After the Great Quake

SUBHEAD: Living precariously on the surface of a volatile planet is the norm.By Verlyn Klinkenborg on 28 March 2011 in Yale Environment 360 -(http://e360.yale.edu/feature/after_the_great_quake_living_with_earths_uncertainty/2387)Image above: A survivor is given a helping hand getting of a boat on arrivel to Banda Aceh after Indonesian earthquake and tsunami in 2004. From (http://bop.nppa.org/2006

Sea Water Farming

SUBHEAD: Stark contrast to industrial aquaculture, where they throw cheap energy on unsustainable systems to maximize profit.By Oyvind Holmstad on 30 March 2011 in Permaculture RI - (http://permaculture.org.au/2011/03/30/sea-water-farming/#more-5369)Image above: Closed loop shrimp farm where effluent goes to farmland. Still frame from "Eritria - Part 1" vedio below.The two videos below are much

Start Gardening With a Vengeance

SUBHEAD: More of us should take up the spade, make some compost, and start gardening as if our lives depended on it.By Ellen LaConte on 30 March 2011 in AlterNet - (http://www.alternet.org/food/150428/garden_as_if_your_life_depended_on_it%2C_because_it_does)Image above: Poster circa 1925 with Uncle Sam advocating "Garden to cut food costs!" From (http://gallery.pictopia.com/natf/photo/8612566/).

Earth's Scarcest Resource Is Time

SUBHEAD: In the event of a crisis, the US food supply would run out in three days.By Lester Brown on 23 March 2011 in The Nation - (http://www.thenation.com/video/159399/lester-brown-planets-scarcest-resource-time)Image above: Lester Brown in China. From (http://whoami-whoareyou.blogspot.com/2011/01/for-perspective.html).In this eleventh video in the series “Peak Oil and a Changing Climate” from

Planning for Failure

SUBHEAD: Inconceivable! Why failure should be a part of this plan, but isn't.By Sharon Astyk on 14 March 2011 in Casaubons Book - (http://scienceblogs.com/casaubonsbook/2011/03/inconceivable_why_failure_shou.php)Image above: The wreckage of the Challenger shuttle in 1986 just months before the Chernobyl meltdown. From (http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/investigations/q0122.shtml)."He'll never

We’re taking the planet with us

SUBHEAD: Elites turn citizens into serfs and the natural world into a wasteland for profit.By Chris Hedges on 7 March 2011 in Truthdig - (http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/this_time_were_taking_the_whole_planet_with_us_20110307)Image above: "The Ruins of Kom Ombo" by David Roberts (1838). From (http://www.travellersinegypt.org/archives/2005/02/david_roberts.html).I have walked through the

Miserable Means - Miserable Ends

SUBHEAD: Our remaining intellectual horsepower will be exhausted trying to revive the 'Kar Kulture'.By Steve Ludlum on 6 March 2011 in Economic Undertow - (http://economic-undertow.blogspot.com/2011/03/miserable-ends-justify-miserable-means.html)Image above: Before and After. Scene from movie "Cars". From (http://www.bloggerdad.com/how-cars-almost-ruined-the-super-bowl).I mean, who really cares

Why Growth Won’t Return - Water

SUBHEAD: Users of water, and uses of water, compete for access to dwindling supplies.By Richard Heinberg on 4 March 2011 in Post Carbon Institute - (http://www.postcarbon.org/article/269759-earth-s-limits-why-growth-won-t-return)Image above: water jugs are lined up for 6 hour wait at pump in Abu Shouk camp in Darfur. From (http://postconflict.unep.ch/sudanreport/sudan_website/index_photos_2.php?

Biochar - The Real El Dorado

SUBHEAD: We, the fire people, have to make coal and bury it, reversing the past 500 years since the start of the Industrial Revolution.By Albert Bates on 3 March 2011 in The Great Change - (http://peaksurfer.blogspot.com/2011/03/real-el-dorado.html)Image above: Screenshot from the game "The road to El Dorado". From (http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/14685/gold-and-glory-the-road-to-el-dorado/images/

Corporations Fuel Peak Oil Crisis

SUBHEAD: Interview with Thom Hartmann. "We have to fight back against the corporate capture of government."By Kevin Gosztola on 2 March 2011 in The Nation - (http://www.thenation.com/video/158892/thom-hartmann-corporations-are-fueling-our-peak-oil-crisis)Image above: Thom Hartmann speaks at Borders in Denver August 2008. From (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnarlodious/2801262891/in/photostream/).

Interviewed by a Climate Zombie

SUBHEAD: The questions provide a glimpse into why we need Gaia University as an alternative to what currently passes for higher education.By Albert Bates on 26 February 2011 in The Great Change -(http://peaksurfer.blogspot.com/2011/02/interview-with-climate-zombie.html)Image above: College girl as a zombie. From (http://www.teefury.com/people/18670/Nerdbaitplus3/)."For the most part, those

Dr Strangelove & Global Warming

SUBHEAD: NASA research question - Could A Small Nuclear War Reverse Global Warming? WTF![Editor's note: The depths of depravity and self delusion are plumbed in any suggestion that the cure for climate change rests in the detonation of a 100 or so Hiroshima size nuclear devices. For the greatest effectiveness the location for these explosions should be the top 100 greenhouse gas producing

Is Peak Population Almost Here?

SUBHEAD: The convergence of climate change and Peak Oil has enormous implications for population growth.By Paul Chefurka on 22 February 2011 in Limits to Growth - (http://paulchefurka.ca/Peak%20Population.html)Image above: 'The Waiting Room" by George Tooker, 1959. From (http://weimarart.blogspot.com/2010/11/george-tooker.html).After 40 years of beating the drum of overpopulation, I have

The Third Transition

SUBHEAD: The passage through to this period will be difficult, but what follows will be sustainable.By Tom Whipple on 17 February 2011 in Falls Church News-Press(http://www.fcnp.com/commentary/national/8548-the-peak-oil-crisis-the-3rd-transition.html)Image above: High Point on Seattle, Washington. A Sustainable community. From (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/IIah05u2uHw1UioIohOBHg).Modern

One Harvest From Chaos

SUBHEAD: If the world has a poor harvest this year, food prices will rise to previously unimaginable levels.By Lester R. Brown on 15 February 2011 in Earth Policy Institute - (http://www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2011/update91)Image above: A bad harvest in Malawi, Africa, 2005. From (http://news.webshots.com/photo/1373664085070223871LxsgjN).In early January, the U.N. Food and Agriculture

Climate Change Is Priority #1

SUBHEAD: The carbon in our atmosphere threatens global food production and may render the Earth uninhabitable.By Bill McKibben on 16 February 2011 in The Nation -(http://www.thenation.com/video/158009/bill-mckibben-why-climate-change-most-urgent-challenge-we-face)Image above: Detail of painting "Mother Earth" by Jeness Cortez Perlmutter. From (http://www.americanmeditation.org/mother_earth.htm).

Why local food movement matters

SUBHEAD: How do you talk about eating locally and organically to seniors and others on a limited budget?By Debbi Snook on 15 February 2011 in Cleveland.com - (http://www.cleveland.com/taste/index.ssf/2011/02/joan_dye_gussow_talks_about_wh.html)Image above: Local agriculture in El Salvadore. From (http://locavoredelmundo.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/growing-local-food-demand/).Joan Dye Gussow says

Chinese Draught Consequences

SUBHEAD: Lowest rainfall for 60 years in the North China Plain threatens wheat harvest, food prices and the global economy.By Peter Foster on 14 February 2011 for The Telegraph - (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/8321368/Chinas-drought-could-have-devastating-consequences.html)Image above: A Chinese farmer shows the dried vegetable seeds at his drought-striken fields in Zhouping,

Climate Change as a 'Liberal Hoax'

SUBHEAD: The 2010 elections could be interpreted as a “death knell for the species” because most of the new Republicans in Congress are global warming deniers.By Noam Chomsky on 9 February 2011 in The Nation - (http://www.thenation.com/video/158093/noam-chomsky-how-climate-change-became-liberal-hoax)Image above: Illustration of Al Gore as naked emperor for Weekly Standard. From (http://

Extinction Event?

SUBHEAD: We worshiped at the heavenly altar of economic growth, and triggered hell on Earth.By Guy McPherson on 7 February 2011 in Nature Bats Last(http://guymcpherson.com/2011/02/extinction-event)Image above: From (http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/arctic/circulation.html).The Arctic is defrosting as warm Atlantic waters rush through the Fram Strait instead of skirting the southern coast of