The renewable revolution, III – the Jevons paradox
I received an interesting comment today on my first post on the renewable revolution. In answering it, I thought that the exchange was worth publishing as a post in its own, so here it is.
Ugo Bardi
Bringing down the wall: Occupy Wall Street and the Brooklyn Bridge arrests
The big bronze bull is surrounded by metal fences and strategically placed members of NYPD’s finest. The famous statue, the symbol of aggressive market optimism, is normally open for tourists to grope and fondle, but today, in part because of the “Occupy Wall Street” protest, it has been penned. Today, the Wall Street Bull looks amusingly like a panicked animal in a cage.
Plutonomy retail
A few years ago Citigroup (yes, it’s a bank) came up with the notion of “plutonomy” to describe the way the economy was coming. It was a neologism, of course, but one that needed little or no explanation…Another way of describing it is as the rule of the top 0.1%, by the top 0.1%, for the top 0.1%.
Yes, refine oil sands crude right here
As soon as former premier Peter Lougheed notified the country that he thought the controversial Keystone XL pipeline was a bad deal for Alberta, the experts got all flustered and expressed their usual shock and dismay. Yet Lougheed’s declaration was elegantly simple. “We should be refining the bitumen in Alberta and we should make it public policy in the province,” he told the CBC.
#OccupyWallStreet – COMMENT & ANALYSIS – Oct 4
– #OccupyWallStreet is a church of dissent not a protest
– Gandhi goes to Wall Street
– Sharon Astyk – Don’t Feed the Zombies: The Problem of Protesting the Thing You Depend On
– The Unrepentant Marxist encounters Occupy Wall Street
– Understanding the Theory Behind Occupy Wall Street’s Approach
Producing sweeteners locally
One of the most common complaints about the industrial age is its constant and seemingly ever-growing use of sweeteners. Whether it was cheap sugar (and rum) in the early 1800s, saccharin in the early 1900s, or high-fructose corn syrup in the late 20th century, sweeteners have had a bad—but tasty—reputation…In a local context, however, sweeteners are extremely important. Many of the local fruits that contain Vitamin C, for instance, are difficult eating unless sweetened…Sugar is also very important in preserving food, where it creates a hostile environment for bacteria as well as a delicious treat.
#OccupyWallStreet – NEWS – Oct 4
– WaPo: ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests gain steam, but movement’s goals remain unclear
– NY Times: Anti-Wall Street Protests Spread to Other Cities
– Occupation: Coming to a City Near You?
The road to Europe: the need for trans-European politics
The EU’s crisis has been framed as an economic one, with the self-interest of individuals in nation states pitted one against the other: if the Greeks do well, the Germans do badly. But Europe needs a plural political existence – European political parties expressing this – in order to function.
Energy industry and peak oil – Oct 4
– The 10 Commandments – Guidelines to Surviving in a Post Peak Oil World
– Peak oil advocate Rep. Roscoe Bartlett may be forced out by Maryland redistricting
– Tech Talk – Pipelines in and from Canada
– Exxon’s climate admission
– ‘Fossil fuels are wonderful’, claims US documentary
#OccupyWallStreet – VOICES – Oct 4
– Why Do You Occupy? – Interviews At Occupy Boston – video
– ‘You’re creating a vision of the sort of society you want to have in miniature.’ (interview with theoretician-organizer David Graeber)
– Encounters with Occupy Wall Street – video
– Democracy 2.0 Barcelona – video
Cool ideas – Oct 4
-Battered by economic crisis, Greeks turn to barter networks
-OSU Urban Farming Study: What’s the Best Way to Turn a Parking Lot into a Garden?
-Earth Sangha announces “Rising Forests Coffee”
-Bath and West Community Energy launch their first public share issue
Enough: a worldview for positive futures
While the adoption of new technologies is crucial, so too is the need for a new, self-limiting worldview recognising that “enough is plenty”. This philosophy of “enough” is about the optimum — having exactly the right amount and using it gracefully. Adopting such a worldview would nourish a culture of adapted human behaviour in which social justice could prevail and at least some of the Earth’s ecosystems would have the chance to renew themselves.
