Media & Communications

I just dropped in to see what condition my Transition was in: part 2 – context

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British and American cultures are often thought of as mirror images of one another…The UK is a small country, and, as Hopkins points out, there is no room to “run and hide.” In contrast, vast sections of the US are virtually empty….We have different gun cultures…We will need to explore this important cultural difference in detail, in order to understand the phenomenal rise in popularity of the American “survivalist” movement, and TI’s-UK’s (culturally based?) aversion to it.

When Technology Fails (book review)

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Rarely in the specialized milieu of industrial civilization does one encounter a Renaissance man or woman-someone who is well-versed in a wide spectrum of disciplines and who can expound upon them in writing that is both articulate and engaging. So when I discovered Mat Stein’s phenomenal When Technology Fails: A Manual For Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving The Long Emergency…

The peak oil crisis: leadership

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Many voters clearly are beginning to sense there is some kind of unprecedented problem out there, even it is thought of as melting poles and reliance on foreign oil. While they may not understand all the forces that are at play, soaring unemployment, falling home values and collapsing equity markets are getting their attention.

False hope or hardship? Comments on Pope and McKibben essays

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Carl Pope, head of the Sierra Club, in a January 22, 2009 article entitled “Moving the U.S. off Carbon with Less Pain, More Gain” takes issue with Bill McKibben’s November 5, 2008 article entitled “President Obama’s Big Climate Challenge.” McKibben identifies the scale and risk of the challenge noting it will be unpopular and could damage Obama’s political future.