Solutions & sustainability – Nov 19

-Go forth and multiply a lot less
-The new wave of urban farming (and fresh food from small spaces!)
-Urban farms a fertile idea
-Summary Presentation for Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
-The next Industrial Revolution will be people-powered
-Sustainability and Social Justice: Do the Math
-Greening Portland – Your City How To

Time and the Latest CERA Report: Why 2030 for the Peak?

One of the features of many models that are used to predict future events is that they focus on target years. Decadal years are the most common target years, so that whether talking of climate or the amount of oil or natural gas available, models focus on, for example, the amount that will be available in 2030. The problem with this approach is that it leaves the public to think that a problem is not yet serious.

Food Futures: Strategies for resilient food and farming (pdf)

Our current food systems are precarious and vulnerable to external ‘shocks’. A combination of one or more external factors, such as extreme weather conditions, global conflict or trade disputes could easily disrupt the continuity of food supplies unless we make fundamental changes to the way we farm, process, distribute and eat our food over the next 20 years.

Canada’s House of Commons must convene inquiry into fossil fuel supply

A recent front-page report by the British newspaper, The Guardian, is the latest reason why Canada needs a top-level analysis of global hydrocarbon supplies. The Guardian’s November 9th story is headlined “Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower.” The story focuses on the world’s top energy monitoring and forecasting body, the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Dancing the Copenhagen two-step – Nov 17 -updated Nov 18

-Leaders plan a ‘two-step’ environment deal
-The psychology of climate change
-Greenland’s Ice Sheet Melting Faster than Ever
-Rainforests could be traded on world market
-Leaders agree Copenhagen will focus on principles, not concrete goals
-World on course for catastrophic 6° rise, reveal scientists

Feeding the world, climate change, and peak oil – Nov 17

-UN links climate with hunger
-Hungry for change
-The Links Between Food Security And Climate Change
-Agriculture in the Climate Change Negotiations, Platform Issue Paper
-The one thing depleting faster than oil is the credibility of those measuring it
-Promoting climate-smart agriculture

Peak Therapy: Do we Need a Shrink as the World Ends?

This past week I read with fascination the posts by Sally Erickson on “The Culture of Pretend: How Psychotherapy Keeps our Communities Sick” and Kathy McMahon’s response “Bozos On The Couch: What Is ‘Good Therapy’ In A Time of Collapse?” As I’ve pondered these posts, I’m compelled to respond to several incongruities and offer missing pieces that I believe must be added to the discourse.

The new farm owners

With all the talk about “food security,” and distorted media statements like “South Korea leases half of Madagascar’s land,” it may not be evident to a lot of people that the lead actors in today’s global land grab for overseas food production are not countries or governments but corporations.

Enter the Elephant

In the Happiness Hypothesis , psychology professor Jonathan Haidt compares human brain/behavior to a man riding an elephant. There exists a complex choreography between our newer rational cortex (the ‘man’), and our older, more primitive brain structures (the ‘elephant’).

Colin Campbell’s Response to the Guardian IEA Reporting

Colin Campbell, one of the worlds preeminent depletion analysts, and co-author of the 1998 Scientific American article, “The End of Cheap Oil“, drafted a reply to the Guardian on these issues. Below the fold is Dr. Campbell’s letter, which gives some relevant history as to how the oil depletion debate has unfolded over time in the worlds energy agencies.