Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Matthew Simmons interview: All the canaries have stopped singing
The social effects of peak oil
Dale Allen Pfeiffer takes a closer look at Escape from Suburbia
Jay Hanson: Can American government survive “peak oil”?
Gregory Green, director of Escape from Suburbia
If crude oil is becoming scarce, the first reaction often is, “where can we find more of it?”
What is new and controversial in the article is the assertion that we have passed the point of “Peak phosphorus” – the point of maximum production and consumption of phosphorus. This would mean that over time phosphorus will become more difficult to obtain, and more expensive. This would be a major problem for society, since without sufficient supplies of phosphorus we will have difficulty feeding ourselves.
Phosphorus is one of the three major nutrients required for agriculture. Applying Hubbert analysis reveals that production of phosphates probably reached a world peak in 1989.
Background on the phosphorus problem and possible responses.
Insurgent American
Sharon Astyk de-constructs
The really inconvenient truth
In dusty archives, a theory of affluence
“Asian Brown Cloud” speeds melt of Himalaya glaciers
Siberian forest fires due to climate change
Pakistan: uncontrolled population blamed for climate change
Diesel-driven bee slums and impotent turkeys:
the case for resilience
Jeff Vail: Losing our balance?
Kunstler: Vanishing point
UK floods underline urgency of achieving national self-reliance in food crops
Copper thieves cripple farms in California
Copper theft spoils food bank groceries ($484,000 worth)
History prof: Worry about bread, not oil
WSJ: Green Revolution at risk of going bust
Humans appropriate 24% of Earth’s productivity
Quantifying and mapping the human appropriation
Our share of the planetary pie
China cancels environmental report
Review: The Upside of Down
Alex Steffen: The world with us
Researchers say giving leads to a healthier, happier life
A shift in world population into a roughly steady state is occurring right now. How it works, what causes it, and what we can do to encourage it.
