Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Nafeez Ahmed We are running out of time. By 2018, converging food, water and energy shortages could magnify the probability of conflict between major powers, civil wars, and cross-border conflicts. After 2020, this could result in political and economic catastrophes that would undermine state control and national infrastructures, potentially leading to social collapse.
– a Look at the Example of Detroit
-Lessons From a Low-Impact Week
-Free Geek – Computers for the Community
– Roving Herds of Grazing Climate Helpers
– The backlash begins against the world landgrab
– Ezra Klein on Industrial Ag: Asking the Wrong Questions
– Greenhorns: the network that’s breathing new life into US farming
– How Peru’s wells are being sucked dry by British love of asparagus
– Forget Oil, Worry About Phosphorus
The world of In the Mother’s Land is one of the few credible descriptions of what a realistic ecotechnic society could look like, and this description does ask hard questions about our future and our vision of it.
– China resorts to blackouts in pursuit of energy efficiency
– Air Conditioning Innovation Uses 90% Less Power
– Solar on the Cheap: Thanks Purple Pokeberry!
– Ten Ways the Feds Are Leading the Green Charge
– Busting Myths About Photovoltaics
– Rising wheat prices raise fears over UK commitment to biofuels
Ah, the confusion of economics students when they encounter the subject of supply and demand in introductory “micro.” They learn that prices are determined by supply and demand. Then they’re taught that the quantities supplied and demanded are determined by… prices!
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-Economic recovery?
-Taxes, regulations and moratoria
-Brazil in the news
-Briefs
-Do Not Pity the Democrats
-Are dying languages worth saving?
-The environmentalist’s paradox: we do better while the earth does worse
The sort of conundrums which the barter market produced helped us unmask some of the hidden dynamics of markets, in particular how we measure value.
We have had a period of unprecedented stability in the last decades – mostly declining food and energy costs have allowed us to live as we have. That’s changed. Now the one thing we know is that we’ll never know.
To some people, planting a tree is the epitome of the environmental cliche. Planting a tree seems so simple, so easy, so… low-technology.
If you want to know which way the global wind is blowing (or the sun shining or the coal burning), watch China. That’s the news for our energy future and for the future of great-power politics on planet Earth. Washington is already watching — with anxiety.
