Housing & urban design – Feb 13
How to Save the Suburbs: Solutions from the Man Who Saw the Whole Thing Coming
Casa De Botellas: Turning Waste into Modular Construction
Good design makes for better communities
Staff
Peak oil – Feb 13
New German-language peak oil-aware newsletter now online
U. S. refinery delays may spur su?pply crunch
Mechanics of Future Oil Price Volatility (A Flubber Cobweb)
KunstlerCast: Water Transit
James Howard Kunstler responds to a listener question about the future of water transportation in North America. There is a fabulous inland waterway system in North America that is going to become very important again. But if we want to remain serious about trade in this country, we are going to have to rebuild the infrastructure for water and rail transportation. All of those waterfronts where we’ve been building theme parks, condominium clusters and picnic grounds in recent times will have to make room for the warehouses, piers and sleazy accommodations for the sailors that are required by water transit.
Energy industry – Feb 12
Germaine Greer on Dubai
Tar sands boom hits a sticky patch
Gail the Actuary visits Chevron’s Kern River Facility
Electricity – Feb 12
Does a Big Economy Need Big Power Plants?
Small is ugly if it means we keep burning coal
Big Gav’s smart grid round-up
Economics – Feb 12
Nicholas Stern: Spend billions on green investments now to reverse economic downturn and halt climate change
Can’t Raise A Keynes Back Up When He’s In Defeat
Asia: The Coming Fury
Newsweek: We are all socialists now
Renewables & efficiency Feb 12
Wind Turbines in Europe Do Nothing for Emissions-Reduction Goals
New study praises corn as source for ethanol
A line in the green sand
Transport – Feb 12
Transit on Demand (Have Cell Will Travel)
Car scrappage scheme will pour good money after bad
New York City Wins Sustainable Transport Award
Down the Rabbit Hole
Rod Dreher has a fascinating observation…He talks about watching an interview on CNBC with Taleb and Roubini: Roubini and Taleb were both trying to make their case for why what’s wrong with the economy is radical, is fundamental, goes to the very base of all our economic assumptions.…The more I think about his point, the more I think that it epitomizes something fundamental about the intellectual shift we have to make – and about how hard it is to make it.
The peak oil crisis: the economic rebound
The overriding issue is just how long the economic downturn will last. Historical precedent and conventional wisdom from Wall Street seems to be saying that by the middle of 2009 we will hit bottom and things will start to improve. Some, however, are not so sure and are making cases for a downturn of many months, quarters, years, or in extreme cases decades. Sorting this out is obviously impossible for we seem to be entering an era unique in history.
Peak oil notes – Feb 12
A mid-week review, including:
– Prices and production
– Forecasts
Peak textiles – Feb 12
Cardiff’s online shoppers are worst offenders for binning unworn clothes
Colourful adventures through textiles – Part I
Is the time right for Slow Fashion?
