Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The Tuscan way of surviving collapse: plant trees, disband the army, work together
Looking back on the 21st century
The price of money – selfishness
Hurtling through history at the speed of enlightenment
Evolutionary roots of environmental problems
Reviews of two recently released documentaries.
Flying blind to the brink of extinction
The impending mass extinction & how to stop it
Complex marine systems evolved after mass extinction of earth species
Evangelicals on extinction
Nine billion or bust!
Population: Apocalypse now
China’s water shortage a population problem
Self acknowledged "doomer" author writes, "despite all the fun you have trying to plumb our doomer souls, a more important discussion is why we prepare for a crash, not why we believe in one."
How many farmers do we need to change the world?
McKibben On reforming our supersized society
Slow clothing
My point is not that Peak Oil doomerism is wrong. We face enormous crises and we have the tools to end civilization. But remember, as you feel yourself drawn to the apocalyptic story, that it is the natural place to go in uncertain and dangerous times. We are culturally programmed to do it.
I have come to think that part of the reason behind the “die-off” perspective … is in fact that a generation of men are coming to realise on some level that they are almost entirely unequipped to face the challenge that peak oil creates.
My talk tonight is about the lack of collapse-preparedness here in the United States. I will compare it with the situation in the Soviet Union, prior to its collapse.I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and I have tried to put my observations into a concise message. I will leave it up to you to decide just how urgent a message it is.
Pentagon & peak oil – then (1957) and now
Amory Lovins on energy alternatives
Closing the ‘Collapse Gap’: prospects for the U.S. based on the Soviet experience
How to address peak oil skeptics
Friendly fire – the dark side of techno-fixes
Investment in oil E&P – an above-ground factor
How to prepare for peak oil and climate change (permaculture)
One way or another, re-ruralization will be the dominant social trend of the 21st century.
The approach which is hardest to sell seems like the safest. It relies on the concrete, concerted actions of people everywhere doing things that require no miracles of technology, no rosy assumptions about the future availability of critical resources, and only limited faith in the marketplace. It is an approach that one can get started on today without the enactment of any big government program.
