Janaia Donaldson

Peak Moment 151: Baked in Telluride: Making Dough in a Tough Economy

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Biting into a fresh-baked cookie from “Baked in Telluride” is a double treat — a yummy goody that also supports a local independent business. Owner Jerry Green has been going “green” for decades before it became fashionable. He shares the challenges of running an independent business in a tourist town while competing with bakeries thousands of miles away. While a town councilor, Jerry helped shape projects like affordable public housing and public transportation.

Deconstructing Dinner: Farming in the City XI (Nelson Urban Acres / Massachusetts Avenue Project)

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Nelson Urban Acres is bringing fresh produce closer to home. They are a multi-plot urban farm in Nelson, British Columbia that launched into operation in 2009 based on the SPIN farming model. Co-founders Paul Hoepfner-Homme and Christoph Martens are working backyard gardens within the city using low-impact, organic farming techniques to grow fresh produce. This year they have been growing a variety of vegetables throughout the season for Nelson’s community markets.

The first peak oil recession: Interview with Steven Kopits

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Steven Kopits, who runs the New York office of Douglas Westwood, was in Denver last week. He talked about his latest paper on peak oil and the economy with Steve Andrews and will share related remarks at the ASPO-USA conference next month. Steve popped a few questions:…

CERA Says World Has Peaked, Buffett Calls Capitalism a Ponzi Scheme

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The trend in media this decade has been for the gritty, non-politically correct analysis and muckraking to be primarily found on the internet. The content of conventional media is largely confined to a narrow band around conventional institutional views…As we live through growing disconnects between perception and reality, the abstract and the concrete, and the aware and the blissful, I thought an imaginary press conference among some conventional luminaries might highlight some truths via its juxtaposition.

Fatal Divisions Part III: Vested interests

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As a social scientist with a primary focus on environmental attitudes, values, and behaviors, I have long been interested in the concept of vested interests and how powerful of a motivator and behavioral driver it can be. While this post has languished for quite some time in the dustbin of my hard drive, several writers (e.g. Kunstler, Astyk) have reminded me that the concept of vested interests or, as it’s sometimes referred to, “psychology of previous investment”, needs much further discussion and enlightenment as a prime motivator and key obstacle to substantial and necessary culture change.

The Mistakes Economists Make

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How Did Economists Get It So Wrong? reminds us that the high priests of modern societies often have a muddled understanding of the economy they preside over. Their poor track record of late has not deterred many economists from making their usual prediction—despite the small bump in the road we’ve encountered lately, prosperity is just around the corner.