John Michael Greer

The Upside of Default

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A growing number of observers are starting to edge nervously around the possibility that the global financial industry may be headed for some very rough sailing this autumn — potentially even a major crash. Inevitably, the blogosphere is starting to churn out claims that this will lead to the apocalyptic collapse for which so many people seem to be longing just now. There may be a brighter side to the approaching mess, however; setting aside a cheap magazine, the Archdruid explains.

The Peak Oil Crisis: Middle Eastern Chaos

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In surveying the multiple, uprisings, insurgencies, insurrections, confrontations and what have you currently going on in the Middle East, it is hard to believe that all this turmoil will not eventually find its way to our local gas pumps. In the last week the overall situation clearly has taken a turn for the worse with large numbers of Syrian insurgents infiltrating Damascus and Aleppo for the first time accompanied by the spectacular bombing of a security meeting that killed four of the regime’s top leaders.

What the summer breeze said

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Europe is giving new meaning to the term “bootstrapping,” the age-old (virtuous) idea of picking oneself up off the floor after some blow or reversal of fortune has laid you low. The new method might be called “skyhooking” in which a massive rescue apparatus secured at some mysterious point unseen in the clouds lifts whole exhausted nations from their knees in order get them to summer vacation. Hence: the interesting spectacle of an entire continent headed for vacation despite facing utter financial ruin, revolution, and civil war.

The rise and rise of geoengineering – July 25

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-Dumping iron at sea can bury carbon for centuries, study shows
-Geoengineering projects around the world – map
-US geoengineers to spray sun-reflecting chemicals from balloon
-Trial Balloon: A Tiny Geoengineering Experiment
-Geoengineering Could Backfire, Make Climate Change Worse

The West in flames

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Dire fire conditions, like the inferno of heat, turbulence, and fuel that recently turned 346 homes in Colorado Springs to ash, are now common in the West. A lethal combination of drought, insect plagues, windstorms, and legions of dead, dying, or stressed-out trees constitute what some pundits are calling wildfire’s “perfect storm.”