Rob Hopkins

Whither Resilience and Transition? Why ‘Peak Oil’ Has Yet to Outlive its Usefulness

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It’s been a fascinating few days. Early in the week, Nate Hagens and Sharon Astyk were suggesting that perhaps the term ‘peak oil’ has outlived its usefulness, given that we have almost certainly peaked, and that the peak oil movement needs to shift its focus. It echoed something I wrote a while ago, likening ASPO and the wider peak oil movement to a Loch Ness Monster Society, dedicated to establishing the existence of this fabled creature. They organise conferences, scientific searches of the loch, write papers and journals, and then one day, an entire, intact Loch Ness Monster washes up on the shore. Then what? They have no reason to exist any longer, their whole raison d’etre vanishes overnight.

United States – Oct 12

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-Obama says Nobel Peace Prize is “call to action”
-Afghan War Debate Now Leans to Focus on Al Qaeda
-Mike’s Blog #1: ‘Pilots on Food Stamps’
-The Economic Revolution Is Already Happening — It’s Just Not on Wall St.
-There’s no there there
-Interview with Marcy Kaptur and Simon Johnson

Finding My Identity

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I have found an identity. Is that really such a big deal? The thing is, I didn’t realize I was missing one. There are so many things I could call myself: a human, male, a father, a husband, a writer, a thinker, a gardener, a campaigner… so many things that I feel pretty comfortable with, yet until a couple of weeks ago I didn’t realize there was something missing; something that yawned inside me, empty and lacking substance.

The Speech Obama Needs to Give (…in which he renounces Industrial Civilization)

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What if Obama told us the truth about our civilization? …In one illuminating sense, our civilization’s future is a probability distribution. Unfortunately, a host of not-so-nice futures are more probable than others at this point. …So trouble’s a-comin’ in what will likely be a many-act play headed downward over the next few decades — it just remains to be seen what costume it’ll be wearing in each scene. At some point the general public may be told the truth about our predicament — but maybe not. I suspect the revealing of the truth would be a sort of last-resort for those in power to try to keep things together. This speech is my take on “telling the truth.”

Food & agriculture – Oct 12

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-Scrumping for apples
-Grass-fed beef: One steer’s organic journey from ranch to dinner
-In Search of Wildlife-friendly Biofuels: Are Native Prairie Plants the Answer?
-6 Facts About Native Bees
-Cuba Pins Hopes On New Farms Run for Profit
-The Other Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis in Global Land Use

Resources and anthropocentrism

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Evolution demands short-term thinking focused on individual survival. Most attempts to overcome our evolutionarily hardwired absorption with self are selected against. The Overman is dead, killed by a high-fat diet and unwillingness to exercise. Reflexively, we follow him into the grave.

I Have Got a Dun Cow and You Can Make Good Cheese: Are Women Holding Us Back?

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When I started participating in peak oil and climate change discussions in 2003, let’s just say that the whole thing was much more of a boy’s club than it is now (and in some measure it still is). And one of the laments I most often heard was “we men would be glad to change our lives, but our wives won’t let us – they still want all the trappings of affluence.” Or “No woman will date a man who just wants to farm and grow food.” Whenever I heard these claims, I would laugh and think about how much some women I knew were struggling to get their husbands to give up their creature comforts.