Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
As the fossil fuel age winds down, will the public be so amenable to setting aside additional landscapes, keeping them out-of-bounds to extractive industries? Will it even be willing to defend the national parks we already have?
Thoughts on the relationship between food issues, rural movements, and Climate Camps. To be more specific: this post mainly compares the distinct focuses and limitations of the Diggers’ movement toward agricultural autonomy, and the Climate Campers’ rallies and interventions against coal plants, airport expansion projects, and other commercially-driven operations.
-World Bank spends billions on coal-fired power stations
-EPA moves to block W.Va.’s largest mining permit
-“The Coal Nightmare”
-World faces hi-tech crunch as China eyes ban on rare metal exports
-Ukraine, Russia PMs resolve gas dispute: Tymoshenko
-As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms
-Iranian Media: Iran Ready to Negotiate
-Slow Boat to Rare Earth
-Peak Water
-Iowa’s future shouldn’t depend on fossil fuels
A weekly review including:
– Production and prices
– Droughts in Asia
– Quote of the Week
– Energy Stat of the Week
– Briefs
-Canada’s Oil Sands – Part 1
-Squandered Opportunity
-Health Care: Why costs spiral up
-Editorial: The Future of Coal
A weekly review including:
– Production and prices
– China’s Coal
– Natural Gas in the US
– The UN Food Report
– Briefs
A weekly review including:
– Production and prices
– The FTC Rules
– Peak Coal in Appalachia
– Briefs
Everyone agrees: our economy is sick. The inescapable symptoms include declines in consumer spending and consumer confidence, together with a contraction of international trade and available credit. Add a collapse in real estate values and carnage in the automotive and airline industries and the picture looks grim indeed.
Richard Heinberg’s new book Blackout tries to demolish current assumptions about the world’s remaining coal endowment: namely, that it is immense beyond belief, barely tapped and will last for centuries to come. Heinberg argues that these assumptions are off-base, misleading and not at all supported by recent studies that suggest global coal production could peak in less than two decades.
