Year: 2012

A small thing but maybe not

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All summer I raved and ranted at the squirrels that were eating the corn in my crib. I was particularly concerned because the drought seemed to be making sure this year’s crop was going to be a bust. I did not look forward to buying corn at drought-inflated prices just to keep squirrels fat eating my reserve supply. Eventually, we practically encased the whole crib in chicken wire. To no avail. Once a squirrel makes up its mind to get into something it will find a way even into a lead vault.

Oil – Oct 4

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-How Coal Brought Us Democracy, and Oil Ended It: Lessons from the New Book “Carbon Democracy”
-Keystone
-Cost to replace each barrel of oil produced is up 350%
-Iraq oil output likely to hit 3.4m bpd in 2012

HOMEGROWN Life: A Word on Efficiency (and Productivity and Sustainability)

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Here’s the rub…Is it really more efficient for me to shovel goat manure, let it age, plant some lettuce in it, and truck it to local consumers? Or is it more efficient for Missourians to keep buying lettuce from California that was picked by migrant workers in unsafe conditions who were likely paid poorly, and with said lettuce robbing the withering Colorado River of its flow? There are people who try to figure these things out, but a lot of it centers on the pivot of what one means by efficiency and productivity and measurement.

In praise of anarchy, Part I

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Peter Alexeyevich Kropotkin is our prince’s name, and he eventually became a renowned scientist who advanced the understanding of the history of glaciers, an historian of revolutionary movements, foremost theoretician of anarchism, and, because of his lifelong burning desire to do something to help the plight of the common man, something of a revolutionary himself.

Revolution Episode 3: Sword Porn, Hobos, Hobbits & Hobbes

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Whether you buy into Revolution’s watered-down examination of social contract theory, the show’s premise reinforces Post Carbon Institute’s position that it is absolutely necessary that we plan our energy future. We must work hard to transition as smoothly as possible to largely fossil fuel free communities. If we’re caught off guard (too late?), chaos is quite likely.

Reflections on Co-Cycle, Worker Co-ops, and Hope

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A curious shift occurred as Co-Cycle made its way through the Midwest. We have begun to articulate what exactly it is we’re learning–we’re asking more in-depth questions as we meet more co-ops; we are beginning to make connections between different models, whether consumer or worker owned; and, on the flip side, more people are asking us in-depth questions about our model, process, and how we began and what we’ve learned. Our identity is still forming, but, as compared to the first half of the tour, Co-Cycle is beginning to grasp the impact and importance of its own mission.

Scarcity, shame and flapping arms in Athens

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Since February 2010, the crisis in Greece is being addressed with austerity measures as prescribed by the troika of EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. At present, the government is negotiating yet more austerity, even if past measures failed to produce the desired results. On the contrary: their consequences are already devastating.

How It Could Happen, Part One: Hubris

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It’s easy for discussions about future crises to remain stuck in a realm of abstractions that never quite get down to talking about the lived reality of events as they happen. The toolkit of narrative fiction is one of the few useful ways to get past that roadblock of the imagination. This week’s post, therefore, is the first of a five-part series providing, in fictional form, a glimpse at one way the American empire could go the way of Nineveh and Tyre.