"Something has gone very wrong. That’s the message that’s rumbling like distant thunder through the crawlspaces of the American imagination just now. Something has gone very wrong, and those whose public claim to power is their supposed ability to manage things so that they don’t go wrong—the captains of finance and brokers of political power who move from photo op to press conference to high-level meeting and back again—don’t know how to fix it." - http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/rumbling-of-distant-thunder.html
There's lots to report on right now, with 15 acres in Basse Normandie now being tackled by three of the Palmer Clan and by a couple more in the not too distant future, this blog will be able to focus more on that project!
Until then though, It's important to stay focused on the mood of the blogosphere and coincidentally this week both Dmitry Orlov (http://cluborlov.blogspot.co.uk/) and John Michael Greer (http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk) have written articles about "The Age of Limits", a gathering of Peak Oil peeps, who wanted to fundamentally discuss what is happening post-peak instead of focusing on placing blame for the current predicament.
Keep alert, keep reading, question everything!
Showing posts with label Orlov. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orlov. Show all posts
Thursday, 31 May 2012
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
Monday, 8 February 2010
Collapse Gap Revisited
Good Monday to you.
Two for you this week to get your heads around. Dmitry makes some comments on another article written by Richard Heinberg regarding collapse preparation of the last two superpowers US and China.
"What would make more sense than just trying to put off the inevitable is quite simply to build resilience throughout society, re-localizing basic social systems involving food, manufacture, and finance." - Richard's article can be read here http://www.postcarbon.org/article/67429-china-or-the-u-s-which-will.
"Since collapse is unavoidable, the obvious fall-back strategy would be to invest in local resiliency and self-sufficiency. Since neither government appears the least bit interested in such matters, it is time for us to recognize them for what they are to us: utterly irrelevant. Paying attention to national politics can only distract us from doing whatever we can as individuals and local communities." - Dmitry's comments can be read here http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2010/02/collapse-gap-revisited.html.
My own thoughts on both are that i'm heading in the right direction. We must all move towards a lower energy use future, whereby local communities provide as much as they can for themselves (remember permaculture 101, individaul Self-Reliance AND Community Self-Sufficiency). We can prepare ourselves for a more austere way of living. We can renew old friendships and seek out new ones. We can learn something new, this week, or this month, or this year, but learn we must! We can do so much now to help ourselves... the alternative is to wait and hope that our "leaders" will make the right decisions for us and provide for us when we can't.
Your call.
Two for you this week to get your heads around. Dmitry makes some comments on another article written by Richard Heinberg regarding collapse preparation of the last two superpowers US and China.
"What would make more sense than just trying to put off the inevitable is quite simply to build resilience throughout society, re-localizing basic social systems involving food, manufacture, and finance." - Richard's article can be read here http://www.postcarbon.org/article/67429-china-or-the-u-s-which-will.
"Since collapse is unavoidable, the obvious fall-back strategy would be to invest in local resiliency and self-sufficiency. Since neither government appears the least bit interested in such matters, it is time for us to recognize them for what they are to us: utterly irrelevant. Paying attention to national politics can only distract us from doing whatever we can as individuals and local communities." - Dmitry's comments can be read here http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2010/02/collapse-gap-revisited.html.
My own thoughts on both are that i'm heading in the right direction. We must all move towards a lower energy use future, whereby local communities provide as much as they can for themselves (remember permaculture 101, individaul Self-Reliance AND Community Self-Sufficiency). We can prepare ourselves for a more austere way of living. We can renew old friendships and seek out new ones. We can learn something new, this week, or this month, or this year, but learn we must! We can do so much now to help ourselves... the alternative is to wait and hope that our "leaders" will make the right decisions for us and provide for us when we can't.
Your call.
Monday, 18 January 2010
The Oceans are Coming - Part III
So Excessmas is over (see what i did there!) so back to reality and the need to get thinking ecologically. We've (the Palmer contributors) decided in order to offer more and to help us think about what we need to be doing, we are going to start a monthly theme. This Palmer will be offering his musings on which seasonable foods are good to eat right now, pregnant Palmer will be using my scribblibngs to come up with some recipes that include those seasonal foods and brother Palmer will be offering his advice on what we should be planting as we go through the year, so keep your eyes peeled.
Permaculture is still central to our lifes right now, with more to follow shortly. What with baby Palmer on the way, we need to get on with the course and finished before the summer comes.
Ok todays posting is another one from one of my favourites, Dmitry Orlov. Part three in his series of approaching oceans and elements of it back up my spurious claim earlier in the blog about boats being eco-living personified. Enjoy.
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2010/01/oceans-are-coming-part-iii-remaining.html
Permaculture is still central to our lifes right now, with more to follow shortly. What with baby Palmer on the way, we need to get on with the course and finished before the summer comes.
Ok todays posting is another one from one of my favourites, Dmitry Orlov. Part three in his series of approaching oceans and elements of it back up my spurious claim earlier in the blog about boats being eco-living personified. Enjoy.
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2010/01/oceans-are-coming-part-iii-remaining.html
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Anthropoclastic Climate Change
Yes i'm a fan of Dmitry Orlov. Yes i believe that we are experiencing catastrophic climate change. There's no debate to be had. Most of the sceptics argue about whether it is man-made or natural; what a pointless discussion, it's happening NOW. Easily observable dramatic changes in our climate. The ramifications are beyond terrifying. We all need to be considering keeping a diary of changing patterns we see each day, week, month, if for no other reason then to learn when conditions are right for sowing, growing and cultivating food. There is nothing else to really think about other then food security. That's my rant part over with, i'll share with you, Dmitry's take on this...
"Anthropoclastic climate change" is reminiscent of "anthropogenic climate change," which is a theory that climate change is being triggered by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), agriculture (through deforestation, bovine flatus and so on), cement manufacturing, leaking or flaring gas into the atmosphere, chemical manufacturing... the list is very long. Anthropogenic climate change is the theory that these human activities are highly disruptive of the climate. Anthropoclastic climate change is the theory that a highly disrupted climate, which is what we already have, is highly disruptive of human activities, and, in consequence, highly destructive of human life. The anthropogenic theory is a case of man pointing the accusatory finger at man, while the anthropoclastic theory is a case of man pointing the accusatory finger at nature. I will leave it up to you to decide which of the two gestures is the the most futile, but, futile gestures aside, I believe that there are steps to be taken to let us survive climate change, and that these steps should be given due consideration before too long."
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2009/11/anthropoclastic-climate-change.html
"Anthropoclastic climate change" is reminiscent of "anthropogenic climate change," which is a theory that climate change is being triggered by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), agriculture (through deforestation, bovine flatus and so on), cement manufacturing, leaking or flaring gas into the atmosphere, chemical manufacturing... the list is very long. Anthropogenic climate change is the theory that these human activities are highly disruptive of the climate. Anthropoclastic climate change is the theory that a highly disrupted climate, which is what we already have, is highly disruptive of human activities, and, in consequence, highly destructive of human life. The anthropogenic theory is a case of man pointing the accusatory finger at man, while the anthropoclastic theory is a case of man pointing the accusatory finger at nature. I will leave it up to you to decide which of the two gestures is the the most futile, but, futile gestures aside, I believe that there are steps to be taken to let us survive climate change, and that these steps should be given due consideration before too long."
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2009/11/anthropoclastic-climate-change.html
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Time's Up
In case you missed it on Dmitry Orlov's blog, i thought i would draw your attention to his latest post, a review on a book by Keith Farnish called "Time's Up". Think it may have to be on the Palmer's reading list.
Excerpt:
"We – all of us – should just follow our genetic programming a little better. As bits of biological hardware executing a genetic program, it is our primary function to pass our genes on to the next generation. This part is not controversial, and there are several billion of us on hand to attest to the program's success. But unlike, say, yeast, some of us also capable of understanding an important principle: that just blindly creating progeny doomed to extinction is not as clever as we like to imagine ourselves to be. If we leave no viable habitat for our children, then we could give birth to countless numbers of them and still fail to reproduce successfully. (Yeast are actually somewhat clever, and when their environment becomes too polluted with their main waste product, alcohol, for them to function, they fall dormant and wait for an improvement, whereas we just kick the bucket.) The key question is not whether to breed, it is where to breed, and just as many animals range far and wide to find a place to breed and rear their young, we need to look beyond the cupcake-and-kitten universe with its plastic baby car seats and baby formula, and reconcile our effort with the big picture, or we are only doing half the job of parenting."
Complete review @ http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/
Excerpt:
"We – all of us – should just follow our genetic programming a little better. As bits of biological hardware executing a genetic program, it is our primary function to pass our genes on to the next generation. This part is not controversial, and there are several billion of us on hand to attest to the program's success. But unlike, say, yeast, some of us also capable of understanding an important principle: that just blindly creating progeny doomed to extinction is not as clever as we like to imagine ourselves to be. If we leave no viable habitat for our children, then we could give birth to countless numbers of them and still fail to reproduce successfully. (Yeast are actually somewhat clever, and when their environment becomes too polluted with their main waste product, alcohol, for them to function, they fall dormant and wait for an improvement, whereas we just kick the bucket.) The key question is not whether to breed, it is where to breed, and just as many animals range far and wide to find a place to breed and rear their young, we need to look beyond the cupcake-and-kitten universe with its plastic baby car seats and baby formula, and reconcile our effort with the big picture, or we are only doing half the job of parenting."
Complete review @ http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/
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