Editor’s picks: January 2011
Articles from last month that we thought were significant.
Staff
Food & agriculture – Feb 13 (updated Feb 14)
– Paul Krugman: Droughts, Floods and Food
– China bids to ease drought with $1bn emergency water aid
– U.N. Food Agency Issues Warning on China Drought
– North Korea appeals to foreign governments for food aid
– NYT’s Andrew Revkin: Egypt, Inkblots, Agendas and Feeding 9 Billion
– Wes Jackson: Halting obsession with carbon is key to sustaining agriculture
-Produce prices skyrocket with freeze in Mexico, Southwest
Population – Feb 13
– Special National Geographic Series: 7 Billion
– A world too full of people – let’s invest in family planning
– Biology’s Bomb: Graphing ‘Explosive’ Population Growth in Cold War Textbooks
Making change – Feb 13
– How Cyber-Pragmatism Brought Down Mubarak
– Another Step Toward Mainstreaming Nonviolence
– How to Build a Progressive Tea Party
– Wendell Berry Joins Retired Coal Miners and Residents in Kentucky Capitol Sit-in
Preface to a Prelude to Peak Oil
Prelude may be the first thriller novel explicitly about peak oil (numberless thrillers concern the nefarious machinations of international oil conglomerates — ultimately those are stories about peak oil too). It follows a short period in the life and career of Cassie Young, an oil industry analyst based in Washington, DC.
Oil ‘demand has met supply’ – Saudi Arabia (via Wikileaks)
Wikileaks may have told us what we already knew – that Saudi oil reserves are greatly inflated – but the reports also portray leaders of the highly secretive petro-state feeling “under the gun” as they strive to move their economy away from dependence on oil.
Enough childish name calling
In an article peppered with inaccuracies and faulty logic, the author makes a claim that is way off target – an accusation that those advocating a steady state economy are misanthropists. On the contrary, we want to see good lives for all, now and into the future, secured through sound management of our ecological assets, and a quality of life that includes meeting material needs – but recognizing material needs as only one aspect of the totality of being human.
ODAC Newsletter – Feb 11
Saudi Arabia’s recoverable oil reserves may have been overstated by 40%. That was the warning sent to Washington from its embassy in Riyadh in 2007, according to a cable released by Wikileaks this week. The source was Sadad al-Husseini, former head of E&P at Saudi Aramco, who allegedly told US diplomats in Riyadh that Saudi’s claimed reserves of some 700bn bbls were overinflated by 300 billion barrels of ‘speculative resources’, and that output would peak once the kingdom had produced half of its original proven reserves of 360bn barrels. With 116bn produced so far, the diplomats concluded that on this basis Saudi’s peak could come in the early 2020s.
Rising food prices and the Egyptian tinderbox: How banks and investors are starving the third world
An increase of a dollar or so in the cost of a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread for Americans can mean starvation for people in Egypt and other poor countries.
Power and powerlessness in global cities
All is not rosy in global cities where inequalities reach record levels and put such cities at risk. There may consequently be more cycles of disorder and violence if the financial and economic sectors continue to dominate the cities’ agendas.
Egypt’s warning: Are you listening?
Can events in complex systems ever be predicted? No…and yes.
Innovation of the week: Securing land rights one acre at a time
In India and around the world, secure land rights provide a source of food and income, empowering families and communities with stability, dignity, and hope.
