Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
– Mandelbrot Beats Economics in Fathoming Markets
– OECD inequality report: countries across the developed world are getting less equal
– Financial Times prints bank proposals from Occupy Wall Street
– ‘Crowdfunding’ Legislation Would Allow Businesses And Start-Ups To Use Internet To Find Investors, Access More Capital
– The Other 99 Percent: How the US Compares
Abigail Borah, a Middlebury College student and climate activist from the United States, was ejected from a plenary session at the COP17 climate summit this morning after interrupting introductory remarks by US chief negotiator, Todd Stern. Her statement was met with loud applause from the crowd. Stern later shifted his position — or at least his language — on a timetable for a new set of international talks.
Yesterday I received an email and a telephone call from Radio China International. They inquired if I would be willing to answer a few questions on the occasion of the 20th World Petroleum Congress in Doha, Qatar. Every third year the world’s oil producers gather for a large congress. For the first time they have now gathered in the Middle East. The interview with Radio China International has now been completed and it is interesting to look at the questions that they wanted to discuss…They sent me written copies of the questions that they wanted to discuss so let’s look at what worries and interests China.
Economists never told us the story of financial inequity. It took the Occupy movement to do that. And many economists still continue to tell us reassuring fairy tales about how economic growth must and will return.
So, who are you going to trust? Start with Chris Martenson, one of the lay financial analysts who did predict the banking collapse in fall 2008.
– Tom Whipple: E=mc2 (cold fusion developments)
– The Estonian connection: Or how I started worrying about oil shale
– Experts see demand for oil and gas declining
– La fin du pétrole, c’est pour quand ?
-Biomass is the next biofuel ‘land grab’ on tropical forests, warn campaigners
-Climate Committee: Biomass has “no role” in electricity production without CCS
-CLIMATE CHANGE: Biofuels Are Not the Solution
-Navy’s Big Biofuel Bet: 450,000 Gallons at 4 Times the Price of Oil
-Aviation could switch to low-carbon fuel ‘sooner than thought’
For the rural Maya, the community being considered was not merely a single group of humans denoted by geography and culture, but rather the ecological community of all life forms, and generations still to come. What sane economic system would even consider forgetting these, a Mayan might ask. An economist might call what the Mayans are acquiring social, cultural, and ecological capital. To these people, and many others in the intentionally pre-industrial world, they are just good sense.
This year … huge sums of money have been invested in keeping banks afloat, and much of the cost is being borne by people who can least afford it.
Meanwhile, a UN report published last week describes a quarter of the planet’s land as ‘highly degraded’ and flagged up loss of soil quality as the area for greatest concern. Today, for many of us, the loss and degradation of soil does not – yet – feature strongly on our agendas or lists of concerns.
What I would like to suggest here, though, is that soil is much more worthy of our investments, of our concern and care, than banks.
A midweekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
Since the start of Occupy Wall Street, a recurring question in the media and among the Occupiers has been: precisely who among the 99% is taking to streets around the world to protest economic inequality? The simple answer–that it’s a wide array of citizens from different backgrounds who are disenfranchised from the political and economic systems that benefit a very small elite–isn’t particularly useful for a burgeoning social movement. Many journalists and academics have attempted to paint a more definitive picture of the Occupiers, scouring tweets and hashtags, aggregating data from their armchairs. But this approach is in opposition to Occupy’s intentionally horizontal organizational structure, which prizes consensus among large groups of Occupiers and aims to let no voice go unrepresented.
The Solitary Genius is a godsend to us ramparts people who operate small farms on the cheap and who don’t know much about mechanics. If you can get your old tractor to him, he can invariably fix whatever ails it. His repair shop may look primitive and junky roundabout, but don’t let appearances fool you. The ones who service farmers in the neighborhood regularly are knowledgeable and fully equipped. They are also delightfully independent philosophers. Most of them don’t charge enough and so I pay more than they ask. Be nice to them; they can be the key to your survival on a ramparts farm.
– Why Occupy Protesters Marched from Wall Street to DC
– Annie Appel’s Photography of Occupy Los Angeles
– Occupy the Kremlin: Russia’s Election Lets Loose Public Rage
