Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
A couple of months ago I did a talk at the Tagore Festival at Dartington which eschewed Powerpoint and used objects sent in by Transition groups to tell the story of how Transition unfolds. I really enjoyed it. Here it is!
Arizona is burning. Texas, too. New Mexico is next. If you need a grim reminder that an already arid West is burning up and blowing away, here it is. As I write this, more than 700 square miles of Arizona and more than 4,300 square miles of Texas have been swept by monster wildfires. Consider those massive columns of acrid smoke drifting eastward as a kind of smoke signal warning us that a globally warming world is not a matter of some future worst-case scenario. It’s happening right here, right now.
-Greece strikes: ‘The atmosphere is toxic’
-Beijing worries as sense of injustice deepens
-Kuwait ruler warns against unrest, security threats
To read these writers and take them seriously is to admit that the culture is not with us, that although solutions exists, they are smothered by widespread denial. Therefore we work in darkness and we struggle with those forces of denial–sometimes in the form of our own friends and family.
My colleague at the National Review, Jonah Goldberg, recently penned an article, in which he starts down the road with a sure step but then falters and ultimately stumbles over his erroneous notions about economic growth. I provide some subjective commentary below, but I also offer an objective economic analysis to set the record straight. I have devised a nonparametric econometric statistic, normalized on a scale from 1 (utterly false) to 10 (unassailably true) that rates the veracity of each of Mr. Goldberg’s premises (in the interest of conserving ink, I shall refrain from reproducing the 17-page formula here; in any case, it is likely that readers would find it well beyond their comprehension).
To feed a growing world population, we have no option but to intensify crop production. But farmers face unprecedented constraints. In order to grow, agriculture must learn to save.
Oil is often described as ‘the life-blood’ of modern society. It is as vital to our globalized economy as water is to the human body. A reduction in supply of only a few percentages could create difficulties throughout the entire system. Further reductions could lead to a complete failure of critical systems.
The “financialization” of commodity markets has changed trading behaviour and significantly affects the prices of such basic goods as staple foods, a new UNCTAD study says. The study focuses on how financial investors in commodity markets rely on information related to just a few commonly observable events or on mathematical models, rather than on the physical realities of supply and demand.
Jan. 1, 2013 — Somewhere, Texas —
Retired Marine Master Sergeant Jasper Sweet today announced the opening of his ninth Peak Oil Boot Camp – this one in Somewhere, Texas. During the opening ceremony, Master Sergeant Sweet spoke about his calling to open the Camps. “After thirty-two years serving my country, I realized America needed people every bit as tough as soldiers – she needed farmers. And by God, I’m going to give them to her, even if I have to wipe the snot off the nose of every last pansy-a$$ juvenile delinquent in Texas.”
In an ongoing series called “Monday Mayhem,” radio host with a pragmatic view of tackling the challenges of energy, food, and the local economy at the end of the age of oil goes head-to-head with a radio host who promotes free-market solutions. In this edition, Carl Etnier and Rob Roper discuss what it looks like to apply the principles of local, organic food to the functions of government.
Danish director Michael Madsen’s ‘Into Eternity’ masterfully debunks industry claims that nuclear power is ‘clean’ energy. And its deadpan Nordic style and lush cinematography is hauntingly beautiful, creating a meditative mood on the deeply troubling topic of nuclear waste. English and Finnish with subtitles. 75 minutes.
Pathetically the media has been awash with New York Congressmember Anthony Weiner’s string of electronic sexual peccadillos. Punctuating the sensationalism, and between the TV commercials from the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries, are story after story of extreme weather events. Herein lies the real scandal: Why aren’t the TV meteorologists, with each story, following the words “extreme weather” with another two, “climate change”?
