Delusions of Finance: Where We are Headed

Back in October, I participated in the 2nd International Biophysical Economics Conference at SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, New York. Charlie Hall had written to me, inviting me to come and give a talk. Specifically, he wanted me to go back to my post from January 2008 called Peak Oil and the Financial Markets: A Forecast for 2008 and explain why my forecasts had turned out pretty close to correct, while many others widely missed the mark. The title he suggested for the talk was Delusions of Finance.

Economics – Feb 9

-False Profits: We Will Be Suffering from Greenspan and Bernanke’s Ineptitude for a Long Time
-G7 close to accord on banks paying for global recession
-How Brussels Is Trying to Prevent a Collapse of the Euro
-Europe loses seat at top table
-Corruption, Culpability and Short-Termism

Small is beautiful (and radical)

When a friend told me of two of the proposed discussion topics for a major agricultural conference–“What is so radical about radical agriculture?” and “Is small the only beautiful?”–I told him that that I thought both questions had the same answer. Let me see if I can explain.

The Challenge of Algal Fuel: Economic Processing of the Entire Algal Biomass

Micro-algae have considerable potential for the production of biofuel, but at present the process of producing fuel from algae would appear to be currently uneconomic. If fuel from micro-algae is to be economic the entire algal biomass should be utilised and anaerobic digestion could play an important part in the exploitation of algae to produce algal energy.

Post-Carbon Schools: Back from Hell

Creeping corporate influence on K-12 education promises to corrupt what little soul remains of our disintegrating industrial culture. As an alternative in the coming post-carbon era, I suggest here a curriculum centered on morals, community, and the Land Ethic — with emphasis on practical skills. Long live the sacred!

Beyond Copenhagen – Now what?

Are current corporate-dominated international institutions inadequate to the task of meeting the multiple planetary survival challenges they themselves have helped create?…Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute (postcarbon.org), talks about the factors contributing to the stalemate in the Copenhagen climate summit, the other ‘game ending’ challenges confronting the current economic system, and the bottom-up steps necessary to move to a post-carbon economy.

Deconstructing Dinner – Speerville Flour MIll

The Speerville Flour Mill is a locally-owned and operated business in New Brunswick that has for over 25 years been supplying the Atlantic Provinces of Canada with local, organically grown grains and foods. The mill supports dozens of organic grain farmers in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. One of those farmers is Andrew Kernohan of Parrsboro, Nova Scotia. In September 2009, Deconstructing Dinner visited Speerville and Andrew’s farm while touring throughout the provinces.