Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
It’s almost too easy to vilify corporations. What, with all the evil stuff they do. Take the coal industry for example, who blow up our mountains, poison our air and water, contribute massively to global climate change, and spend untold millionsof dollars on disinformation campaigns, lobbying Congress, buying Senators, and lying to block efforts to tackle the climate crisis. I mean, they are practically begging for our hatred, right? Right.
Peak Shrink has an interesting post on The Tyranny of Positive Thinking, a review of Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. In it, she expresses the same frustration I’ve felt when dealing with our cult of positivity.
Should climate activists and feminists support campaigns to slow population growth? Laurie Mazur says that alliance will strengthen the movement. Ian Angus strongly disagrees …
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Iraq’s elections
-The National People’s Congress
-Global warming
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
Time Magazine recently had an article (Why the Tea Party Movement Matters) that looked at the latest manifestation of populism in the United States, with widespread discontent at the state of the US economy and the US political system, particularly the lack of transparency evident in many government initiatives ranging from the bail-out of the financial system to proposed changes to healthcare, along with discontent about costly wars in the middle east that seem to be never-ending.
-Arctic arch failure leads to sea-ice exodus
-World’s temperature record to be re-analysed
-In India, a Clear Victor on The Climate Action Front
-Is Arctic methane on the move?
-Methane Releases from Arctic Shelf May Be Much Larger and Faster Than Anticipated
-Climate scientists must be ruthlessly honest about data
Various subjects compete for this week’s Daly News, coming on the heels of the Eastern Economic Association conference in Philadelphia. “Forty Shades of Green” comes to mind, with all that we hear these days about “greening” the economy. Green jobs, green technology, green sectors… even “green growth.”
-S&P Rally Slowed by Fastest Cash Depletion Since 1991
-Economists: Another Financial Crisis on the Way
-Thousands rally on campuses, streets for schools
-China’s worthless economic statistics
-Murray Bookchin on Growth and Consumerism
-Swaps and Robbers
-We’re all PIGS now
-The Great American Bank Robbery
KrisCan talks with designer Ken Eklund, the creator of World Without Oil, an online game that dealt with the first 32 weeks of a global oil crisis where players were encouraged to contribute stories, podcasts or videos that chronicled their experience of an imagined reality…
This is the story of Transition Tales, a small group within Transition Town Totnes. One of the aims of this project is to raise awareness within Primary and Secondary School children of the transition solution of community led response to the twin challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change by creating positive stories.
The Haradh III development at the southern tip of the Ghawar oil field in Saudi Arabia, completed in 2006, has been portrayed by the national oil company Saudi Aramco as the turning point in the battle between geological adversity and engineering prowess…Aided by 3D Seismic images showing fracture locations, well sites were optimized and drills were guided by remote control from Dhahran….Lots of glowing articles were published, and the man in charge eventually rode off in glory to solve the rest of the world’s oil production problems.
Salon’s Andrew Leonard has just published Bringing subprime sexy back, a review of Michael Lewis’ much anticipated book The Big Short, a follow-up to his wonderful Liar’s Poker. Before I get started here, let me say that I think Michael Lewis is great—I have quoted him here at DOTE—and I’m usually OK with Andrew Leonard too.
