Tag Archive | "gardening"
Where do we go from here?
Some doors are closed. We will no longer observe long-term growth of the industrial economy. In fact, any growth reported by the government or media is suspect at this point, and probably a result of the age-old fudging-the-numbers trick. We have entered the age of contraction. The days of access to the inexpensive fossil fuels [...]
Continue reading...If it suddenly ended tomorrow, could you somehow adjust to the fall?
Monday, January 18, 2010
We’ve all played the “what if” game, and specifically the one with a timeline. What if I had six months to live? Would I live differently? Would I see somebody, or some place? How would I “make my peace” with the world and those I love? Let’s kick it up a notch. It’s not one [...]
Continue reading...A radical in the Age of Denial
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
I received an email message from somebody who seeks my participation in a “save Arizona” panel (his name has been obscured to protect the guilty): Interesting blog site, Guy. Sorry to learn about your separation from UofA, I think. I really don’t know the school very well. You are a bit of a radical in [...]
Continue reading...Linking the past with the present: resources, land use, and the collapse of civilizations
Monday, October 5, 2009
We have ripped minerals from the Earth, often bringing down mountains in the process; we have harvested nearly all the old-growth timber on the continent, replacing thousand-year-old trees with neatly ordered plantations of small trees; we have hunted species to the point of extinction; we have driven livestock across every almost acre of the continent, baring hillsides and facilitating massive erosion; we have plowed large landscapes, transforming fertile soil into sterile, lifeless dirt; we have burned ecosystems and, perhaps more importantly, we have extinguished naturally occurring fires; we have paved thousands of acres to facilitate our movement and, in the process, have disrupted the movements of thousands of species; we have spewed pollution and dumped garbage, thereby dirtying our air, fouling our water, and contributing greatly to the warming of the planet. We have, to the maximum possible extent allowed by our intellect and never-ending desire, consumed the planet.
Continue reading...A transcript from today’s panel discussion
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Thanks to a couple long-time readers for attending today's panel discussion, which I described briefly a couple days ago. One of you asked me to post the transcript, so I've cleaned up my notes and posted them below.
Continue reading...Scale
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
The many miles and frequent pauses reveal to any sentient animal the sheer lunacy of the living arrangements we've built for ourselves. Within the span of a couple generations, we abandoned a durable, finely textured, life-affirming set of living arrangements characterized by self-sufficient family farms intermixed with small towns that provided commerce, services, and culture. Worse yet, we traded that model for a coarse-scaled arrangement wholly dependent on ready access to cheap fossil fuels. Then we ratcheted up the madness to rely on businesses that use, almost exclusively, a warehouse-on-wheels approach to just-in-time delivery of unnecessary devices designed for rapid obsolescence and disposal.
Continue reading...Whack!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
The next case of $120 oil, assuming we get there before the industrial economy falls into the abyss, will be brutal for an already over-stretched American consumer. Banks are falling like dominoes on a mule cart over the bumpy terrain of declining energy supplies. When will the lights go out?
Continue reading...Preparing for collapse at the mud hut
Saturday, August 8, 2009
I've dug trenches (requiring only a strong back and a weak mind, so it's the perfect job for me) in which to install water lines, and even installed a frost-free hydrant near the chicken coop and duck house (I'm a plumber). This morning I laid laid tile atop a counter in the outdoor kitchen (I'm a mason). I've built several awnings for tools and shade, along with a few structures for animals (I'm a rough carpenter). And we're growing considerable food, planted from seed, in our own garden beds and also in a neighbor's field (I'm a sharecropper). My two favorite titles, then, are Professor Emeritus and Sharecropper.
Continue reading...Adventures at the mud hut: an overdue update
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Prophet of Doom is a tough sell, as it always has been. Nobody appreciates a prophet in his own time, I suppose. On the other hand, there's no need for a prophet in these times: the newspapers are filled with far more economic doom than I can keep up with, much less write about. So this post will focus on my personal approach to an economy rigged to fail.
Continue reading...Vocations after the Oil Age
Monday, May 26, 2008
Do you have a post-carbon vocation lined up? And more importantly, at least to me, what's a worthless academician to do, once the academy -- already structurally weakened by inattention to society's needs -- is crushed beneath the weight of its own hubris?
Continue reading...
Thursday, January 28, 2010
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