Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
It is now 4 months since I wrote The Decline of the American Empire. The time is ripe for a follow-up. I will tell a sad story first, talk a little about our precarious banking system, and then relate the lessons learned back to my Decline theme. At the end I will talk about what all this means for the loosely structured peak oil “movement”.
On a stretch of desert near the U.S.-Mexico border, the only eatery on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation opened last spring to a full house. The Desert Rain Café brightened a space in a small shopping complex, drawing dozens of curious customers who filled patio tables by noon. Its menu, local by design, featured ingredients from the café’s own farm: desert squash enchiladas, mesquite-flour muffins, hummus made from tepary beans. The café recently extended its hours to take advantage of its booming business.
As a high-school teacher, I wanted to give my thoroughly-industrial, suburban-NJ students a more detailed peek at their upcoming post-industrial future. I felt the need to challenge their prevailing mindsets regarding our resource-depletion predicament: the “shorter showers & change the light-bulbs” crowd, the “engineers will surely come to our rescue” folks, and the “problem? — what problem?” people. This essay and the before/after comparison chart that follows are part of my ongoing (unsanctioned) attempts at doing so.
One of the best things about being invited to present at conferences and events is that I get to meet the other speakers, and usually talk with them in at least a semi-relaxed setting. Generally speaking, at a good conference I can count on meeting at least a few people who I’ve never heard of, but should have, at least one person who I regard with a measure of awe (sometimes even more), and a whole lot of just plain interesting people doing important work.
-Changing a City: Inside Portland’s 80 Percent by 2050 Target
-Zone5 Podcast #1 with Albert Bates and #2 with Noel Carillo
-Urban Permaculture in Clacton-on-Sea
-Toward an Ethic of Place: Experiments in Regional Governance
-U.N. Signals Delay in Climate Change Treaty
-Republicans walk out of Senate hearing on climate-change bill
-African nations make a stand at UN climate talks
-Senators opposed to the Clean Energy Jobs Act are ignoring the bill’s benefits to Americans
-We only have months, not years, to save civilisation from climate change
I have been following with interest the discussions surrounding Alex Steffen’s piece at WorldChanging in which he critiques Transition. I am honoured that someone so widely respected as a writer on sustainability issues saw fit to engage in discussions around Transition, but, as a critique of Transition, it leaves a lot to be desired.
There seems to be a consensus that the depletion of fossil fuels will follow a fairly impressive slope. What may need to be looked at more closely, however, is not the “when” but the “what.” Looking at the temporary shortages of the 1970s may give us the impression that the most serious consequence will be lineups at the pump. Fossil-fuel decline, however, will also mean the end of electricity, a far more serious matter.
When I published the previous article about the ever-more-dire forecasts of ocean level rise, little did I know that I was blundering into the midst of a “climate change debate.”…
On October 20-21, the 30th Oil & Money Conference, convened in London by Energy Intelligence and the International Herald Tribune, attracted roughly 500 attendees, many from the industry press (most of them working for the conveners). Held under tight security at the opulent Intercontinental Hotel, a half-dozen oil ministers past and present plus two dozen CEOs and VPs of oil producing, service companies and other industry players shared their views.
We live in some pretty incredible times…At times the implications seem overwhelming. But this Halloween Campfire post is a quick reminder that despite our massive challenges, (and that we are human, imperfect, and mortal) – we can find joy, fun, meaning and satisfaction in many everyday, low throughput ways – we just have to decide to do so. That’s both the trick and the treat.
-Rainforest treaty ‘fatally flawed’
-Fewer Americans View Global Warming as a Problem
-Government launches map to highlight global warming threat
-Arctic Sediments Show That 20th Century Warming Is Unlike Natural Variation
-Betting the Farm
-UN chief will pressure senators on climate bill
