Transport – Dec 5
Monbiot: In praise of coaches [buses]
Vietnam gets richer, locals trade bikes for cars
So how about public transit?
Staff
Biofuels – Dec 5
A Grist special series on biofuels
Algae: Companies convert CO2 to auto fuel
Expert: Careful on biofuel subsidies
Council of Foreign Relations report: “National security consequences of oil dependency”
With little media fanfare, a heavyweight think tank has released a major report on energy security which paints a more urgent picture than most research coming out of Washington.
Jeff Vail’s “A Theory of Power”
Rhizome-based structures need to replace hierarchical ones, Vail argues, in all areas of our society — social, political, economic, educational etc. to entrench the power and sustainability of self-sufficient communities and render them invulnerable to re-expropriation of that power by hierarchies.
Post-peak pessimism: Looking for new tools
Rob Hopkins of Transition Culture recently asked, could pervasive peak oil pessimism be the result of men realizing we are ill-equipped to handle what is coming? The answer is yes. We need new skills and new tools.
Is Peak Oil Pessimism a Generation of Men Coming to Realise How Useless They Are?
I have come to think that part of the reason behind the “die-off” perspective … is in fact that a generation of men are coming to realise on some level that they are almost entirely unequipped to face the challenge that peak oil creates.
Peak oil – Dec 4
Ask Umbra: good to the last drop
TOD debate on the timing of peak oil
PayPal’s Thiel bets big on peak oil
‘Mad Max’ co-author on peak oil
Portland group plans for peak oil
NASA: alternative fuels for aviation
A technical report from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration which does a good job in pointing out the problems that need to be overcome if we plan to use alternative fuels to replace declining production.
Copernicus, Darwin and the cure for autistic economics
As the biosphere presses its limits upon us in the areas of energy, climate, water, soil and pollution, the neoclassical economic view that human ingenuity will allow the species to ignore every other species on the planet and grow the world economy indefinitely has become life threatening, even civilization threatening.
The Lottery: a creative & effective way to avoid economic collapse
Awareness of Peak Oil or Climate Change will not compel us to change our “way of life.” We need a sense of extreme urgency and we need it now. With The Lottery, America’s oil addiction would become a life or death issue in the mind of John Q. Public.
Renewables – Dec 3
Nepal introduces new rural energy policy
UN conference on bio-fuels
Solar power in San Francisco
Bacteria could be the source of an unlimited supply of power (?)
A green PM for Canada?
Canada’s new Liberal leader – first green PM?
On Dion
Dion says he’ll honor Kyoto commitment
The red-green show: shades of things to come
