A blindness to systems

A curious blindness often influences our contemporary conversation about the future. Very often, talk about the viability of technologies when the age of cheap oil ends fails to deal with the costs, often very considerable, of the whole systems needed to make those technologies function. With the aid of a 20th century poet and an unpopular lifestyle choice, the Archdruid explains.

Tipping point: near-term systemic implications of a peak in global oil production – collapse dynamics

The period since the end of the last ice age provided the large-scale stability in which human civilisation emerged. Climatic stability provided the opportunity for diverse human settlements to ‘bed’ down over generations. This formed the basis upon which knowledge, cultures, institutions, and infrastructures could build complexity and capability over generations without, by and large, having it shattered by extreme drought or flooding outside their capacity to adapt. (excerpt)

Some thoughts on walking and our ability to cope

Raymond De Young (Associate Professor of Environmental Psychology and Planning at the School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan) sent me a recent paper he wrote called Coping With Environmental Transitions: Some Attentional Benefits of Walking in Natural Settings, published in Ecopsychology, Vol. 2, No. 1, March 2010. For tonight’s Campfire post, I thought I would quote some sections from it.

The natural world vanishes: how species cease to matter

If you are a resident of the East Coast of the United States or of Western Europe, when did you last attend a shad bake, eat an eel, or watch Atlantic salmon vault a waterfall? Community shad bakes once celebrated the return of American shad to rivers as a marker of spring. Recently though, a dearth of shad led to a “shadless shad bake” on the Hudson — a river that in its glory days supplied more than four million pounds of shad in one season.

The dark side of coal – some historical insights on energy and the economy

The descendants of those men who pulled coal-loaded barges upstream in 19th century now drive shiny cars powered by oil and work in front of computer screens. But the problem of oil is the same as it was for coal: it is not infinite and there is not enough of it for everyone.

Making nickels squeak: clothing edition

Due to the weirdly warm weather (which has now departed for a few days of normalish April weather) that we had last week, I saw a spring sight to gladden the heart of almost anyone – a yard sale. It wasn’t at a time I could shop, and it wasn’t like I wanted anything they had – but still, the re-emergence of yard sales is like the return of the redwing blackbirds, a sign of hope.

The imperative of reforming U.S. foreign aid to empower women

Perverse incentives provided by tax codes and government subsidies are an ongoing theme of my articles in The Daly News. These perverse incentives pervade all sectors of the economy and undermine the hope for a prosperous and healthy civilization that lives in harmony with the earth. A paradigm shift away from the present destructive global economic model must entail the elimination of taxes and subsidies that reward pollution and injustice.