Activism

Egypt and the thirst for oil – Feb 7

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– “Walk like an Egyptian” – the Egyptian Revolution: Jan 25, 2011 (video)
– Oil falls on unfounded Egypt report, profit-taking
– Civil unrest in Middle East, concern among investors
– We All Helped Suppress the Egyptians. So How Do We Change?
– Clinton rings alarm bells about Middle East – oil reserves running out
– Egypt and the Global Oil Market: Geopolitics Is Back
– Jan Lundberg: Arab World’s Turmoil May Spell Sudden Petrocollapse

Is the modern anti-tax movement a product of increasing complexity?

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The historical animus that Americans supposedly have toward taxes has been largely manufactured to facilitate the propaganda machine of the modern anti-tax movement. This means that the long hiatus between the Whiskey Rebellion and Proposition 13 must be considered the norm in American history and that some recent change in American circumstances must be responsible for the modern anti-tax movement.

Fantasies of hyper-globalism: the WWF’s Energy Report

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In a report meant to be both inspiring and reassuring, the WWF ambitiously declares that the world can switch to 95% renewable energy sources by 2050. The Scenario depends largely on increased efficiency and regulated flows of energy through a great system of interconnection. People are remarkably absent. The ostensible reason is that the report is focused on what is “technically possible,” which is more about joules and btus than about human behavior.

Voices & visions – Feb 1

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(Problem fixed!)
– Politics and the Pleasure Principle
– Green giants: the eco power list
– Eco power lists: Fatuous, invidious and misrepresentative
– Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation: Young Green Activists for a Warming World
– Film review: “The Economics of Happiness”
– Beyond the Economic Treadmill and Toward True Well-being

Genetic diversity lost with the damage of Egypt’s deserts gene bank

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The effort to maintain the world’s biodiversity has taken another hit. In the chaos surrounding the political unrest and public uprising in Egypt, looters have badly damaged the country’s Desert Research Center in El Sheikh Zowaid in North Sinai. The center houses the Egyptian Deserts Gene Bank (EDGB), and—according to the Global Crop Diversity Trust—equipment has been stolen and the cooling system has been damaged.

Eyes on Egypt – Feb 1

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– Analyst sees little Egypt oil and gas impact
– Q&A: Suez Canal
– U.S. envoy tells Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step aside
– Egypt’s Unrest May Have Roots in Food Prices, US Fed Policy
– Soccer clubs central to ending Egypt’s ‘Dictatorship of Fear’
– The Egyptian people tend to the streets that are now their own (video)

From Tahrir Square to Times Square

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The US encourages peaceful protesters in Egypt. With many in the peak oil community mindful of the potential for civil unrest as economic and material conditions continue to slide in some wealthy Western countries, could unrest spread beyond autocratic states, even to US shores? If so, America’s lofty ideals would be put to the test as her own people sought real reforms to overhaul government and help rein in corporate power.