The peak oil crisis: descent into chaos
There is a growing disconnect between forecasts of prodigious amounts of oil coming out of the Middle East in coming decades and what is likely to happen in the region.
Year: 2012
Why fracking may ruin your Thanksgiving
My, how things have changed since the Pilgrims tasted their first cranberries in their Plymouth colony! Until 1816, cranberries were a thoroughly wild food; something gathered, not grown. But the discovery that allowed us to cultivate cranberries – adding a thick layer of sand on the soil where they grow – is now creating trouble in cranberry country. As it turns out, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, requires the same sort of sand as cranberries.
A patchwork blanket
Long gone are the days when the job you’d grow up to do would more or less be determined by the jobs your parents did. But going now is the concept of the “job for life”; something you’d study for in youth and then spend your life improving your skills at, earning more and more pay until you’d retire with a generous final salary pension.
Naomi Klein: Sandy’s devastation opens space for action on climate change and progressive reform
At a speaking event in New York City this week, award-winning journalist and author Naomi Klein discussed why the reconstruction from Superstorm Sandy is actually a great place to usher in progressive change.
Shale gas – Nov 23
•Methane leaks suggest fracking benefits exaggerated •Gas Industry Attacks Scientists After Research Finds Triple The Normal Levels Of Methane At Australian Gas Fields •Shale gas needs regulation, not a ban -European Parliament •A Contrarian on Shale Gas •US Shale Gas Won’t Last Ten Years: Bill Powers •Gas is abundant, affordable and acceptable. It’s also the future, argues Shell chief Peter Voser
ODAC Newsletter Nov 23
A week of brutal bombing and rocket fire between Israel and Hamas pushed oil prices back to around $110/barrel this week. A fragile ceasefire is now in place, but there is much concern that it will be short-lived. Oil market news may all be about US production, but it is primarily the politics and geopolitics of the Middle East that is still driving global oil prices.
It’s time to change
This morning I’m participating in my first hOUR Economy time bank exchange. I’m giddy with excitement about it, feeling like I’ve taken another giant leap away from the industrial economy.
Economics – Nov 22
•Could Economic Growth Kill Us?
•Occupy Wall Street campaigners buy-up debt to abolish it
•Shift Change (new movie)
•Small towns attract Spanish job seekers (video)
Peak oil notes – Nov 22
A mid-week update.
Dust Bowl revisited
On October 18, 2012, the Associated Press reported that "a massive dust storm swirling reddish-brown clouds over northern Oklahoma triggered a multi-vehicle accident along a major interstate…forcing police to shut down the heavily traveled roadway amid near blackout conditions."
Spain: from ‘los indignados’ and ‘15 M’ to the first strike by society
400,000 evictions, a hunger strike by Carmen Armaña, and the suicide of Amaia Egaña as the eviction police came up the stairs to put her family out on the street, have brought mass anger and fury at unjust political and financial decisions in Spain…
A Historic Binational Agreement Gives New Life to the Colorado River Delta
Today, the United States and Mexico signed a landmark agreement that will return vital flows to the lower Colorado River and its once-bountiful Delta and reconnect the river to its final destination, the Gulf of California.
