Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Carl Etnier Ken Meter, one of the top experts on community food systems in the US, discusses how local food networks thrive and how they can help strengthen economies. Meter is president of the Crossroads Resource Center in Minneapolis. Carl Etnier hosts.
Taped in late 2005 before Peak Moment began, this conversation feels eerily prescient about the effects of the 2008 financial collapse. William Stewart reflects on the shadow side of the fossil fuel bonanza, which enabled hyper-individualism and mobility that have shredded our connections to community and place, along with increased violence and dysfunction. Likening our oil-dependent culture to an addict who must first bottom out, he suggests there may be a silken lining after collapse: the possibility of more communal and connected ways of life.
The American West at Risk’s 13 chapters examine some of the major human-caused environmental problems now threatening the 11 contiguous Western states…Citing trustworthy, peer-reviewed studies in support of its arguments, and written by three trained scientists, this book has every claim for credibility—and is an enlightening and gripping read for scientists and laypeople alike.
On December 2, 2009, the Bloomington City Council overwhelmingly approved the report of the Bloomington Peak Oil Task Force entitled Redefining Prosperity: Energy Descent and Community Resilience (PDF 13.36 MB). The report is the product of a seven-member task force and outlines the community’s vulnerability to a decline in cheap oil and proposes numerous mitigation strategies.
-Earth-Friendly Elements, Mined Destructively
-Loans to Boost Nuclear Industry Seen Coming Soon
-Wood Heating and Energy Literacy
-2020 vision: Second-hand Prius, anyone? Car use declines across Europe as society returns to medieval values
-America’s New Year’s resolution: Break our addiction to oil
-Retired, no, refired, yes: on call for collapse
-Portland ratchets up volunteer-led ‘tool libraries’ that lend tools for free
-Nine meals from anarchy
-Boiler scrappage scheme offers £400-off vouchers
The hidden link between money and energy means that as fossil fuels deplete the relatively recent phenomenon of retirement is in its waning days.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Gasoline prices rising
-Venezuela
-China rolls on
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
Been a fascinating few days here in the UK in terms of the weather…It had been so long since we actually had a really actual snowy winter that thick snow has become the stuff of legend, banished to Doctor Who Christmas Specials and the top of Christmas cakes. Then it snowed, and boy did it snow, and almost immediately all the headlines were of ‘misery’ and ‘chaos’.
…Our society likes big shiny solutions. It likes answers. It likes to focus on THE SOLUTION that makes everything better, and we tend to think that anything less than THE SOLUTION is giving up and copping out. But sometimes there isn’t a THE SOLUTION and even when there is, while some people are looking at THE SOLUTION, a bunch of other people have to be on the ground fixing what’s happening already.
-Here’s something about North Dakota worth imitating
-The Other Plot to Wreck America
-America slides deeper into depression as Wall Street revels
-Can Farming Save Detroit?
-The Visual Du Jour – What If…?
-Economists start to consider that money can’t buy happiness
-Peak oil demand funds
The top ten sustainability stories of the past decade was my last post. What trends are likely the next ten years? One thing for sure, 2010 through 2019 will be one day looked at as 1.) the turning point for addressing climate change by using effective urban management strategies, or it will be remembered as 2.) the time when we collectively fumbled the Big Blue Ball.
