A deindustrial reading list
After fielding multiple requests for a reading list on the end of the industrial age, the Archdruid suggests ten books that might just cast a necessary light on the crisis of our time.
Overshoot
Energy and ecology: why societies really succeed and fail
A human society that aspires for long-term sustainability will want to live in accord with basic ecological principles: energy comes from the sun; all resources are constantly cycled such that there is no waste whatsoever; fertile soil is the foundation of terrestrial life; and a sustainable population of a given species is one that is maintained at or within the carrying capacity of the ecosystem.
Peak oil, the web of debt, & our local future
A new set of high definition videos are now online: Richard Heinberg on peak oil, Thaddeus Owen on permaculture, Ellen Brown on financial collapse, Tim Husdon on the four futures, and Kim Hill on the auto industry crisis, and more.
Too many people, too much stuff – Feb 1
Peak middle class
CSM: Earth’s big problem: Too many people
Peak everything
Reality Report: Chris Martenson on the current financial crisis
Today’s guest is scientist and financial expert Chris Martenson, here to explain how the financial crisis is a predictable outcome of a money system requiring exponential growth on a finite planet.
Peak Moment 138: The Twilight of an Age (transcript added)
In his book, The Long Descent, John Michael Greer observes that our culture has two primary stories: “Infinite Progress” or “Catastrophe”. On the contrary, he sees history as cyclic: civilizations rise and fall.
Population – Jan 29
Population Australia’s ‘big threat’
Japan workers urged: Go home and multiply
Peak oil? Global warming? No, it’s ‘Boomsday!’
The Great Squeeze (review)
This Great Squeeze: Surviving the Human Project is the latest film from Colorado-based Tiroir a Films. This sequel to their 2006 offering, Energy Crossroads: The Burning Need to Change Course, looks to dig deeper into how the concurrent processes of resource depletion, climate change, ecosystem destruction and our consumption-oriented economic model are threatening to destroy both our planet and possibly our very civilization. I would say in large part that it succeeds.
Deep thought – Jan 23
Doom Boom
Club of Rome: Crisis gives us an opportunity to rethink strategies
Bill McKibben Interview
Climate equity is in
2009 Japan prize honors lead author of ‘”The Limits to Growth”
Dr. Dennis Meadows, lead scientist and co-author of The Limits to Growth (1972) and its subsequent updates, is the winner of this year’s Japan Prize from the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan for “Transformation towards a sustainable society in harmony with nature.” This prestigious award is given once a year to people from all parts of the world whose original and outstanding achievements in science and technology are recognized as having advanced the frontiers of knowledge and served the cause of peace and prosperity for humankind.
Two geologists on saving the earth
Interview with the geologist-authors of The American West at Risk, a recently-published tome that details how ongoing environmental issues are destroying the general livability of Earth for all species, including humans. This book shouldn’t just be on every wannabe Greenpeace activist’s nightstand. Each of the 13 chapters explore one subject in depth — forestry, mining, military operations, road building, to name a few — and balances science with politics and reality to sharpen the argument for preservation of natural resources.
Book Review: “The Long Descent”
John Michael Greer has written a fascinating and engaging, but also contradictory and perplexing account of how he sees the industrial age ending. His primary thesis is that collapse will not come as a sudden, abrupt End Of Days or Die Off scenario.
