On catabolic collapse
The idea of catabolic collapse is simple enough, and it’s best communicated through a metaphor. Imagine that, instead of the fate of civilizations, we’re discussing home ownership.
Overshoot
Lester Brown: China growth unsustainable on all counts, must change
China’s growth model, based on the West’s economic model with its massive appetite for resources and increasing environmental degradation is unsustainable and will have to change, a leading environmentalist said.
Why bother? Nothing’s wrong
Why bother? There’s nothing wrong with the environment, right? The late Julian Simon has suggested that we have “the technology to feed, clothe, and supply energy to an ever-growing population for the next 7 billion years.”
Lundberg on the recent Peak Oil conferences
Coverage and commentary from a long-time activist on the two Peak Oil conferences earlier in May in Washington D.C.
Peak oil – May 18
Bartlett: a prophet without honor in Congress / Rep. Bartlett’s latest talk to Congress / Global oil output to peak in 2010 – Diapason / Saudi Aramco to boost oil reserves by 25% / Kunstler interview / Review of current speculative thinking on collapse
China unveils new plan to lift reserves of strategic metals
The Chinese government has announced what appears to be a new plan to stockpile strategic commodities.
Peak oil: powerdown or collapse?
Those who write about the future from the perspective of peak oil fall along a spectrum ranging from life-as-we-know-it with hydrogen cars to most-have-died-off from oil wars, famine, and disease with the remainder living in scattered tribes on subsistence agriculture.
Community survival during the coming energy decline
Imagine community life in a Peak Oil world. Are ecovillages, sustainable communities, and organized eco-neighborhoods prepared?
Population, Resources, and Human Idealism
If we want peace, democracy, and human rights, we must work to create the ecological condition essential for these things to exist: i.e., a stable human population at — or slightly less than — the environment’s long-term carrying capacity.
Satan in the driver’s seat
Mel Gibson’s portrayal of Satan in “The Passion of the Christ” is the one in the driver’s seat of our modern, petroleum-based civilization careening toward the cliff that is Peak Oil while we all look out the window and enjoy the scenery.
Peak oil – Apr 11
World ‘cannot meet oil demand’ /
OPEC warns high commodity prices may kill oil projects /
New ASPO-USA newsletter /
Toward a new vision for Hamilton (PO & cities) /
Energy philosophy for entropic times /
The Darwin Award for self-extinction goes to…
Field of nightmares: A conversation with climate journalist Elizabeth Kolbert
No writing about global warming has had more impact over the past year than a series of closely observed pieces in “The New Yorker” by Elizabeth Kolbert, which have now been collected and expanded into a book. The book ends with these chilling words: “It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing.”
