Jon Bosak

Outlook for liquid fuels, 2010-2020

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As our regular readers know, we here at TCLocal are engaged in a long-term effort to help develop local responses to energy descent–the condition of decreasingly available energy. The near-term manifestation of energy descent is high liquid fuel prices caused by a leveling and decline in global oil production, and it has been part of our job over the five years since we started TCLocal to keep an eye on the liquid fuel outlook and periodically advise the residents of Tompkins County (in particular, local policy makers) on what we’re finding.

Argentina’s collapse and the grassroots of resilience

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When people think of the 2001 Argentinean collapse, they automatically think of riots, looting and violent unrest. It’s true. Social cohesion did break down in large cities as they negotiated both the erosion of societal norms and the carrying capacity of the land beneath them. On the other hand, in rural Patagonia a different dynamic existed that allowed for the spontaneous emergence of barter markets. These markets self-organized to create a flow of trade in necessary goods and services when access to standard currency was radically reduced and even ultimately removed from society. Community cooperatives also formed to provide the means for a higher level of local function and, thus, greater regional stability.

Observations on local governments’ preparedness for fuel supply disruptions

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In the wake of the oil supply shocks of the 1970s, the U.S. DOT encouraged the development of regional transportation energy contingency plans. But by the early 1980s, regional and local governments stopped developing transportation energy contingency plans as the threat of fuel supply disruptions diminished, as funding and support for the development of these plans discontinued, and as other more pressing issues emerged. Nearly 30 years later, there are warnings that we are again at risk for potential fuel shortages.

Election day — Reflecting on our failures

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Let’s not fool ourselves. There is a considerable challenge in making the best of a bad situation, for what is required is a serious, wide-reaching revival of American families, communities and old-fashioned Christian charity. Americans will have to take care of each other in the absence of a benevolent government.

Infrastructural Ecologies: Principles for Post-Industrial Public Works

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A next generation of ground-up or rebuilt bridges, power grids, waterworks, sewers, landfills, rail systems, ports and dams demands a new direction — bold strategies to bring about a future of multi-purpose, low-carbon, resilient infrastructure, tightly coordinated with natural systems, well integrated into social contexts, and capable of adapting to a changing climate.

Hell announces pilot colonization program

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Hell today announced a new Pilot Colonization Program to relocate demons, devils, incubi, succubi, and Damned Souls to the surface of the Earth, starting as early as 2012. Lucifer Jr., Senior Executive Vice-President of Hades, explained the rationale behind the new program: “From our perspective, warming Earth temperatures offers an infernally perfect solution for the overcrowding we’ve been experiencing in Hell for the last 66 years. As the planet heats up, Earth will present a terrific opportunity for Hell’s growth and expansion.”

Global Village Construction Set – explained in a 2-minute video

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We are developing the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) – an advanced industrial economy-in-a-box that can be replicated inexpensively anywhere in the world. The GVCS is like a Lego set of modular building blocks which that work together for creating sustainable, regenerative, resilient communities. Our prototype village aims to demonstrate that we can create a complete economy from local resources on ~1000 acres via regenerative resource use – for ecological living with modern-day comforts, minus resource conflicts.

Post carbon university

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The Post Carbon Reader feels like a Chicago book. I know that it’s really a West Coast production, with its eponymous institute located north of the San Francisco Bay area. But this book forsakes the Cassandra cry of a Berkeley activist at a giant redwood tree-sit. Likewise missing is the smooth scenario-spinning of a Silicon Valley venture capitalist at a TED conference. It’s an encyclopedia that seems more at home among the leering gargoyles and faux-Gothic spires of Hyde Park than on the sun-kissed lanes of Sonoma wine country.