hands | publisher= jogin.cz | access-date= 2010-01-27 | archive-date= 2010-09-08 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100908140335/http://www.jogin.cz/S-otevrenou-naruci-rukovet-otevrenych-vztahu/ | url-status= live | url= http://www.einsfeld.de/leben/withOpenHands.pdf | title= German Translation of With Open Hands | publisher= einsfeld.de | access-date= 2010-01-27 | archive-date= 2011-07-18 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110718233328/http://www.einsfeld.de/leben/withOpenHands.pdf | url-status= live

He has also been a member of Twin Oaks Community since 1998, serving as the community's recruiting manager, manager of outside work and a general manager of Twin Oaks Hammocks, Inc. He has appeared on both CNN and Voice of America videos discussing the community.{{cite web | url= http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2010/04/15/gsif.communal.vision.cnn?iref=allsearch | title= Rural community a Model "Eco-village" | publisher= CNN | date= April 22, 2010 | access-date= April 25, 2010 | archive-date= December 30, 2010 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101230111923/http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2010/04/15/gsif.communal.vision.cnn?iref=allsearch | url-status= live | url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HffKdrLz1k |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/7HffKdrLz1k |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live| title= Virginia Commune Still Draws Members After 40 Years | publisher= Voice of America | date= August 21, 2009}}

Family

Calta is the son of the late Earl R. Flansburgh, a Boston architect, and the older brother of John Flansburgh, of rock band They Might Be Giants. His grandfather is Ralph Hospital through his mother, Polly Flansburgh, who is the founder and president of Boston by Foot, which gives architectural walking tours of the city of Boston.

References

Reichlin, Linus. (28 October 1994). "Der Aktivist".
Transcripts of hearing on US Export-Import Bank before the Subcommittee on International Development, Finance, Trade, and Monetary Policy of the Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs, House of Representatives, February 23, 1994"[https://archive.org/stream/unitedstatesexpo1995unit/unitedstatesexpo1995unit_djvu.txt]
[http://zpravodajstvi.ecn.cz/PRIVATE/Piano/BRIGADES.HTM The Clean Energy Brigades Camp - Positive Action Against Temelin] {{Webarchive. link. (2021-10-17 . Accessed 13 March 2022.)
[https://wiser.directory/organization/international-energy-brigades/ Wiser Directory: International Energy Brigades]. Accessed 13 March 2022.
greenworld. (2014-11-12). "On awards and elections · NIRS".
Price-Waldman, Sam. "The Pros and Cons of Living in an Income-Sharing Commune".
[https://www.elon.edu/u/news/2017/01/12/paxus-calta-to-lead-imaginative-activism-workshop-on-jan-16/ Paxus Calta to lead 'Imaginative Activism' workshop on Jan. 16] {{Webarchive. link. (2022-03-09 . Accessed 13 March 2022.)
Dillon, A. P.. (2017-01-16). "Elon University Hosts "Imaginative Activism" Social Justice Workshop ⋆ American Lens". American Lens.
paxus. (2017-12-04). "Appreciating being targeted".
(2017-09-24). "BBC 4 Utopia in Search of the Dream".
paxus. (2018-05-08). "why i am an anarchist".
Jan H. "A Handbook for Direct Democracy and the Consensus Decision Process". Zhaba Facilitators Collective.

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