Wednesday 22 February 2012
Friday 17 February 2012
All I want is to be left alone?
One of the major concerns of attempting to reduce your dependence on current structures of "support" provided by contemporary government, is whether you will actually be allowed to drop off the grid. The structures set up to support western culture have been succesful in providing basic services and provide a minimal safety-net in case the unthinkable befalls you and you are destitute, but aren't these simply control mechanisms?
If we try and remove ourselves from these state apparatus and form more localised, more useful, more humane groupings can we? This isn't really a thought experiment, it's a genuine question as energy descent will require much more localisation, much more community cooperation, much more self-reliance.
"The decentralized provision of basic necessities is not likely to flow from a utopian vision of a perfect or even improved society (as have some social movements of the past). It will emerge instead from iterative human responses to a daunting and worsening set of environmental and economic problems, and it will in many instances be impeded and opposed by politicians, bankers, and industrialists. It is this contest between traditional power elites on one hand, and growing masses of disenfranchised poor and formerly middle-class people attempting to provide the necessities of life for themselves in the context of a shrinking economy, that is shaping up to be the fight of the century."
http://www.postcarbon.org/article/714558-the-fight-of-the-century
I cannot recommend Richard Heinberg more highly. He along with others at the Post Carbon Institute are trying to challenge the status quo, trying to challenge business as usual model, I implore you all to read and get involved in any way you can.
If we try and remove ourselves from these state apparatus and form more localised, more useful, more humane groupings can we? This isn't really a thought experiment, it's a genuine question as energy descent will require much more localisation, much more community cooperation, much more self-reliance.
"The decentralized provision of basic necessities is not likely to flow from a utopian vision of a perfect or even improved society (as have some social movements of the past). It will emerge instead from iterative human responses to a daunting and worsening set of environmental and economic problems, and it will in many instances be impeded and opposed by politicians, bankers, and industrialists. It is this contest between traditional power elites on one hand, and growing masses of disenfranchised poor and formerly middle-class people attempting to provide the necessities of life for themselves in the context of a shrinking economy, that is shaping up to be the fight of the century."
http://www.postcarbon.org/article/714558-the-fight-of-the-century
I cannot recommend Richard Heinberg more highly. He along with others at the Post Carbon Institute are trying to challenge the status quo, trying to challenge business as usual model, I implore you all to read and get involved in any way you can.
Thursday 9 February 2012
Sssh Climate Change!
"ExxonMobil last week reported its 2011 profits at $41 billion, the second highest of all time. Do you wonder who owns the record? That would be ExxonMobil in 2008 at $45 billion."
http://www.postcarbon.org/article/704040-the-great-carbon-bubble-why-the
We, and by "We" I mean everyone else, especially in the UK will NOT be discussing climate change this week. We have one the driest and warmest Decembers, followed by guess what, that's right one of the driest and warmest January's in history, but this last 10-days have seen pretty cold temperatures here in Blighty. If you can be bothered to check the weather maps it's not hard to see what's going on and let's face it, it's Winter people, so you'd expect some cold and icy weather. Or at least we used to see/expect "winter-like" temperatures and conditions.
So "We" can't even comprehend that we have quite a serious problem of climate change happening around us, ALL OF US, EVERYWHERE!
Of course the newspapers will confuse climate with weather and claim that a few cold days must dispell the rumour of climate change, this being demonstrably false and simply lazy journalism. But let's be fair to the journalists, they work for a money-making business which derives a majority of it's income from advertising revenue so can't really criticise too vociferously the hand that feeds them. (You can read the brilliant book Guardians of Power by David Edwards & David Cornwell for more insight into this!)
So who has the most to lose if climate change became an accepted norm and not a "fringe theory"? Look no further then those companies that EARN the most:
"And when they do break their silence, some of our elite organs are happy to indulge in outright denial. Last month, for instance, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by “16 scientists and engineers” headlined “No Need to Panic About Global Warming.” The article was easily debunked. It was nothing but a mash-up of long-since-disproved arguments by people who turned out mostly not to be climate scientists at all, quoting other scientists who immediately said their actual work showed just the opposite.
It’s no secret where this denialism comes from: the fossil fuel industry pays for it. (Of the 16 authors of the Journal article, for instance, five had had ties to Exxon.) Writers from Ross Gelbspan to Naomi Oreskes have made this case with such overwhelming power that no one even really tries denying it any more. The open question is why the industry persists in denial in the face of an endless body of fact showing climate change is the greatest danger we’ve ever faced.
Why doesn’t it fold the way the tobacco industry eventually did? Why doesn’t it invest its riches in things like solar panels and so profit handsomely from the next generation of energy? As it happens, the answer is more interesting than you might think.
Part of it’s simple enough: the giant energy companies are making so much money right now that they can’t stop gorging themselves. ExxonMobil, year after year, pulls in more money than any company in history. Chevron’s not far behind. Everyone in the business is swimming in money."
http://www.postcarbon.org/article/704040-the-great-carbon-bubble-why-the
As refeerenced in the above article, there is something quite beautiful, but also quite startling about this image courtesy of NASA, do you see?
http://www.postcarbon.org/article/704040-the-great-carbon-bubble-why-the
We, and by "We" I mean everyone else, especially in the UK will NOT be discussing climate change this week. We have one the driest and warmest Decembers, followed by guess what, that's right one of the driest and warmest January's in history, but this last 10-days have seen pretty cold temperatures here in Blighty. If you can be bothered to check the weather maps it's not hard to see what's going on and let's face it, it's Winter people, so you'd expect some cold and icy weather. Or at least we used to see/expect "winter-like" temperatures and conditions.
So "We" can't even comprehend that we have quite a serious problem of climate change happening around us, ALL OF US, EVERYWHERE!
Of course the newspapers will confuse climate with weather and claim that a few cold days must dispell the rumour of climate change, this being demonstrably false and simply lazy journalism. But let's be fair to the journalists, they work for a money-making business which derives a majority of it's income from advertising revenue so can't really criticise too vociferously the hand that feeds them. (You can read the brilliant book Guardians of Power by David Edwards & David Cornwell for more insight into this!)
So who has the most to lose if climate change became an accepted norm and not a "fringe theory"? Look no further then those companies that EARN the most:
"And when they do break their silence, some of our elite organs are happy to indulge in outright denial. Last month, for instance, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by “16 scientists and engineers” headlined “No Need to Panic About Global Warming.” The article was easily debunked. It was nothing but a mash-up of long-since-disproved arguments by people who turned out mostly not to be climate scientists at all, quoting other scientists who immediately said their actual work showed just the opposite.
It’s no secret where this denialism comes from: the fossil fuel industry pays for it. (Of the 16 authors of the Journal article, for instance, five had had ties to Exxon.) Writers from Ross Gelbspan to Naomi Oreskes have made this case with such overwhelming power that no one even really tries denying it any more. The open question is why the industry persists in denial in the face of an endless body of fact showing climate change is the greatest danger we’ve ever faced.
Why doesn’t it fold the way the tobacco industry eventually did? Why doesn’t it invest its riches in things like solar panels and so profit handsomely from the next generation of energy? As it happens, the answer is more interesting than you might think.
Part of it’s simple enough: the giant energy companies are making so much money right now that they can’t stop gorging themselves. ExxonMobil, year after year, pulls in more money than any company in history. Chevron’s not far behind. Everyone in the business is swimming in money."
http://www.postcarbon.org/article/704040-the-great-carbon-bubble-why-the
As refeerenced in the above article, there is something quite beautiful, but also quite startling about this image courtesy of NASA, do you see?
Friday 3 February 2012
Agrarian Anarchy
When one considers energy descent we have to at least consider alternatives to our current way of living. This can be traumatic, not least because we (well I) really haven't been exposed to anything other then neo-liberal capitalist economic dogma. We need to properly study our history and take examples from our pasts that can offer us alternatives. Now I don't want to get into a discussion on the merits of Marxism or Parecon or some other econmic theory, but what I would like a discussion on is the merits of Agrarian Anarchy.
Anarchy, that misquoted and misused word that we all fear right? Wrong!
“Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners”; (2) “Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others”; and (3) “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” - Edward Abbey
My learned brother is a keeper of an eye-watering array of literature on anarchist writings and would be best placed to take up this discussion, but for today and for the coming weekend, you only need consider that the current arrangement in our Western Culture is only a contemporary attempt to organise us into easily managed resources. It's not really for us... we are so much better served reverting to our former selves, selves that learned to focus on a reliable and clean food source, potable water and a means of keeping warm. Seems simple enough, but with our modern-selves surrounded by a bigger and bigger array of things to keep us indoors, how can we ever transition from our current living arrangements to a more sustainable, worthwhile, challenging and egalitarian situation?
"It should be clear that the industrial economy is making us sick, mentally and physically, and also greatly reducing habitat for our species on Earth. As a result, I’m a big fan of terminating this set of living arrangements — that is, I’m a fan of terminating industrialized civilization — and replacing it with a more sane and durable set of living arrangements."
http://guymcpherson.com/2012/02/toward-an-economy-of-earth/
What alternatives do you see?
Anarchy, that misquoted and misused word that we all fear right? Wrong!
“Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners”; (2) “Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others”; and (3) “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” - Edward Abbey
My learned brother is a keeper of an eye-watering array of literature on anarchist writings and would be best placed to take up this discussion, but for today and for the coming weekend, you only need consider that the current arrangement in our Western Culture is only a contemporary attempt to organise us into easily managed resources. It's not really for us... we are so much better served reverting to our former selves, selves that learned to focus on a reliable and clean food source, potable water and a means of keeping warm. Seems simple enough, but with our modern-selves surrounded by a bigger and bigger array of things to keep us indoors, how can we ever transition from our current living arrangements to a more sustainable, worthwhile, challenging and egalitarian situation?
"It should be clear that the industrial economy is making us sick, mentally and physically, and also greatly reducing habitat for our species on Earth. As a result, I’m a big fan of terminating this set of living arrangements — that is, I’m a fan of terminating industrialized civilization — and replacing it with a more sane and durable set of living arrangements."
http://guymcpherson.com/2012/02/toward-an-economy-of-earth/
What alternatives do you see?
Thursday 2 February 2012
Me Versus Machines!
I'm always keen to get my Wednesday/Thursday posting by John Michael Greer (The Archdruid Report). I hope you all have dipped into his writings over the past couple of years as his clearly expressed thoughts have provided quite a considerable amount of solace during difficult times. There are many writers/commentators out there who fear a changing world and can only see disaster ahead (Kunstler, Orlov etc), contrary to this position is Greer.
With his background in Druidry he has facilitated some excellent discussions on his blog about what a energy descent will/could look like, but goes further and provides really pertinent resources for helping anyone deal with a changing future and how to retool.
http://www.culturalconservers.org/library.php
http://www.greenwizards.org/?q=forum
If you are new to him I advise going back a few months and reading some earlier posts as each week follows from the last. This weeks post was interesting, simply as it made me think about my previous comments on creativity and resourcefulness as a focus for educating my little pudding Freya.
"There are any number of other examples of things that human beings can do, or can learn to do, that will fill essential needs in a deindustrializing or fully deindustrialized world, when permanent shortages of concentrated energy suitable for powering machines makes the vast majority of today’s technology useless except as scrap. A significant number of them are still being practiced, or—like the Art of Memory—can be revived with relative ease from written sources dating from the Renaissance or, in some cases, more recently still. A great many more will need to be invented, or reinvented, in the years ahead. The supposedly serious thinkers of our time are unlikely to contribute anything to that task; in contemporary industrial civilization, as in every other human culture, the basic qualification that makes thinkers respectable is an unthinking acceptance of the basic myths of their era. Nowadays, the myth of progress is one of those basic myths, and the myth of the machine stands right beside it."
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2012/02/recovery-of-human.html
With his background in Druidry he has facilitated some excellent discussions on his blog about what a energy descent will/could look like, but goes further and provides really pertinent resources for helping anyone deal with a changing future and how to retool.
http://www.culturalconservers.org/library.php
http://www.greenwizards.org/?q=forum
If you are new to him I advise going back a few months and reading some earlier posts as each week follows from the last. This weeks post was interesting, simply as it made me think about my previous comments on creativity and resourcefulness as a focus for educating my little pudding Freya.
"There are any number of other examples of things that human beings can do, or can learn to do, that will fill essential needs in a deindustrializing or fully deindustrialized world, when permanent shortages of concentrated energy suitable for powering machines makes the vast majority of today’s technology useless except as scrap. A significant number of them are still being practiced, or—like the Art of Memory—can be revived with relative ease from written sources dating from the Renaissance or, in some cases, more recently still. A great many more will need to be invented, or reinvented, in the years ahead. The supposedly serious thinkers of our time are unlikely to contribute anything to that task; in contemporary industrial civilization, as in every other human culture, the basic qualification that makes thinkers respectable is an unthinking acceptance of the basic myths of their era. Nowadays, the myth of progress is one of those basic myths, and the myth of the machine stands right beside it."
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2012/02/recovery-of-human.html
Wednesday 1 February 2012
Limits to Growth
Big birthday coming soon, FORTY! Sometimes I like to project what life MAY be like for Freya in 2050 on her 40th birthday... what will be the "norm", how far would energy descent have gone, how will 2050 compare with 2012? Well the clever minds of MIT through the Club of Rome published what they called the Limits to Growth in 1972, attempting something like my thought experiment the year I was born, Forty years ago. I bring this up for two reasons, 1) if any of you clever peeps can find me an original copy of this work, not the republished and updated versions of 1992 and 2002 you'd make my birthday a happy day; 2) it surely is an essential read for anyone who wants to question how we can continue to consider unlimited economic growth as the only measure of progress on a finite planet.
Todays online Guardian has a mention of this:
There are many problematic issues to do with growth that can't be covered here. Clinging to growth, however, suffocates the imagination needed to devise more convivial ways to share a finite planet. At the very least, and with so much evidence to the contrary, the burden of proof now lies heavily on those who reject the original message of the Limits report, for them to demonstrate how, and under what circumstances, we could possibly enjoy "growth forever" in a finite world. Kenneth Boulding, the founder of general systems theory, thought this to be a view held only by "madmen and economists".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/01/limits-to-economic-growth
Hopefully I'll be able to edumacate myself enough so that I can pass on the necessary skills... scratch that... I need to be able to teach my little pudding two things, creativity and resourcefulness.
We are all aware of the 500lb Gorilla in the room, right? It's not just me who sees it?
Todays online Guardian has a mention of this:
There are many problematic issues to do with growth that can't be covered here. Clinging to growth, however, suffocates the imagination needed to devise more convivial ways to share a finite planet. At the very least, and with so much evidence to the contrary, the burden of proof now lies heavily on those who reject the original message of the Limits report, for them to demonstrate how, and under what circumstances, we could possibly enjoy "growth forever" in a finite world. Kenneth Boulding, the founder of general systems theory, thought this to be a view held only by "madmen and economists".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/01/limits-to-economic-growth
Hopefully I'll be able to edumacate myself enough so that I can pass on the necessary skills... scratch that... I need to be able to teach my little pudding two things, creativity and resourcefulness.
We are all aware of the 500lb Gorilla in the room, right? It's not just me who sees it?
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