The future of the university
Everybody knows how important it is to slow down and reflect. And like us humans society too needs places where it can meditate and reflect. And universities should be such places.
Marcus Kracht
The Wealth of Nature
What do you get when you cross Adam Smith’s economic classic, The Wealth of Nations, with E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful? Something like John Michael Greer’s latest book, The Wealth of Nature: Economics as if Survival Mattered. Greer not only diagnoses why most economists are usually wrong when they peer into the future, he explains why the exuberant growth of the fossil fuel age is ending and suggests some steps you can take for a less insecure economic future.
Fukushima – July 20
– First phase of work to contain nuke crisis completed: Japan
– Japan Won’t Rule Out Possibility Radioactive Fukushima Beef Was Exported
– Brittleness factor of aging reactors key restart criterion
– Japan Geiger Counter Demand After Fukushima Earthquake Means Buyer Beware
Reading the world in a loaf of bread: Soaring food prices, wild weather, upheaval, and a planetful of trouble
What can a humble loaf of bread tell us about the world? The answer is: far more than you might imagine. For one thing, that loaf can be “read” as if it were a core sample extracted from the heart of a grim global economy. Looked at another way, it reveals some of the crucial fault lines of world politics, including the origins of the Arab spring that has now become a summer of discontent.
Biofuels – 20 July
-Biofuel demand in US driving higher food prices, says report
-EU powers ahead with ‘sustainable’ biofuel certification schemes
-Lufthansa begins flights with biofuels
-US Air Force: We want to use biofuels
Liberation from civilization!
For many years the thesis of this blog has been: Our civilization is in its final century, and there is nothing we can do to prevent its collapse. When I began writing this, I was largely dismissed as a defeatist and a depressed “doomer” (or worse). As awareness has grown about the now-inevitable end of (a) cheap energy, (b) stable climate and (c) the growth economy, there is a growing acknowledgement that the collapse scenario I have written about is at least conceivable.
Skywatchers
Brought up with my teeth to the biting wind, weather was the constant reality, I knew its dangers and terribly resented the fact that I could not be home with my wife and children all the time. Fellow workers in the big building society seemed to have no notion of this kind of concern. I knew I didn’t belong there. Maybe no one did.
What happens when you open the streets for people
The streets are commons that belong to everyone. So imagine diverting traffic from a major street in your neighborhood, then welcoming families on bikes, families on foot, babies in strollers, people in wheelchairs, toddlers on training wheels, grade schoolers on skateboards, teenagers on single-speeds, hipsters on fixed gears, grandparents on recumbents, couples arm-in-arm and even yoga classes in the middle of the road. What would happen? If your neighborhood is anything like mine—which I am sure it is—get ready for a massive outbreak of smiles.
A greener revolution
There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to ending world hunger, and the pathways to reform are many. Collaboration between diverse stakeholders, integrating technical innovations, crop-livestock rotations, improving access to markets, pricing ecosystem services and supportive policy developments are all part of the answer.
The coming UK energy meltdown
The UK desperately needs a new energy strategy based on a realistic assessment of its assets, its needs and the options available to it. Unfortunately, its freedom for technical and financial manoevre is deeply restricted by its self-imposed Climate Change Act and its commitment to the EU’s 20-20-20 targets.
Starting down the permaculture path: Thoughts from a PDC student
People come to permaculture for all different reasons, but all through some shared understanding that we live in a world full of disconnects. Many of us feel disconnected from the sources of our food, water and energy, and equally as disconnected from our neighbors, our communities, and our government. We know about the problems and we think there must be solutions. But what draws people to permaculture (as opposed to other approaches) is that its solutions fit together. In a world full of disconnects, permaculture shows us how to make connections.
Nuclear delusions
The heating of Earth remains the most urgent symptom of humanity’s mismanagement of our technological civilization. Desperately seeking answers for a low carbon energy regime, some observers propose a “nuclear renaissance” to replace hydrocarbons. Nuclear companies, nations, and advocates offer nuclear as a possible “low-carbon” energy path. However, the evidence in hand shows that nuclear energy is not the solution to humanity’s energy needs that many hope for. Here are the reasons…
