Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Darci Palmquist You’re probably doing your part to conserve water, especially if you live in a drought-stricken area. But water is in short supply across the globe because of people’s increasing demands for it—a huge problem for cities, agriculture and industry that will only get worse with climate change.
Reading The Affluent Society is a revitalising and empowering shot in the arm for anyone questioning in any way what JK calls the "conventional wisdom". The book, first written in 1958 and then reissued as a new edition in 1998 is an astonishing tour de force, debunking and deconstructing the tenets of the "central tradition" of economics.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, grains account for more than half of the calories consumed by people in developing countries. Yet, over the last few decades, grain production has been narrowed to only a limited number of varieties – wheat, for example, has over 200,000 varieties, yet only a few genetic lines are being used. Such dependence on a limited number of crops has proven problematic, especially because of rising food prices, climate change, and health concerns.
The US and Western Europe are in a recession threatening to become a depression as bad as that of the 1930s. Therefore we look to Keynesian policies as the cure, namely stimulate consumption and investment—that is, stimulate growth of the economy. It seemed to work in the past, so why not now? Should not ecological economics and steady-state ideas give way to Keynesian growth economics in view of the present crisis?
For four decades, Amory Lovins has been a leading proponent of a renewable power revolution that would wean the U.S. off fossil fuels and usher in an era of energy independence. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he talks about his latest book, which describes his vision of how the world can attain a green energy future by 2050.
It was suggested that I read this book because I was looking for a Western proclivity for apocalypse fever. My conclusion after reading it is that change is simply scarier for the Westerner, while in Asia, change is so much the expected norm that it is taken in stride. I would add that Americans tend to spin out their horror far into the future or, as one therapist I know puts it, to awful-ize a situation. Watching Bangkok friends and family face the recent flood crisis with a remarkable amount of equanimity confirmed this for me.
– Telegraph: Plateau Oil meets 125m Chinese cars
– Globe & Mail: All the signs point to a falling oil price – except supply
– WSJ: Oil Gives Economy Both Barrels
– WSJ: For Europe, Costly Oil Could Be ‘the New Greece’
– Rolling Stone: Why Obama Is Wrong About Natural Gas
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The Iranian confrontation
-Gasoline and election 2012
-A New EIA Report on East Coast Refining
-Gas: Climate Panacea or Industry Propaganda?
-Estimates Clash for How Much Natural Gas in the United States
-The Big Fracking Bubble: The Scam Behind the Gas Boom
-Poland May Cut Shale Gas Estimates After Data From Wells
-China claims world’s biggest shale gas reserves
It was only a matter of time after we started eating local food and Buying Local from main street stores that we’d start hearing about local money…Now, Michael Shuman, the author of The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (2006), wants to make local investing accessible to ordinary people.
– Your grandchildren have no value: investor Jeremy Grantham’s longest quarterly letter ever
– Paul Gilding: The Earth is full (TED talk)
– Before the Food Arrives on Your Plate, So Much Goes on Behind the Scenes
Whenever North Americans fill up their vehicles with gasoline these days they should reflect on their ongoing contribution to the dysfunctional status of petro states and the Islamic Republic of Iran in particular.
