From Totnes with love
The ambition of this volume is the aspiration that motivates the whole Transition movement: nothing less than to remake industrial civilization from the bottom up and from the local level.
Education
Peak oil – Nov 17
– Peak oil conference in London Dec 6: Assessing PO’s economic impact on global oil supply
– N. American oil output could top 40-year-old peak
– Peak oil and significant change for rural Australia
Science wants to save us from ourselves
Many argue that what we’re suffering from is an ‘evolutionary mismatch’ in that our hunter-gatherer brains haven’t caught up with modern real-time problems such as climate change. What we are currently wired to respond to are immediate and easily perceived threats, like stampeding buffalo. According to acclaimed Stanford biologist Paul Erhlich — in his paper Human Natures, Nature Conservation and Environmental Ethics — our nervous systems have perceptual constraints making it difficult for us to comprehend the very real threat of a planet that is slowly heating up.
Occupy Wall Street and FDR’s four freedoms
The GA, and the break-out groups that meet in the Atrium at 60 Wall Street are blessed with the Quaker tools now refined by waves of protest movements: the Suffragettes, Satyagraha, Lunch Counter Sit-Ins, No-nukes Affinity Groups, and Battle in Seattle. What doesn’t work? Violence. Power Trips. Hierarchies. What works? Good facilitation, timekeeping, note-taking, hand-signs, open agenda, global café, conflict transformation, consensus. What came out of the conventions at the turn of the 18th to 19th Century was protection of slavery, disenfranchisement of women, ethnic cleansing of Native Americans and the preservation of an elite ruling class, especially the banksters. What will emerge from this process may also be flawed when seen in hindsight centuries hence, but it will be progressively less so.
Commentary: The 2011 ASPO-USA Conference: Truth in Energy, Truth in Community
Media types are fond of saying that if an event doesn’t get covered, it didn’t happen. But this conference definitely happened. And what is created was a general assembly of a community, one that shows tremendous promise as a model for cross-sector collaboration. This kind of collaboration is desperately needed if we are to have anything resembling a soft landing as we head down the fossil carbon mountain.
Charles Hall on the biophysical economy & Bill Schubart on resiliency in hard times
Professors Charles Hall and Kent Klitgaard’s new book is Energy and the Wealth of Nations: Understanding the Biophysical Economy. Hall explained what the biophysical costs of energy are, and why they’re more important than the price. He revealed how his understanding of peak oil helped him plan in 1970 a successful retirement investment strategy that paid off in 2008. This Wednesday, November 16 is the fall conference of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, with the them, “Resiliency in Uncertain Times.” VBSR executive director Andrea Cohen talked about why they chose the theme even before Tropical Storm Irene hit the state, and author and entrepreneur Bill Schubart discussed his take on resiliency. Schubart will moderate a panel on the theme Wednesday morning.
From Ideology to Technology
The crude industrial processes that powered our world for a century or more leave us with depletion, fragmentation, and decay. Living systems can show us the way to recover and sustain the damaged systems upon which life depends.
Peak oil: the five most common misconceptions
As far as peak oil goes, most of us can agree that just as it did in the U.S. in 1970, global oil production will inevitably decline. The points of contention are the timing, the steepness of the decline, the impact on the global economy, and the ability of other energy sources to fill the supply gap. Some believe it will be a non-event, and some people believe it will be catastrophic.
I still believe in the Peak Lite scenario; in fact I think that view has been validated. I also believe that my view on the Long Recession is supported by the state of the economy as well as the continued strength in oil prices. As far as the consequences of peak oil, I believe that what we are seeing now with respect to the economy is a prelude to what we will see for the next few years
Permaculture on a budget
These days Permaculture principles and ethos are present in my life like weeds in a raised bed, always popping up, full of unexpected insights and good ideas.
Green, cheap, now
Sonoma County can have both green energy and lower rates. The key is to focus on building local solar, wind, geothermal, and other renewable resources, and focusing on making all aspects of the energy system, from generation to con sumption, more efficient.
Wall Street by the book
Once upon a time, no one imagined that an American world of home ownership and good jobs, of cheap gas and cheaper steaks, would ever end. Nonetheless, it was kneecapped over the last few decades and it’s not coming back. Not for you or your children, no matter what happens economically. So don’t kid yourself: whether you know it or not, young as you are, you’re in mourning, too, or Occupy Wall Street wouldn’t exist. Unlike the Tea Party, however, you are young, which means that you’re also a movement of the unknown future, which is your strength.
The Impermanence of Knowledge
Knowledge is essential to our existence. Without knowledge life is almost impossible. So we need to care about what we know. In the recent past mankind has managed to collect enormous amounts of knowledge. This era is now nearing its end. For knowledge is, perhaps surprisingly, intimately connected with energy. We are at present in for a severe energy crisis, which translates into a knowledge crisis. In other words: the science boom is over. But not only will it be next to impossible to continue increasing our knowledge, even keeping the knowledge we already have will become a great challenge.