Letters from Slovakia – Kings, Conquerors, Capitalism and Resilience Lost
Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Economics, Society, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh March 11, 2010
The former east bloc: We look at a life that was, a life that is, and meet some interesting characters along the way.
Orava Castle, north central Slovakia
All photographs copyright © Craig Mackintosh
Contrast and Change
I count it quite a privilege to be one of very few ‘Westerners’ to have been able to visit and observe the transition of former east-bloc countries – from shortly after their break-up from communism, through successive visits until today. It is now eighteen years since my first visit, and, in some places more than others, much has changed.
Looking back, I remember my initial trip to central Europe back in 1992 (then called the ‘East Bloc’). Entering Czechoslovakia from Germany was, to me, like leaving the earth and landing on the moon – except without the space travel in between to get one accustomed to the idea of where one was heading! The difference between the Europe I was familiar with, and the land I discovered immediately beyond the Czech border control, was like day and night. There was no gradual blending of the two civilisations – it was pure contrast.
Comments (10)Wave Power
Energy Systems, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh February 23, 2010
Way back in the 1970s, in the oil crisis era, and around about the time I was experiencing carless days in the South Pacific, a Professor Stephen Salter of the University of Scotland, was trying to find a way to harness the exhaustless power of the sea – and convert it to electricity.
In September 1973 I caught ‘flu. My wife said to me, with callous indifference to my misery, “Stop lying there looking sorry for yourself. Why don’t you solve the energy crisis?” – Professor Salter, in the University of Edinburgh Bulletin, Volume 11, Number 2, 1974
Some, including Professor Salter, believe he just may have – although, the eventual outcome of his research and experimentation was somewhat shrouded in mystery….
Comments (4)Zero Carbon Australia?
Energy Systems, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh February 17, 2010
A new study attempts to flesh out a blueprint for a rapid energy descent for Australia
It’s clear that the world is heading into an extremely interesting new decade. While the world’s insatiable demand for energy shows no sign of slowing in its exponential curve upwards, it’s clear that in the not-too-distant future supply issues are going to become acute. These two clashing parameters promise to take us into an economic ride of almost biblical proportions. If we think the energy price spikes of 2008 and the subsequent recession of 2009 have been a tough time, brace yourselves – there’s much more to come yet….
Peaking Early
Comedy Break, peak oil — by Marc Roberts February 15, 2010
Click for full view
Courtesy: Throbgoblins
With oil running out, and biofuels not being the answer, perhaps humans should grow and trade their food closer to home.
Perhaps we suffer from collectively traumatised amygdalas.
Comments (4)Resources for Herbs, Sprouts and Survival Foods
Consumerism, DVDs/Books, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Medicinal Plants, peak oil — by Isabell Shipard February 2, 2010
When Derrick, Isabell, and children Angela, Vicky and RIcky, shifted to Nambour in the hinterland of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast over 30 years ago, our desire was have land to grow our own food and be as self-sufficient as possible. We bought an acre of land and soon realized that a bigger block of land would be the way to go, so that we could have our own milk, meat and eggs. We purchased a larger 20 acre block, with approximately 10 acres of cleared land on the outskirts of Nambour.
It was about this time, that we heard Bill Mollison speak on Permaculture, with zones, to encourage a design plan that integrates the environment, plants and people with a vision of possibilities.
Vegetable and herb gardens were started and fruit trees were planted. Poultry, dairy goats, pigs and milking cows were added. Derrick being very gifted with skills of building fences, sheds, and as ‘a fix-it man’ was able to do many and varied tasks on the farm. Derrick, being a butcher by trade, was also able to turn the animals into cuts of meat for the freezer, mince into sausages, meat into smoked hams.
Comments (6)Mounting Stresses, Failing States
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Population, Society, peak oil — by Earth Policy Institute January 28, 2010
by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute
After a half-century of forming new states from former colonies and from the breakup of the Soviet Union, the international community is today focusing on the disintegration of states. The term “failing state” has entered our working vocabulary only during the last decade or so, but these countries are now an integral part of the international political landscape. In the past, governments have been concerned by the concentration of too much power in one state, as in Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and the Soviet Union. But today it is failing states that provide the greatest threat to global order and stability.
States fail when national governments lose control of part or all of their territory and can no longer ensure the personal security of their people. When governments lose their monopoly on power, the rule of law begins to disintegrate. When they can no longer provide basic services such as education, health care, and food security, they lose their legitimacy. A government in this position may no longer be able to collect enough revenue to finance effective governance. Societies can become so fragmented that they lack the cohesion to make decisions.
Comments (4)A Bounty for Blair’s Arrest
Alternatives to Political Systems, People Systems, Society, peak oil — by George Monbiot January 26, 2010
Today I am launching a new fund – www.arrestblair.org – to reward people who attempt to arrest the former prime minister
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom
The only question that counts is the one that the Chilcot inquiry won’t address: was the war with Iraq illegal? If the answer is yes, everything changes. The war is no longer a political matter, but a criminal one, and those who commissioned it should be committed for trial for what the Nuremberg Tribunal called “the supreme international crime”(1): the crime of aggression.
But there’s a problem with official inquiries in the United Kingdom: the government appoints their members and sets their terms of reference. It’s the equivalent of a criminal suspect being allowed to choose what the charges should be, who should judge his case and who should sit on the jury. As a senior judge told the Guardian in November, “Looking into the legality of the war is the last thing the government wants. And actually, it’s the last thing the opposition wants either because they voted for the war. There simply is not the political pressure to explore the question of legality – they have not asked because they don’t want the answer.”(2)
Comments (39)U.S. Feeds One Quarter of its Grain to Cars While Hunger is on the Rise
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, peak oil — by Earth Policy Institute January 22, 2010
by the Earth Policy Institute
The 107 million tons of grain that went to U.S. ethanol distilleries in 2009 was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels. More than a quarter of the total U.S. grain crop was turned into ethanol to fuel cars last year. With 200 ethanol distilleries in the country set up to transform food into fuel, the amount of grain processed has tripled since 2004.
The United States looms large in the world food economy: it is far and away the world’s leading grain exporter, exporting more than Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Russia combined. In a globalized food economy, increased demand for food to fuel American vehicles puts additional pressure on world food supplies.
Comments (16)Jeff Rubin – $225 p/barrel Oil in 18 Months and the End of Globalisation
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh January 19, 2010
Jeff Rubin, former chief economist at CIBC World Markets and author of the book Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization, was the keynote speaker at the Business of Climate Change conference in Toronto a few months ago. The clip below is the excellent presentation he gave, one that bleats the same message I’ve been sharing for a few years (see some of the links in ‘Further Reading’ section below, for example). Mr. Rubin predicts $225 p/barrel oil within months, and with it a forced relocalisation as long distance globalised trade becomes an economic impossibility. In it he talks about the insignificant scale of new oil finds in comparison with increasing demand from developing countries in tandem with the annual declines we see with our older fields. He talks about the absurdity of saddling our grandchildren with debts they can never afford to repay, just to bail out automotive industries that have no future in a world without oil anyway. He goes on to talk about the failures of Kyoto and the need for financial mechanisms that could speed a transition to a low carbon, relocalised platform.
Have a watch, and let us know your thoughts.
Comments (5)
The Looming Food Crisis and the ‘Food 2030′ Report
Consumerism, Deforestation, Economics, Food Shortages, GMOs, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Population, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh January 7, 2010
It can’t go on like this….
Not long ago I was standing in a bookshop, minding my own business, when a book title leapt out in front of me. The book was "History’s Worst Decisions and the People Who Made Them". It documents the sorry tales of dozens of people throughout history who, with the best of intentions, made some fascinatingly terrible choices.
Comments (6)In Transition – the Movie
Alternatives to Political Systems, Community Projects, Consumerism, DVDs/Books, Eco-Villages, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, People Systems, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh December 15, 2009
In Transition 1.0: from oil dependence to local resilience, available now!
The title says it all. Sit back and enjoy the latest work from the Transition Towns movement. You can watch in parts via YouTube below, or if you prefer, catch the whole thing in one hit on Vimeo.
‘In Transition’ is the first detailed film about the Transition movement filmed by those that know it best, those who are making it happen on the ground. The Transition movement is about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities. It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun. – TransitionCulture.org
Part I
Comments (4)If Nothing Else, Save Farming
Economics, Food Shortages, peak oil — by George Monbiot November 17, 2009
It’s probably too late to prepare for peak oil, but we can at least try to salvage food production.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom
I don’t know when global oil supplies will start to decline. I do know that another resource has already peaked and gone into freefall: the credibility of the body that’s meant to assess them. Last week two whistleblowers from the International Energy Agency alleged that it has deliberately upgraded its estimate of the world’s oil supplies in order not to frighten the markets(1). Three days later, a paper published by researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden showed that the IEA’s forecasts must be wrong, because it assumes a rate of extraction that appears to be impossible(2). The agency’s assessment of the state of global oil supplies is beginning to look as reliable as Mr Greenspan’s blandishments about the health of the financial markets.
World Energy Outlook 2009 Report Released, as Senior IEA Employees Blow Whistle
Economics, Society, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh November 11, 2009
The IEA’s latest report is released, just as two whistleblowers from amongst their own senior staff rail against their oil production projections
The International Energy Agency, who annually produce their World Energy Outlook (WEO) report, have just done so yet again – you can read their executive summary of the 2009 edition here (PDF).
The report, for the uninitiated, looks at expected supplies in oil, coal and natural gas, as well as demand for the same – making projections up to 2030. It is, or should be, significant in that it paints a picture of what life might be like in the next few years – either steady flows of fossil fuel energy to maintain the industrial/consumer status quo (and increase CO2 levels in tandem), or, alternatively, a potentially society-upturning peaking of energy supplies; oil in particular.
Comments (5)The Mathematics that Contemporary Economics Ignores
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, Population, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh November 3, 2009
With all the talk of a new carbon economy and dreams of new sources of energy so we can continue with our contemporary understanding of human ‘progress’ – continual economic growth – I wonder if a few facts may be getting overlooked. You might not have time to watch these clips in one sitting, but do bookmark it so you can come back and watch them through.
Here we have Dr. Albert Bartlett, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Physics, University of Boulder Colorado talking about Peak Oil and Population Growth from a mathematics perspective. Essentially, Limited Resources + Exponential Growth = Only a Matter of Time. As he says, it’s not rocket science, but nevertheless the consequences of these simple calculations are being almost universally ignored in our consumer-oriented economy – and by the politicians and industry that run them.
The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function. – Dr. Albert Bartlett
Warning: Dry Sense of Humour Alert!
Part I
Comments (3)The Demise of the Dollar
Economics, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh October 19, 2009
This is significant:
In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading
In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.
Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars. – Independent
If the significance of this is lost on you, please read Peak Oil, Petrodollars and Climate Change Apathy. The faster the speed of transition to non-dollar oil trading, the faster the U.S. dollar will implode. Days of hyper-inflation may soon be upon us.
Further Reading:
- Heading into a Perpetual Recession
- Rich Nations Buying Up Land in Poor Countries at Escalating Rate
- The Crash Course
