Environment & sustainablity

For a European website I attempted to write a concise, blunt assessment of our ecological predicament in hopes that perhaps at least one person of influence might read and understand what I believe we face: "We are in overshoot. Failure to recognize this fact and act on it will ultimately condemn humans worldwide to nature's cure for this condition: collapse."

A weekly review from a UK perspective - "The first round in the great Iraqi oil sale was an interesting affair if not a very conclusive one. In the live TV auction which took place on Tuesday, only one deal was reached as international oil companies refused to meet the terms demanded...

Just a year and a half after a breakthrough Solar Grand Plan study was published in the January 2008 Scientific American, the U.S. government has begun plans to implement major elements of such a Plan.

If you are planning to withdraw, please tell me where you're going, and send directions. If not, it's time to start thinking about how you and your family or tribe will muddle through the years ahead. One word comes to mind: durability. If that wasn't the first word that came to your mind, I'm not surprised.

David Holmgren, one of the originators of the permaculture concept, has recently written what I believe is one of the best books on the societal implications of peak oil and climate change to be published over the last several years.

A weekly review including:
- Production & Prices
- In the Congress
- Briefs

In a sense the Transition Initiative places itself as a social tipping point, with dramatic and positive consequences where the sudden wisdom of communities breaks through the stolid unwisdom of national government.
(excerpts)

Sailing plastics to the Garbage Patch (Kon-Tiki made from plastic bottles)
Ozone saver is global warmer
Bill McKibben on U.S. climate politics
McKibben: I’m spewing carbon for your benefit and mine

Transition movement vs post-carbonistas
The Transition Initiative: changing the scale of change, from The Orion magazine
Transition Hohenwald: Rural Community Targets Energy Efficiency

A weekly review from a UK perspective.