Staff

Jared Diamond Done Drunk the Kool-Aid

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Jared Diamond seems to have missed one of the central observations of his own _Collapse_ – that when societies actually avert collapse, the tend to do so with strong levels of prohibition and regulation. That is, Japan didn’t ask the gun manufacturers to self-regulate, they prohibited the use of guns entirely. The reason the Dominican Republic is so much better off than Haiti isn’t because people refined their logging practices, but because they restricted them.

Homewreckers

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I talk often with elderly relatives and neighbours from Missouri, Germany and Ireland. They all grew up in different worlds; a farm, an urban tenement, or the ruins of a bombed city. Ask them what has changed, though, and the answer is always the same: the ubiquitous presence of family and community.

Was Volatility in the Price of Oil a Cause of the 2008 Financial Crisis?

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A cause for the financial crisis of 2008 is described that differs from conventional wisdom. It is proposed that in the early 2000s, an increase in the volatility of oil took place…The oil shock of 2008, when price doubled over less than a year (peaking at ~ $140 a barrel), is shown not to be an isolated event. Instead, the oil shock of 2008 is the largest in a series of 7 prominent spikes in oil price variance that began some 7-8 years ago.

…There Are Children Starving in India

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The subject of food waste is not sexy. Anyone faced with the statistic that we waste 40% of our food in America is almost certainly appalled – for a second or two. But they also probably stop thinking about it just a tiny second later, probably after a moment of thinking “not us, though.” And yet, it almost certainly is us.

Why We Find it so Hard to Act Against Climate Change

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It should be easy to deal with climate change. There is a strong scientific consensus supported by very sound data; consensus across much of the religious and political spectrum and among businesses including the largest corporations in the world. The vast majority of people claim to be concerned. The targets are challenging, but they are achievable with existing technologies, and there would be plentiful profits and employment available for those who took up the challenge.

What It Looks Like When a Local Authority REALLY Gets Transition…the Monteveglio story…

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So what might it look like when a local authority really gets Transition? Earlier this week I received a very excitable email from Cristiano Bottone, one of the movers behind Transition Italia, and the Transition of his own town, Monteveglio, near Bologna.

The Complexity Myth

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I’m looking forward to the rhubarb growing season; it happens when you least expect it, as tiny shoots start to emerge from the soil, embellished in the most delightful crinkles, and bursting with every shade of pink, red and green you could imagine. You can almost smell it stewing in the pan as its red shoots push upwards and outwards.

These Revolutionary Times

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The language of revolution should be used as a last resort and against odds that can be beaten only with radical thought and action. It requires justification or, at the very least, explanation.

The UN’s future scenarios for climate are pure fantasy

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I do not question that emissions of greenhouse gasses affect our climate. But I have a different understanding than the UN’s climate panel, the IPCC, on the extent of emissions from coal and oil – and it is based on new scientific knowledge from Uppsala University. The future scenarios that the IPCC published in 2000 are not just improbable, they are also in several cases completely unrealistic.