Housing & urban design – August 6
Foreclosures forcing commuters from San Joaquin Valley back to Bay Area
Little house on a small planet (video and audio)
SF Mayor signs tough green-building bill
Fossil Fuels
Good news, bad news
I starting reading the news, and following links, and reading a backlog of articles I’ve been meaning to read, and lo and behold, I noticed a pattern. Our society is changing. We rely so much on oil, that as the price skyrockets, we have no choice but to change. Are you noticing a shift?
Per capita US military energy consumption
We all know that energy consumption per capita in the U.S. is amongst the highest in the world. How much is the per capita consumption in the Department of Defense? 25 per cent more than the U.S. average.
Transport – August 5
Will fares go so high that only the rich can fly?
Funds for highways plummet as drivers cut gasoline use
Interviews with Paul Scott, founder and board member of Plug In America (video)
Solutions & Sustainability – August 5
Bring on the Staycation / Relocalizing fun
She’s ready: Just add water
12 Tips for the sustainability shift
This week on Worldchanging Seattle
Peak oil – August 5
Mainstream Dutch analysts foresee oil supply constrained world
A visit to Malaysia
Deep Green: peak oil changes everything
Food & agriculture – August 5
Organic food becomes latest casualty of the credit crunch
The climate costs of a glass of milk
Congress takes another potshot at family farmers
Peak caviar
Once, black caviar from the Caspian Sea was ubiquitous in Russia in its typical blue cans. Now, it has disappeared. “Peak Caviar” has taken place around 1980 in Russia. … “Peak Caviar” is another confirmation of how common the “Hubbert” behavior is. It doesn’t matter if a resource is theoretically renewable, as sturgeons and whales are. If sturgeons or whales are killed much faster than they can reproduce, then they behave as a non renewable resource; just as crude oil.
United States & Canada – August 4
Riches to Rags
Energy boom in West threatens Indian artifacts
The suicide solution
Housing & urban design – August 4
After the bubble, ghost towns across America
Vancouver needs to plan for a post-oil world — now
Changing the world one block at a time
Concrete Dragon, a Book Review (about China)
Transport – August 4
The problem with walk score, the possibilities of carbon goggles
Automakers race time as their cash runs low
Addiction: A million little miles per gallon
Consumer auto expert Reed: ‘panic in boardrooms’ of GM, Ford as it becomes clear electric cars ‘really coming’
Coal & Climate
Recent reports on global coal reserves, surveyed in previous chapters, generally point to the likelihood of supply limits appearing relatively soon—within the next two decades (a contrary view is represented solely by the BGR report [“Lignite and Hard Coal: Energy Suppliers for World Needs until the Year 2100 – An Outlook,” 2007]).
These two trends are surely destined to interact, and the uncertain result will shape climate and energy policy in the years to come.
