Year: 2011

Life without electricity

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“Actually, it takes more time to develop low-tech than it does to develop high-tech although we tend to think of advanced scientific technology when we say ‘technology,’ while we take low-tech lightly,” says Fujimura. On this misplaced assumption, we tend to desire the products of excessively advanced science and technology that promote convenience and comfort, and thus we have placed a huge burden on the environment, leading to the energy crisis and other critical situations.

Wall Street by the book

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Once upon a time, no one imagined that an American world of home ownership and good jobs, of cheap gas and cheaper steaks, would ever end.  Nonetheless, it was kneecapped over the last few decades and it’s not coming back.  Not for you or your children, no matter what happens economically. So don’t kid yourself: whether you know it or not, young as you are, you’re in mourning, too, or Occupy Wall Street wouldn’t exist. Unlike the Tea Party, however, you are young, which means that you’re also a movement of the unknown future, which is your strength.

Peak oil perspective

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Aside from excursions here and there, Do the Math represents—in computer terms—a “core dump” of years of accumulated thoughts and analysis on energy, growth, and the largely unappreciated challenges we face on both short and long terms. During this queued process—with much more to come—I have made references to peak oil, but have refrained from a head-on treatment. As important as peak oil has been in motivating my quantitative exploration of life beyond fossil fuels, it seems overdue that I share my thoughts.

Narrative and science in the debate on climate change

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The remarkable success of the anti-science position on climate change is due in large part to the development of a successful narrative plot that casts scientists as evil schemers against the public. The attempts made by scientists to respond with scientific evidence to the attacks have not been a success. Recently, the work of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) group has provided some further insight on the mechanisms of this conflict.

Greek debt – Nov 2

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– Kevin Drum: A Conversation About Greece
– Financial Times: Creditors can huff but they need debtors
– BBC: Greece referendum: Democracy versus the eurozone
– Kuttner: Bravo Papandreou!
– Papandreou’s gamble could pay off
– A Greek Gift to Occupy USA
– Greece: going under

The myth of the self-made yeoman

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No figure is more endearing and enduring in agriculture than the lonely plowman out there on the horizon who raises himself by his own bootstraps to financial success. Only problem is, there is no occupation more dependent on the cooperation of society and nature to achieve success than farming.

Top 5 ways to Occupy Big Oil

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Wall Street is the best immediate target for a protest against financial inequity and corporate money in politics. Now, as Occupy movements pop up across the globe, Occupiers may be interested to know that big oil companies are as guilty as big banks in buying politicians and squeezing the 99%. And since today’s fiat currency is really based on oil, any reform of finance needs to take on energy too.

The Impermanence of Knowledge

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Knowledge is essential to our existence. Without knowledge life is almost impossible. So we need to care about what we know. In the recent past mankind has managed to collect enormous amounts of knowledge. This era is now nearing its end. For knowledge is, perhaps surprisingly, intimately connected with energy. We are at present in for a severe energy crisis, which translates into a knowledge crisis. In other words: the science boom is over. But not only will it be next to impossible to continue increasing our knowledge, even keeping the knowledge we already have will become a great challenge.

Is this group think, or is the U.S. about to be energy-independent?

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One becomes nervous when a consensus begins to form around a Big New Idea — it starts to sound like group think. So what are we to make of the cottage industry developing around the notion that the U.S. not only isn’t facing an impending oil shortage — it is on the cusp of being nearly energy independent, short of a margin of barrels that will be imported from friendly Canada and Mexico?

#Occupy – Nov 1

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– With Generators Gone, Wall Street Protesters Try Bicycle Power
– Chris Hedges: A Master Class in Occupation
– Financial Times: Why America is embracing protest
– ‘Occupy’ Protest at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London Divides Church
– Salon: A New Declaration of Independence
– Tom Engelhardt: OWS at Valley Forge