Freaking people into states of fear is not productive. However, simply coddling the desire for “positive” news is also not productive.

To the extent that we desire only the truth, as elusive as it may be, the stronger and more prepared we are to deal with the challenges we face as our society inevitably changes.

Is there truth with optimism?

I often speak to high school and university students. Many are terrified and/or angry about the state of the world, the wastefulness of society, and visible ecological destruction. Such reactions remind me of my learning in my youth that our world could be vaporized by nuclear weapons. What? Are these people insane? Turns out, yes, some of our leaders are literally sociopathic and not that bright. When we’re young, our families and teachers protected us from certain disturbing realities. If we remain naïve or just ill-informed, the discovery of alarming truths about our world may create shock to our emotional system. We might react with denial, rage, or mindless television. However, the best way to never again be disillusioned is to not be illusioned in the first place.

I’m optimistic. I believe society can change. I’ve witnessed society change to achieve civil rights, women’s rights, to end slavery, or cure disease. But before we can be optimistic we must be realistic, otherwise our optimism is delusional.

Okay, most people can grok that. So then, here’s the realism: CO2 in the atmosphere is warming the planet, ancient methane now bubbles up from deep Arctic permafrost, we lose forests and topsoil daily, energy is limited and will decline, deserts grow, toxins kill land and water, aquifers shrink, rivers dry up, seafood species decline, 24,000 people will starve to death today, 75 million new humans are added to the planet each year, we now face the inevitable laws of exponential growth in natural systems, and our leaders remain virtually clueless and certainly ineffective. Our naïve presumptions of population and economic growth are not remotely tenable in timescales that account for the next few generations.

Okay, take a deep breath. This is just natural reality demanding our attention. First point on the optimism track is this: our solutions must work on the same scale as the problem. We’re not going to change this with vegan shoes and hybrid cars. We need a vast new socio-ecological paradigm shift. All the little “baby steps” are fine, but not remotely enough. So yes, change the light bulbs, get a bus pass, take out your compost, make soil, recycle everything. Great. That’s just the baseline of common sense.

But now that we’ve been realistic, we can see that the optimistic track will demand a large-scale paradigm shift, and as far as I can see it comes down to this:

1. ecology
2. community.

The two things that industrialism has trashed.

So: Take back your local community and integrate it with your local ecology. This transition will be as much about resilience as about “solutions.” Learn how ecological systems work. This is not about integrating “green” into all our bad habits, but rather about integrating humanity back into the ecology that sustains life. All human enterprise must – absolutely must – conform to ecological laws, demands, patterns, and systems. We are talking about a transition from poor, proud, mistaken Homo Industrialus to a more modest, but much happier Homo Ecologus. This is not a question of piddling around with “10% recycled paper” in Starbucks coffee cups.

So, by being realistic, by facing our anxieties, we’ve actually arrived at an authentic path to optimism rather than the delusional.

Rex Weyler
www.rexweyler.com

The financial mess in the U.S. will negatively affect Canada.

It turns out the real hurricane blew through Wall Street last week, not Galveston. This morning, Manhattan is strewn chest-deep with the debris of banking and at this hour (seven a.m.) nobody knows how far, deep, and wide the damage will spread. The fear, of course, is that we are witnessing a classic “house-of-cards” or “dominos-in-a-row,” situation, and that the death of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch will cascade into a generalized collapse of the entire consensus of value that supports mediums of exchange.
At least one thing ought to be clear: this has happened due to the negligence and misfeasance of the regulating authorities, namely the Republican Party, and that now all the hoopla surrounding Sarah Palin can be swept away revealing that group to be what they actually are: the party that wrecked America. I hope one or two Barack Obama campaign officials are reading this blog. You must commence the re-branding of the opposition right now. The Republicans must be clearly identified as, the party that wrecked America. Read the complete Post.

By Michael McCarthy,
Environment Editor
Original in The Independent
11 September 2008

The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified
in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power
station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked
ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared
six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.

Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a “lawful excuse” to
damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even
greater damage caused by climate change. The defence of “lawful excuse”
under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to
property to prevent even greater damage – such as breaking down the door
of a burning house to tackle a fire. Read the complete Post.

During an interview with Thomas Friedman David Letterman launched into a rant about global warming and the lack of leadership needed to take action. Funny and earnest.

“We are dead meat,” said David Letterman last night in the midst of a lengthy rant on global warming. He blamed a lack of leadership over the last several decades. He also said he didn’t think that little steps like reusing party toothpicks or turning lawn clippings into mulch could possibly help.”

WATCH the clip: David Letterman on Huffington Post

Commodity Online
2008-08-20 17:50:00
By Rex Weyler
Original article

As the era of cheap liquid fuels draws to an end, everything about modern consumer society will change. Likewise, developing societies pursuing the benefits of globalization will struggle to grow economies in an era of scarce liquid fuels. The most localized, self-reliant communities will experience the least disruption.

Oil is a fixed asset of the planet, representing stored sunlight accumulated over a billion years as early marine algae, and other marine organisms (not dinosaurs) captured solar energy, formed carbon bonds, gathered nutrients, died, sank to the ocean floors, and lay buried under eons of sediment. Like any fixed non-renewable resource, oil is limited, and its consumption will rise, peak, and decline.

World oil production increased for 150 years until the spring of 2005, when world crude oil production reached about 74.3 million barrels per day (mb/d), and total liquid fuels, including tar sands, liquefied gas, and biofuels reached about 85 mb/d. In spite of the efforts since, and tales of “trillions of barrels” of oil in undiscovered fields, liquid fuel production has remained at about 85.5 mb/d for three years, the longest sustained plateau in modern petroleum history. Discoveries of new fields peaked 40 years ago. Read the complete Post.

VPO co-founder, Jon Cooksey, and friends, have produced a one minute animated tale of Lou, the frog. In this tale, Lou, after discovering that he is in hot water, figures out just why the water is hot. Yup, the earth is on fire. Can Lou save the day? Will our earth survive?

Check out our 1 minute animated film How To Boil A Frog. We’ve entered it into a Friends of the Earth film contest in the UK.  1800 frames of eco-animation created in a hectic 6 week sprint. We are feeling rather proud.

Original article

DAYTON, Ohio, August 29, 2008 (ENS) – U.S. Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, today announced that he has selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate and to serve as his vice president. His choice puts the twin issues of energy and environment at the center of the 2008 election campaign.

“Governor Palin is a tough executive who has demonstrated during her time in office that she is ready to be president,” McCain said today in Dayton.

“Governor Palin has challenged the influence of the big oil companies while fighting for the development of new energy resources,” said McCain. “She leads a state that matters to every one of us – Alaska has significant energy resources – and she has been a leader in the fight to make America energy independent.”

Palin said she would not abandon her responsibilities as governor during the presidential race. “As the mother of five, I know how to multi-task, and I will continue to promote the path of reform that we set out on together in the state of Alaska,” she said.

Virtually unknown to the American public, Palin in the role of the Republican vice presidential nominee came as a shock to Jim di Peso, policy director of the advocacy group Republicans for Environmental Protection, or REP America.

“I was bowled over when I heard the news – what a surprise,” he told ENS in an interview. “I don’t think anyone saw this coming. I thought Pawlenty, Romney, possibly Lieberman. Obviously, we support McCain, we’re going to support his choice of running mate. We’re trying to figure out what it all means.”

“Any elected leader in Alaska is in favor of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling,” said di Peso. “That’s just part of the furniture in Alaska politics.”

But McCain is opposed to drilling in the refuge, and now Palin “will have to abide by his wishes,” said di Peso. “The ensign doesn’t get to tell the admiral what to do.” Read the complete Post.

Wed Sep 3, 2008 11:39am EDT
By David Ljunggren
Original article

VPO note – another loud sign that the earth is heading into systemic breakdown – energy shortfalls will be a huge problem, but not our only problem.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – A huge 19 square mile (55 square km) ice shelf in Canada’s northern Arctic broke away last month and the remaining shelves have shrunk at a “massive and disturbing” rate, the latest sign of accelerating climate change in the remote region, scientists said on Tuesday. Read the complete Post.

From economist Mike Nickerson:

Due to the approaching election, it is
timely to introduce a program to advance a Genuine
Progress Index (GPI) for Canada. We are looking
for volunteers to raise this topic with candidates.

For our associates outside Canada, you may
find that the materials offered here are adaptable for
use in your area.

An improved measure of progress is essential.
As long as the costs arising from social and
environmental disasters are added to the GDP,
helping to make it grow, the economic growth
focused establishment will not recognize them as
problems. A Genuine Progress Index (GPI) would
improve our prospects by distinguishing between
regrettable expenditures and positive ones and by
adding measures of social and environmental well-
being to the familiar economic ones. Read the complete Post.

Monday Oct. 6, 2008 at Noon

Are you sick and tired of sitting in road clogging traffic? Are you shocked at rising cost of gas and food? Are you worried that oil production peaked in 2005 while demand continues to soar making shortages inevitable?  And what are we asked to do? We are asked to just keep on buying stuff to keep the economy going.

This is insane.

Exactly.

OK WHAT CAN I DO?

On Oct 6th, 2008, at noon -  DON’T JUST SIT THERE – TAKE ACTION. Put down your coffee cup, jump out of your car, leap up from your chair, rise up from the table, and raise your fist and yell, “This is Insane,” smile at the baffled drivers, diners, and colleagues around you, I mean, they’re stuck too, then continue on. It’s that easy.

TELL YOUR FRIENDS: Of course, the more Long Suffering Kick Ass Citizens who do this, the more fun we’ll have, so spread the word.

GET OUTRAGEOUS: Try wearing crazy glasses, or go nude, or use a bullhorn or trumpet or? After all, this is street theater.

GET FAMOUS: Take a photo of you and your friends doing the This is Insane yell and post it on our facebook page.

RSVP: Sign up for “This is Insane Day” at and get your name added to our Kick ass Activist list, and while you’re there, you can add your name to our Peak Oil petition raising our entire membership’s Kick Ass Quotient.

About “This is Insane”:
As we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of our oil-based way of life. The rapidly rising price of oil has shocked citizens into buying smaller cars, riding public transit, and forced citizens to pay more for food and nearly all consumer goods. Peak Oil is here and we must begin to wean ourselves off of our dependency on gas-powered vehicles.

Obsolete and Expensive Gateway Project:
Our province is plowing ahead with obsolete transit plans, such as the $4.5 billon dollar Gateway Project. Budgeted in 2003, gas cost $.80 liter. The price of building materials – cement, steel, asphalt – have hit the stratosphere. This project is already over budget before the first shovel of dirt has even been thrown.

This is Insane.

No Canadian Fuel Efficiency Standards:
The federal government has set a target of improving the fuel efficiency of Canadian vehicles by 25% by 2010, but is depending on automakers to voluntarily agree to increase the fuel efficiency of their vehicle fleets.

This is Insane.

Food Prices Through The Roof:
Food prices have skyrocketed. But we continue to burn corn-based ethanol in our cars. We are feeding our cars instead of people. Plus, a new joint study from Cornell University and University of California-Berkeley determined that it costs 29% more fossil energy to make a liter of ethanol than the fuel it produces.

This is Insane.

Endangered Species and Water:
The US plans to “melt” and bulldoze the Rocky Mountains to extract oil from shale. It is projected to take 1-3 barrels of water to extract 1 barrel of oil. In the water starved west, this could endanger eco-systems and water supplies for drinking and growing crops.

This is Insane.

Planning for cities without oil:
Massive changes to municipal zoning and regulations are unavoidable and needed yesterday. We need streetcars, trams, community gardens, rooftop gardens, alternative energy, walkable city centers, villages rather than suburbs. We need to reduce our carbon footprint. But, instead, we just keep on keeping on rather than planning for a future without oil.

THIS IS INSANE!