Shale gas – Apr 3

-Colorado farms planning for dry spell losing auction bids for water to fracking projects
-UK shale gas firm doubles estimates, seeks partner
-Shale Boom in Europe Fades as Polish Wells Come Up Empty
-Gas Industry Spin Can’t Cover Up Air, Water Problems Caused by Fracking
-Government drops water pollution charges against Range

Sub-Arctic Dreams: Fresh Veggies in March

In 2011 we decided to build a greenhouse. We had two primary goals. First and foremost, we wanted to grow a broader range of vegetables than what outdoor conditions allow, as well as extend the season for the leafy green vegetables we much enjoy. Secondly, we were interested in creating a sunny warm space where we could relax and enjoy a good book now and again…We also set some constraints – primarily that the space had to require only modest energy inputs once built, and if possible, capture heat for greenhouse and other domestic uses. We also envisioned significant application of at least 7 of the 12-permaculture design principles.

Labor’s declining share and future quality of life

There are many uncertainties about how the realities of resource constraints will play out in the lives of our children and grandchildren. In my earlier list of three options, there were two scenarios that could support well-being: one is to accept that lower labor productivity means lower hourly wages, recognizing the society-wide requirement to trim the size of the economy to fit within a finite ecosystem. The other is to find ways to produce the same (or greater) quality of the desired outputs, with less inputs of resources and less labor hours.

Watching Hens Eat

I’ve learned more about the economies of small scale food production from watching chickens than from any library or university. The hens reveal a world almost foreign to our human experience. Ever since farming became a capitalistic enterprise, husbandry has been organized around the idea of making money, not making food. When the farmer is freed from the yoke of money-making, wonderful alternatives become possible in food production.

Rethink & Relocalize

Raymond De Young is an academic who isn’t working for a military think-tank, or explaining why we should just keep climbing the consumer ladder. His new “Localization Reader” will likely fall into hands that get dirty in gardens, and active in your community. De Young is Associate Professor of Environmental Psychology and Planning, in the School of Natural Resources and Environment, at the University of Michigan.

Water – Mar 26

-U.S. intelligence sees global water conflict risks rising
-Reflections on a Thirsty Planet for World Water Day
-Las Vegas plans to pump water across 300 miles of desert approved
-China plans to curb capital’s water usage
-The Colorado River delta blues

The end of the world is at hand…

It is always impossible to distinguish between weather and climate, and I’m not making any claims here, other than humorous ones about my laundry. It is hard for a gardener like me not to be gleeful in some measure – I have daffodils, warm dirt, tiny spinach leaves, baby rabbits, clean laundry – what’s not to love?…But just like there’s some vague part of me that worries when the laundry pile gets empty – it is nice, but not NORMAL at my house, it is hard to love with a whole heart this world, whether this warming is momentary or meaningful. The long term predictions for my place echo in my head – like Georgia, only drier, by the end of the century. If we aren’t having a Georgia spring, we are certainly having a Virginia one, and isn’t without consequence.

Farmers of Forty Centuries: Organic Farming in China, Korea and Japan

I don’t typically review (or read) 100 year old books. Farmers of Forty Centuries is an important exception. It has become a classic of the permaculture/sustainable economics movement for several reasons. First, it dispels the myth that fossil fuel-free agriculture will produce much lower yields than industrial farming. Second, Farmers of Forty Centuries paints a detailed picture of tried and true regional models of food, fuel, and construction materials production, as well as regional water and human waste management. Third, it provides detailed descriptions, almost in cookbook fashion, of a broad range of permaculture and terraquaculture techniques.

The great, invisible brain wave in the sky

I am convinced that the seething cauldron of human thought boils up in the ethereal atmosphere of ideas, a process made more substantive now by electronic communication gone wild, and that more seemingly creative people have taller antennae jutting out from behind their ears to pick up on the latest notions and theories floating around in the great brain hovering over us.