While the phrase "follow the money" is common parlance in progressive circles these days, a more relevant line of investigation for these peak oil times of ours might be, I think, "follow the energy." For as it is, the suggestion of "following the money" generally refers to something like following the trail of bread crumbs all the way to where the buck stops, one eventually … [Read more...]
Economy
Connecting the dots between the cost of energy and such traditional measures of the economy as GDP, jobs, and the health of the US dollar, along with re-localization.
If you’re really for the economy then you’re also for the environment
I taught college logic for decades. Logical fallacies make me squirm. However, most people have errant ideas about logic. My undergraduate students always get huffy and insist that their "true premise" is logical. Logic examines process, prior to truth. A true conclusion can be arrived at if, and only if, the premises are true, and the process by which the argument is … [Read more...]
Black Friday strikes back with ‘freedom to shop’
If you're rooting for humanity to survive much into the future, then you'll surely find yourself on the opposite side of the holiday shopping season from America's big retailers. If they're rooting for more sales, you may be rooting for consumers to buy less. People who care about climate change and peak oil want industry to stop trashing the planet. But industries that make … [Read more...]
The high price of materialism
A war on climate change is a war on materialism, plain and simple. The carbon pollution spewing out of our power plants and tail pipes is a natural byproduct of the monstrous engine of economic growth we have built, an engine that exists solely to satisfy the demand our materialism creates. Indeed this demand is so great that if everyone in the world lived like Americans, we'd … [Read more...]
The economy isn’t coming back
Presently Americans wait with bated breath, watching sales numbers and unemployment statistics, grasping for signs that an economic recovery is underway. We search for signals that indicate we’re growing, that there will be a job for everyone who wants one, and that the United States will resume the prosperity and standing in the world it once had. We wait in … [Read more...]