United States – Oct 7
-Obama orders feds to cut energy use, emissions
-Financial overseers opposing overhaul
-Watch What You Tweet
Staff
Nations & resources – Oct 7
-UN sees rise in ‘land grab’ for food security
-The Coalfield Uprising
-Jumpin’ Jack Verdi, It’s a Gas, Gas, Gas
The Peak Oil Crisis: $75 a Barrel
Last week Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi revealed the secret for economic recovery, everlasting happiness and you-name-it. The secret — keep oil prices at $75 a barrel — turned out to be so simple it is surprising we didn’t think of it ourselves.
Economics – Oct 7
-Why Are We Lying to Ourselves About Our Catastrophic Economic Meltdown?
-Have we learned nothing from the economic catastrophe of 12 months ago?
-More state businesses using Shared-Work Program
-Just the naked eye
-US credit shrinks at Great Depression rate prompting fears of double-dip recession
-How the Fed Can Avoid the Next Bubble
Peak Oil and the Necessity of Transitioning to Regenerative Agriculture
As global energy availability begins to decline over the next several decades, energy-intensive industrial methods of food production will have to be transitioned to regenerative practices that 1) sponsor their own energy, 2) build soils and 3) produce in abundance.
A Change Coming to the World Monetary System?
CNBC invited Jim Rickards, a senior managing director at a firm called Omnis to comment on the latest G-20 meeting and the future of the dollar. His testimony shows some rare lucidity about the present problems with our monetary system. He is bearish on the dollar, bullish on gold, but don’t mistake him for a gold bug, for he is well aware of the consequences of a flight to the “barbarian’s relic”.
UK & Europe – Oct 7
-Pity the lost generation
-London’s new drinking fountains a challenge to bottled water industry
-UK£10 Million for Low Carbon Community Projects
-Nuclear Poker Heats Up in Berlin
Climate & environment – Oct 6
-Arctic seas turn to acid, putting vital food chain at risk
-New Analysis Brings Dire Forecast Of 6.3-Degree Temperature Increase
-Imagining Climate Solutions
-Rich countries ‘must slash living standards’ to fight climate change
-Tipping towards the unknown
-No rainforest, no monsoon: get ready for a warmer world
Web & media – Oct 6
-The power of nightmares
-That’s Not the News: Clinton’s “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy”
-Greenwald Film on Afghanistan Destroys the Logic of the War, Leading the New York Times to Whine
-Book Review: ‘Mannahatta’ by Eric Sanderson
-How to Save the News
The genius of low-tech and reusable technology – Oct 6
-‘Tilting at windmills: the boy who harnessed the wind’
-The Community Cooker Turns Rags to Riches
-Water powered cable train
-The Weekly Geek: micro-hydro power
The Challenging Incongruity of Cheap Oil
Expecting or wanting oil prices to be “low or moderate” is at best incongruous, and at worst naive in the current economic, financial and political context.
Keep Left!
Histories of left-wing politics tend to focus on major parties and movements as well as individual leaders and influential theorists. A small number of professional politicians and intellectuals thereby usually dominate the picture. The new book by labour movement historian John Charlton has the considerable virtue of looking at the movement’s rank and file at ground level, in this case, the North-East of England and particularly Tyneside. The Left’s real soul is to be found amongst those many thousands, if not millions, of unsung individuals, inspired by some sort of socialist vision, who, in their workplace or local neighbourhood, have fought against exploitation and oppression.
