Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
-Why Food Is Still Cheap In America
-Vision — Urban Roots: Detroit’s Industrial Collapse Gives Birth to Flourishing City Gardening Movement (video)
-Nourish: Teaching About the Food System
-Food Now on Plate for All Federal Parties
– The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science
– Multi-tasking: It’s Not Just Rude, It’s Ruining Your Brain
– Mark Morford: Please Step Away From the Fear
The massive budget fight in Congress over deficit reduction threatened to shut down the U.S. government, but it also provided a massive opportunity – one that was completely missed. Members of Congress could have scrapped wasteful and environmentally destructive subsidies. They could have made decisive cuts and reallocations in the military budget. In the end Congress agreed to cuts totaling $38 billion, but another showdown looms over a vote to raise the debt limit.
-Putting Our Roads on a Diet
-China’s high-speed trains to slow down
-An interview with Portland Mayor Sam Adams
-The Ghost Park
-Emotional Resilience In Traumatic Times
-Let No Man Say It Cannot Be Done
-What Makes Life Good?
The media, public, and politicians like the optimistic projections by the US DOE/EIA, US Geological Survey (on-shore), and Minerals Management Service (off-shore), but that optimism doesn’t mean their projections and assessments are accurate.
-DIY Urban Design, from Guerrilla Gardening to Yarn Bombing (slide show)
-The antidote to apathy (video)
-“Sustainable Development vs Historic Preservation” Is A False Dichotomy
-Projects: Small is Successful (report)
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-China continues to grow
-Saudi production
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
Scientists talk about climate change with studies on pollution and toxins where the Inuit discuss the effects as they occur within our lives. Our whole world is changing. On the topic of environment southerners focus on borders which prevents them from getting connected. When Inuit talk about environment we are one.
Knowledge stands at the beginning of everything purposefully created. It takes knowledge to build farms and machines, to build firearms, or to steward the land. Having knowledge often means having power. Inequalities in access to knowledge often lead to power-inequalities.
It’s not enough to think of Eaarth as an impotent casualty of humanity’s predations. It is also a complex organic system with many potent defenses against alien intervention — defenses it is already wielding to devastating effect when it comes to human societies. And keep this in mind: we are only at the beginning of this process.
The IEA reported this week that there are preliminary signs of oil demand destruction due to soaring prices. Goldman Sachs underlined this viewpoint on Tuesday by advising its clients to sell oil, copper, platinum and cotton. Prices fell in response, although concern over conflict in the Middle East and Saudi production saw prices nudging up again by the end of the week.
