Globalization and the American Dream
Implicit in the rhetoric promoting globalization is the premise that the rest of the world should be brought up to the standard of living of the West, and America in particular.
Helena Norberg-Hodge
The Oracle of Oil: Review
A review of Mason Inman’s timely new book, The Oracle of Oil: A Maverick Geologist’s Quest for a Sustainable Future.
China: Is peak coal part of its problem?
Why would a country selectively decide to slow down the growth of the fuel that has made its current “boom” possible?
Why Global Capital Fears ‘Brexit’
Today, interlinked multinational banks and corporations constitute a de facto European government, determining economic activity through the ‘European market’….In other words, corporations run Europe.
So where are the battery electric trucks?
Heavy-duty trucks are the main engines of civilization….If trucks stopped running, businesses would shut down within a week.
Worrying Deceleration In The Growth Rate of Wind & Solar
Scale and complexity issues are becoming a significant impediment to maintaining wind and solar growth rates.
Donald Trump, Anthony Bourdain, and the Plight of their (Indentured) Mexicans
Build a wall and deport undocumented Mexicans? How else could the United States’ (posh) way of life exist if not off the back of (indentured) Mexican labourers?
A Renewable Energy Economy will Create More Jobs. Is That a Good Thing?
The 20th century fossil-fueled economic growth spurt happened not because the energy industry created many jobs, but because it created very few jobs.
Note to Bernie Sanders: Something is More Than Rotten in the State of Denmark, and Peak Oil is Coming to Take it Away
Denmark is often lauded as a kind of social utopia. But perhaps we should start thinking about what the end of cheap and plentiful energy-dense fossil fuels might have in store for such platitudes.
$50 Oil Doesn’t Work
$50 per barrel oil is clearly less impossible to live with than $30 per barrel oil, because most businesses cannot make a profit with $30 per barrel oil. But is $50 per barrel oil helpful?
Christopher Alexander’s Neglected Challenge to Permaculture
I find it curious that permaculture authors…don’t acknowledge Alexander’s critique of their core understanding of design….
At the Beginning of the Pipeline
For over 500 years native peoples in the Americas have fought for their homes against people from far away lands. Now, in Alberta, Canada, they are fighting against a gooey, black substance that sits underground: the oil sands.
Photo: http://pialberta.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Crystal%20Lameman%202_0.jpg
