Peak oil, prices, and supplies – Sept 13
-NYT: German Military Braces for Scarcity After ‘Peak Oil’
-Defense Energy Resilience: Lessons from Ecology
-Deepwater Horizon Oil Remains Below Surface, Will Come Ashore in Pulses, Expert Says
Media & Communications
Interview with Bob Hirsch on his team’s new book—“The Impending World Energy Mess”
Robert L. Hirsch, Roger Bezdek and Robert Wendling have coauthored a new publication, this time a book called “The Impending World Energy Mess: What It Is and What It Means to You,” a book to be released by publisher Apogee Prime late this month…He has spent his entire career working in the energy realm, from the oil sector to numerous forms of electric power generation. In 2005, this team published “The Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation and Risk Management.” Steve Andrews caught up with Bob Hirsch last week for Steve’s last interview and final work with the Peak Oil Review.
Food & agriculture – Sept 13
-Smart cities are (un)paving the way for urban farmers and locavores
-Dwindling Fossil Fuels and Our Food System
-Students imagine new possibilities in intensive summer agroecology program
-Egg Co-ops Take Community Gardens to a Whole New Level
-UK Bee Industry Abuzz With Mite Resistant Breed
“We’re not calling it a food crisis” – September 14
-UN to hold crisis talks on food prices as riots hit Mozambique
-U.N. Raises Concerns as Global Food Prices Jump
-Sowing Seeds of Fear
Stories of belonging
In the industrialised world today, most of us feel overwhelmed by a seemingly endless series of crises. The climate is changing; conflicts rage around the world; the global economy may be on the verge of collapse. On a more personal level, we are experiencing what appears to be an epidemic of psychological disorders. Few of us are completely untouched by the increasing rates of depression and a pervading sense of isolation and low self-esteem.
Rearranging the deck chairs
Listening to the “news” and reading the usual sources on the internet has become surreal as the summer winds down. The key word lately is infrastructure. The President and the Democrats launched some initiatives that have no chance of being approved by Congress because they have to run for re-election on something, especially with underemployment the highest it’s been since World War II.
World Bank on land grabs: It’s all good unless you’re African, a woman, disempowered, or poor
The World Banks long-awaited report on land grabs is out. I’ve not had time to study it — I only found out an hour ago — but here are some first impressions.
Tales from a tail of wooded land (Days 164-165) September 8th -9th
It would be heartening to think that there could be trust regained in place of the fear, what is it that those who honour ownership above all else fear? And from whence came the sense of alienation from one another, and the sense of entitlement of one above the other?
ODAC Newsletter – Sep 10
Wednesday saw the release of BP’s Deepwater Horizon Accident Investigation report – the company’s version of the events that led to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. BP admits responsibility for some of the list of technical and human failures which it says led to the disaster, but also heaps blame on both the rig owners Transocean and contractors Halliburton…
The future of our food system: Our changing climate and food availability
According to a recent article in the Royal Society’s journal Philosophical Transactions B, agricultural areas that typically experience extreme weather events every “one in 20” years will see an average rise in temperature of 3 degrees Celsius (4.8 ˚F) by 2050. And most places “will be hotter by 1 to 3˚ C.” This could increase the intensity of drought or floods and their effects on agricultural production. But the several articles that discuss climate change provide no firm conclusion on the effects of changing temperatures on crop yields and resource availability in different countries.
Shovels and ballots… Getting to work on 10/10/10
After major disappointments in Copenhagen and Washington D.C., millions of us concerned about the climate crisis have been left wondering "what now?". The stakes couldn’t be higher, and the political and infrastructural challenges so large and complex, that it’s no surprise to see soul-searching and disagreements over the best course of action. Especially when legislative and diplomatic efforts to date have fallen flat. When folks like Dave Roberts — who fiercely advocated for admittedly weak Cap & Trade legislation because he felt that it was our best hope for progress — have given up on the nation’s capitol, it’s clear that a lot of people are being forced to re-evaluate.
Steady growth of wind industry moves EU closer to green goals
Europe is in the midst of a wind energy boom, with the continent now installing more wind power capacity than any other form of energy. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, the European Wind Energy Association’s Christian Kjaer describes his vision of how wind can lead the way in making Europe’s electricity generation 100 percent renewable by 2050.
