Tom Whipple

Some Seriously Good Sh- er…Manure

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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.

Timing

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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 kiss of death

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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

The Peak Oil Crisis: Seize the Moment

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We all know it is politically difficult to shut down the U.S. automobile industry in the midst of a deep recession, so the problem becomes one of finding something for the automobile industry to do that does more good than harm. Wasting shrinking national resources and taxpayer dollars cranking out another 10 or 20 million gas-guzzlers during the last few years of cheap oil can only be classified as major harm.

Facing Decline, Facing Ourselves

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Beyond the technical issues that occupy so much peak oil discussion lies the murkier realm of collective emotions and cultural narratives that so often blocks constructive action. A new book by Carolyn Baker, Sacred Demise, makes a valiant attempt to start a conversation about this dimension of our predicament — a conversation we desperately need to have.

April 1 round-up

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Scientists worldwide admit global warming is a hoax
RealClimate: Farewell to our readers
NASA announces new Mars exploration strategy
Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink