“It’s the Ecology, Stupid”
March 30, 2009
…”without healthy ecosystems to regulate climate and rainfall and provide habitat for pollinators, agriculture would collapse.” Which makes it tough to sell cars.
Put another way, “we need economic production to survive, but we also need healthy ecosystems and the service they provide,” he says. No bees, no food, no trip to the grocery store.
…the mainstream of economic thought seems to have the formula backward. Get the economy growing again, the conventional argument goes, then we’ll have the time and resources to take care of the environment; let the market set a price tag on conservation and the ecosystems will take care of themselves. http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=13959
“China Takes Aim at Dollar”
March 27, 2009
by Andrew Batson
BEIJING — China called for the creation of a new currency to eventually replace the dollar as the world’s standard, proposing a sweeping overhaul of global finance that reflects developing nations’ growing unhappiness with the U.S. role in the world economy. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123780272456212885.html
A Dream I Had.
March 27, 2009
I dreamt I was to be drafted (by the U.S. I assume) to fight in the new war against Russia….
Weeks before that, I had a dream of children beating the bottoms of their shoes against an automobile much the way you see Middle Easterners slap the soles of their shoes against images of despots.
“The Next Ten Years: What They Will Look Like”
March 27, 2009
by Chuck Burr
…Moving towards a stead-state economy is an important first step, but it is only the beginning. It is time to dump the agricultural revolution economic model of privatizing the land, locking up the food, forcing people to get a job and work for the system just to live and eat. Humanity’s anthropocentrism and dominion have gotten us where we are today: hot, dry, and crowded.
It used to be that you “give support to get support;” now it is “make things to get things.” The new agricultural revolution or Taker model leaves us unfulfilled, and destroys the planet’s biodiversity….
http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=367&Itemid=1
One scenario…
March 26, 2009
Nearly all of the economic analyses we see today have as their basic premise a view that the current financial crisis is a temporary aberration. We will have a V or U shaped recovery, especially if enough stimulus is applied, and the economy will soon be back to Business as Usual
I believe this assumption is basically incorrect. The current financial crisis is a direct result of peak oil. There may be oscillations in the economic situation, but generally, we can’t expect things to get much better…. http://www.energybulletin.net/node/48442
Back-to-back-to-back shocks
March 26, 2009
Global warming is dissolving the Alpine glaciers so rapidly that Italy and Switzerland have decided they must re-draw their national borders to take account of the new realities.
“How long do you think this island [Maldives] can be inhabited?” I ask. “Not more than 20 years,” he says. “Then we’ll have to abandon it. Children growing up in primary school now won’t be able to live here.”
On this side of the fence, rising sea levels caused by climate change are beginning to inundate low-lying Bangladesh. Scientists estimate that by midcentury as many as 15 million people could be displaced.
Natural World – A Farm for the Future (video)
March 25, 2009
An in-depth look at industrial agriculture and its dependence on fossil fuels, primarily oil. The narrator, wildlife filmmaker Rebecca Hosking, explores alternatives to the energy intensive model of today’s farming practices. Permaculture farms/gardens are discovered as a sustainable method that enrich biodiversity and soil health. Full of amazing footage and valuable information! 50 mins long, though I wish it were longer.
Google Video or http://permaculture.org.au/2009/03/26/a-farm-for-the-future/
Lovelock responds to Monbiot
March 25, 2009
James Lovelock on Biochar: let the Earth remove CO2 for us
I usually agree with George Monbiot and love the way he says it but this time – with his assertion that the latest miracle mass fuel cure, biochar, does not stand up – he has got it only half right.
Yes, it is silly to rename charcoal as biochar and yes, it would be wrong to plant anything specifically to make charcoal. So I agree, George, it would be wrong to have plantations in the tropics just to make charcoal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/24/biochar-earth-c02
by Rob Hopkins
Putting the vegetable garden up against the house, in aesthetically delightful raised beds on the south facing side of the house would make harvesting easier, would look great in the formal photos taken with visiting heads of state (”Vladimir, just a bit to the left so they can get the artichokes in”). It would model to the nation that growing food, edible landscaping, is something to put centrally in our lives rather than tucking away out of sight of the house.
