Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) released a report on 5 December, 2012 which examined the question of economic benefit to the US of natural gas exportation. Last December, Deloitte issued an independent report regarding exportation which had hauntingly similar conclusions. Interestingly enough, many of the conclusions in the Deloitte report are now known to be erroneous only one year later.
•Supporting Climate-Friendly Food Production
•When a Green Revolution Runs Out of Water
•Can Permaculture Transform Industrial Agriculture?
•A Genius Investor Thinks Billions Of People Are Going To Starve To Death — Here’s Why
•How one nonprofit pub is giving back, one pint at a time
•Are We Heading Toward Peak Fertilizer?
A mid-week update.
If last week’s energy bill announcement was about building the low carbon power system of the future, this week’s gas strategy and autumn statement felt like a blast from the past.
I was inspired enough by the set up of Share Tompkins that I decided to host an occasional swap of my own with a very specific focus: fiber arts. People who are not interested in working with string may not be aware of this, but Ithaca has dozens — if not hundreds — of talented spinners, knitters, crocheters, and lacemakers. I happen to know a bunch of them, and I happen to know that this is a group that often has big plans that don’t pan out, so we usually end up with extra materials.
The escalating pursuit of fish—now with gross revenue exceeding $80 billion per year—has had heavy ecological consequences, including the alteration of marine food webs via a massive reduction in the populations of larger, longer-lived predatory fish such as tunas, cods, and marlins. Unselective fishing gear, including longlines and bottom-scraping trawls, kill large numbers of non-target animals like sea turtles, sharks, and corals.
In the wake of superstorm Sandy and a presidential election in which both candidates essentially ignored climate change, it’s time that our schools began to play their part in creating climate literate citizens.
I’m on my way home to Kyoto for a brief visit before returning for a for five final days of work in Fukushima. Deep learning continues for me and for all of us as we discover how to support communities in Tohoku in creating a new future.
•Climate change: you can’t ignore it •2012: Record Arctic Sea Ice Melt, Multiple Extremes and High Temperatures •Study: Wealthy Nations’ Fossil Fuel Subsidies 5 Times Greater Than Climate Aid to Countries in Need •No sign of emissions letting up as climate talks begin •Forbidden Planet Arctic lost record snow and ice last year as data shows changing climate
•Welcome To The New Normal: Poor, Not Special, But Here And Not There
•Feed the Hunger
•The Cloud: What are we doing to our minds?
This theme for this year’s ASPO-USA conference was “The Next Oil Crisis – is the boom just another bubble?”. In one week the presentations made at the conference will be available via the ASPO-USA website so I will not discuss all of them in detail. The presentations I have chosen to discuss below represent those that were of most interest to me personally.
For most of a year now, my posts here on The Archdruid Report have focused on the nature, rise, and impending fall of America’s global empire. It’s been a long road and, as usual, it strayed in directions I wasn’t expecting to explore when this sequence of posts began last winter. Still, as I see it, we’ve covered all the core issues except one, and that’s the question of what can and should be done as the American empire totters to its end.
