Economics

Despite everything that has transpired to reveal the deep structural flaws in our economy and its main theories, few in the media and government seem to be able to grasp the concept that the story has changed and that all efforts to perpetuate ‘the story’ will only prolong the agony and make things worse.

-World’s Pall of Black Carbon Can Be Eased With New Stoves
-Treasure Trove in World's E-Waste
-City sets out healthy ambitions for local food
-Galleria mall is giant greenhouse, raising organic crops in Cleveland

-Is East Africa the Next Frontier for Oil?
-'Market can absorb spare Saudi capacity' - Al Falih
-Royal Dutch Shell halts gasoline sales to Iran
-Traders bet on higher gasoline prices
-How a 22-year-old student uncovered peak oil fraud

Last post I covered some guiding principles for urban resilience planning in the face of climate change and diminishing resources (especially fresh water and oil). Considering these guidelines, what aspect of U.S. metro development stands out as the most ill-advised and risky? Short answer: exurban sprawl.

Most homeowners in the U.S. would come out ahead if they invested in energy efficiency improvements -- new insulation, sealed windows, more efficient boilers, and the like. So why don't they do it? Simple: the upfront costs are steep and the paybacks can take a long time. Many homeowners don't have access to the capital to cover the costs, or they worry that they will move before the the costs are repaid, thus leaving subsequent owners to reap gains they didn't pay for.

A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-China's foreign trade

What was required for a growing economy, that was supposed to uplift all of modern humanity, is at root a false notion for the manipulated public: the overwhelming majority must work for others to enrich the few so that all of society benefits through unlimited expansion. This problematic profit-scheme is failing to hold up, what with general economic uncertainty on the rise (apart from “Hope”) and the advanced depletion of easily extracted, cheap oil.

A great deal of discussion of renewable energy these days focuses on massive, centralized projects, relying on habits of thought we inherit from the departing age of cheap abundant energy. With the aid of two inventors and a glass of brandy, the Archdruid explains why thermodynamics suggests a radically different approach.

As signs of climate instability increase, radical and rapid action is becoming ever more urgent...Yet even within the environmental movement there is no unanimity on this thorny question: should the countries of the South have the right to increase their emissions as they industrialize and "develop"?

The piece builds on Lynas’s previous much publicised conversion to nuclear power, arguing that if we are to apply the scientific rigour that underpins climate science to all other areas of life, in the same way that nuclear power is supported by the science, so is GM. While I strongly disagree with him on both, I want here to challenge Lynas’s conversion to GM, and the belief that if we are serious about climate change, we have no option other than to embrace GM.

Rolfe Winkler wrote some good stuff in the wake of the Make Markets Be Markets conference held in the Imperial capital last week. I'll get to that in a moment. The purpose of the get together, which was hosted by the Roosevelt Institute, was to push for much needed financial reform. Many of the usual suspects were there, including Simon Johnson and Elizabeth Warren. Rob Johnson, Senior Fellow and Director of the Project on Global Finance at The Roosevelt Institute, wrote the introduction to the conference report (big pdf).

Despite the incessant media repetition that the economic situation is getting better, there is growing evidence that the economy is in fact growing worse. Where all this leaves oil prices is not yet clear.

-Are we really going to let ourselves be duped into this solar panel rip-off?
-Solar panels are not fashion accessories
-There is no 'green treachery' in questioning this solar panel rip-off
I accept George Monbiot's £100 solar PV bet

-Green fuels cause more harm than fossil fuels, according to report
-Chemists create biofuel from plant waste
-Seeking a More 'Poplar' Biofuel