If the United States wins the 2022 bid for the Winter Olympics, there is already a lot of talk about increased athletic victories but more importantly there is talk of a lot of environmental changes. The United States Olympic Committee is not only looking to further the athletic accomplishments but to make sustainable environmental changes to the Winter Games. This began with naming Dow Chemical as the worldwide partner in the US Olympics efforts for the next decade.
During the last Winter Olympic Games (the Vancouver 2010 games), the United States won the most medals, with 9 gold, 15 silver and 13 bronze. With dominance in the areas of snowboarding and skiing, it only makes sense that the United States considers itself... See entire
By Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow of Post Carbon Institute
In a New York Times op-ed published September 18 titled "Errors and Emissions," economist-columnist Paul Krugman took a swipe at my organization, Post Carbon Institute, lumping us together with the Koch brothers as purveyors of "climate despair." No, the Koch brothers are not in despair about the climate; apparently our shared error is that we say fighting climate change and growing the economy are incompatible. And, according to Krugman, a new report from the New Climate Economy Project (NCEP) and a working paper from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show that the falling cost of renewable energy means this is happily not the case.
But in our view Krugman himself is guilty of five critical errors, and three equally serious omissions.... See entire blog item
By Ricken Patel, Exec. Director of Avaaz, co-organizers of People's Climate March
Originally posted Aug 25, 2014 by Tom Whipple, Post Carbon Institute
For those following the world oil production situation, it has been clear for some time that the only factor keeping global crude output from moving lower is the continuing increase in U.S. shale oil production, mostly from Texas and North Dakota. Needless to say, once the fabled "peak" comes oil and gasoline prices are certain to move higher, triggering a series of economic events – most of which will not be good for the global economy.
By Frank Joseph Smecker and Derrick Jensen, Truthout | Op-Ed
Let's expose the structure of violence that keeps the world economy running.
With an entire planet being slaughtered before our eyes, it's terrifying to watch the very culture responsible for this - the culture of industrial civilization, fueled by a finite source of fossil fuels, primarily a dwindling supply of oil - thrust forward wantonly to fuel its insatiable appetite for "growth."
Deluded by myths of progress and suffering from the psychosis of technomania complicated by addiction to depleting oil reserves, industrial society leaves a crescendo of atrocities in its wake.
A very partial list would include the Bhopal chemical disaster, numerous oil spills, the illegal depleted uranium-spewing occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan, mountaintop removal, the nuclear meltdown of Fukushima,... See entire blog item
By Richard Heinberg (June 16, 2011)
Post-Growth Geopolitics
As nations compete for currency advantages, they are also eyeing the world's diminishing resources—fossil fuels, minerals, agricultural land, and water. Resource wars have been fought since the dawn of history, but today the competition is entering a new phase.
Nations need increasing amounts of energy and materials to produce economic growth, but—as we have seen—the costs of supplying new increments of energy and materials are increasing. In many cases all that remains are lower-quality resources that have high extraction costs. In some instances, securing access to these resources requires military expenditures as well. Meanwhile the struggle for the control of resources is re-aligning... See entire blog item
Global oil production (crude oil plus condensate) has been on a plateau / in decline for 7 years, resulting in high energy prices that are feeding inflation, eroding family budgets and crippling the World economy. It is time for the international political community to awaken to the risks posed by Peak Oil. A British Government report published last week under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request makes clear that civil servants working at the UK department of... See entire blog item
By Richard Heinberg
Media reports often fail to connect recurring demonstrations in Greece and Spain with those in the Middle East and North Africa (Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain). After all, the MENA demonstrations are ostensibly about democracy, while European countries already have functioning electoral systems. Protestors in Greece and Spain are instead decrying austerity programs resulting from governmental efforts to rein in deficits and debt burdens.
At the core, though, all of these uprisings are about the simultaneous failure of modern economics and modern politics—even though systems differ somewhat from country to country. People in all of the nations mentioned have one thing in common: crushed expectations. Economists and politicians have promised jobs and growth, but instead citizens are seeing spreading unemployment, rising food and... See entire blog item
By Zachary Shahan
Plastic — can you imagine a day without it? It has come to be a component of nearly everything we buy and use, it seems. On the one hand, plastic has made things possible that might not have been possible. On the other hand, there are a few major problems (at least) with its widespread use:
With such a... See entire blog item
By Bill McKibben
Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week's shots from Joplin, Missouri, you should not ask yourself: I wonder if this is somehow related to the huge tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, or the enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that — together they comprised the most active April for tornadoes in our history. But that doesn't mean a thing.
It is far better to think of these as isolated,... See entire blog item
Fossil Fuel
