Year: 2012

Milkweed and the Dance of Life

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Just outside our front door is a small patch of Asclepias syriaca, common milkweed, that Tanya grew from seed a few years ago. In late spring when the large clusters of pink flowers are in bloom, the air comes alive with their sweet perfume. That scent, or perhaps the flowers’ shapes and color, must serve as a signal to a whole host of insect species, because no other plants on our property rival the milkweeds for the sheer number and variety of insects that buzz, hum, and hover around them when they are in bloom.

Here are three ingredients. Now form an initiative

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I seem to have done rather a lot of talks in schools recently. I did one last week which included showing clips from the film ‘In Transition 2.0’ and talking about all kinds of stories from Transition initiatives around the world. It was also the first one I have done yet where no-one was texting at the back of the room, which was a nice change (might one assured way to raise educational standards in schools be to make sure none of them have a mobile phone signal? Bit radical.) One of the questions I was asked was about how Transition got started, a question I am asked with alarming regularity still). It got me thinking about the whole question of getting things started.

And now what? Greece after its official creditor-led default

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Following Greece’s recent mammoth 206-billion-euro bond swap, people wrongly believe that the private bondholders of the Greek debt lost money and that the country is on a path to recovery. The only solution for Greece remains a debtor-led default and exit from the euro-zone under the leadership of a radical democrat political movement.

Power to the people; citizen and energy independence

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I’m a great supporter of community energy generation, but I want to talk about another form of energy, one which I consider to be an essential component of our future energy economy, and perhaps more importantly, one which could affect our fundamental sense of wellbeing.

I’m talking about food: human fuel.

A loyal customer

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This is a post about shopping and a conversation we’ve been having for three years now in my Transition initiatives about relocalising food culture in East Anglia. Because when you’re discussing supermarkets you are really discussing the industrialised food system and the producerist society we live in. It’s a massive topic and one we will return to in our Diet and Environment Week in April, when I’m hoping to write about disentangling ourselves from Big Ag on the micro-level. Right now I’m looking at the macro-level and how there is life after supermarkets. Really.

It’s not just the bags

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Adelia Borges’ new book Design + Craft: The Brazilian Path contains a glorious array of artefacts collected in every Brazilian region…But this important book is not just about desirable souvenirs. On the contrary, Borges’ commentary breathes new life into discussions about the relationship between designers, and artisans in the south. in particular, she is worried about “how many persons want to help us in the Southern hemisphere, but with lack of respect for local knowledge”.

A tough-oil world

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The principal cause of higher prices — a fundamental shift in the structure of the oil industry — cannot be reversed, and so oil prices are destined to remain high for a long time to come.

We are now entering a world whose grim nature has yet to be fully grasped. This pivotal shift has been brought about by the disappearance of relatively accessible and inexpensive petroleum — “easy oil,” in the parlance of industry analysts; in other words, the kind of oil that powered a staggering expansion of global wealth over the past 65 years and the creation of endless car-oriented suburban communities. This oil is now nearly gone.

Tough-oil reserves will provide most of the world’s new oil in the years ahead. One thing is clear: even if they can replace easy oil in our lives, the cost of everything oil-related — whether at the gas pump, in oil-based products, in fertilizers, in just about every nook and cranny of our lives — is going to rise. Get used to it. If things proceed as presently planned, we will be in hock to big oil for decades to come.

Changes coming to Energy Bulletin

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The word ‘changes’ in the above title will elicit a different response depending on your personality. For some this will be exciting and you will be reading this now to find out what’s new. For others there will be a certain dread, after all – if something is good then, why change it?…

As editors of Energy Bulletin we feel passionately about the site and the issues it covers. We’re excited to have the chance to continue our evolution and invite you to stay with us through that journey.