EROI, insidious feedbacks, and the end of economic growth
Is a return to long term economic growth possible?
David Murphy
The enthusiasm gap in the White House
A veteran campaigner I deeply respect who said: “Show Obama you can’t be taken for granted, and I predict you will be amazed at the good things that come your way. … This is how the game is played. Get their respect!”
Exclusive interview: Robert Hirsch
The co-author of the famous Hirsch report gives an exclusive interview to a French journalist.
Peak oil notes – Sept 16
A midweekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-World Petroleum Congress
Back to school month: Inventing a child’s ecological education
I’m a homeschooler, but it isn’t only homeschoolers that struggle with the question of how you frame our ecological situation for children in ways that are honest, not too frightening, engaging, and age-appropriate.
The tragedy of goats
Autumn typically is rain-free here. This year, we’ll take advantage of the dry weather to harvest abundant poop from the goat pen and apply it directly to the then-recently harvested potato patch. Potatoes are heavy feeders, so the patch could use the nutrients. By the time we plant next spring, the compost will be working its magic. Nonetheless, we won’t plant potatoes there, though we haven’t decided which nitrogen-fixing plant to work into the rotation.
Nightwalk, paddle, and ride
Providing space for people to relate to the local land in all its diverse forms and in a diversity of ways (hike, wheelchair, nightwalk, paddle, ride, in languages other than English, sleep beneath the stars) is in many ways an art form that we have been working on for 13 years…and it’s a balance created by years of practice and simply watching for what works.
In Scotland’s search for roots, A push to restore wild lands
As Scotland asserts its identity and its autonomy, environmentalists are working to restore its denuded landscape – planting native forests, creating wildlife corridors, and reintroducing species that were wiped out centuries ago.
Animals II: chickens, rabbits and fish
To many people, the word “livestock” suggests large meaty animals too big to graze in the average backyard. The same logic that makes intensive gardening a vital tool for a deindustrializing world makes backyard raising of small livestock an important way to expand the food supply on a local and sustainable basis.
Real-world tests of small wind turbines in Netherlands and the UK
Two real-world tests performed in the Netherlands and in the UK confirm our earlier analysis that small wind turbines are a fundamentally flawed technology. Their financial payback time is much longer than their life expectancy, and in urban areas, some poorly placed wind turbines will not even deliver as much energy as needed to operate them (let alone energy needed to produce them).
The peak oil crisis: Is $50 oil in the offing?
In the last few weeks, there has been an upswing in articles emanating from prestigious commentators, such as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and Fortune magazine, which attempt to debunk the notion that the world’s oil supplies may start to fall in the next few years.
“Reinventing collapse” by Orlov (2008)
Dmitry Orlov’s “Reinventing collapse” is as actually a real downer, but Orlov’s intelligence, black humor and very Russian naturally cynical attitude – “to a Russian, ‘hard worker’ sounded a lot like ‘fool'” – makes the book a very pleasant reading experience. The book is full of resigned shrugs regarding the possibility of preventing the absolutely-certainly-coming societal collapse. We’re not talking about saving the world here – the best we can hope for is saving our own skins!
