Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Many of us are left wondering how to deal with the president. Climate change, above all issues, requires a transformative and not an incremental vision. We have fundamental change to make, and a very short window to make it in–Obama’s typical (and often quite savvy) little-bit-at-a-time approach doesn’t square with the physics and chemistry that govern this debate.
Full talks from speakers including Dr. Joseph Tainter, Nicole Foss (Stoneleigh), David Korowicz, Stephanie Mills, Kurt Cobb and Aaron Wissner now available for all educational uses. The YouTube playlist includes the full first day of the Conference on Sustainability: Energy, Economy and Environment, including question and answer and panel discussions.
A debate on the future of nuclear energy between anti-coal advocate George Monbiot and anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott.
– Obama administration announces massive coal mining expansion
– Leading German climatologist on Fukushima
– How to Boil a Frog video excerpt – “Exponential Curves”
– Carolyn Baker interview (audio and transcript)
While riveted to Fukushima, we should remember that good old fashioned coal kills 4,000 times more people per kWh than nuclear power. As George Monbiot puts it, “While nuclear causes calamities when it goes wrong, coal causes calamities when it goes right, and coal goes right a lot more often than nuclear goes wrong. The only safe coal-fired plant is one which has broken down past the point of repair.”
While efficiency, substitution are key to our efforts to adapt to resource limits, they are incapable of removing those limits, and are themselves subject to the law of diminishing returns>
One of the things I’ve been arguing for years is that most people in the developed world, given a perceived lack of alternatives and no narrative to explain change and sacrifice, will do almost anything to keep their present way of life. I point out that if they become cold enough most people would shovel live baby harp seals into their furnace to keep warm, while carefully justifying why this is reasonable and necessary and probably convincing themselves that baby harp seals like to be burned alive.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-Conflict in the Middle East
-The global oil balance
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
In the wake of the Japanese nuclear debacle, we need a practical and affordable clean electricity plan that does not rely on new nuclear power. This article presents just such a Plan. New nuclear is absent from the Plan not because of any safety concern, but simply because it fails the “practical and affordable” test. President Obama called for “80% Clean Energy” by 2035. This Plan presents how we can do it right.
NASA climatologist James Hansen’s book, just out in paperback, is a fascinating look at his crusade to get America a rational climate policy before it’s too late. He wants to levy a carbon tax, entirely phase out coal and leave unconventional fossil fuels in the ground. But he also likes nuclear power. Reactor meltdown on Hansen Island?
– Nansen Saleri: Our Man-Made Energy Crisis
– The truth about India’s coal
– Will Federal Regulators Crack Down on Oil Speculation?
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It’s okay to warn or complain, but one of the attractive habits in American civilization is to ask: well, what’s your plan? In his recent book World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse, Lester Brown offers one.
