Middle East and rising – March 7
– Fisk: Saudis mobilise thousands of troops to quell growing revolt
– Steve LeVine: The specter of flaming oil ports
– The Arab Spring
– Yemen: Scale of rebellion ‘impossible to predict’
Politics
Times are a-changing – March 7
– McKibben, Greenpeace, RAN: We need big, brash, nonviolent climate protests. Are you in?
– Facebook and Twitter are just places revolutionaries go
– Controversialization: A Key to the Right’s Continuing Domination of Public Debates
– 2011 is 1848 Redux. But Worse
United States & the climate conspiracy – March 6
– As climate crime continues, who are we sending to jail? Tim DeChristopher?
– Republicans attack Obama’s environmental protection from all sides
– Bill McKibben: My life as a communist
– Barack Obama May Be Forced to Delay US Climate Action
– Who’s Blocking U.S. Action on Climate Change?
Web and democracy – March 6
– Hillary Clinton: US Losing Information War to Alternative Media (video)
– How WikiLeaks is democratizing journalism, redistributing power and increasing transparency
– In the Age of WikiLeaks, the End of Secrecy?
– The Internet’s Unholy Marriage to Capitalism
Deep thought – March 6
– Could a blueprint for a happier and more successful society come a little-known French philosopher?
– Reflections on the Early Global Springtime of Peoples
– 1 million workers. 90 million iPhones. 17 suicides. Who’s to Blame?
Support a hero
I’m writing you today about Tim de Christopher. For you that don’t know his name, here’s a short story: In its last days, the Bush administration was selling off 77 parcels of federal land totaling 150,000 acres for drilling, a last round of favors to the oil and gas industry. The leases were on wilderness areas, including some areas next to national parks. Business as usual. Then a student at the University of Utah named Tim de Christopher showed up.
Middle East – March 6
– WSJ: U.S. Wavers on ‘Regime Change’
– Video: Libya rebels control oil port
– Saudi Arabia bans public protest
– Muammar Gaddafi’s opposition: How Libya’s revolt has stalled
Standing up
If you want a picture of happiness, you just had to look at the faces of the Egyptians as they stood up for their rights! And the same for the faces in Wisconsin and in state capitals all over the country. No doubt about it — standing up for your beliefs brings some of the greatest satisfaction in life.
The dangerous dance of rising food and energy prices – March 4
-The Invisible Food Crisis
-Food prices reach record highs
-Climbing fuel prices trigger alarm
-Caught in the Food Pirates’ Trap
ODAC Newsletter – March 4
Continued violence in the Middle East kept oil prices high this week. Libyan exports are down at least 1 million barrels a day and fears are escalating that the stand-off there could turn in to a protracted civil war. The unrest spread to Oman this week where security forces clashed with demonstrators. Meanwhile news of the arrest of a Shi’ite cleric demanding democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia sent the Saudi Tadawul stock exchange down 11%.
Four Lessons from Ireland’s Election
In last month’s cover story of The American Conservative magazine, I wrote about Ireland’s boom and bust, and what it means for the USA. A few months earlier I described the tense week of Ireland’s bankruptcy and international bailout, and a few months before that I wrote in Big Questions Online why the Irish might be better able to handle austerity than Americans. This election begins the next chapter, one that offers many lessons for politically active folk back home.
Peak oil notes – March 3
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
