Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Staff Political economist, activist and writer Gar Alperovitz and Post Carbon Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg discuss ‘Equality and Inequality in a Shrinking Economy–Strategies and Consequences’.
This is a recording of video chat recorded May 22, 2012.
A midweekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
– Thomas Homer-Dixon: Exploring the climate “mindscape” (oil supplies and energy junk)
– Government influence is negative for energy fuel policy
– The German Switch from Nuclear to Renewables
– Scientists’ Arctic drilling plan aims to demystify undersea greenhouse gases
– Ancien directeur de TOTAL: Nouvelles découvertes et gaz de schiste retarderont à peine le pic pétrolier
Conflict and intrigue over valuable energy supplies have been features of the international landscape for a long time. Major wars over oil have been fought every decade or so since World War I, and smaller engagements have erupted every few years; a flare-up or two in 2012, then, would be part of the normal scheme of things. Instead, what we are now seeing is a whole cluster of oil-related clashes stretching across the globe, involving a dozen or so countries, with more popping up all the time. Consider these flash-points as signals that we are entering an era of intensified conflict over energy.
Visualize gasoline-powered civilization arising as if by some maniacally accelerated evolutionary process. It all began so recently, in the mid-nineteenth century, and spread across the globe in mere decades. Automobiles mutated and competed for dominance on vast networks of roads built to accommodate them. Shopping malls and parking garages sprang up to attract and hold them. And powering it all was an ever-widening but mostly invisible river of gasoline–the poisonous blood of 700 million dinosaur-like machines that now dot landscapes around the world.
I decided to learn how to garden because I became concerned about a future of declining natural resources that will undoubtedly make life different, especially since we depend on oil for almost everything in our lives. Indeed, Sharon Astyk’s call for 100 million farmers and 200 million cooks (I already cook) is sound advice and essential preparation for survival in this new and uncertain world. Today, I would start this venture with a lesson on barn cleaning. (This is a sneak peek into an upcoming book about my experiences on the farm.)
– Don’t call me an environmentalist
– James Gustave Speth: America the Possible: A Manifesto, Part II
– Limits to growth, food security issues and the rapid growth in Australia’s population – Philip Adams interview
Leave it to the Dutch, who throw away only 3 percent of their municipal waste into landfills, to come up with a socially appealing innovation that does even more to reduce waste: the neighborhood Repair Cafe! As described in today’s NYT, volunteers with a talent for fixing things come together several times a month to repair anyone’s broken household items for free.
– Dutch ‘Repair Cafes’ keep stuff out of the trash by fixing it for free
– Food Fundamentals – interview with food security writer Lolo Houbein (Australia)
– Don’t Throw Away Your Wealth (John Robb on biogas digesters)
– Methane Biodigester – How To Video (The Urban Farming Guys)
In the midst of all the doom and gloom about the economy, where’s the hope for building resilience back into family and community finances? Which personal choices will make a difference in regaining prosperity? Join two experts speaking about where we’ve been and where we’re headed.
I spent my Easter weekend this year in an exciting meeting of social movements focused on rejecting the debt at source: on conducting a series of Citizens’ Audits to ascertain exactly how we came to be in this disastrous position and to ask the question, Who really owes to whom? And why should the tiny percentage of the super-wealthy continue to extract such a vast share of the common wealth of nations? This is empowerment as an alternative to austerity.
The Occupy movement has been an extremely exciting development. Unprecedented, in fact. There’s never been anything like it that I can think of. If the bonds and associations it has established can be sustained through a long, dark period ahead — because victory won’t come quickly — it could prove a significant moment in American history.
