While Marx predicted that socialism would follow capitalism, Richard Heinberg predicts the next thing will be localism. "All roads appear to lead eventually to localism; the questions are: how and when shall we arrive there, and in what condition? (And, how local?)," Heinberg writes in his latest book, Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels. (We received a review copy of … [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...]
The 2013 in and out list
The end of 2012 brought with it a rash of the same-old same-old "In and Out" lists issued by the lamestream media and their corporate overlords. To wit, the annual Washington Post "List," this time tarted up by putting two newbies at the helm to give it some so-called edge. Bwa-ha ha! It still stunk of too much product placement, too many contract obligations, and a crap … [Read more...]
Visual guide to the cost of growth. Review: ENERGY
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. With that in mind, the 195 color, mostly full page — often double page — photographs in the Post Carbon Institute's* latest book, ENERGY: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth, speaks volumes beyond its gigantic sized pages about the energy and environmental predicament humanity is immersed in today. But while the … [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...]