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Cocktails at the oil crash

By January 1, 2011
Player One cover

Set in the cocktail lounge of a hotel at Toronto's airport in the present day, Douglas Coupland's fictional vision of an oil-crisis apocalypse is so frightening because it seems so plausible. Player One: What is to Become of Us? By Douglas Coupland Anansi, 246 pp, $15.95 Make it a double Player One starts out as an unremarkable meeting of middle-class North American types reminiscent of Coupland's 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. They've assembled at that most … [Read more...]

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Low-tech for your resilience toolbox

By December 30, 2010
German 19th century fireless cooker

In a world where iPhones, iPods and  iPads are everywhere and where dinner often means popping frozen mac and cheese into the microwave, pre-industrial ways of living may seem hopelessly quaint. But if you're concerned about peak oil, old tech can offer ways to increase personal and family resilience, if you're open to considering it. Can't you use less energy to do that? Lately, I've been trying to convince our two teenage daughters to put a cover on a pot before boiling their water. I … [Read more...]

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Oh brother, not peak oil!

By December 29, 2010
Blind railroad man in O' Brother Where Art Thou?

Part one in a four-part series. In the 2000 Coen brothers' comedy adventure O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a bit of wisdom shared near the start of the movie applies to more aspects of life than we might like to admit. In particular, it has relevance for how we talk about the peak oil predicament in today's media landscape. Editor's Note: This is the first installment in a four-part series on the challenges of telling the peak oil story. The movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? will help tell the … [Read more...]

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Top 10 peak oil books of 2010

By December 23, 2010
open book

Having read enough books with Hubbert curves and charts of barrels-per-day to last us until the second Bristol Palin administration, we're now into powerful stories that explore peak oil through suspense, romance and humanity. But so you won't feel guilty having so much fun at the expense of the whole premise of industrial civilization, we've thrown in some more fact-y tomes too. Peak oil stalwarts from James Howard Kunstler to Richard Heinberg to Robert Hirsch made the list along with some … [Read more...]

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I’m dreaming of a peak oil Christmas

By December 7, 2010
Vintage-Hooked-Rug-Christmas1951-Pearl-M-McGown

Here at the Transition Voice offices, where the thermostat hovers very low, and where we're wrapped in wool scarves and blankets as we type out the collapse narrative through our fingerless gloves, it's hard to imagine that Scrooge will be moved by the spirit of a Christmas present this year. But, while we're aware that people are hurting all over, not everyone is necessarily hurting in the same way. Some may have set aside a little money to enjoy the season. For that reason, we've written our … [Read more...]

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Goldman is the root of all evil

By December 1, 2010
GRIFTOPIA by Matt Taibi

BOOK REVIEW Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America By Matt Taibbi Spiegel & Grau, 272 pp, $24 If you care about peak oil, it's natural to connect resource depletion to economic crisis. And if you're growing increasingly impatient about the failure of government and the mainstream media to accept peak oil as a major challenge or even acknowledge the issue at all, then you may also be open to the idea that the American ruling class is … [Read more...]

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A ticket to ride

By December 1, 2010
transport-revolutions-new

BOOK REVIEW Transport Revolutions: Moving People and Freight Without Oil by Richard Gilbert and Anthony Perl New Society Publishers, 430 pp, $26.95 I know a textbook when I see one. This feels like a textbook without the homework, unless you include constantly referencing the many footnotes throughout the text. Advertised as a book for the general reader and the transportation planner, it's an interesting read, but a bit of a slog to power through. I'm afraid that while wonky types in … [Read more...]

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Sex, lies and peak oil

By December 1, 2010
Prelude by Kurt Cobb

BOOK REVIEW Prelude: A Novel about Secrets, Treachery and the Arrival of Peak Oil By Kurt Cobb Public Interest Communications, 270 pp, $14.95 From Pilgrim's Progress to Uncle Tom's Cabin to Atlas Shrugged, writing the didactic novel  has always been an exercise in sugaring the pill. Instead of crafting an essay to make a point straight out, the didactic novelist hopes to use characters and plot to tell her truth slant and thus reach a wider audience. And whether it's John Bunyan … [Read more...]

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You can love city hall

By December 1, 2010
Communities, Councils and a Low-Carbon Future

BOOK REVIEW Communities, Councils and a Low Carbon Future: What We Can Do If Governments Won't By Alexis Rowell Transition Books, 240 pp, $18 and up in the USA As an American, reading Communities, Councils and a Low Carbon Future: What We Can Do If Governments Won't was just another reminder of how far ahead of us the British are on energy and green issues. Until I read Rowell's book, I never knew just how many programs the British run to subsidize local food, conservation and clean … [Read more...]

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Hold the cheese

By December 1, 2010
Cover the Vegan Girl's Guide to Life

BOOK REVIEW The Vegan Girl's Guide To LIfe By Melisser Elliott Skyhorse Publishing, 220 pp, $16.95 My friend Jack is fond of deconstructing my life. He looks for places to challenge whether I'm walking my talk when it comes to a lower carbon footprint life. That I gave birth at home, nursed my kids, use herbal remedies instead of big pharm, almost never had AC, don't fly, recycle, garden, drive a Prius when I'm not walking (or biking), and have either telecommuted, worked from home, or … [Read more...]

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