Editor’s choice
Gulf oil spill a reminder of our limits
“There is only one meaningful response to the horrific oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and that is for America to stop messing around when it comes to designing its energy and environmental future. The only meaningful response to this man-made disaster is a man-made energy bill that would finally put in place an [...]
Earth Day(dreaming)
This 40th annual Earth Day — April 22, 2010 — follows last month’s 4th annual Earth Hour and 12th annual World Water Day. Forgive me, but this blitz of environmental days is leaving me dazed. It’s not that I don’t concur with Earth Day’s high-minded objective “to advance climate policy, energy efficiency, renewable energy and [...]
Is Earth past the tipping point?
Once a tipping point is passed, a major change occurs, one that may be difficult or impossible to reverse. If a business crosses the tipping point threshold, the worst that can happen is that it goes bankrupt. But what if Earth passes that point with respect to its environment? The April, 2010, issue of Scientific [...]
It’s World Water Day–and the tap is running dry
“The harsh fact is that we will probably run out of water long before we run out of fuel,” says Nestle Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmanthe on the BBC website. “Agriculture accounts for 70% of global water usage today, and . . . the need to feed the growing population of the world will put an even [...]
Searching for intelligent life on Earth and beyond
Sometimes I wonder if Earth’s leading candidate for an “intelligent” species, Homo sapiens, is really any smarter than yeast. For the purposes of this post, however, I’ll concede that humans qualify as intelligent, because my subject today is extraterrestrial intelligence. Does our failure to find even one other civilization in the cosmic expanse tell us [...]
A (shooting) gallery of alternative energy sources
For your entertainment and edification, I’m going to share with you some excerpts of my email correspondence with a friend on the topic of peak energy. I think we’ve reached the peak of oil production, our most important energy source, and if I’m right, production will decline in coming years, with disastrous implications for our [...]
Infinite monkeys, finite resources
Ever heard of The Infinite Monkey Theorem? It goes something like this: Given infinite time, a monkey banging randomly on typewriter keys would reproduce a given work, such as Hamlet. Variations of the theorem add more monkeys to reproduce more works, such as the complete plays of Shakespeare, or all the books in the British [...]
The economy is the least of our problems
Despite a non-stop barrage of overly optimistic press releases based on phony statistics, ongoing coverups of fraud, and tea readings, the economy is closer to complete collapse today than it was at this time last year. The truth that the spinmeisters dare not speak is that the gears of trade, from the ports of Asia [...]
Climate change: Fire or ice?
Fire and Ice Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. – [...]
Financial innovations = gambles, con games
“Financial innovation” is just Wall Street code for “gambling in the shadowy $670 trillion global derivatives market,” says Paul Farrell, in Marketwatch. Wall Street is “spending millions on lobbyists to kill financial-regulation reforms” because it “rakes in billions of dollars annually from their ‘financial weapons of mass destruction,’ as [Warren] Buffett calls them.” Farrell cites [...]
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Recommended sites
- Charles Hugh Smith
- Global Climate Change - NASA
- James Howard Kunstler
- Joseph Romm
- Life After the Oil Crash
- Mother Earth News
- National Geographic - Environment
- No-Dig Vegetable Garden
- Post Peak Living
- Sharon Astyk
- The Oil Drum
