Act: Inspiration

A new view of work

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In the “empty world” of the past, hard work was a public good with few negative externalities on society. In today’s “full world,” work has become a common-pool resource, vulnerable to over-exploitation. In the absence of social or cultural norms to take care of this common-pool resource, governmental intervention is the best option for preventing market failure and encouraging an optimal amount of work. Unfortunately, our work ethic is worsening the situation.

The Glass Bead Game

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The search for constructive visions of a world in the wake of peak oil can lead in strange directions, and one of the more unexpected is a science fiction masterpiece from the first half of the 20th century that few readers have even recognized as science fiction at all, offering a vision of the future that, however appealing, flies in the face of some of the most cherished claims industrial society makes for its own superiority. Unpacking a box of books from his own college days, the Archdruid explains.

Emperor of What?

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KMO welcomes Charles Eisenstein back to the C-Realm Podcast to discus his new book, Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition. Charles talks about interest and the economic imperatives that it fosters. If the value of money decreased over time rather than growing via interest, then it would be clear to everyone that the best thing one can do with one’s money is to spend it quickly and close to home. In times of chaos and potential collapse, the best way to preserve wealth is to give your money away to those in need.

This is the house Transition built

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What is the house? Is it a dream we hold, a fairy palace, a shelter from the storm, perched on a hill, overlooking the sea, somewhere down a farm track or a long drive edged with lime trees? Or is it a nightmare, the haunted house, the house of childhood secrets we fear to reenter, the slum and the council estate we long to escape from, the little boxes on the hillside we are loathe to see?

Growing through the storm

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How can we adapt mentally, and socially to Peak Oil, climate change and an economic bust at the same time? 3 interviews with solutions: interviews: “Peak Oil Shrink” Kathy McMahon from Vermont on unexpected lessons from Hurricane Irene. Urban homesteader Jules Dervaes – food self-sufficiency on a city lot. Richard Heinberg on coping with the End of Growth – will fertilizer shortages mean “Peak Food”? What are Common Security Clubs and “Resilience Circles”?

Knitting a new future

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Here, in the middle of urban Los Angeles, knitting is a pretty elitist hobby. It might be a “reskilling type of thing” good for necessary clothing-making somewhere out on a farm where there are plenty of goats and sheep. Or if I took to raising angora rabbits. Because when the serious hiccups in the economy come, when the darker transportation issues of peak oil set in, the boutique yarn stores I patronize today likely won’t be around anymore.

The Oil Game: a free pdf workbook

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A while ago I posted a film here about Tom Harper’s “The Oil Game”, a programme of teaching young people about peak oil that he has been doing in schools in the south east of England. Tom has now finished a workbook for people who want to run this programme elsewhere, containing the games and activities that he developed. It was interesting to read on Energy Bulletin today about a cartoon book called Luz which uses cartoons to introduce ideas around peak oil to a younger audience. More of these kind of resources seem to be emerging all the time.