Review: Crash Course: Preparing for Peak Oil by Zachary Nowak
We need to be prepared for the worst when it comes to peak oil, insists Zachary Nowak.
Act: Inspiration
No more Ms. Nice Girl
What’s a silver-streaked lady ecology writer to do? Be nice, be friendly, avoid the troubling topics, read the classics, don’t feel morally obliged to infect others with a perfectly warranted alarm and pessimism. Who am I to tell 10,000 ostensibly complacent neighbors that the ship is going down … especially at the height of summer, when the days are so fine and fair?
WALL*E – a push-button fable (movie review)
The idea that you can suddenly change the course of history by pushing a big green button is itself a very pointed dig at our lack of grasp of the challenges we face and what sustainability will really entail.
Is electricity really the lifeblood of civilization?
We are currently in a deep and horrible disaster, being visited on the world’s poorest and the tentacles are gradually crawling up the anchor to take down the rest of the ship. But I also think that there is a good deal of reason for hope – we have vast capacities, vast resources and vast imagination.
One more thing
As the energy crisis explodes on the rest of us, I’d like to advocate for mercy for those who don’t yet fully understand. … sympathy and kindness are not small things to be rationed out by droppers, only to those perfectly deserving – they should be ladled out and poured from buckets and flow out of us like rivers. Any scarcity of kindness is artificial – and far too many things are growing scarce for us to have artificial shortages of generosity.
The link between oil and xenophobia
As we get closer to the peak in global oil production, we are likely to see greater pressures particularly on poorer communities but constantly moving up the income scale. The intensifying pressures are likely to open new fault lines in our society
Solutions & sustainability – June 27
Profile of bio-regionalist Stephanie Mills
How to cut your fuel bills 80% or more (software)
Introducing a new currency – the “Carbon”
Burbank Water & Power: Smart grids, WiFi, renewables
Deep thought – June 27
The problem with Big Green
Scenius, or communal genius
Methane burps & tele everything
Book review: ‘Post Carbon Cities’
At first I felt this book wasn’t enough for what is needed. Then reality straightened me out.
26 things you can do to RIGHT NOW manage your anxiety
If you aren’t feeling some degree of apprehension right now, you aren’t reading the news. Here are some of my thoughts for turning that emotional energy into constructive action. (Author is a clinical psychologist.)
The Moses of a post-peak oil world
Who will be the leaders who will carry us kicking and screaming towards the sustainable way of life that we should have been leading all along?
A farm is a large garden (or a garden is a small farm)
Homeowners who seriously seek to provide some of their own food, and perhaps some of their clothing, tools, and shelter too, must first learn to view their enterprises within the proper economic framework, or perhaps I should say the proper noneconomic framework.
