Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Travis Bradford: the revolution will be solarized
Not-so-glamorous conservation works best
Third-World laptop for $150
Stan
Goff eschews Marxism, looks to local communities
What we can do about passing the energy tipping point
Should Google go nuclear? (new fusion tech, and Robert Hirsch’s nuclear past)
Geoengineering: new talk of manipulating Earth’s climate (updated)
She harnesses viruses to make things (bio-nanotech)
Waste management: One man’s trash… (plasma tech)
Breaking the H2 marriage (new catalyst)
Can Coal Come Clean?
Union calls for clean coal investment
‘Clean coal’ has detractors
Don’t Grandfather Coal Plants
Pasadena seeks deal on coal-energy ban
In Second Coal Rush, New Mind-Set in the Mines
If we look two or three or four decades into the future, we know that hydrocarbons alone will not meet the needs of a growing world economy. Even with all the technical expertise the world could offer and all the political will it could muster, eventually, we will run out of oil. And, even before then, the price of a dwindling supply will be prohibitive. At present, our world is overly focused on, and overly dependent upon, one source of energy. And that path is unsustainable.
Manufacturers in the EU will be required to calculate the energy used to produce, transport, sell, use, and dispose of almost every one of its products. And in time, it will set limits on a product-by-product basis of how much energy can be used in a product’s entire lifecycle.
The Elf Queen, the sun and the Tower of Tomorrow
Silicon and sun (and sea sponges)
Cheap, superefficient solar
Technology is only of value to the degree that it provides for quality of life without creating negative power-relationships that outweigh that benefit.
Research into energy technologies by both government and industry has not been rising, but rather falling.
(Excerpts. Good summary of energy research and challenges.)
Less power to the people
Power-grid report suggests dark days ahead
Lightbulb giveaway is switched off
Dow CEO on energy and economic growth
Dupont’s sustainability commitment
Germany’s Merkel calls competition key to power prices
Will silicon light illuminate the future?
A climate hero
Healthy gardens just the start for healthy community
Relocalisation comes to town
Energy Descent: Community questions future
A post-peak open space event
Are you exceptional?
How do our metaphors for Peak Oil direct our thought about its severity? This essay examines this question and others that relate to Peak Oil preparations and the debate within the peaknik community about how bad it might get.
