Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The following is a selected list of studies of various aspects of energy security (including peak oil) which have either been conducted by members of the military/security research community, or which raise issues with direct military/security relevance.
The food crisis of 2008 never really ended, it was ignored and forgotten. The rich and powerful are well fed; they had no food crisis, no shortage, so in the West, it was little more than a short lived sound bite, tragic but forgettable. To the poor in the developing world, whose ability to afford food is no better now than in 2008, the hunger continues.
The recent leak of a German military report on peak oil has generated much interest among peak oil analysts. This review examines the Bundeswehr report in the context of other publicly-available military analyses of peak oil and concludes that the new German report is highly significant for several reasons.
In this 100th episode of the Agroinnovations Podcast we are joined by Darren Doherty, a permaculture designer and consultant who is an expert in keyline design, broadacre permaculture, and agroforestry.
“Wouldn’t economics make a lot more sense if it were based on how people actually behave, instead of how they should behave?”
-Dan Ariely, in Predictably Irrational (HarperCollins), p. 239.
With small-scale forestry, subsistence farmers can unlock the potential of their otherwise unproductive, fallow land.
Berry didn’t want to talk about “the environment,” though he mentioned it; he wanted to talk about the natural environment of Kentucky, the place he’s knows best.
Given the prevalence of high quality content and thought of a few years ago, the blending and parroting of the major themes that a casual perusal of the resource/energy/finance blogosphere reveals today reminds one of the time shift in the movie Idiocracy. A psychiatrist might label this phenomenon ‘information anhedonia’. An economist would say we’ve reached ‘decreasing informational returns from the marginal blog entry’. I’ll just call it ‘clown-fest’.
Transition was no longer a local initiative or a movement — it had become a way of life. The world had become much smaller again, as globalization abruptly ended and society once again began to revolve around local communities. We had prepared. We lived in a paradise. We were small enough to be agile. We had an exceptional citizenry, with extraordinary talents, knowledge and creativity. And we had each other.
Having done some analysis, I’ve decided to postpone my projection for the next oil price shock. I have moved the date from 2012 ± 1 year to 2013 ± 1 year. The change reflects my view that there will not be a price spike in 2011.
– What psychology can teach us about our response to climate change
– Facebook – unfriend coal
– Rocky Mountain dust-up: runoff’s dirty secret
– Arctic ice in death spiral
– Watch Colbert’s statement before Congress on migrant farmworkers
– Colbert annoys press corps … again
– Food fight: a Kol Nidre call for sustainable consumption
– From vacant city lots to food on the table
