Erik Curren

Weather will never be weird enough to end climate denial

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Since the failure of cap-and-trade in Congress last year, many environmentalists have despaired of success in politics until a really destructive natural disaster wakes up Americans to the reality of climate change. This year’s tornadoes, floods and droughts in the US sure seem to fit the bill for climate disaster. But if you’re expecting any kind of national turnaround on the climate discussion, you’re underestimating the power of the big polluters who spread denial.

Transition and activism: a response

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Perhaps the route to real change, long-lasting and deep change, isn’t through deepening polarity, but through a re-weaving of what has been torn apart, a seeking of common ground, an appeal to universal values, creating a safe space where people can sit together and not feel judged, and through the creation of viable, nurturing and life-affirming alternatives that have a strong and broad sense of ownership.

ODAC Newsletter – May 27

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There was a step forward this week for recognition of peak oil in the UK political agenda. Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has agreed that the Department for Energy and Climate Change and ITPOES (UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security) should work more closely together on peak-oil threat assessment and contingency planning.

Peak oil and the fall of the Soviet Union: lessons on the 20th anniversary of the collapse

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The causes of the fall of the Soviet Union are thought to be inefficiency and the Soviet response to the Reagan Administration’s military buildup of the early 1980s. However, a more plausible explanation is the decline in Soviet oil production caused by peak oil. This gives the world an example of a modern economy confronted by peak oil and what lessons we can learn from it.

Memorial Day, 2030

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We will have to work as hard as possible to make sure we don’t leave a world of wars to our children. That means avoiding decades if not centuries of strife and conflict from catastrophic climate change. That also means finally ending our addiction to oil, a source — if not the source — of two of our biggest recent wars.

Holiday embrace, holiday revolt

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The capitalist-saturated American culture gives way to holidays only begrudgingly. Under corporate dominance, Americans vacation and take time off from work very little compared to the rest of the industrialized world. When we do have a holiday, it’s equally steeped in the capitalist ethos, with garish sales loudly urging us to consume, gorge and grab ACT NOW deals. But it’s exactly this paradigm that’s pitched growth to an unsustainable end and set us adrift intellectually and culturally. This Memorial Day reject the buying and spending frenzy. Reject the go, go, go mentality. Embrace instead a process of renewal, relaxation, connection. Take that precious day off, that lovely three-day weekend as an invitation to your higher self, guilt not necessary.