Energy – Nov 10
– Why Is Obama Cuddling Up to Karl Rove and His Gas Drilling Friends?
– A Taxpayer-Funded Sucker Play for the 21st Century
– UC Davis study: Stock market expectations suggest that oil will run dry before substitutes roll out
Activism
Movement goes world-wide – Nov 7
– An Update on All Things Transitioney and French
– Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition (Brazil, US … )
– Dinero contra energÃa fósil: La batalla por el control del mundo (online Spanish translations)
– Bem-Vindo ao Pico do Petróleo (new Brazil peak oil website)
US elections & the climate – Nov 7
– Asher Miller: Muddled up in climate politics
– California exceptionalism or a rising green tide?
– Barack Obama’s Green Agenda Crushed at the Ballot Box
– Alberta’s dirty oil image cleaned by U.S. midterms
– Republicans go climate sceptic
Die kommenden Tage (English: “The Coming Days”)
A new German “near fiction” feature film about life in the post-peak world
Argentina’s collapse and the grassroots of resilience
When people think of the 2001 Argentinean collapse, they automatically think of riots, looting and violent unrest. It’s true. Social cohesion did break down in large cities as they negotiated both the erosion of societal norms and the carrying capacity of the land beneath them. On the other hand, in rural Patagonia a different dynamic existed that allowed for the spontaneous emergence of barter markets. These markets self-organized to create a flow of trade in necessary goods and services when access to standard currency was radically reduced and even ultimately removed from society. Community cooperatives also formed to provide the means for a higher level of local function and, thus, greater regional stability.
Why the US doesn’t have a sane energy policy – Oct 31
– Monbiot: The Tea Party movement: deluded and inspired by billionaires
– NYT: Coal Industry Spending to Sway Next Congress
– New book confirms greed, power and cover-up are BP trademarks
Mining and minerals: can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em – Oct 29
-German Industry Feels Rare-Earth Metals Squeeze
-China pledges not to use rare earth minerals as weapon
-Revealed: how deep-sea mining could destroy the ‘cradle of life on earth’
-China rare earth quota prices up as exporters jostle
-Rare earths row: some home truths
-News special: Vedanta victory masks threats to indigenous people
Hard times ahead – Oct 27
– Coming Soon to America: Big Push for Austerity
– French Lessons for U.S. Workers
– The Tory ‘big society’ relies on women replacing welfare
– Monbiot: For the Conservatives, this is not a financial crisis but a long-awaited opportunity
– Mapping Global Wealth
The Ecology of Consumption (excerpts)
Environmentalists, especially in wealthy countries, have often approached the question of environmental sustainability by stressing population and technology, while deemphasizing the middle term in the well-known IPAT (environmental Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology) formula. The reasons for this are not difficult to see. Within capitalist society, there has always been a tendency to blame anything but the economic system itself for ecological overshoot.
Your energy companies at work – Oct 26
– Tea Party climate change deniers funded by BP and other major polluters
– Texas oil companies pump new round of cash into California climate fight
– Caught! EU business lobby funding climate legislation blockers in US Senate
– Jurassic Ballot: When Corporations Ruled the Earth
Agriculture, green policy and social justice – Oct 24
– Paraguayan Mennonites hit back at criticism of environmental record
– Food Security as If Women Mattered: A Story from Kerala
– Venezuela: From Agribusiness to Agroecology?
– Britain is growing greener at the expense of the rest of the world
French lessons – Oct 24
– France Gets a Foretaste of a World After Peak Oil
– France on strike – dramatic photographs
– Exchange student sees French strikes up close
– Dinner ladies lead the fight against pension cuts
– Marseille close to standstill as worst strikes in 15 years cause French chaos
– Sarkozy’s approval rating hits new low as French strikes drag on
– From my hometown in France : Videos and updates on the strikes
