Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
It gives me the greatest pleasure this morning to launch the Totnes Energy Descent Action Plan website. The site makes the full version of the UK’s first EDAP freely available, invites comments and discussion, and will act as a dynamic portal for people to discuss the Plan and reshape subsequent revisions.
-Giant gravel batteries could make renewable energy more reliable
-Regulators Approve First Offshore Wind Farm in U.S.
-Colorado Shows How It’s Done
-Windmill Boom Curbs Electric Power Prices for RWE
-Food Preservation 101: Putting Canning In Perspective
-In Connecticut, Community-Supported Agriculture Gaining In Popularity
-Gardening by community growing in appeal
-A garden on every block
-Cuba’s urban-ag revival offers limited lessons
-The Triangle: The South’s Locavore Gem
-The AKG Sustainable Living Project podcast episode #4 transcript- Rain Water Harvesting
-Ancient orchards restored to save fruit and wildlife
-Community Land Sharing
-Global biofuel drive raises risk of eviction for African farmers
In my previous post, I observed that I didn’t really have a dog in the hunt of unschooling vs. other homeschooling techniques. I’m starting to feel like I do, however, mostly because I find the language of unschooling advocates to be so troubling.
The battery could be a shoo-in for the most confounding of all technologies. Invented in 1799 by Alessandro Volta, it not only has yet to be perfected, but has operated all along on essentially the same chemical principles. Were that it were different: If engineers could figure out how to store sufficient electricity in a sufficiently small, light, safe container, there would be a cascading revolution — in super-utilities, electric cars, laptops and mobile phones. (Review of new book)
Post Carbon Fellow Bill McKibben and Executive Director Asher Miller discuss Bill’s sobering assessment of life on earth as presented in his brand new book Eaarth. Bill also provide an update on the efforts of his 350.org campaign.
Renewables have been growing as inside a bottle so far; a bottle made of disbelief, red tape and not enough financing. It is time for a little satori in renewable energy. Renewables can hold on their own with new and more efficient technologies, in particular the CdTe thin film version which may have an EROEI of 40. With such EROEIs, we can start thinking of renewable energy as abundant and cheap.
Earth Day Network is organizing a huge event on the Mall in Washington D.C. on April 25. The goal is to demand tough, effective climate legislation and a swift transition away from 19th century energy sources.
It’s fair to say that lot of people, from shale gas operators to Pennsylvania state revenue collectors, see $$$ every time they think about the Marcellus shale. Only recalcitrant environmentalists worried about polluted drinking water do not salivate at the prospect that many years of U.S. gas supply will come from the Marcellus. Today I will not deal with the environmental issues. Instead, I want to examine the view that resources in the Marcellus are a big part of the shale gas cure-all for America’s energy problems.
-How world rice trade sparked price riots
-Our £17bn waste mountain: Annual bill for throwaway Britain
-Resistance to Weedkillers a Growing Problem for Engineered Crops, NAS Report Says
-In India, Wal-Mart Goes to the Farm
-What it will take to feed the world
-Report Says Contaminated Meat Is In Supermarkets
-Crop Diversity Pays Off
From activists to politicians, everybody loves to talk about the promise of green jobs. But in reality, who the heck actually has a green job, and how do you get one?
At last, some thorough reporting on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the mainstream media. Reuters reporter Carey Gillam takes a look at the weaknesses in the US regulatory framework for GMOs, and the resulting blockade against independent research, and thus gives context to the current consumer backlash to GMOs worldwide.
