If you care about climate change and peak oil, you're always thinking about ways to get off of fossil fuels around the world and to save energy around your house. Home energy tweaking can become an obsession. It has for me. Just take light bulbs for example. It seems that only a few years ago, I swapped out all our old incandescents for compact fluorescents that used less … [Read more...]
16 ways to avoid being a Transition hypocrite
Martin Heidegger was obsessed with authenticity. He viewed ontological anxiety as the impetus for authenticity — a way to move us through our conformity. For Heidegger, we were born into a world of quiet conformity. Initially, everything we do, say, think and believe has been done before. The activities we regard as worthy of our time and effort (learning, work, play), the … [Read more...]
3 energy-wasting appliances you can easily live without
In today's economy, who doesn't want to save money? And if you care about climate change or peak oil, then all's the more reason to ease off or even cut out major appliances that make us all burn more coal, nukes and fracked gas without providing much benefit in our daily lives. Clothes dryer. Why do you still have one of these? You already know they ruin your clothes, … [Read more...]
As Obama hedges, Japan could go nuke-free by next spring
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan was recently quoted as seeing the country as a nuclear-free nation. But unlike similar pronouncements from Germany, which pledges to be nuclear-free by 2022, Japan may become nuclear-free literally within a year. That would be quite a feat for a country that only five months ago relied on nuclear plants for about 30% of its electrical … [Read more...]
A thousand points of dirt
So, icecaps are melting, oil is surging and the economy is still in the tank. You've given up on Congress, you've lost faith in Obama and you aren't impressed with what's coming out of your statehouse these days. Whaddya gonna do? You could get ready for the collapse of society. Maybe pick up a few dozen cans of pork-n-beans at Safeway for the basement. Drive some cases … [Read more...]