Energy policies – July 31
The real question: should oil be cheap?
Spain to cut speed limit in bid to reduce oil imports
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the reactor revival is NOT ready for prime time
Staff
Biofuels – July 31
Digesting the problem
Using crop residue for biofuels hurts soil quality (podcast)
Obama’s biofuels policy tension
Peak Oil Notes – July 31
A mid-week update on peak oil, including:
-Production and prices
-The bombs of Nigeria
Ready, Aim…
Barbara Ehrenreich has a wonderful essay on the way we’re turning on ourselves in response to the financial crisis – and how we should be turning our anger outwards. She’s right – and it isn’t just suicide. Depression, domestic violence, child abuse – all of these are on the rise, and in large part due to the fact that people are poorer, scared and frustrated. Ehrenreich writes of the move to respond to the financial bad news by destroying yourself that we’re aiming in the wrong direction:
Reviving the Household Economy, Part One: The World Outside the Market
On the radar screens of conventional economics, value created outside the market economy rarely makes a blip. This first part of a two-part series discusses the roles that the “invisible economy” of household production might play in a future of scarce and expensive energy.
Transport – July 30
Riders flock to T in record numbers
Oil shock: China’s cars, accelerating a global demand for fuel
Pedal power challenges car culture as cyclists seize Los Angeles freeways
Solutions & Sustainability – July 30
Economists assign monetary values to region’s ‘natural’ gifts
Jakarta: About 2,000 industries ready to shift Saturday, Sunday days-off
Cornwall: Stiff sea breeze blows away school’s electricity bill
What are the real implications of peak oil in a culture where common sense has been suppressed by consumerism?
A lot of parenting is about common sense. Deep down as parents, we realize that if a child gets showered with gifts, they become unappreciative. If they receive things because they stamp their feet and scream, that behavior will continue because it has been rewarded.
In the last few decades however, common sense seems to be on the decline and its commonality is certainly fading. Let me give you an example.
Housing & urban design – July 29
Housing crisis hits exurbs hard
Freeways give way to boulevards — slowly
New houses are universally horrible, and eco-houses are the most horrible of the lot
Something Wonderful Just Happened in Somerset
Last week, Somerset County Council voted unanimously to endorse a motion that they become the UK’s first ‘Transition Local Authority’. What is means is that SCC could start taking an integrated approach to its planning processes, putting peak oil and climate change at the heart of its forward planning. It may well also unlock funds for the many Transition initiatives emerging across Somerset.
Climate & Environment – July 29
Warming world ‘drying wetlands’
Black churches urge action on global warming
Survey cruise records second-largest “Dead Zone” in Gulf of Mexico since measurements began in 1985
Trash – July 29
German waste disposal industry faces crisis
Feed from waste
Houston resists recycling, and independent streak is cited
