Tom Whipple

The peak oil crisis: the future of government

by

A new crowd has descended on Washington vowing to make everything right again by cutting taxes, reducing the size and the role of some parts of the government. Above all the folks are committed to getting government regulation off our backs so that free enterprise, the entrepreneurial spirit, merchant capitalism, or what have you can flourish as it did in the past. What all those calling for reduced government fail to grasp, however, is that 200 years of cheap abundant fossil fuel energy has transformed this country into something completely different.

Energy – Dec 6

by

– Tertzakian: Look for oil price between $80 to $100 per barrel in 2011
– Analysis – Colombia defies “peak oil” but for how long?
– Andrew McKillop: Black Hole For Oil Price Policy (Petro-Keynsian growth?

Coal, climate, and confusion

by

Both of these outcomes (the peak and decline of coal production within a few decades, or 4°C of surface warming) would be an unmitigated disaster for human civilization. There’s no doubt about it. Running low on coal would be great for the climate, but would blow up human economies. If we have more coal than we know what to do with, we would blow-up the climate but the coal would help sustain human economies, absent a miraculous breakthrough in renewable energy.

Why oil shortages may make nuclear a less viable option

by

The decline of oil supplies is likely to increase the risk of nuclear accidents, decrease the likelihood that the funds for decommissioning will be available, and increase the likelihood of inadequate uranium supply. An estimate of oil supply at 2080 is provided, based on Collin Campbell’s forecast to 2050 in April 2009.

The power of positive

by

One of the reasons I came to the Transition movement was that it seemed to me to be the most viable, most broad-based, deepest-thinking “second dimension” approach available. There simply aren’t any other organizations I have found which are Creating New Structures with as considered and informed and panoramic a scope…Joanne gives her take on adapting Transition for the US.

Taking down America: four scenarios for the end of the American Century by 2025

by

A soft landing for America 40 years from now? Don’t bet on it. The demise of the United States as the global superpower could come far more quickly than anyone imagines. If Washington is dreaming of 2040 or 2050 as the end of the American Century, a more realistic assessment of domestic and global trends suggests that in 2025, just 15 years from now, it could all be over except for the shouting.

Feeding the hungry cities: Backyard chickens, rooftop gardens, and vertical farming

by

As the global supply of fossil fuels shrink and oil gets more expensive, foods that have to be shipped long distances – and particularly those that have to be refrigerated in transit – will become much harder to afford. Urban agriculture, which already seems to be undergoing something of a renaissance, will become more necessary.

A critical response to Michael Brownlee’s call for ‘Deep Transition’

by

I read Michael Brownlee’s recent piece “The Evolution of Transition in the US”, with a mixture of fascination and a sense of disquiet that increased the deeper I got into the piece. The concept of Transition has been regularly critiqued, a positive process which has helped to shape what it is today. Most critiques run along the lines of “Transition, nice idea, but it isn’t [ … ] enough”. So, for Alex Steffen, Transition isn’t technologically savvy or optimistic enough, for the Trapese Collective it isn’t politically savvy enough, for John Michael Greer it is guilty of “premature triumphalism”, for Ted Trainer it isn’t sufficiently rooted in alternative culture or focused enough, while for others it is too riven with New Age thinking and pseudoscience. Now, according to Brownlee, it is fatally flawed by not having the “Sacred” at the heart of what it does.