Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
I came back to my computer to find that many of my fellow Sciblings have recently taken up issues of resource depletion from various interesting perspectives – doing my work for me, I guess ;-). It isn’t exactly news to most of us that we’ve been using just about every resource on the planet far too casually, but it is interesting to see them tied together.
Alaska — and the so-called Sarah Palin pipeline — are in the crosshairs of the abrupt surge of natural gas supplies in the continental United States. Leading the charge against a much-promoted pipeline to ship Alaskan natural gas into the currently glutted Lower 48 is former Sen. Ted Stevens. The locally influential Republican says the gas should be rerouted to Asia, and that if Alaska doesn’t move fast, this fuel — the equivalent of 6 billion barrels of oil — could end up effectively stranded at home.
I was invited earlier this month to speak on the future of payments at the Digital Money Forum in London, now in its thirteenth year and as provocative as ever. Of course, it’s a future that’s increasingly bound up with technology. My version is based on the work that’s been done by the historian of economics and technology, Carlota Perez (which I’ve blogged about elsewhere, at length) on long technology cycles.
In real economies, energy comes from many sources – from imported and domestic sources of oil, coal and natural gas, as well as hydropower and nuclear, and from a little renewable energy – most of that as firewood but increasingly from wind etc. Most of these are cheaper per unit energy delivered than oil. So let’s look at what this real ratio of the cost of energy (from all sources, weighed by their importance) is relative to its benefits.
The March 2010 edition of Oilwatch Monthly can be downloaded at this weblink (PDF, 1.24 MB, 33 pp).
I will dispense with the health care issue today. This is the last of my 3 posts on the subject—I promise. There are so many other disasters to cover, so I need to get this one out of the way. Let’s start with Ezra Klein’s How big is the bill, really?
For Energy and Capital last week, I took a fresh look at how software is enabling the energy revolution by streamlining rooftop solar design, improving home energy efficiency, and putting the “smart” in smart grid.
Recently, I received a message from a group called Trees Have Rights Too. They want to create a Meme, a replicating cultural entity, from the word “ecocide”…
We examine the latest setback in the ongoing struggle to maintain healthy honey bee populations around the world…And with Vancouver Island receiving Spring the earliest of any location in Canada, farmers there are reporting catastrophic results from the winter with some farmers having lost up to 90% of their colonies. Yet while populations elsewhere in Canada have also been hit in recent years, it appears (at least at this point), that Vancouver Island’s significant losses are an isolated incident…And we’ll also travel to Vancouver Island to meet Bob Liptrot of Tugwell Creek Honey Farm & Meadery.
A while ago, at a Soil Association event in London, I found myself on a panel with Phillip Blond of ResPublica, and was really impressed by his insightful thinking on how politics might best enable the process of localisation. Phillip’s book. ‘Red Tory’ is due to be published in a couple of weeks, and I was delighted that Phillip agreed to do an interview about his thinking.
Health care reform dominates the news as Dems struggle to push their reform package through Congress. I applaud the effort, but can’t help wondering why climate change is being left out of the debate.
-Californians March into the Heartland
-US House approves sweeping healthcare overhaul
-Fear Strikes Out
