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Pakistan makes plans to cut oil consumption
Farhan Bokhari, Financial Times
Pakistan is close to launching an ambitious plan to reduce its oil consumption amid warnings that economic growth may slow this year because of high energy prices, according to a top finance ministry official.
…“We are looking to improve our efficiencies as soon as possible while also switching over to alternative fuels such as gas,” Salman Shah, the prime minister’s adviser on finance and economic affairs and de facto finance minister, said in an interview with the FT.
According to officials at the ministry of petroleum in Islamabad, one element of the plan is to expedite imports of liquefied natural gas from Qatar. Another is to ensure a planned new gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan and onwards to India goes ahead, with a formal agreement signed by end of this year.
(23 September 2005)
An Ecovillage, Five Years Later
Jan Steinman, Saltspring Ecovillage Education & Development Society (SEEDS)
….I was tired a while ago, but it seems my brain starts churning as soon as my head hits the psyllium husk pillow. I think back over the five years we’ve been here — the joys and sorrows, the triumphs and the setbacks, the people who have been around the whole time and those who have come and gone, the stuff you enjoyed doing and the stuff you know just had to get done.
But underlying it all is one thread that makes it all worth while, one thing that means I couldn’t think of doing anything else: we are building a new world, even as the old one crumbles around us. And as the old ways slowly self-destruct, more and more thoughtful people are seeing that this new way of life is necessary, attainable, and right. Ecovillages are beginning to pop up everywhere, like jonquils in the spring, providing hope for a new balance with nature.
(16 September 2005)
Jan’s vision, 50 years later
Jan Steinman, Saltspring Ecovillage Education & Development Society (SEEDS)
In the fifty years since we joined the land, we’ve seen much happiness, and much sadness.
Most of the rest of the world has crumbled into insurrection and resource wars. The recessions of 2006, 2011, and 2015 were interspersed by wildly optimistic growth, which only used up the fuel even faster. Then the big one hit in late 2019, when the stock market lost 2/3rds of its value, and fully half of employed people in the US and Canada lost their jobs.
Europe and Japan fared somewhat better, but they and China were dragged down by the huge loss of market in North America. Half the people were no longer able to buy cheap plastic crap from 20,000 kilometers away, and the other half were terrified to let go of their money, too-late saving for a future that had been uncertain for far longer than they had imagined.
Then came the Chinese invasion. Although it was not a “traditional” invasion, in the form of tanks and bombs, it was no less deadly, and did involve an army of sorts. China held countless trillions of dollars of US debt, and simply called in the notes in the form of real estate purchases after the land price collapse that came with the 2019 depression.
…
(16 September 2005)
Australian activist/teacher/writer Ted Trainer has an online novel about an eco-village at his website The Simpler Way (look at the end of the long list of his online writings). The novel is titled The Way It Could Be: A Visit to a Sustainable Society and is a “220-page fictional account of a jourrnalist’s three day visit to a town that practises The Simpler Way.”
Other science fiction works about sustainable societies include:
The Dazzle of the Day by Molly Gloss,
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. LeGuin,
Ecotopia and Ecotopia Emerging by Ernest Callenbach,
Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson,
the novels of Judith Moffett.
-BA
Special report: a low-cost energy future
Business Week
A special report, including the following articles:
Fresh Heat for Energy Policy
A confluence of events has conservation and alternative energy back in the spotlight. Here’s where they stand and where they’re headed
Does Your Home Burn Money for Fuel?
Despite conservation gains since the 1970s, most dwellings still waste half of the energy they consume. It doesn’t have to be that way
A House That Costs Nothing to Run
Meet the Moomaws. Their goal is to build a retirement home in New England that will produce as much electricity as it consumes
This Cold House
To save heating fuel, a writer contemplates downsizing his family’s living quarters. The savings are considerable, but get expert help
Dirty Harry Comes Clean
Solar heating, windmills, and land-use restrictions are the hallmark of actor Clint Eastwood’s posh development project in Carmel, Calif.
Ultraportable Power Charges Ahead
A slew of new products will let you keep your cell phone or MP3 player running with energy from the sun — or even a vigorous hike
Hybrids: More Power, Less Fuel
With soaring gas prices jump-starting sales of the electric-gas cars, auto makers of all stripes can’t get into the act fast enough
Simple Fixes for Saving Energy
Sure, you can put a small fortune into conservation. But some surprisingly modest moves have the quickest returns on investment
(20 September 2005)
Commentary by Jamais Cascio on this series of articles appears at WorldChanging.
