Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Energy descent pathways – Post Carbon cities, Transition Towns and eco villages
New book: The Pocket Guide to Surviving the Next Great Depression
Beyond peak oil and climate change – a breakthrough (CO2 to methanol)
“The most likely scenario [is] a partial economic recovery that would be cut short by rising energy prices. The economic crisis will “help” only if we take this brief opportunity to implement drastic energy conservation measures and invest substantial sums in new renewable energy infrastructure.” (Good summary of Heinberg’s current thinking)
Actually, you’ve probably bought the last of a lot of things, but I remember being struck when I first heard James Howard Kunstler say, “Most Americans have bought their last car.” So I’m going to use the example of cars to demonstrate why that is and why we won’t get off of fossil fuel in time.
Jason Bradford: Revisiting relocalization
What are friends for? A longer life
Limits to growth model worth another look
Japan honours ‘Limits to Growth’ science author
Earth to aliens: let’s talk
Dark optmism: Jamais Cascio on The Transition Timeline
Transition Towns and participatory problem solving
Do Worry. Be Happy.
Are we at the beginning of an epic Depression, or at the bottom of a nasty recession with brighter days only months away? … These reasons for concern pale in importance before the deeper, more profound and systemic problems of our time.
I don’t believe we can keep from becoming addicted to something. Once we accept this fact of life, the issue becomes whether we can work on controlling what we are addicted to–making it healthy and inexpensive rather than destructive and costly.
In this weekend’s New York Times Magazine, there’s a lengthy article on the relatively recent arrival of the Transition Town movement to the United States, focusing on organizing efforts in the small, town of Sandpoint, in the very northern tip of Idaho. Despite some flaws, I think the article is quite valuable, and for one reason… the descriptions of what I believe are very healthy, very human tensions between hope and fear.
EPA Finds Greenhouse Gases Pose Threat to Public Health, Welfare / Proposed Finding Comes in Response to 2007 Supreme Court Ruling
Obama signals US rail revolution
Portland, Multnomah County unveil 40-year climate plan
Is conflict prevention “green”?
Lose weight to help the planet, researchers recommend
Are the Life-boats Sinking
D.C. Area Families Take Green to the ExtremeHow Green Is My Bottle?
The end is near! (Yay!) (NY TImes on the Transition Movement)
Why we forgot how to grow food (UK Times)
Homer-Dixon: A doomsayer, and a father, with a heart of faint hope
Are there demand limits to growth?
Why isn’t the brain green?
For a wide range of not-always-consistent reasons, people in Sandpoint decided that Transition could help them build the world they wanted. And now, only because enough people stepped forward and made that decision, Transition actually looked like a good tool for the job. They were picking it up by whatever handle they grasped. They were swinging it as earnestly as they could. (excerpts from an excellent article on the Transition Movement)
