I began reading Dimitry Orlov’s recent publication, The Five Stages of Collapse: Survivors’ Toolkit, last week and it has got me thinking about his thesis with respect to the revelations around the U.S. surveillance system being used globally by the-powers-that-be (both corporate and political), in combination with the ongoing exposure of manipulation of various markets and … [Read more...]
Your fossil fuel free garden
It's the first season for our Transition group's community garden, but already we've taken to calling it the Fossil Fuel Free Garden. The tagline is an easy way for us to make the point that not only do we expect our fellow gardeners to stay organic (no chemicals, please) but that we have the additional requirement that no power tools be used at the garden. This may sound … [Read more...]
Ten easy resolutions for 2012
Here it comes, the scariest potential year since Y2k, if you buy the hype on 2012. Of course, the sages tell us that rather than ushering in an earth-shattering colossal end to the human experiment, what we can really expect in 2012 is an increase in human enlightenment, even if there are some growing pains along the way. Setting yourself resolutions can even be one way to … [Read more...]
Top 10 peak oil books of 2011
Welcome to our second annual list of the top ten peak oil books. Most of them are explicitly about peak oil, while others deal with energy depletion as a significant factor in the economy or the environment. A couple titles focus on responses to the myriad conundrums that Richard Heinberg has dubbed "peak everything" and that are now converging to create a perfect storm for … [Read more...]
Could gold become money again?
"There just won't be enough gold coins to go around," said Gail Tverberg, known for years on the Oil Drum as Gail the Actuary, at the ASPO-USA conference in Washington, DC last week. "If you have gold, maybe you can find somebody who will sell you some piece of land. But otherwise it will have very limited use, unless you have some certificates that will go with it for … [Read more...]