Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Richard Conniff In evaluating an economic recovery package, the new U.S. administration and Congress must weigh any proposed spending – on highways or mass transit or wind-power transmission routes – on the basis of clear criteria that would assess just how green the projects will be.
Sharon Astyk’s 2009 Predictions
Kunstler: Change You Won’t Believe
Tom Friedman discusses foreign policy, green, and other ‘stachey matters
When talking of security, we must first understand that security does not necessarily equate to military solutions. Community (or National) security includes many different aspects, the most significant of which are economics, diplomacy, information, and military power.
The culture shock I felt upon my return from Thailand was so severe I was in a stupor for a month not knowing how to direct my life. I did not feel safe sitting in a house with a mortgage. I did not feel safe in America itself. I saw a nation of people carrying massive amounts of credit card debt and few practical skills. They had less of a safety net than a Thai farmer. … Just as the tide going out reveals an awesome array of flora and fauna living in hidden tide pools, so too did the economic crisis reveal an amazing array of creatures I had no idea existed.
Hubbert: king of the Technocrats
Astyk: Why Failure is normal, and should be part of the plan…but isn’t
A distant mirror: Ireland’s great famine
New Scientist: Top 10 environment articles in 2008
Astyk: Why the IPCC report has to go
California adopts the most sweeping curbs on greenhouse gas emissions in U.S.
Contraction & Convergence tabled at Poznan
If we’re going to understand the problems that the modern megapolis will face in the coming decades, we need to look past the usual distinctions, to the design flaws that now lie behind not just suburbia but cities and even “rural” communities (a depressing number of which have been Walmartized).
Post Carbon Cities (peak oil for the American Planning Association)
Goldman Sachs predicts fall in oil prices to $45 a barrel
As China economy brakes, oil demand goes in reverse
Energy giants trim spending plans for 2009
Stiglitz: Capitalist fools
Price Trends: Gasoline and CPI Are Twins
The attack of the Invisible Hand
Netherlands Plans Massive Road-Pricing Scheme
The transportation story at the heart of a history-making crisis
Traffic Accidents Top Cause Of Fatal Child Injuries
A weekly round-up from a UK perspective
Leggett: At Poznan, no one is listening
IEA: Everyone Gets to Be Right
Oil Demand Down; 1st Time Since ’83
World oil demand to grow in 2009: IEA
