Media & Communications

The law of civilization and decay

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It just so happened that I’ve been reading Christopher Lasch’s The True And Only Heaven: Progress and It’s Critics when a friend sent me Philip Mirowski’s The Great Mortification Economist’s Responses to the Crisis of 2007-(and counting). This latter article led me to James K. Galbraith’s Who Are These Economists, Anyway?…I will go a small but significant way toward answering this question today in the first of a series of essays on where we stand in the Modern Age. I can only touch on the main concepts today.

Past disasters offer lessons on legacy of deepwater spill

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The Gulf of Mexico’s capacity to recover from previous environmental assaults — especially the 1979 Ixtoc explosion — provides encouragement about the prospects for its post-Deepwater future. But scientists remain worried about the BP spill’s long-term effects on the health of the Gulf and its sea life.

Lester Brown on rising temperatures and rising food prices

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Prices for basic farm commodities – wheat, corn, and soybeans – are actually somewhat higher in August of this year than they were in August of 2007 at the start of the record-breaking 2007-08 run-up in grain prices that led to food protests and riots in some 30 countries. Meanwhile, it is estimated that Russia could lose nearly 30 million tons of grain this summer.

Steady state transportation: Closing the door on the dirty oil era

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If human civilization is to make the move to a steady state economy that provides prosperity without growth, it must meet people’s basic mobility needs without reliance on fossil fuels. The U.S. requires a revolutionary transformation of its transportation systems, and recent experience with the downsides of oil provides a potent political push to overcome inertia.

Summer reads

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Looking at the news, most current stories have a common thread. Wars over oil; oil spill; catastrophic flooding in Pakistan and record cold waves in the Southern Hemisphere; wheat prices up on drought in Russia; forest and peat fires from the heat; economies cratering from higher energy costs and banking bubbles; states, provinces, and municipalities teetering on bankruptcy; unemployment skyrocketing; right-wing militant groups finding traction; civil rights trampled as authoritarianism hardens; and billions still being spent to keep people in the dark on peak oil and climate change.

New perspectives on the energy return on (energy) investment (EROI) of corn ethanol: part 2 of 2

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In the analysis underlying our paper “New Perspectives on the Energy Return on (Energy) Investment (EROI) of Corn Ethanol,” we performed four major analyses relating to the EROI of corn ethanol. In this part, we will discuss two additional research areas from the paper.

ODAC Newsletter – Aug 6

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There was an almost audible sigh of relief this week in the US as BP and the White House proclaimed the ‘static kill’ procedure on the Macondo oil well a success. With elections approaching the Obama administration will be keen to draw a line under the oil spill and focus on other issues, as reflected by a surprisingly upbeat press conference on Wednesday in which officials announced not only the plugging of the well but also the apparent disappearance of 75% of the spilled oil…

Breaking: New York Senate passes temporary ban on hydraulic fracturing

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In a predawn vote Wednesday, New York State’s senate passed a bill that reaches beyond the debate over the environmental safety of drilling for gas in the Marcellus Shale and would effectively ban almost all gas and oil drilling in the state until next spring. The bill circumvents an environmental review by the state’s regulatory agency that could be finished this year.