Stories archived in Monday, September 6, 2010

In advance of the publication next week of Chris Bird's Transition Book "Local Sustainable Homes", I spoke to Chris about the book, and about what he set out to achieve in writing it.

A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-Food
-The moratorium
-The Bundeswehr on peak oil

The April 2010 oil leak in the Mexican Gulf illustrates the risks being taken to extract oil from inaccessible fields, and in June a Lloyd’s 360° risk insight report said, “we have entered a period of deep uncertainty in how we will source energy for power, heat and mobility and how much we will pay for it.” The reason why such damaging extraction methods are pursued, and why Lloyd’s are telling us we face a “new energy paradigm” rather than normal market volatility, is that oil discoveries peaked 40 years ago, and oil supply is probably at its maximum, with decline soon to follow. This has substantial implications for transport, food, jobs, health, and health care.

Lessons from the massive flooding that has beset Pakistan, uprooting 14 million people, underscore the need for a new economic paradigm. River engineering (a mainstay of the old economic paradigm) in the Indus Basin reduced small and medium floods, but set up the conditions for millions to be harmed when larger floods occurred.

Permaculture is one of the only ways home for humanity. If one believes in modernism, industrial agriculture and better living through chemistry read no further. However, if you feel something is not right about the way we live, read on.

The Witch of Hebron picks up a couple of months after World Made by Hand ended. Returning to the small upstate New York town of Union Grove, the new book further defines the post-apocalyptic setting, adds depth to characters who played only minor parts in the first story, ties up loose ends from the previous book and introduces some all new dilemmas. And it does all of this against the backdrop of a full-moon Halloween, lending a delicious sense of foreboding to the proceedings.

Nicole Foss, a.k.a. Stoneleigh, of "The Automatic Earth" launches her modern day "Paul Revere" style tour in Michigan on September 10. Foss received rave reviews for her presentation at the Transition Towns UK conference, and recently appeared on the Financial Sense News Hour with Jim Puplava. Foss takes a "big picture" approach and describes peak oil in the context of the economic crisis, adding essential information to the understanding of the future.