Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
In Extraenvironmentalist #47 we discuss the global energy picture with Chris Nelder as he describes the energy stories we tell ourselves and explains exactly how many natural gas wells it will take for the United States to gain energy independence. Then, we speak with Gregor MacDonald about the recent blackout in India that cut electricity to 10% of Earth’s population.
Summary of the Summary: We are five years into a severe global food crisis that is very unlikely to go away. It will threaten poor countries with increased malnutrition and starvation and even collapse. Resource squabbles and waves of food-induced migration will threaten global stability and global growth. This threat is badly underestimated by almost everybody and all institutions with the possible exception of some military establishments.
Capitalism has failed. Leaving the care of society to the market has led to massive inequality, climate chaos and financial crisis. The system is indeed one of zombie economics, the doctrine is dead but the beast still walks amongst us. It reminds me of the cartoons where Bugs Bunny runs over the edge of the cliff but, not noticing that he has done so, continues to march on air until realization strikes and the silly rabbit plummets to the ground.
-Peak cheap oil is an incontrovertible fact
-Peakonomics: No Country for Old Men
-Will the U.S. Run Out of Oil in 8 Years?
-Oil prices are setting their own course
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The Middle East
-Ethanol
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
It’s the first season for our Transition group’s community garden, but already we’ve taken to calling it the Fossil Fuel Free Garden. The tagline is an easy way for us to make the point that not only do we expect our fellow gardeners to stay organic (no chemicals, please) but that we have the additional requirement that no power tools be used at the garden.
On the surface one would think that the revolutionary advances in worldwide communications–made possible first by the telegraph, then by the telephone, the radio, the television and now by the Internet–would lead to a broad consensus on such issues as climate change and resource depletion. Almost everyone now has nearly instant access to the latest scientific information on these issues. Yet, no consensus has emerged, at least not one strong enough to bring about definitive action.
At this writing, the Tres Hombres schooner-brig is just reaching the Netherlands, on its way back from Copenhagen.
This we are sure of: as petroleum dependence continues to wreak havoc on our Earth’s sensitive environment, and the energy alternatives do not comprise an immediate solution, sail power emerges as the most viable energy source for trade and travel.
When the teacher arrived, people were already beginning to talk of a Great Divide, a disagreement that would eventually split the city. There were people on both sides who had strong convictions, and some who were uncertain, and as time went on the Great Divide widened. Those who were uncertain felt pressured to choose, and the two sides grew, in number and in unanimity on the surface, though not in depth and commitment. As each side grew larger in number, their ideas became hollower, and as the strength of people’s belief grew it became less clear what they believed in.
Apparently, we Peak Oil advocates are “fleecing the inherently gullible.” Who knew? The author didn’t get around to explaining just how we do so, although he did offer a hint that our “headline-grabbing, money-making blockbusters” are the culprits. (What have I been missing? Woulda been nice if Richard Heinberg, Chris Nelder, Sharon Astyk, Kurt Cobb, Chris Martenson, and others clued me in on how they’ve made their millions and millions of dollars fleecing gullibles. I’ll keep checking my email.)
Building resilience means helping society to work more like an ecosystem—and that has major implications for how we use energy. Ecosystems conserve energy by closing nutrient loops: plants capture and chemically store solar energy, which is then circulated as food throughout the food web. Nothing is wasted. We humans—having developed the ability to draw upon ancient, concentrated, cheap, and abundant (though ultimately finite) fossil fuels—have simultaneously adopted the habit of wasting energy on a colossal scale.
A midweekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
