Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Staff ‘Peak oil’ theory gains local converts in Grand Rapids
Update on Michigan peak oil conference
‘The Archers’ and self-sufficient community
Transition towns taking control of their future
Moving beyond oil in Lawrence, Kansas
Canada: Energy supplants environment as top concern
Oilsands vacation site tempts visitors with ‘toxic lakes’
Korea: Oil prices prompt crisis response
Germany has world’s biggest cut in energy use in 2007
Germany approves ambitious CO2 reduction measures
In a world where fertile soil is an endangered resource, millions of acres of our nation’s best agricultural soil are covered with ornamental shrubs and lawns. Soil can be brought into production for agriculture only at great economic and environmental cost. Why do we allow so much of what we have to remain unproductive?
What’s a silver-streaked lady ecology writer to do? Be nice, be friendly, avoid the troubling topics, read the classics, don’t feel morally obliged to infect others with a perfectly warranted alarm and pessimism. Who am I to tell 10,000 ostensibly complacent neighbors that the ship is going down … especially at the height of summer, when the days are so fine and fair?
We all know that even in the United States the guarantee of free speech has limits. The Supreme Court long ago said that no one has the right to endanger his or her fellow citizens by, for instance, falsely yelling “fire” in a crowded theater. Such acts of speech are said to pose “a clear and present danger.” James Hansen, perhaps the most respected climate scientist on the planet, thinks that the fossil fuel lobby and its disinformation campaign about global warming may pose a similar threat.
Why does it seem that every time the price of gas goes up, motorists respond by driving faster? Is it some misguided belief that if they reach their destination quicker, they will use less gas?
Scientists warn of lack of phosphorus as biofuels raise demand
Fertiliser shortage hits India’s farms
Food for thought
Energy farm experiment in Kentucky
According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2008, German Primary Energy consumption dropped -5.6% in 2007. What does the German example mean for everyone else?
Fuel prices shift math for life in far suburbs
Four years of gains in home prices wiped out
Burtynsky’s Manufactured Landscapes is as good as they say
Living life in a travel trailer
Paul Krugman: Fuels on the Hill (blame speculators?)
6 myths about oil speculators
Henry Liu: Flat-earther Thomas Friedman blind to oil facts
The idea that you can suddenly change the course of history by pushing a big green button is itself a very pointed dig at our lack of grasp of the challenges we face and what sustainability will really entail.
New Scientist: ‘Oil: The final warning’
Democracy Now: A look at the new geopolitics of energy
What can history teach us about forecasts of energy use?
Peak oil profits ARM processors
