Soils and souls: the promise of the land

In the search for alternatives to our dead-end industrial agriculture system, Land Institute researchers are pursuing plant breeding programs in Salina, KS that just may be the key to post-oil farming. In late September, the Institute’s 2010 Prairie Festival began with three talks – by poet/novelist Wendell Berry, economist Josh Farley, and biologist Sandra Steingraber. The three were telling the story of how sin brought us to this place, how we must redefine success if we are to atone, and how essential that change is for our own safety. I left the barn that day with one revelation burning in my brain: While evil lurks in many places, it is most concentrated in fossil fuels.

A critique of Chapter XVII of the new book by Hirsch, Bezdek, and Wendling.

This chapter is a scandal to the peak oil movement (if there is such a thing as a “peak oil movement”). I suspect it will go a long way toward discrediting peak oil as an oil company conspiracy to both raise the price of oil and destroy the planet in the process. They attempt to create doubt about anthropogenic global warming (AGW) in order to advance their own thesis about how to best mitigate declining oil production.

Foreword to new Transition book: ‘Communities, Councils and a Low Carbon Future’

The book is a blood, sweat and tears account of life as an elected eco warrior trying to encourage local government to work with communities to make the world a greener place, packed with great case studies and tips for Transition initiatives and Councils alike.