Oil Caused Recession, Not Wall Street
This essay brings a different perspective to the question of whether oil caused the financial crash of 2008.
Tom Therramus
Tar sands quagmire – Jan 21
-Conoco, Total to expand oil sands project
-Shell faces shareholder revolt over Canadian tar sands project
-Alberta to study pace of oil sands growth
Glaciergate, EPA regs showdown, and it just goes on – Jan 21
-UN climate chief admits mistake on Himalayan glaciers warning
-The New Storm Brewing On the Climate Front
-U.N. Panel’s Glacier Warning Is Criticized as Exaggerated
-“Glacier gate” – how the Murdoch press have got it wrong on the Himalayan big melt
-Hanging EPA regulations around Democrats’ necks
-Murkowski to call on Congress to block federal greenhouse gas regulation
-Emissions targets set for delay
-UN drops deadline for countries to state climate change targets
Extreme commuting
Extreme commuters – who spend at least three hours per day traveling to and from their workplace – doubled in the U.S. between 1990 and 2005. Since the onset of the subprime and financial crises, the trend to move further and further away, and to travel longer and longer distances, has reached the end of the road.
Biophysical economics: Putting energy at the center
Many scientists have long complained that standard economics fails to account for the biological and physical systems that form the basis of the economy. In short, the economy is a subset of the environment and governed by the same biological and physical laws as every other system on the planet.
Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse
Due to our refusal to live within the Earth’s natural limits, we now face a multitude of problems that will have a severe negative impact on human civilization. Orr, an expert on environmental literacy and ecological design, further argues that political negligence, an economy driven by insatiable consumption and a disregard for future generations are only adding to our plethora of environmental challenges.
India/Pakistan: Fog gets in your eyes – Jan 20
-Dense fog in Delhi brings travel chaos
-Blame air pollution for Capital’s blanket of fog
-Airport fog on track
-Fog in Lahore — causes and impact
UK gets serious about food! – Jan 20
-UK Cross-Government Food Research and Innovation Strategy
-Return to slop bucket as homes face ban on sending food waste to landfill
-It’s time to get back to the land
All insects great and small – Jan 20
-Voodoo wasps that could save the world
-Groups ask U.S. to regulate shipping of commercial bumblebees
-The cricket that pollinates plants
-Bee decline linked to falling biodiversity
-The Vexing Bugs in the Global Trading System
United States – Jan 20
-Obama’s year in power: Healthcare was tough, but the future is tougher
-A Year Later, Voters Send a Different Message
-A Very American Coup
The Peak Oil Crisis: 2010 – An Annus Horribilis
For Queen Elizabeth, 1992, the year Windsor Palace caught on fire and several of her kids separated, was an annus horribilis, for the rest of us the coming year may well turn out to be horrible too. While our leaders and the media continue to tell us that we have turned an economic corner and that all will be well soon, the underlying data, for those willing to look, tell a far different story.
Disasters Far and Near
As the disaster in Haiti moves into its “Katrina” phase of organizational chaos, relief effort failure, and public health calamity, the world will get another lesson in the dangers of techno-triumphalist posturing. American authority pretends to be in flawless control of a situation that by the minute crumbles into anarchy and death as the generals strut their stuff and the CNN crews broadcast yet another feel-good segment about adopted orphans. At this point, one rainstorm is all it will take to kill what is left of the Haitian social order.
