Tag Archive | "greenhouse effect"
When all is said and done
Fascism has come to the industrialized world, and the evidence is particularly clear in the United States. As I wrote in a book published in 2004 regarding the executive branch of the U.S. government: [The administration] is characterized by powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism, identification of enemies as a unifying cause, obsession with militaristic [...]
Continue reading...Channeling Kurt Vonnegut
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
I presented at SUNY-Fredonia on 2 April 2012. The standing-room-only audience, in a room with 200 chairs, included about 30 students from a class on Kurt Vonnegut and similar number from a class on environmental chemistry. I was informed the Vonnegut students would be attending the day before the event, so I asked their instructor [...]
Continue reading...The cost of affluence
Friday, March 30, 2012
In a letter to Ernest de Chabrol dated 9 June 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote: “As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring it?” Nearly [...]
Continue reading...TEDx talks in Tempe, Arizona
Friday, March 2, 2012
I presented a TEDx talk on the campus of Arizona State University on Wednesday, 25 January 2012. The Barrett Honors College hosted, and Ashley Irvin was the facilitator. Michael Sliwa spoke before me and, as is customary for TED talks, a couple short video clips were included. All clips are presented below in the same [...]
Continue reading...Preparing in place (and speaking in other places)
Saturday, November 5, 2011
There are various ways to ready oneself for the trip down the peak-oil curve, as well as for climate chaos. Most importantly, as I’ve indicated many times, is psychological readiness. If you are mentally prepared for a future radically different from the past you’ve known, you’re well on your way to thriving in the years [...]
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...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...A presentation with audio and another about bioenergy
Friday, October 1, 2010
Two presentations follow. The first focuses on the twin sides of the fossil fuel coin and what we can do about it, as presented in Louisville, Kentucky earlier this week. It’s similar to many presentations I’ve given recently and it includes an audio file, so you can follow along with the slides. The second was [...]
Continue reading...Typical presentation
Saturday, September 18, 2010
The pages below are excerpted from the presentation I delivered to the Sixth Annual Gila River Festival in Silver City, New Mexico on Friday, 17 September. Click on one of the seven pages to view it. With apologies for the awkward format, click again to make it large enough to read. As always, questions and [...]
Continue reading...High tide of hate mail
Sunday, August 22, 2010
The high tide of hate mail has rolled into my email in-box. I haven’t had such an invigorating dose of hate mail since I wrote an op-ed piece for Arizona’s largest and most conservative newspaper. I thought I’d share, just for your voyeuristic fun. This is by no means a comprehensive account, and the mail [...]
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Wednesday, May 9, 2012
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