Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Many proposed responses to the crisis of industrial society focus on drafting plans for a new society in advance. Is this as sensible as it seems, or do we need to approach the future before us in a more improvisational way?
One-third of China’s Yellow river ‘unfit for drinking or agriculture’
Water in the Middle East: Plugging the supply gap
Experts call for end of flushing toilets on World Toilet Day
The words “holy crap” were pretty much the first ones to my lips this morning, when several people sent me George Monbiot’s latest column…After being so flattered I could die, I suffered the irresistable desire to argue back, and I’m going to…
Lower speed limit to tackle obesity crisis, say experts
Planners to consider S.F. congestion charge
Bike accidents open door to paths
Council obstructs family’s ethical land project
Vt. engineer designs a good life for $5,000 a year
Bishop of Birmingham David Urquhart spreads the ‘green gospel’
We must plan a survival strategy for our species
Jason Bradford: Real security and wealth is in the community we have
The case for Resilient Community
Big Green Brother
The power of religion
Energy: How low can you go?
Unlike the other post-oil novels published so far, Ill Wind isn’t about peak oil. In those other novels, oil has gradually dribbled away while we’ve steadfastly ignored the warning signs. But in Ill Wind, the world’s oil vanishes suddenly after some bizarre, experimental oil-eating microbe is unleashed on a massive tanker spill, and then runs amok. What Ill Wind and those other novels do have in common, however, is that they imagine a future world without oil.
Green-basher Boris relaunches himself as an eco-warrior
King coal wins battle of Smalley
Power in the desert: solar towers will harness sunshine of southern Spain
Peak oil activists from across the nation gathered on a college campus over the Halloween weekend to confront the scary prospects of declining worldwide oil production – and to focus on how they and their communities can cope. “People can find ways to lead happy, fulfilling lives even as this doomed system crumbles all around them,” Russian immigrant writer Dmitry Orlov told the conference.
The U.S. intelligence agencies dust off their crystal ball and give us their long-term view of the future. In a striking reversal of the triumphalism of the Bush years, the report sees the future as multi-polar and roiled by shocks. Resource scarcity and climate change are highlighted. Despite the bracing dose of reality in the report, peak oilers will find much to criticize. (Excerpts, links, commentary)
World Willing to Pay More for Green Energy
Britain’s water mills given role in clean energy generation
New System Proposed To Optimize Combined Energy Use
A sea of unwanted auto imports
Moore: Automakers never listened to workers, consumers
Bill Rees blasts auto industry bailout talk
California officials unveil plans to turn San Francisco into electric car capital
Coming to a store near you: chainless bicycles
