Tag Archive | "civilization"
Starting over
Judging from my email in-box and the occasional comment in this space, my essays have taken a surprising turn. It seems my efforts are worth alerting the authorities, at least according to comments from anonymous cowards who hide behind online monikers. Unsurprisingly, the black helicopters haven’t arrived yet. Apparently the authorities are otherwise occupied. If [...]
Continue reading...Infallible, unsinkable, inconceivable: a bell curve in three parts
Monday, January 31, 2011
by John Stassek Infallible A sliver of green and fertile earth, far from other lands. Poly- nesians settled long ago, and came to under- stand. Three days of labor, tilling the soil, could feed them- selves all year. Easter Island was paradise. They found a good life here. Time was abundant, since food was so [...]
Continue reading...Third time’s a charm?
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Kurt Vonnegut often described World Wars I and II as western civilization’s first and second attempts, respectively, to commit suicide. He hinted at peak oil as our third attempt in his memoir, Man Without a Country, which was published shortly before his death. After burying our collective heads in the sand for two years, peak [...]
Continue reading...Talking about oil in Oil City, USA
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
I presented in Austin, Texas, 9 January 2011 under the title, Durable Living: Preparing for Climate Change and Energy Decline. Free and open to the public, the event was sponsored by Design~Build~Live and Crude Awakening Austin, and attended by about 30 people. I was shooting video of this presentation, but my camera failed 15 minutes [...]
Continue reading...Praying for peace, promoting war
Thursday, December 23, 2010
A Christmas card from one of the in-laws was unintentionally soaked in irony. I’ll skip the rant about celebrating Christ and mass, the two components of Christ’s mass (i.e., Christmas) in which I don’t believe, much less celebrate. And, too, I”ll forgo the equally tempting rant about a religious holiday that promotes conspicuous consumption in [...]
Continue reading...CYA
Thursday, December 9, 2010
I was enjoying lunch with a former student and long-time friend yesterday after walking across campus on a gloriously sunny day in the American Southwest. I mentioned to my friend the resurgence of “fashion” among young women — women without pants, I call them. You’ve probably seen one of these fashion princesses, wearing a skin-tight [...]
Continue reading...We’re toast
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
When people tell me the dire messages about which I write don’t resonate with other people, I struggle with a coherent response. Would you prefer continued overshoot on an overshot planet? Would you prefer we keep heating our overheated home? Would you prefer we ignore the most important issues in the history of our species? [...]
Continue reading...Mike and Karen’s Excellent Adventure
Sunday, November 21, 2010
by Mike Sliwa and Karen Sliwa We are retiring so we can travel. That’s the official story we generally tell people if we don’t feel like explaining the whole collapse of civilization spiel. Our close friends and those sympathetic to what we’re trying to accomplish get the real story. We know this might be considered [...]
Continue reading...Bottleneck ethics
Monday, October 25, 2010
by John Rember 1. Lately I’ve been reading Peter Singer, a bioethicist and philosopher who argues, along with a good many pet owners, that animals are sentient and therefore eligible for personhood. But once you accept animals as persons, Singer tests your commitment to the idea. Singer says humans should become vegans, given that animals [...]
Continue reading...Grifter nation
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Throughout the blogosphere, pundits are predicting the foreclosure fiasco will be the tipping point. Instead of death by a thousand cuts, this spurting wound will bring the industrial economy to its overdue close, they say. Those of us who care about the living planet should be so lucky. All twelve of us. Let’s ignore the [...]
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Friday, February 18, 2011
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