Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
This article is in response to last month’s article by Kathy Leotta and her colleagues, Observations on local governments’ preparedness for fuel supply disruptions. First, I congratulate Kathy on her earlier research and thank her for reviving this neglected topic in her most recent paper. The purpose of my submission is to support and supplement various observations made by the Leotta team.
Hand-powered devices have been used for millennia, but during the last quarter of the 19th century a radically improved generation of tools appeared, taking advantage of modern mass production machinery and processes (like interchangeable parts) and an increased availability in superior material (metal instead of wood). One of the outcomes included an array of new drilling machines, but their heydays were over fast. These human-powered tools were not only a vast improvement over those that came before them, they also had many advantages in comparison to the power drills that we use today.
The literature on Liquid Fuel Emergencies is considerable, dating back to rationing during World War Two. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in the USA did some exceptional work for two decades (1975- 1994). Unfortunately, there have been relatively few studies during the past 15 years, with the notable exceptions of the comprehensive analysis by Alan Smart for the Government of Australia and Kathy’s research in the USA.
-Kicking the habit: why gardeners need to ditch their addiction to oil
-Leaked document shows EPA allowed bee-toxic pesticide despite own scientists’ red flags
-Saving our Soils and How the Old Peach Tree was Brought Back to Life
-Want to See My ASPO Conference Talk About Food?
-Urban Farming, Community Resilience and the Death of the Motor Industry in Detroit (Video)
-Planning Charitable Gifts to Your Favorite Food Organizations? Double Your Impact by Donating Dirty Stocks
– Swedish documentary on WikiLeaks: “WikiRebels” (now online)
– Stephen Colbert’s International Manhunt for Julian Assange
– Wikileaks defectors to launch Openleaks alternative
– WikiLeaks may make the powerful howl, but we are learning the truth
– Harvard law professor: Seven Thoughts on Wikilea
– The US Government’s Pursuit of WikiLeaks Could Be Its Undoing-
It has an appealing symmetry to it: If we got ourselves into this climate mess by digging up and burning coal, maybe we can fix it by creating some more coal and putting it back into the ground.
Among the most compelling nuggets of information contained in the batch of United States diplomatic documents released by WikiLeaks and published in leading international newspapers is the list of installations in more than fifty countries which the state department in Washington deems to be a US security concern.
The international climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, have concluded, and despite the gloom-and-doom predictions that dominated the weeks and months leading up to Cancun, the Sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP-16) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) must be judged a success. It represents a set of modest steps forward. Nothing more should be expected from this process.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The IEA’s Oil Market Report
-Forecasts
-US gasoline prices
-Managing China’s Economy
-Quote of the Week
-Briefs
I haven’t done this for a while, so I thought it might be good to do a round up of some of the more influential and inspirational books that have passed across my bedside table over the last 6 months. In terms of books you might choose to offer people over the next few weeks’ festive period, there is of course no beating the ever-expanding Transition Books series (still time to order before Christmas), but here is a collection of 13 titles to inform, inspire, fascinate, entertain and enlighten (also please note the Amazon-free nature of the links provided…). Any books you’d like to recommend?
The good news from the Green New Deal is that ecological microeconomics (such as valuing ecosystem services) has risen from the recesses of academia into the realm of international diplomacy. The bad news is that ecological macroeconomics (such as limits to growth) apparently has not. Let’s take a look at the implications.
Fleeing Vesuvius is practical and fundamentally optimistic. It will arm readers with the confidence and knowledge they need to develop new, workable alternatives to the old-style expanding economy and its supporting systems.
