Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Erik Curren People who care about climate change and peak oil have long despaired of convincing their national governments to take decisive action or even, in some cases, to acknowledge that there’s a problem. Now, the world’s democracies seem to be losing the confidence of their citizens to deal with the economic crisis too.
Around the world, conventional currencies such as the euro, the dollar and the pound are in short supply because of the current economic crisis. A liquidity network (LQN) is designed to ease this shortage by creating and distributing a supplementary debt-free currency so that businesses and individuals can trade locally without needing the conventional sort.
What do Love Potion No. 9, half a dozen centuries of classical thought that get edited out of undergraduate survey courses, and Al Gore’s mansion have in common? Just possibly, a pointer to one of the most challenging aspects of the predicament of contemporary industrial society. The Archdruid explains.
If Washington is now stunned and operating on autopilot, that’s in part because, historically speaking, its moment as the globe’s “sole superpower” or even “hyperpower” barely outlasted Andy Warhol’s notorious 15 minutes of fame — from the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union to 9/11 and the Bush doctrine. The new American century was swiftly throttled in three hubris-filled stages: 9/11 (blowback); the invasion of Iraq (preemptive war); and the 2008 Wall Street meltdown (casino capitalism).
On a balmy September evening in the Bay Area, 27 people gather at World Centric in Palo Alto to learn about the resilience circle movement. Many are already participants in Transition Palo Alto, and bring a mature understanding of the ecological basis of our collective pain. Others come at the invitation of friends, or out of curiosity. They’ve come to learn about local consciousness raising groups that face economic stress together in a supportive setting. As the evening progresses, the group experiences the power of a primal ritual. Some might attend the same event and argue that a ritual never took place. But, like any good story, it always happens when humans tap into the collective wisdom of the faces around the fire.
Significant technological advances rarely make eye-catching headlines as they come from many small advances involving numerous scientific disciplines. However, every now and again it becomes clear that progress is being made.
– The American ‘allergy’ to global warming: Why?
– Jeremy Rifkin: The Third Industrial Revolution: Toward A New Economic Paradigm (excerpt)
– Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster: A `realistic’ answer to the ecological crisis (socialist view)
Heinberg believes our decades-long era of growth was based on aberrant set of conditions- namely cheap oil, but also cheap minerals, cheap food, etc- and that looking ahead, we need to prepare for a “new normal”. This is not all theoretical. In the backyard of the home Heinberg shares with his wife, Janet Barocco, the couple grow most of their food during the summer months (i.e. 25 fruit & nut trees, veggies, potatoes.. they’re just lack grains), raise chickens for eggs, capture rainwater, bake with solar cookers and a solar food drier and secure energy with photovoltaic and solar hot water panels.
Their backyard reflects Heinberg’s vision for our “new normal” and it’s full of experiments.
Randy Udall’s humorous and poignant presentation on peak oil was published today, recorded at the Local Future conference. Local Future invites visionaries, activists, and leaders to apply to the 2011 International Conference on Sustainability, Transition and Culture Change: Vision, Action, Leadership. Confirmed speakers include Nicole Foss, Dr. Steve Keen, T.S. Bennett, Sally Erickson, Guy McPherson, Jan Lundberg, Gregory Greene, Kurt Cobb, Stephanie Mills and Aaron Wissner. [The Udall video is posted here.]
– Urban planting: Turning blight into bounty in the inner city (EB’s Olga Bonfiglio in “US Catholic” magazine)
– Chris Martenson interviews Rob Hopkins: “Making The Red Pill Taste Good”
– Hard-core environmentalist who practices the permaculture he preaches
– Portland as a “Resilient Community”
– Green Hands, green heart (EB contributor Clifford Dean Scholz)
-Dept of Energy Report Says Vehicle Fuel Should Be the Priority, Not Electricity (NEW)
– EU Climate Chief ‘Shocked’ at US Debate
– Super Weeds Pose Growing Threat to U.S. Crops
– Congressman Roscoe Bartlett Reacts to EIA Study about Energy Subsidies
Unless and until adaptive responses are large and fast enough to constrain the upward trend of oil prices, the primary adaptive response will be periodic economic crashes of a magnitude that depresses oil consumption and oil prices. These have the effect of shifting consumption from incumbent consumers—the advanced economies—to the new consumers in the developing economies.
