Waste

John Michael Greer has officially established himself as an institution within the peak oil community. Truly one of the finest minds working on the predicament of modern-day industrial civilization, he is so well-read in so many fields that he regularly gains access to insights that utterly elude his contemporaries. For this he is treasured by a growing number of loyal readers—and, I suspect, hated by equally many fellow bloggers who wish that they could be half as good.

-Gardener: Urban pioneer Greensgrow Farm leads by example
-Quick and Not So Dirty: No-Sweat Composters
-How High Speed Rail Can Spread Across the U.S.
-"Agriburbia" sprouts on Colorado's Front Range

Where will you go when the sewers clog up? Where will you go when the porcelain finally cracks? Where will you go when the Toilet Duck quacks its last?

-How Can Bright Green Cities Thrive Without Capital?
-A Blueprint for Restoring the World’s Oceans to Health
-Nudging Recycling From Less Waste to None
-The Second Wave of Mining

-What Makes Europe Greener than the U.S.?
-My dream of a zero-waste Goa
-Get Your Community Resilience Toolkit Today!
-From Turbines and Straw, Danish Self-Sufficiency
-The Return of the American Prairie

The human role in extinction of species and degradation of ecosystems is well documented. Since European settlement in North America, and especially after the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, we have witnessed a substantial decline in biological diversity of native taxa and profound changes in assemblages of the remaining species...We have, to the maximum possible extent allowed by our intellect and never-ending desire, consumed the planet.

How much timber must be cut and how much ore must be mined to provide the building materials necessary to rebuild a wiped out city or town after an earthquake, wildfire or typhoon? As storms and other events become more prolific and more powerful and wildfires consume more residences, how much timber is going to be felled to rebuild them? Related to this question is where we allow these structures to be situated and what kind of building codes will we put in place to minimize future destruction, and by extension, future extraction.

Within the span of a couple generations, we abandoned a durable, finely textured, life-affirming set of living arrangements characterized by self-sufficient family farms intermixed with small towns that provided commerce, services, and culture. Worse yet, we traded that model for a coarse-scaled arrangement wholly dependent on ready access to cheap fossil fuels.

Burning natural gas to extract and process oil from the Canadian tar sands has been likened by one industry insider to burning Picassos for heat. But the bidding at the "Picassos for heat" auction may go even higher as those involved in tar sands and oil shale development push for nuclear power to fuel their projects.

-Peak Oil and Tourism
-Let There Be Light!
-Bolivians look to ancient farming
-Ambitious Solar Project to Use Recycled City Wastewater
-Another bold move in Portland

-Farmer saves $200,000 with poo power
-Vancouver firm makes fertilizer out of human sewage
-Wastewater Produces Electricity And Desalinates Water

San Francisco was born at the beginning of the oil age, and the city has flourished during an era in which fossil fuels became the foundation of our economy and society...Today, the City and its inhabitants are utterly reliant on fossil fuel energy: 84% of the energy consumed in San Francisco comes from oil and natural gas.

Real People, Real Preparation, Part One
In Public Housing, Talking Up the Recycling Bin
High-rises on hold: What to do with empty lots?

Book Review: The Transition Timeline
Insights on Resilience from the Recent History of Totnes. 1: Back garden food production
Tooting Catches Carnival Cash

Permaculture Future?: Part I
San Francisco to Toughen a Strict Recycling Law
New numbers prove smart growth reduces CO2, cost-effectively