OK Doomer

By Guy Dauncey, The Tyee

Rees and Nikiforuk call this “realism,” but that’s a very loaded word. It says, “These are the facts: you can’t argue with them.” “Be realistic” invariably means “Stop being ambitious.” This kind of realism, applied to the climate and ecological emergencies, sends the message that we’re screwed. Spiritually and emotionally it’s not in my makeup to accept defeat, so I have a problem with this, especially before we’ve even begun the rapid transition needed to tackle the climate emergency.

The Future is Rural: The Unexpected Consequence of Energy Descent

By Jason Bradford, Resilience.org

Something new will arise, and in the evolution of what comes next, many may find what is often lacking in life today—the excitement of a profound challenge, meaning beyond the self, a deep sense of purpose, and commitment to place.

The Energy Descent Future

By Samuel Alexander, Joshua Floyd, The Ecologist

This leads us to the view – open to change through ongoing learning of which actual experience related to the realisation of post-carbon societies will be central – that humanity’s best course of action is to act in the present as if renewable futures will entail energy descent. 

Carbon Civilisation and the Energy Descent Future

By Samuel Alexander, Joshua Floyd, Resilience.org

Our goal presently is to broaden the discourse on energy futures. If we cannot always provide comprehensive answers in the space available, we hope at least to provoke thought about new questions, with the aim of unsettling some assumptions about energy futures presently held with undue confidence.

Slack Employment

By Shaun Chamberlin, David Fleming, STIR to Action

It is a truth universally acknowledged that competitiveness is a good thing.

A Prosperous Descent: Telling New Stories as the Old Book Closes

By Samuel Alexander, The Griffith Review

OVER THE LAST two centuries in the West, we have been telling ourselves that economic growth is the most direct path to prosperity, that the good life implies material affluence, and that technology and ‘free markets’ will be able to solve most of our social and environmental problems.

Review: Afterburn by Richard Heinberg

By Frank Kaminski, Mud City Press

Heinberg, who has few peers in the art of distilling complex messages down to simple, easily understandable take-aways, gives this summation of our fossil fuel predicament: “it’s all about energy; renewables are the future; growth is over.”

Richard Heinberg talks about Afterburn

By Hal Ginsberg, Richard Heinberg, Radio Monterey

Richard Heinberg on his new book Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels.

Richard Heinberg on Our Renewable Future

By David Swanson, Richard Heinberg, Talk Nation Radio

Richard Heinberg discusses our renewable future and how to get there.

After the Peak

By Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute

Within a couple of years, those of us who have spent most of the past two decades warning about the approaching peak may see vindication by data, if not by public opinion.