Australia: Continent at risk of a dry tsunami
Ours may be remembered as the generation that allowed Australia to die, writes Paul Sheehan.
Society
Report: U.S. Conducting Secret Missions Inside Iran
The United States has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran to help identify potential nuclear, chemical and missile targets, The New Yorker magazine reported Sunday.
Why the West is riding for a fall
A little book with a big title, Dark Age Ahead, published last year, tracked the ebbs and flows of civilisations over centuries. It came to this chilling conclusion: “We show signs of rushing headlong into a Dark Age.” Not slipping towards a Dark Age. Rushing.
Stuck In Reverse: Why can’t Detroit mend its gas-guzzling ways?
[Retooling Detroit for fuel-efficient vehicles] would be a good thing, since time is running out — whether it’s measured in terms of climate change, our dependence on foreign oil, or the national security risks inherent in that dependence. Meanwhile, the benefits of such a solution — cleaner air, lower fuel prices, energy independence — are immeasurable.
An RV that can withstand nuclear radiation
Two private U.S. companies have designs on building the first luxury recreational vehicle that could withstand nuclear radiation.
America’s Finite Future?
Near the beginning of “Saturday Night Fever,” John Travolta’s Tony Manero, frustrated that his boss thinks he should save his salary instead of spending it on a new disco shirt, cries out, “fuck the future!” To which his boss replies: “No, Tony, you can’t fuck the future. The future fucks you! It catches up with you and it fucks you if you ain’t prepared for it!” Well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but America has morphed into a nation of Tony Maneros.
Hundreds of protesters clash with police in Nepal
Hundreds of demonstrators stoned government vehicles, blocked traffic and battled riot police in the Nepalese capital Tuesday to protest the increase in fuel prices by the government.
The Neurobiology of Mass Delusion
Because the scientists are challenging fundamental assumptions of our culture, such as the basis for “progress” and the consequences of “economic growth,” many cannot agree with the scientists without losing their identity. This threat to the mental model is simply too great to accept.
The beginning of the end for oil
One of the surprises in the oil world in 2004 was the success of an underground documentary on the perilous state of world energy. [New film coming from a maker of the End of Surburbia.]
Jane Jacobs jars our memories
For all our technical advances, says the noted thinker, we’re forgetting a lot of crucial stuff.
How to succeed in history: Societies don’t die by accident – they commit ecological suicide
Why did once flourishing societies collapse and disappear? Jared Diamond, a Pulitzer Prize-winning geographer at UCLA, has spent much of his career wrestling with this profound question.
US: Firewood gaining popularity over heating oil
Higher heating oil prices in the US are encouraging consumers to turn to back to firewood.
