Year: 2011

What a waste! The scoop on poop and ecological wastewater management

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Have you ever wondered why we poop in fresh water? In this interview author Carol Steinfeld, of Ecowater Projects, talks about human waste as a resource. Carol, co-author of The Composting Toilet System Book and Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling, shares her extensive knowledge about human waste management practices around the globe, innovative ways of re-using this neglected and often taboo material, and discusses why peeing outside might be a good idea.

Peak Oil – the clear and present danger

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Global oil production (crude oil plus condensate) has been on a plateau / in decline for 7 years resulting in high energy prices that are feeding inflation, eroding family budgets and crippling the World economy. It is time for the international political community to awaken to the risks posed by Peak Oil. A British Government report published last week under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request makes clear that civil servants working at the UK department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) seem very aware of the risks posed by peak oil, and yet the British Government seems happy to continue to ignore warnings.

Praise be baling wire and binder twine

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In fact, the major hazard to life on our farm is old, rusting baling wire that somehow wanders off into the pastures to waylay mowers or end up in the rumens of livestock… my mower loves the stuff and can find a piece even if there is only one little strand in a ten acre field.

Reflections on two days with Stoneleigh

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When an international peak oil celebrity comes through Totnes, Rob Hopkins often posts a brilliantly insightful interview with carefully crafted questions and thoughtful interchanges. Last week, Nicole Foss (pen name “Stoneleigh”) came through Los Angeles. Rather than sitting down for an hour or so of focused interview like it sounds Hopkins does, ours was a multi-day visit unfolding amid the stark realities of our Transition operations.

Why localisation is a key part of the answer. An article from today’s Guardian online…

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Last week it emerged that the Department of Energy and Climate Change, whose official position remains that “we do not have any contingency plans specific to a peak in oil production”, was actually stating in internal documents released under the Freedom of Information Act that “it is not possible to predict with any accuracy exactly when or why oil production will peak”.

Less heat, more light on peak oil

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“Because money talks and BS walks, if the hydrogen economy was an apprentice working for Donald Trump, it would’ve been fired in the first season.” This is just one of the pearls of wisdom from Transition Voice’s new “Snarky Guide to Peak Oil.” It’s got the facts you need to debunk energy myths and the attitude you need to defuse a heated discussion with a smile.

Ecosystem services: The traveling salesman and the trophic conundrum

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Let’s get one thing straight: ecological microeconomics — deriving the value of ecosystem services — does have an important role to play in the quest for sustainability. But performed out of its macroeconomic context, all the talk of ecosystem service values is like the din of drums without the melody of a guitar. You can’t really get the point of it (and you’re likely to get very bored).

Medicine of the Heart

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This is a medicine story. And if I could tell you all the medicine stories I heard in my travelling days I would. Because those stories are about how life turns around just as you think it’s about to end. We need more than anything now these stories of restoration and regeneration because they hold an opportunity. If there is one theme that unites them all it is this: the transformation moment comes when you realise it’s not just about you.

Co-operation and the wealth of nations

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The failure of economic democracy has led to the atrophy of political democracy, as corporations buy politicians: we are ‘citizens in politics but subjects in the marketplace’. While we enjoy voting rights in our political systems, ‘our economic systems are still stuck in the 18th century’. Challenging the ideology of free markets, he asks how can we claim to have free markets when firms are still stuck in the ideology of command and control?

Clean and Green Investment Forum — Summary

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On June 6 and 7, I attended Opal Financial’s Clean and Green Investment Forum. I was invited to take part in a panel on “Green Energy in Emerging and Frontier Markets”. The forum brought together clean tech entrepreneurs and investors as well as a few academics and analysts and proved very stimulating. The overall vibe was one of optimism and opportunity — we’re talking entrepreneurs and investors here.

How to make systems thinking sexy

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(Article based on the keynote speech at the Buckminster Fuller Challenge awards in New York on 8 June.)

We will not transition successfully to a restorative economy until systems thinking becomes as natural, for millions of people, as riding a bike. That’s a big ask. How do we get from here, to there? …

Outside the business-as-usual tent, gradualism is on the retreat. A new kind of economy – a restorative economy – is emerging in a million grassroots projects all over the world. The better-known examples have names like Post-Carbon Cities, or Transition Towns. But examples also include dam removers, seed bankers, and iPhone doctors.

A restorative economy is emerging wherever people are growing food in cities, or turning school backyards into edible gardens. The movement includes people who are restoring ecosystems and watersheds; their number includes dam removers, wetland restorers, and rainwater rescuers. Many people in this movement are recycling buildings in downtowns and suburbs, favelas and slums.

Commentary: Slam on the brakes!

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We’re not talking about slamming the brakes on fossil fuels. Even as our contribution to creating Peak Oil awareness begins to see a little light (at least in some circles), I am concerned that we will be so worried about saving our own bacon or appearing to be rational that we will fail to take posterity into account. If we are to save just a little oil for our children, we need to just plain stop using oil (gas, coal).