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Will the International Energy Agency's oil forecast be wrong again?

The famous Danish physicist Niels Bohr once humorously observed, "Predictions are very difficult, especially about the future." And so, as the world considers yet another rosy oil supply forecast, this time from the Paris-based International Energy Agency, it is worth reviewing the …

Peak oil - May 17

•Supply shock from North American oil rippling through global markets •The IEA Says Peak Oil Is Dead. That’s Bad News for Climate Policy •Saudis welcome US shale boom •China Seen Boosting Emergency Oil-Storage Capacity, IEA Says •Peak oil, climate change and …

Mundraub.org: Sharing our common fruit

In a rural area in the former East Germany, late summer 2009: Shimmering heat, the intense odor of fermenting fruits is in the air. A tree covered with hundreds of juicy pears, and a foot-high layer of rotting fruit on the ground. A stone’s throw away – plums, mirabelles, elder …

A Desire Named Streetcar

Twentysomethings are eschewing their cars in never-before-seen numbers for alternate forms of transit...

'Follow the Money': How Rainforest Action Network Is Beating the Corporate Giants

We’ve arrived at a dangerous milestone. For the first time in human history, as Amy Goodman reported this week, "the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has topped 400 parts per million."

Don't Trust Your Stone Age Brain: It's Unsustainable

Humans have evolved to feel a single sense of self, but our emotional brain is encouraging us to pursue perceived self-interest even if it means trashing the planet, leaving our rational brain to try and justify our actions. Why are our intuitions so poor, and how might we engage rational thinking?

Deep Green Jobs

America's green jobs movement parades as many green hues as our national parks, ranging from deep green work to pale green employment.

Why I haven’t been flying (much)

Over three decades I have received many requests to travel across Australia and across the world to speak at a conference, teach a course or participate in some worthy event related to permaculture. My reluctance to travel long distances for short stays has meant I have had to turned down many …

Unburnable: Risky Fossil Fuel Investments & Climate Crisis  

Two new reports say climate change could cause the next financial crisis.  From London, Bob Ward, LSE lead author of "Unburnable: Carbon 2013: Wasted capital and stranded assets." Australia's Climate Institute, John Connor on coal's risky future.  Plus Nancy LaPlaca: why …

Why I’m marking passing 400 ppm by getting back on an aeroplane

I refuse to accept that the lurch to 500ppm, 600ppm, 800ppm is an inevitability. I refuse to accept, as Nigel Lawson tried to argue in his debate with the remarkably patient Kevin Anderson on Jeremy Vine’s radio show recently, that doing anything about climate change would impact on …

Peak oil notes - May 16

A mid-week update. While oil prices are little changed this week, there has been considerable news concerning the energy markets. Bad economic reports from Europe, the US, and China have helped keep pressure on the markets and raised fears of lower demand for oil in the months ahead. The …

Counting the Calories and calories

 As soon as we step out of our homes in pursuit of food, we cross an energy threshold that is worth considering.

What if there is Peak Oil?

So here is the dirty little secret of our civilization: It runs...energy per unit time...In other words, having one billion dollars in your checking account does not help you with purchasing a Rolls Royce with cash if your daily withdrawal limit is 100 dollars.  

The Corporate Enclosure of Seeds Intensifies

If you think that a farmer ought to be able to use the seeds from one crop in the next season, you are entertaining illegal ideas.

Lawns Of Purple and Gold

We burn 800 million gallons of gas mowing lawns, and statisticians say that we spill 17 million gallons every year just refilling our lawn machines. If so, that beats the Exxon Valdez spill of 10 million gallons.

The Pleasures of Extinction

The latest apocalyptic fad is near-term human extinction, or NTE for short: the claim that humanity, along with most other life on Earth, will inevitably be extinct by 2030 at the latest.

"What Then Must We Do: Straight Talk About The Next American Revolution"   

Gar Alperovitz's keynote speech at "The Summit" at Appalachian State in Boone, NC April 2013.

"Apocalyptic Journalism" and Why We Need Reporters to Face the Reality of Our Crumbling Society

We have no choice but to deal with the collapse of journalism, but we also should recognize the need for a journalism of collapse. 

Reexamining Rationing

 Recent interviews with Stan Cox author of Any Way You Slice It: The Past, Present, and Future of Rationing and book excerpt.

The NR35 Dead-Hedgers Society

It just so happened that the five of us who turned up at Richard’s on Wednesday morning in Bungay to learn how to do dead-hedging with Paul were all over 50, and so the ad hoc name we came up with for that morning’s grouping was the NR35 Dead-Hedgers Society - the Over 50s Contingent!

Sail Transport for New York City Takes Shape

The idea for the Harbor and River Vessel Transport Company (HARVEST) came from a discussion I had a few years ago with Christina Sun an artist who blogs about things maritime at Bowsprite, and Will Van Dorp who photographs everything about New York Harbor. Will blogs at Tugster. I shared a …

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