Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
As fossil fuels deplete, especially oil and natural gas, will we be able to maintain the solidarity and consent that make modern democracies so stable? Or will we each fall back on our competitive natures as we struggle for our share of dwindling resources.
Americans are at various stages of awareness and acceptance of our addiction to oil. Viewed from afar, the range of public attitudes seems remarkably similar to the five stages of grief famously described by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, or acceptance.
The real conundrum, in my opinion, is how to destroy demand so as to come in for a soft landing, even if we are heading towards a 1979 to the googol. …
I advocate taxing gasoline now. Abruptly. Quickly. Severely. Better to bend the shit out of the economy now than completely break it later. …
In fact, my own mother this week demonstrated how a Peak Oil situation cuts the fat and preserves wealth. Being an old aged pensioner, she has to watch the pennies and the increasing size of her electricity and gas bills provoked action. Was this to be a microcosm of the population responding to the early stages of the downslope of Hubbert’s oil peak?
Good discussion of the realities OPEC (and we) should be considering rather than the rhetoric that flows so freely from Western leaders and bankers.
Onward soldiers! The War on Nature is nearly won!
We are already living on an overloaded world. Our future will be a product of that fact; that fact is a product of our past. Our first order of business, then, is to make clear to ourselves how we got where we are and why our present situation entails a certain kind of future. [Chapter 2 from William Catton’s classic book Overshoot]
If [peak oil] appears to have suddenly “burst” onto the scene it’s due to two principle factors: 1) the “tipping point” is only now fast being realized, and 2) the rise of the internet has given the public a comprehensive, responsive and uncensored media forum in which to recognize it….the case for Peak Oil has been slowly pieced together by a kind of open committee of researchers–some admittedly dubious or ill-informed, but many quite well-informed and highly regarded.
At the recent “Peak Oil UK” conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, one attendee stood out from the usual peak oil crowd: Nick Griffin, chairman of the far-right British National Party.
Lifestyle changes — including how we drive, where we shop and how we invest — can ease the squeeze as the world’s oil supply shrinks
A more obvious example of the Quicksand Effect is the present method of garnering oil by force of arms. This policy burns huge amounts of precious oil, sinking us deeper and ever more rapidly. Why is the US behaving like a dinosaur stuck in a tar pit? The harder we try, the more we sink. The faster we run, the more distant our goal
The British may waste more food than any other nation, throwing out 30-40% of all the produce they buy and grow each year, according to research. … modern food production methods may appear efficient, “but the reality is that large-scale manufacturing and rigid supply chains are creating very significant quantities of waste”.
