Politics

Brian Davey Responds to Ted Trainer

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You may remember recently Ted Trainer’s first draft of his paper “The Transition Towns Movement: its huge significance, and a friendly criticism”, and my subsequent response. Ted subsequently sent some more detailed thoughts, and has since rewritten his piece, which you can download here. Brian Davey of Transition Nottingham responded to Ted’s piece in a beautiful, heartfelt and fiery response, which he has kindly allowed me to share with you, as many of you might find that his key points resonate quite deeply. My thanks to both.

Last gasps on the road to Copenhagen – Dec 3

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-U.S. Lethargy at Copenhagen Might Be Best for Climate
-Global warming is happening now
-Climate and Capitalism
-The Manufactured Doubt industry and the hacked email controversy
-Disagreeable truth about the coming Copenhagen charade
-Is global warming unstoppable?
-The Urgent Threat To World Peace Is … Canada

Paul Krugman’s Free Lunch Theory

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A serious dispute has broken out among economists about fiscal deficits in the United States. Paul Krugman has been making the rounds on the talk shows, arguing that more stimulus spending is required to spur job creation…Jim Hamilton, whose work on oil price shocks has made him a familiar figure to those concerned about liquid fuels, is worried about the debt load the government is accumulating.

Hagbard’s Law

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It’s been a good couple of weeks for whistleblowers, with the IEA and an important climate change center both hit by claims that data has been fudged. Hard questions might similarly be directed at a good many of the “facts” that shape most of today’s policy decisions — including those that are defining the industrial world’s nonresponse to peak oil.

Climate Changegate: Setting the Record Straight

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With the revelations that key climate change emails were disclosed to be promoting a definite-climate-change public message, with the Hadley Climate Centre taking a hit, and raw climate data used in conclusions having been trashed, there has been fodder for activists and lobbyists opposing meaningful cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. And it all happens to come right before the Copenhagen climate change conference.

Moloch’s Children: Do Climate Skeptics and Climate Change Activists Need to Agree?

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I’ve gottten literally dozens of emails begging me to weigh in on the East Anglia climate scandal, and for a while, I was reluctant to do so, because ultimately, paying attention to something so inane just gives it credibility. We’re back, again, to the old battles over climate change — attention to trivialities in the absence of the central issue.

Six Things We Know For Sure in the Wake of ‘Climate Gate’

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A few people have been in touch to ask whether, in the light of the recent illegal hacking into UEA’s emails, and the proposition by climate deniers that some of the emails that have emerged prove climate change is a scam, Transition Network now intends to renounce the absurd notion of human-induced climate change. Of course not.

Peak Oil: The Eventual End of the Oil Age

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We cannot be lulled into a false sense of security: though oil prices have declined from their historic highs, there is little doubt that peak oil is real. A 2008 research project completed at Washington University in St. Louis found strong evidence in support of the theory. Please feel free to circulate this academic document as a primer on peak oil.

Ordinary fears/extraordinary times: 55 (real) things to worry about (if you must…)

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Peak Oil, Climate change and the Greater Depression will pose many challenges to our way of life but let’s get real, for a moment: Golden Hordes aren’t one of them. At least not now. Economic depression brings with it a host of serious problems, and I think you can say quite confidently, without being a chicken little, that most of the world is in a Greater Depression.