Asides
High Plains Aquifer running dry — A new Dust Bowl in the making
“Vast stretches of Texas farmland lying over the [High Plains] aquifer no longer support irrigation,” reports the New York Times. “In west-central Kansas, up to a fifth of the irrigated farmland along a 100-mile swath of the aquifer has already gone dry. In many other places, there no longer is enough water to supply farmers’ [...]
How the government underreports unemployment statistics
In May, 2013, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported an unemployment rate of 7.5 percent. But this BLS “U-3″ definition of “unemployed” is misleading, because it does not count (a) the “discouraged” unemployed (i.e., millions who, after several months of looking for work, gave up), or (b) the underemployed (e.g., PhD’s flipping burgers at [...]
Experts predict worldwide conflict over resources
“Brace yourself. You may not be able to tell yet, but according to global experts and the U.S. intelligence community, the earth is already shifting under you. Whether you know it or not, you’re on a new planet, a resource-shock world of a sort humanity has never before experienced.” Michael T. Klare writes in TomDispatch [...]
Income inequality in America
“The wealth of the Walton family [of Walmart discount department stores] now exceeds the wealth of the bottom 40 percent of American families combined,” notes Robert Reich. Just that one fact makes everything else Reich and others are writing about income inequality in America superfluous.
Compounding growth + finite resources = disaster
“We’re Headed For A Disaster Of Biblical Proportions,” headlines a Business Insider article on Jeremy Grantham’s “startlingly depressing outlook for the future of humanity.” Grantham manages $97 billion in assets at GMO, so it’s his business to recognize threats to his clients’ financial security. But he’s become concerned about threats to their very lives. “The [...]
IEA claim that USA will be #1 oil producer is ‘peak bullshit’
“Peak bullshit” is what James Howard Kunstler calls the recent International Energy Agency (IEA) report that the USA will soon become the world’s leading oil producer. “Mass media giants swallowed the IEA report whole…. Here’s why the shale oil story is not the ‘game changer’ that the wishful claim it is: the price required to [...]
Worldwide temps above-average 332 months in a row
“The average temperature across land and ocean surfaces during October was 14.63°C (58.23°F). This is 0.63°C (1.13°F) above the 20th century average and ties with 2008 as the fifth warmest October on record. The record warmest October occurred in 2003 and the record coldest October occurred in 1912. This is the 332nd consecutive month with [...]
Peak oil and the end of cheap oil
“In 2005, there were 33 petroleum-exporting nations. Now there are only 30.” Some Assembly Required shares pieces of the peak oil puzzle. Can you put them together? “Global oil exports have declined from 45.6 million barrels a day in 2006 to 43.7 mbd in 2011, in the face of increased demand from Asia and a [...]
Fraud is fundamental to our political-financial-regulatory-banking landscape
“What do the following have in common? LIBOR, Bernie Madoff, MF Global, Peregrine Financial, zero-percent interest rates, the Social Security and Medicare entitlement funds, many state and municipal pension funds, mark-to-model asset values, quote stuffing and high frequency trading (HFT), and debt-based money? The answer is that every single thing in that list is an [...]
Plantation America
“Over the past 40 years, corporations and politicians have rolled back many of the gains made by working and middle-class people over the previous century.” Eric Loomis writes in AlterNet. “We have the highest level of income inequality in 90 years, both private and public sector unions are under a concerted attack, and federal and [...]
Main Menu
- About
- Twelve crises [UPDATED]
- Scenarios [UPDATED]
- Are there any safe investments anymore? [UPDATED]
- Fifty items for extended emergencies [UPDATED]
- Boring legalisms
- Credits
- Contact
- Description
Recommended sites
- Charles Hugh Smith
- Climate Progress
- Culture Change
- Early Warning
- Global Climate Change - NASA
- Mother Earth News
- National Geographic - Environment
- No-Dig Vegetable Garden
- Post Peak Living
- The Oil Drum
