Peak oil – Dec 15
NPR on ‘peak oil theory’
Simmons and Hirch at Energy Roundable
Matt Simmons talk: The three energy amigos
Building Community
Towns and cities should prepare for the peak oil energy crisis
Local governments face: (1) declining revenues due to declining property values and declining family incomes; (2) increasing costs for gasoline, diesel, and heating oil; (3) inflation in the costs of equipment, materials, products, services, and electric power …
Making a Future for the Disabled: Facing Hard Times With Special Needs Kids
Yesterday morning, Eli put on snowpants and boots before he went outside. This was a big accomplishment for him – for years we’ve been struggling to balance his need to be outside in all sorts of weather with the fact that he really doesn’t like socks, shoes or shirts that much. In June, this is no problem, but as the world gets colder, each year we have to struggle with the “Eli, you have to be dressed before you go out, and yes, you actually have to keep the clothes on.”
On looking ahead – Dec 15
Sharon Astyk’s 2009 Predictions
Kunstler: Change You Won’t Believe
Tom Friedman discusses foreign policy, green, and other ‘stachey matters
Solutions & sustainability – Dec 15
Ecotopia: The Novel That Predicted Portland
A Yankee Model for Sustainability
Green gifts are made locally to last
Bright Neighbor uses online barter system to build community
Peak oil warfare: community security strategy
When talking of security, we must first understand that security does not necessarily equate to military solutions. Community (or National) security includes many different aspects, the most significant of which are economics, diplomacy, information, and military power.
Apeakalypse Now
The culture shock I felt upon my return from Thailand was so severe I was in a stupor for a month not knowing how to direct my life. I did not feel safe sitting in a house with a mortgage. I did not feel safe in America itself. I saw a nation of people carrying massive amounts of credit card debt and few practical skills. They had less of a safety net than a Thai farmer. … Just as the tide going out reveals an awesome array of flora and fauna living in hidden tide pools, so too did the economic crisis reveal an amazing array of creatures I had no idea existed.
Suburbs, cities and sustainability
If we’re going to understand the problems that the modern megapolis will face in the coming decades, we need to look past the usual distinctions, to the design flaws that now lie behind not just suburbia but cities and even “rural” communities (a depressing number of which have been Walmartized).
Peak oil, prices & supplies – Dec 13
Post Carbon Cities (peak oil for the American Planning Association)
Goldman Sachs predicts fall in oil prices to $45 a barrel
As China economy brakes, oil demand goes in reverse
Energy giants trim spending plans for 2009
Promoting the passive house – a report on the 3rd annual North American Passive House Conference
The passive house could play a major role in cutting energy consumption and offers the best way to radically alter our building practices.
Dissensus and organic process
Following on last week’s discussion of the lessons of evolution, the Archdruid explores the need for organic processes in preparing for the end of the industrial age, and the value of dissensus — the deliberate avoidance of consensus as a way to broaden options and foster creativity.
Guerilla Gardening: Eating The Suburbs
The Age recently had an article on the emerging practice of “guerilla gardening”, taking a look at the “Gardening guerillas in our midst”. This concept seems to have steadily increased in popularity in recent years (admittedly from a very low base) as the permaculture movement’s ideas have been propagated through the community.
Unlike the usual approach taken when trying to grow food in the suburbs – converting spare land on your own property (as discussed by aeldric previously and, more recently, in Jeff Vail’s series on A Resilient Suburbia) – guerilla gardening involves cultivating any spare patch of urban land that isn’t being used for another purpose, which could provide a substantial addition to the food growing potential of suburbia.
