Peak Oil and Mirage Realism
Realism is the philosophical notion that what our scientific theories tell us about the world are more or less, or approximately true.
Culture & Behavior
Great Expectations
When you combine the seven deadly sins with high technology, you get some really serious problems. You get turbo-sins. It’s dreadful to imagine what goeth after turbo-pride.
Prospects in the Post-Petroleum World
The longing for the simpler times of my childhood when the unreliable third world electrical grid went down and my extended family of aunts came outside to sit in the dark and talk to me. It was an awake-to-the-moment, off routine, no TV, intimacy that was somehow magical. This, if we could get through the dark times of loss and chaos, was something to look forward to.
Activists and hipsters without territory or a plan
There exists today almost no social movement of a kind that leads human industrial society into a new, safe direction. This may be because (1) the anti-war movement, for example, offers little to the public in terms of a vision of sustainable living, and (2) the likely participants and leaders of a vanguard have no territory.
Coming Down from the Peak
For too long religions have been silent on this important matter. Despite the huge resistance to change, the ridicule, and the censorship awaiting those who publically espouse limits to material growth, we must together put aside our fears and move metaphorical mountains, even eventually without oil.
Crush that was waiting to happen
The riot at the opening of a north London branch of Ikea last week may have shown human behaviour at its most unappealing and uncivilised, but not at its most unpredictable.
Blair set to press nuclear button
Tony Blair is preparing to commit the country to the biggest nuclear power programme since the 1960s if he wins the forthcoming general election.
Rig Game
HOUSTON – Want to drill an oil or gas well? Get in line. After a stunning 2004, this year looks to be even better for drilling companies. And 2006 could top them both, if prices stay high.
The Precautionary Principle
On the energy front, policy makers don’t know about, have forgotten about, have deliberately ignored, or decided to throw out The Precautionary Principle. And in doing so, they are jeopardising the future of the planet
Oil companies impatient for ‘new Iraq’
This is the face of an elite Iraq that few get to see. Foreign companies invite oil officials to neighboring Jordan to cut deals, since it’s considered too dangerous for CEOs to travel to Iraq, ministry officials say privately.
Stepping back from the brink -some sanity at last
Readers should have no delusions about the state of New Zealand; it is being driven off the energy cliff in an orgy of consumption.
Personal debt and peak oil
For those of us that think that the UK government isn’t aware of the issue of peak oil, I would ask to think again and read the newspapers more closely. The markers for the future are here in the news now and it doesn’t take too much of an imagination to understand them.
