Maize and bean farmers threatened by climate change
Over the coming decades, climate change is expected to pose major difficulties for one million maize and bean farmers in Central America.
Year: 2012
Peak oil review – Oct 22
A weekly review including:
-Oil and the Global Economy
-The Middle East
-The EU’s Crisis
-China
-Quote of the Week
-The Briefs
-Commentary
Culture of Dying
In Extraenvironmentalist #51 we speak with Stephen Jenkinson about our cultural difficulty with death. Stephen draws on lessons learned from decades of working with death to describe how we can frame our civilization’s trajectory.
Food & agriculture – Oct 22
*Despite Protest, College Plans To Slaughter, Serve Farm’s Beloved Oxen
*A Simple Fix for Farming
*Iowa Farms Minting Millionaires as Rich-Poor Gap Widens
So the Poor are People…Really?
A week ago, one of our former foster sons celebrated his ninth birthday. He’s now living with family in another state, and we have kept in regular touch. We sent a gift, a card with some pictures we thought he’d enjoy, and on the afternoon of his birthday, we tried to call and wish him happy, but the phone had been disconnected.
The Populations Problem
The population problem should be considered from the point of view of all populations — populations of both humans and their artifacts (cars, houses, livestock, cell phones, etc.) — in short, populations of all “dissipative structures” engendered, bred, or built by humans.
Canadians could free themselves from oil imports, but will they?
You are not alone if you think it’s odd that Canada–the world’s ninth largest exporter of crude oil and petroleum products and the main supplier of oil imports to the United States–is itself a longtime oil importer, importing more than 40 percent of its oil needs this year. That may be set to change.
Inequality or equality?
The wealth gap in this country is huge and growing larger. What surprises me is that we’re not looking more deeply into the issue. We don’t really understand how big the wealth gap is and what wealth inequality does to us.
Why natural gas isn’t likely to be the world’s energy savior
We keep hearing about the many benefits of natural gas–how burning. But people who are counting on natural gas to solve the world’s energy problems are “counting their chickens before they are hatched.”
Degrowth offers alternative to global consumer culture
If everyone lived like the average American, according to the Global Footprint Network, the Earth could sustain only 1.7 billion people — a quarter of today’s population — without undermining the planet’s physical and biological systems. Over-consumption in industrialized societies and among developing world elites causes lasting environmental and human impacts.
Bioplastics: Are They the Solution?
Bioplastics are simply plastics derived from renewable biomass sources, like plants and microorganisms, whereas conventional plastics are synthesized from non-renewable fossil fuels, either oil or natural gas. It’s a common misconception, however, that a bioplastic necessarily breaks down better in the environment than conventional plastics.
Igniting a Learning Revolution
“If still more education is to save us, it would have to be education of a different kind: an education that takes us into the depth of things.” E.F. Schumacher
