Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
– French towns swap rubbish trucks for horse-drawn carts
– Swiss Solar boat heads on around-the-world voyage
– Zero Emissions Race – 30 days around the world using renewables
– Does (European) Social-Democracy Have a Future?
– The Soot Road: Travelling along one of most polluted energy corridors on Earth
This week saw the release of another influential report on peak oil. Fueling the Future Force, by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS)…recommends that the Department of Defence transitions entirely away from petroleum by 2040. The publication demonstrates once again that there is a freedom to engage with the issue in military circles which as yet does not exist in mainstream politics.
“Fueling the Future Force,” published September 27, is the third military consideration of a future of scarce oil published so far this year. It states that 77% of the US Department of Defense’s “massive energy needs” are met by petroleum – but “given projected supply and demand, we cannot assume that oil will remain affordable or that supplies will be available to the United States reliably three decades hence.” To remain as an effective fighting force, the entire US military must transition from oil over the coming 30 years.
Respected oil analyst Charles Maxwell has told Forbes – and with it the North American business establishment – to brace itself for peak oil by “2017 or 2018.” Maxwell is rapidly becoming the new Matthew Simmons, an establishment peak oil whistleblower.
US military must stop using oil in 30 years, a defense think tank says. But their path for achieving this is unbelievable.
These cooking devices rely only on power from the sun and are built entirely with materials indigenous to Bolivia. It is the kind of solution that embodies many of the elements necessary to really get to work solving climate change—local, small-scale, incorporating indigenous knowledge and materials, and with simple, easy-to-use technology.
If everyone installs woodburning stoves, might we end up back in the age of smogs? Are we better to explore group solutions, anaerobic digestion for example, which might still be able to supply us with gas (albeit to far more efficient homes than at present) or other large scale renewables, rather than all fracturing down into small off-the-grid bubbles?
– China resorts to blackouts in pursuit of energy efficiency
– Air Conditioning Innovation Uses 90% Less Power
– Solar on the Cheap: Thanks Purple Pokeberry!
– Ten Ways the Feds Are Leading the Green Charge
– Busting Myths About Photovoltaics
– Rising wheat prices raise fears over UK commitment to biofuels
To some people, planting a tree is the epitome of the environmental cliche. Planting a tree seems so simple, so easy, so… low-technology.
The co-author of the famous Hirsch report gives an exclusive interview to a French journalist.
Two real-world tests performed in the Netherlands and in the UK confirm our earlier analysis that small wind turbines are a fundamentally flawed technology. Their financial payback time is much longer than their life expectancy, and in urban areas, some poorly placed wind turbines will not even deliver as much energy as needed to operate them (let alone energy needed to produce them).
Last Friday, in Totnes Civic Hall, saw the historic launch of the Totnes Renewable Energy Society (TRESOC). A key piece in the relocalisation of Totnes and district, TRESOC offers members of the community the chance to buy into their own renewable energy company.
