Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Kurt Cobb This decade was the one that was supposed to usher in the era when bits and bytes would replace tons and barrels as the measure of what an economy does. The information economy would eclipse the economy of blast furnaces and railcars.
Monbiot: G20 forgets the environment
Why we should listen to the protesters
Climate change the biggest loser of G20 summit, warn environmental groups
Change how the world works? Yes, we can
G20 campaigners: More money spent on car industry than climate change
With record-setting heat waves, bush fires and drought, Australians are increasingly convinced they are facing the early impacts of global warming. Their growing concern about climate change has led to a consensus that the nation must now act boldly to stave off the crisis.
A weekly review from a UK perspective
China Vies to Be World’s Leader in Electric Cars
The Last Muscle Car
Happy Motoring is a privacy right?
Profits soar at Swiss Federal Railways
‘Green’ America may slash oil demand
Changing of the Guard in the Queensland Government
Tupi Oil Imperiled as Price Drop Unravels Energy Plan
The world’s wealthiest nations, the G20 group, have decided to light a fire but have forgotten a very important detail – to check whether there is sufficient fuel to enable the fire to burn.
What if it was the US that closed the Straits of Hormuz? What would the world think if the US directly precipitated the end of ship traffic in the Straits, or at least severe restrictions on transit and passage? Well, we almost found out last Friday, March 20.
Post Carbon Institute Manifesto
Confessions of a Reformed Worrywart
The back-to-the-lander: Vandana Shiva interview
Life After Oil
A Green Future Where You Can Borrow Cars And Drink Rainwater
One way or another, we’re going to have to deal with the fact that in the US, the major source of manure comes from an animal with two legs, a large brain and a beer can ;-). There is a very good chance that in the next few decades we will no longer have the option of treating our manures as waste. The project of readapting our infrastructure to use them should be a priority, because of the terrible consequences of not carefully handling human outputs.
Forecasting global catastrophe can be a tricky business, because everyone wants to know just when it will happen. And there’s the rub. As a card-carrying member of the Cassandra Club, I’ve found this a perennial briarpatch. There have been so many variables at play that about all one could say with absolute confidence is that industrial civilization will run out of rope “sometime in the first two or three decades of the 21st century.”
The central dogma of every government since Jimmie Carter—ever-greater debt fueling economic growth—is dead. We can not overlay too much debt with more debt. We can not buy new cars we can not afford
