Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Staff -World’s river deltas sinking due to human activity, says new study led by CU-Boulder
-Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’ to grow dramatically due to federal biofuel mandate
-Dust Storm Blankets Sydney as Drought Bites
-Water worries threaten U.S. push for natural gas
-Alternative Energy Projects Stumble on a Need for Water
-Obama administration wades deeper into Delta mire
Plenty of people think of metaphysics as one of those abstruse topics that give otherwise unemployable academics something to do with their time. Meanwhile the industrial world lurches toward disaster along a trajectory marked out, in part, by a common metaphysical error. The Archdruid explains, in this second post of a series.
A midweek roundup of Peak Oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-China moves to curb overcapacity
-US Climate bill
-Saving the Obama Revolution
-Metropolis now
-Interview with Dr. James Hansen
-US firms quit Chamber of Commerce over climate change position
-Merkel gets her ‘dream coalition’ as Social Democrat vote collapses
-Europe’s Socialists Suffering Even in Downturn
-Angela Merkel win ends Turkey’s EU hopes
-Nuclear power? Yes, maybe
-Stock Market, A Peter Pan Market
-Financial crisis, imperialism and environment — `Socialism is humanity’s best chance'(interview)
-The Blob That Ate Monetary Policy
-G20 Schemes Threaten Democracy, Sustainability
-Can one woman save Africa?
-Africa doesn’t need a green revolution. It needs agroecology
-Human-made Crises ‘Outrunning Our Ability To Deal With Them,’ Scientists Warn
-The Australian town that kicked the bottle
-Energy executives offer ideas on stimulus
As readers know, I’ve written about the difference between healing and today’s petrochemical-drug oriented medical system. The insurance being debated is seldom about true health care, especially not for post-petroleum living. Should Baby Boomers be worried only about government programs, or also some of their modern conveniences taken for granted? Some of these trappings of our troubled civilization hardly work and are toxic.
Marc Wegerif is an old school friend of mine from when I grew up in Bristol. After school he moved to South Africa and was very involved in activism there, and he now lives in Tanzania and works for Oxfam. He recently got back in touch and I sent him a copy of The Transition Handbook. Subsequently he sent me a long and thoughtful letter, with his reflections on the book, and on how it might relate to Africa. The whole question of what Transition might look like in a developing world context is something we have rarely explored at Transition Culture, and Marc has given me permission to reprint his letter here by way of initiating that discussion.
-Ancient glaciers are disappearing faster than ever
-Iraq’s marshes are dying a second death
-“The poor are burdened twice”
-Climate Summit: China Commits, Obama Not So Much
-India could halve emissions growth…but at a price
-Met Office warns of catastrophic global warming in our lifetimes
-America’s Teacher
-The Year of the Flood
-The End of Oil?
-The Constant Economy by Zac Goldsmith
A few days ago, I gave a presentation in Poland that talks about how much difficulty the world is having maintaining its oil production. The presentation was not set up to be a response to Jad Mouawad’s recent New York Times article, Oil Industry Sets a Brisk Pace of New Discoveries, but in many ways it is one. Our recent discoveries really have not been enough to make up for our many production problems elsewhere. We are having problems not only with oil, but with natural gas. The solution the financially distressed world is increasingly considering is…well, read the story to see.
