Understanding the demographic transition
A shift in world population into a roughly steady state is occurring right now. How it works, what causes it, and what we can do to encourage it.
Society
A failure of mimesis
Are there lessons for the peak oil movement in the cultural schism that has opened up in American society?
More transport – July 26
Interactive site: is your neighborhood walkable?
How London car curbs inspired U.S. cities
Transport policy needs to go off-road (Australia)
The seven habits of highly subversive people
Habit #1. Think
Habit #2: Understand the big picture, the global supply chain of everything that you touch
Habit #3: Fix, make or bake stuff yourself
Habit #4:
Know your porn so that you can understand how you are being told what to desire
Jack of all trades, mistress of none
Almost everyone in the peak oil and climate change movements is operating outside their fields. It is the disease of new fields and new realities – everyone is stretching themselves out of their natural range. And in many cases, I think that’s good.
Sex sells, but at what cost?
“Sex sells” is the mantra of advertisers, but our fixation with status symbols and material wealth is undermining our efforts to tackle climate change.
Solutions & sustainability – July 21
Peak oil and solutions on NPR (Albert Bates interview)
City commissioner Adams sees web of streetcars for Portland
Smart Cities: rethinking the city centre in Brisbane
Culture death
Cultural patterns, like political institutions, are likely to go through drastic changes as a society based on cheap abundant energy has to stand its assumptions on its head to deal with the twilight of fossil fuels. Can societies that have turned their cultural resources into a sideline of the marketing industry put them to more sustainable uses?
Population – July 19
Citizens arrest
Abstinence Education Faces an Uncertain Future
World Population Day Targets Men
Indonesia Copies China’s Planned Family Program
Astyk: Talking Population With the Old Men
Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and the environment
Excerpts from three essays examining the teachings of Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism for relevance to ‘the environment and the human future’.
Transport – July 16
NYC congestion plan down to wire
A new French Revolution: let them ride bikes
What to do? – June 11
Astyk: Pick up your hat (is it time yet?)
Choosing to live the good and sustainable life
Taking action in the face of collapse
Green future demands a radical shift in lifestyles for British
Lessons of history help the future
