Deep thought – May 16
A leftist critique of Transition Towns – review by Rob Hopkins
Malthus, the false prophet
Are there just too many people in the world?
Culture & Behavior
The food system – May 15
New Yorker: Is the world’s food system collapsing?
In search of a better revolution (than the Green Revolution)
Raj Patel’s Starved
Fewer poor people, more volatility in food prices?
Deep thought – May 15
Kunstler and Orlov interview
Climate change and public health
Sharon Astyk: Problems and principles of energy descent
David Korten: Navigating the Great Turning from empire to earth community
Clay Shirky on deploying the cognitive surplus for the public good
Fertilizers – May 12
Nitrogen fix – nature’s way to make fertilizer
Australian Compost Week (half a billion dollars of compost)
No relief in sight for high fertilizer prices
PotashCorp quotes Borlaug: ‘without fertilizer, forget it. The game is over.’
Climate – May 12
Bill McKibben: Civilization’s last chance
Danish PM links energy security and climate
David Attenborough: ‘Wasting energy is an appalling thing’
What organic homesteading is all about
The beauty of the organic homestead is that “work” is self-willed, not commanded from on high or dictated by economic necessity. “Work” becomes creative, individualistic, done out of love, not someone else’s sense of duty.
The post-oil novel: a celebration!
The post-oil novel began as a little-known aberration within the speculative fiction genre. But it’s now hitting bestseller lists, generating comment in major papers, and garnering increasing acceptance from the mainstream of speculative fiction. Frank Kaminski takes a spirited, authoritative look at this blossoming subgenre
What we don’t know
John Michael Greer is quite correct that historically humans have met resource declines with struggles to adapt, and that these efforts have changed the dynamics of the decline. But I think he is too dismissive of those who worry about a rapid, steep decline.
Food & agriculture – May 10
Dharma in the dirt
Global food crisis
How potatoes could save the world
Food security expert: broken food system
Food fears (Vancouver)
Nature & survival – May 10
Before cyclone hit, Burmese delta was stripped of protective trees
Economic risks from species loss
For the love of trees: watershed protection
Conservationists make most of real estate crisis
Deep thought – May 10
Interview with Mark Anielski: The Economics of Happiness
Return of the population timebomb
Consumerism: curses and causes
Deep thought – May 9
Runaway consumerism explains the Fermi Paradox
Gin, television and social surplus
12-Stepping our way to Armageddon
