Solutions & sustainability – Oct 5
Australia’s first Transition Town!
Investing that is really socially responsible
Life without lights in a Ghanaian village
Trials and tribulations of setting up a local Climate Action group
Alternative Currencies
Biofuels – July 31
David Blume’s Alcohol Can Be A Gas book
LS9 promises ‘renewable petroleum’
Poison plant could help to cure the planet
The ethanol effect
Solutions & sustainability – June 20
New age town in U.S. embraces dollar alternative
Notes on the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair
Alex Steffen: Limits and brilliance
George Monbiot on Peak Oil and Transition Towns
“Over the past two or three years or so, I’ve become pretty sure that peak oil isn’t as imminent as I first thought. There are a couple of reasons for this.”
The Iran oil bourse – a new direction?
The “Iran Oil Bourse” project, beloved of Internet conspiracy theorists, has taken on something of a mythical character, not unlike the Loch Ness Monster, with persistent sightings but an absence of actual manifestation. Hopefully this article will both dispel the myths, and set the scene for what is potentially an extremely important development, particularly for the Islamic world.
A new kind of money
The decline in the availability of cheap energy is likely to be accompanied by an equally ominous possibility of world financial meltdown. That we are facing both of these threats now is not an accident: energy and financial stability are intimately linked. I believe the solutions for dealing with these twinned threats are equally linked.
UK: Minister unveils carbon swipe-card plan
The environment minister, David Miliband, today unveiled a radical plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Under the scheme, all UK citizens from the Queen down would be allocated an identical annual carbon allowance stored as points on an electronic card. Surplus points would be tradable.
Fun while it lasted
Living in expectation of this civilization’s collapse, which I do, can be isolating. It’s like having historical-epochal halitosis. You don’t get invited back to dinner parties after trying to engage people on the topic of our imminent decline and fall.
Local Energy – Local Currency – Local Power
Loss of faith in national currencies could lead to economic paralysis. Local currencies can provide solutions while stimulating local trade and relocalisation efforts. Renewable energy backed local currencies may be an important economic invigorator in a post-peak world.
Thinking ahead of the curve on oil depletion – tradeable fuel entitlements
Transcript of a broadcast advocating tradeable fuel entitlements as the best means of negotiating the peak & decline of oil supply.
Buying time? No, they’re spending it
A report on the initial success of a community currency in Benton County, Oregon.
The Future of Money
Any currency that can maintain its value among its users can function. Historically, many alternative, or local, currencies have worked and many still do.