Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
With gas prices rising and peak oil here at the same time that we start to feel global warming’s first effects, it will be crucial to the world’s future that Americans, who use the most energy and create the most pollution, make smart decisions about energy.
Last month, oil “peaksters” seemed to break out of their policy doldrums when they journeyed to the banks of the Potomac for what may have been their first mainstream conference in the nation’s capital.
An article in the recent issue of Joint Force Quarterly argues that the military should shift from oil and oil-based infrastructure to new systems.
Our future(s) #2: scenario coaster / PO group near Cleveland / U.S. and PO production: does it matter? / Labor MP: our only hope lies in a new energy world order / David Howell: End of the oil age in sight? / Kunstler: alt.brains
Geoscientists discover Earth’s carbon sink switch / Cement makers seen as a key global-warming culprit / Lloyds of London: ‘Adapt or bust’ on climate change / Hints on climate change from Maori traditions
Hey kids! It’s a DIY solar thermal panel! / SF mayor: Catch a wave to make power / UK homeowners get green light for ‘eyesore’ wind turbines / Large-scale, cheap solar electricity
‘Green chemistry’ pays off / Think globally? Act domestically. / ‘How green Is my conscience?’ / Vancouver to Halifax on a gallon of gas – 3,145 mpg / A slow-road movement? / A waste of energy (NYT on Congress inaction)
Great book, terrible title. Andre Viljoen has put together a book of the most profound importance at this point in history. How will we feed our cities beyond the age of cheap oil?
The federal government has stopped work on more than a dozen wind farms planned across the Midwest, saying research is needed on whether the giant turbines could interfere with military radar. But backers of wind power say the action has little to do with national security. The real issue, they say, is a group of wealthy vacationers who think a proposed wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod would spoil the view at their summer homes. (Several articles)
A heavy carbon tax means enormous revenues, enough to eliminate not just workers’ social security payments but, most likely, all federal income taxes on everyone’s first $100,000 of income, and state sales taxes to boot. Most important, the carbon tax could revitalize our society.
I was so stimulated to be among people who had chosen to take a course in environmental leadership that I found myself being outraged and confrontational when they ran contrary to my expectations. I succumbed to being “greener than thou”.
What kind of mess would we find ourselves in, should a sudden reduction in the scope of trade relations visit the entire globe – a reduction precipitated by extremely high oil prices?
