Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Staff – Peak planet: Are we starting to consume less?
– Cuba, A Society In Motion (update on post-peak agriculture)
– Death by suburban sprawl: better urban planning will combat sedentary lifestyles
– Why are British children so unhappy?
As the world population climbs and water stress spreads around the globe, finding ways of getting more crop per drop to meet our food needs is among the most urgent of challenges. One answer to this call is drip irrigation, which delivers water directly to the roots of plants in just the right amounts. It can double or triple water productivity — boosting crop per drop — and it appears to be taking off worldwide.
We are long overdue to catch up on the map of the Palmer Drought Severity Index. …much of the interior west is in extreme drought conditions, and has also been suffering a record breaking heat-wave (even though it’s not the height of summer yet).
When it comes to creating those new kinds of money there is no one perfect currency that can right all the wrongs of the past and every flaw in the conventional money we use. There are currencies fit for the job in hand, and which have specific challenges as a result.
The history of the New River highlights the ingenuity and perversity of human behaviour. In the 1600s we had an abundant water supply called the River Thames, but we were polluting it so badly we decided to transport water from 20 miles away using a complex and expensive engineering system that took years to build. If permaculture had been invented then, we would have found a much more intelligent way of dealing with the problem, at source.
Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of touring an incredibly vital cultural commons in the heart of Providence, Rhode Island…What may be less appreciated is that AS220 is a self-sustaining creative commons (lower case). While it has all sorts of interactions with the market, government and philanthropy, it is really an unheralded model of a commons for producing and enjoying the arts. It is financially self-sustaining, independently managed, and grassroots-responsive. It is dedicated to art made by and for the people.
– Has The Peak Oil Idea… Peaked? If so, does the planet stand a chance?
– Oil: the party is over, says OpenMind AM
– Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson: The New North American Energy Paradigm: Reshaping the Future
– Australia’s growing oil imports are an energy security issue
– 10 mouse clicks to calculate Australian crude oil depletion of 83 per cent
Since the end of 2011, when police shut down most encampments, the Occupy movement’s future has been uncertain. Without the long-term occupations that gave the movement its name, where would participants meet and make their presence felt? Would the movement be able to sustain itself without these rallying points? Would it release policy demands or try to bring down a big bank?
-Exxon: ‘Losing Our Shirts’ on Natural Gas
-Shale Gas Reality Begins to Dawn
-The Sky Is Pink: New Josh Fox Video On Fracking Controversies in New York (and Much More)
-Obama’s Interior chief: State regulation of fracking ‘not good enough for me’
-Ed Davey urged to take ‘foot off the gas’ and focus on renewables [Report]
-Gazprom Biggest Loser As Shale Gas Upends World Markets
-All energy and climate solutions are local
-Climate Change is Simple
-Court ruling to shift greenhouse gas fight back to Congress
-Relief in Every Window, but Global Worry Too
The Hatch model is truly one of sustainable business practices. It relies on the knowledge bank of its past artisans to hand down to future workers. And it depends on its workers in a way that will never be undercut by the lure of cheap labor in far flung locales. By doing everything by hand, locally, and on a human scale (along with that nearly 150 year old reputation) Hatch can be assured (barring some unforeseen occurrence) that its services will be needed even as the world economy shrinks back and high-tech work dies for lack of the energy to produce it.
As many Americans retreat to air-conditioned environments to get out of the heat, the flame increases under our limited freshwater resources. The electrical energy used to create our comfort zones requires massive withdrawals of water from our rivers, lakes and aquifers to cool down nuclear, coal and natural gas power plants.
