Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Pelikan Action that President Barack Obama will take Monday to allow California and other states to require stricter tailpipe emissions and automobile fuel efficiency standards shouldn’t just please environmentalists. If you’re concerned about Peak Oil and the United States’ dependence on foreign oil, this is also a win for energy conservation.
In recent years, peak oil realists have done a tremendous job sounding the alarm about the need for a concerted national effort to leave oil before it leaves us. Now, our mission must turn urgently from the educational to the political. With the changing of the guard in Washington, D.C. and the sting of $4/gallon gas still a recent memory, we have a unique opportunity to present the federal government with a do-or-die call to action.
A weekly review including:
– World Production
– OPEC still cutting
– Obama’s first week
– Briefs
Now it’s time for predictions for 2009. 1. The economy will muddle along. 2. A 2010 recovery will come just in time to collide with more fundamental problems. 3. Oil prices: we’ll spend a few months in the $30s and $40s and then end the year between $60 and $70/barrel.
I’ve been skeptical of the “stimulus” as sketched out so far, aimed at refurbishing the infrastructure of Happy Motoring. To me, this is the epitome of a campaign to sustain the unsustainable — since car-dependency is absolutely the last thing we need to shore up and promote.
Climate adaptation for resilient communities
Controlling our history: encyclopedias vs Wikipedia
Powerdown toolkit
Freedom and the price of oil
Disease in the land of plenty
Vaclav Smil’s book: the worst is yet to be
Dr. Lin Jiabin on sustainability in China – an alternative to consumerism?
Autonomist essays: there’s an energy crisis (among others) in the air
A weekly round-up from a UK perspective
Doom Boom
Club of Rome: Crisis gives us an opportunity to rethink strategies
Bill McKibben Interview
Climate equity is in
Moving the U.S. Off Carbon With Less Pain, More Gain
44% Say Global Warming Due To Planetary Trends, Not People
The “war on science” is over. Now what?
Design Contest Announced: Green Patriot Posters
US lawmakers okay energy tax breaks in Obama plan
Iceland’s Parliament under Siege
Riots in Iceland, Latvia and Bulgaria are a sign of things to come
Roubini: The Worst Is Yet To Come
Why You’ll Work Through Your Retirement
Recession or depression? Too early to tell
When will the water run out?
Old-Growth Forests Dying Off in U.S. West
Ecologists warn the planet is running short of water
