Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Alex Smith Three guests. Rob Stewart, Director of movie “Sharkwater” and now his latest “Revolution” – is the ocean dying? An international media briefing by Lester Brown of Earth Policy Institute about rising food prices & his new book ‘Full Planet, Empty Plates’. Wes Regan on urban farming in the poorest neighborhood in Canada.
In early October, the eco-village, Änggärdet, Sweden, hosted two days of Live Action Role-Play (LARP) along the theme of life 2016-2027, post peak oil and post economic collapse. Players got the opportunity to explore what various scenarios would be like, including being commaned into a work detail bu the military to harvest the last remaining potatoes by hand, and by joining a self-organised, worked-by-hand co-housing combi-farm.
Wheelan’s argument and the main message of today’s globalized economy is that Twinkies spontaneously sprout on supermarket shelves. Hamburgers originate from the silver stovetops of McDonalds restaurants. Water itself flows from shiny taps, translucent bottles, and fancy vending machines. We don’t need to concern ourselves with trifling matters such as where this stuff comes from or how it arrives. Because of the magic of the market, we only need to know how to get our hands on sufficient cash, credit, or public funds to buy it. In a nutshell, the argument says that all the cheap food, cheap products, and cheap thrills of modern times spring directly from global trade and economic growth.
With gasoline scaling $4 a gallon recently, plans announced last week by international oil giant BP to export U.S.-produced crude oil ought to have Americans howling. For such a plan to be good energy policy–rather than merely profitable for the oil industry–the United States would have to be producing more than enough oil to meet its own needs. But the country produces nowhere near that amount. Nevertheless, the industry’s deceptive campaign to make the public and policymakers believe that the United States is on the verge of energy independence seems to be succeeding–a push that is really just a smokescreen for selling the country’s oil and natural gas to the highest bidder.
New Mexico residents are trying to a break free from Los Alamos’ nuclear legacy by creating more environmentally sound ways of living. At the forefront of this struggle is renegade architect Michael Reynolds, creator of radically sustainable living options through a process called “Earthship Biotecture.” Reynolds’ solar homes are created from natural and recycled materials, including aluminum cans, plastic bottles and used tires. These off-the-grid homes minimize their reliance on public utilities and fossil fuels by harnessing their energy from the sun and wind turbines. In Taos, New Mexico, Reynolds gives us a tour of one of the sustainable-living homes he created.
Palm oil plantation expansion in Indonesia is set to release more than 558 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2020, according to a report published Sunday in Nature Climate Change. That’s more than Canada’s yearly CO2 emissions.
About an hour north of Philadelphia, nestled in the rolling terrain of South Mountain, lies The Seed Farm, a nonprofit organization working to grow a new crop of farmers in the Lehigh Valley. The Lehigh Valley, the colloquial name for Lehigh and Northampton counties, is home to the cities of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. Over the past 20 years, the agrarian landscape has changed dramatically as suburbia has sprawled out from the city centers — the result of poor planning, not unlike many other areas across the nation. Notably, the Lehigh Valley lost more farmland than any other region in the state of Pennsylvania, primarily due to its easy commute to New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia.
It’s been interesting lately to hear voices from the mainstream questioning our growth-obsessed capitalist economics and calling up Karl Marx from his grave.
So you’ve made the big jump. You’ve left the conventional business world behind and you’re starting a business of the new future. Maybe you just launched your town’s first rickshaw taxi. Maybe you sell vegetable seedlings at farmers market or you’re pioneering urban goat cheese production. Perhaps it’s a social enterprise or a nonprofit. At any rate, you’re still going to need a few of the tools that conventional businesses use, like business plans and accounting systems.
The International Energy Agency released a new report this week in which it took a detailed look at the prospects for the Iraqi oil and gas industry out to 2035. The conclusion is that oil production in Iraq could increase significantly by 2020 – doubling or even trebling IF, and it is a big if, there is huge investment…
-World Energy Outlook Special Report 2012 – Iraq Energy Outlook [press release]
-IEA sees Iraqi oil output doubling to 6.1 mil b/d in 2020
-Awaiting the Iraqi oil rush
-Will Iraq’s energy boom postpone peak oil yet again?
When Cecile Andrews asked herself, “What matters?” the answer popped up: “Having time to do the things you want to do.” She simplified her life, quit her full-time job, and started simplicity circles to support others in savoring life.
