Politically viable solutions for peak oil and global climate change

Saturday, January 9, 2010

As I’ve written and said many times, I see no politically viable solutions to peak oil or global climate change. There is simply no way to tell the masses the truth about economic contraction and then get re-elected. Ditto for declining accessibility to fossil fuels even as the human population continues to grow, with every [...]

Can we handle the truth?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

36 Comments

The International Energy Agency (IEA) released World Energy Outlook 2009 today. Even before the sham was shipped, it was exposed as a big 'ol bucket of lies. Seems the current administration thinks Americans can't handle the truth, so we need to apply some pressure to keep the lid on the facts. If this country's paragon of transparency (i.e., world's leading liar) and master of hope (i.e., wishful thinking) actually trusted the American people, perhaps we could avert chaos.

When the empire falls

Friday, September 25, 2009

47 Comments

As American Empire is completing its fall, the American government might find itself at war with its own people. As long as we have American Idol and high fructose corn syrup, I doubt the people are willing to rebel. But if they are, perhaps this time the people will win.

Ramping up the Speculator

Friday, September 18, 2009

12 Comments

I'm going to ramp up the Speculator™ with this post, notwithstanding the pathetic failure of my short-term prediction for the week just ended. Seems all my wishful thinking won't push the teetering industrial economy over the cliff. I'm sure there's a lesson here, but -- in classic American style -- I'll pretend there's not.

A transcript from today’s panel discussion

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

10 Comments

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.

Briefly, for now

Monday, September 14, 2009

17 Comments

While I'm developing a post about the ongoing decline into negative territory beyond Hubbert's Peak, today's brief post satisfies two purposes: (1) shameless self-promotion, and (2) short-term prediction.

Scale

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

31 Comments

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.

A tale of three cities

Friday, June 26, 2009

15 Comments

I've returned to the U.S. after a trip to Italy. My goals for the trip were three-fold: (1) Visit the heart of western civilization before we complete our ongoing trip to the new Dark Age and then the neo-Neolithic, (2) collect anecdotes about the collapse of a large, powerful, seemingly invincible empire, and (3) try to determine if the hatred for a living Earth by Homo sapiens, which at this point is nearly all-consuming, was initiated -- or at least accelerated -- by the Renaissance. These goals echo the general themes I've considered throughout the history of this blog, so they seem appropriate to my one hundredth post.

Staring into the economic abyss

Monday, April 13, 2009

24 Comments

We make sheep look well-informed and introspective.

Still hanging around

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

14 Comments

I'm not happy. The latest projections on climate change from the Hadley Center indicate we'll not voluntarily power down quickly enough to save our species. Seems even if we reduce emissions to 47% below 1990 levels by 2010 (yeah, right) we'll still warm the planet sufficiently to destroy all planetary ice by century's end, and therefore ensure the extinction of our species. No surprise there, of course. When the Nobel committee gives away the Peace prize to the gutless (but "pure") scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), you know we're screwed at our own hand.

Guy McPherson's blog

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