By Peter Goodchild

18 July, 2010
Countercurrents.org

Most people have enough trouble dealing with the reality of peak oil. It’s like being married to someone who says, “I’m not an alcoholic, I just sometimes drink too much.” But perhaps to soften the blow, or maybe just to simplify the numbers, what is generally left out is the fact that it’s not really peak oil that matters, anyway, but peak oil per capita, the date of which was 1979. In that year there were 5.5 barrels of oil available for each person on Earth; by 2009 it had gone down to 4.3. [2]

In terms of daily life, however, it is that per-capita figure that is most critical. Because everything in modern civilization is tied to oil, everything in our world has deteriorated since 1979. It’s possible to use various numerical data to prove that the standard of living has gone down since that year, and to tie that to increased costs that in turn originate in the decrease of oil per capita, but it’s also just something we feel in our bones. If we look back over any ten-year period during the last four decades, we can see and feel the difference. Read the complete Post.

Deniers are dancing on the graves of their reputations, to say nothing of reality itself. But Earth will still get the last laugh on all of them, and us for that matter.

By Scott Thill, AlterNet
Posted on March 21, 2010

And if the ground’s not cold/Everything is gonna burn/We’ll all take turns/I’ll get mine too. — Pixies, “Monkey Gone to Heaven.”

Bad news. Thanks to perfectly timed, premeditated reality assassinations like so-called ClimateGate, nearly half of Americans may now believe that the various threats of climate change are exaggerated. That’s the highest quotient ever since polling on the issue commenced. But there is good news: They’re on the wrong side of history and science, and Earth will still get the last laugh on all of them, and us for that matter.

Welcome to our existential nightmare. From rising seas and runaway droughts and storms to the outer limits of dystopian catastrophes like the fart apocalypse — I’ll explain later — our planet has no shortage of ways to bitch-slap us back into our dangerous reality, whether we want it to or not.

Of course, we could stave off some of the more egregious probabilities of extinction, if we acted now to limit global warming’s inexorable rise to 2 degrees. But that means a determined destruction of the status quo, and that’s always messy for those who like things just the way they are, thank you very much. But they’ll still get theirs. How? Let us count the ways. Read the complete Post.

March 11, 6:30-9pm
Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co
1255 Lynn Valley Road, No. Vancouver

Writer-producer-activist Jon Cooksey will mix humor, credit crisis metaphors and hard-hitting facts to show how climate change is only one symptom of an even messier problem: overshoot. “Overshoot means too many people using up too little planet. So in the end, we either need fewer people, more planets, or we’re going to have use less stuff. Or all three. I dib Mars.” As Antoine de Saint Exupery said, “if you want to get people to build a boat, make them yearn for the sea”; with humor and hope, Jon shows not only the water rising, but also the fun to be had sailing the seas of social change.

FORMAT:
6:30 Mingling and appetizers
7:00 presentation & Dialogue
8:50 Socializing and connecting

To register, please invite a friend and send names and emails to: registration@coolnorthshore.ca
Please bring $5 to cover admission and appetizers.

For more information: http://www.coolnorthshore.ca/action/cool-drinks-jon-cooksey

Cool Drinks is a monthly social and learning gathering to connect and inspire individuals interested in climate change in our community. On the third Thursday of each month, we invite a ‘provocateur’ to share knowledge and perspective on a climate change-related topic. Supported small group dialogue and informal networking allow participants to push the ideas further, and get the information and support they need to act.

MORE DETAILS:

BC - Award-winning writer and producer Jon Cooksey will speak about the impact that humans are having on the planet – including global warming, energy issues, and other light topics.

Cooksey is currently at work on a feature-length eco-comedy called How to Boil a Frog (HTBAF), which chronicles his personal, four-year adventure as a filmmaker, activist and, above all, a father driven, as he puts it, “to make sure my daughter’s going to have a future beyond living on a raft with the last polar bear.”

HTBAF mixes humor, credit crisis metaphors and hard-hitting facts to show how climate change is just one symptom of an even messier problem: overshoot. “Overshoot means too many people using up too little planet,” says Cooksey, “so in the end, we either need fewer people, more planets, or we’re going to have use less stuff. Or all three. I dib Mars.”

Cooksey plans to explore not only the facts about the mess we’re in, but the psychological effect it’s having on us. “We talk to people about these subjects like they’re rational – like they’re calculators – but who among us isn’t already being driven around the bend by daily life?” Cooksey asks. “Pay my bills, raise my kids, deal with my relationship – or find me one – then talk to me about changing my lightbulbs to keep the world from bursting into flame. People feel the disconnect.”

HTBAF seeks to paint a better future than the one we have now, and as Cooksey puts it, “a lot better than the one we’re going to have if we keep doing what we’re doing.” But he doesn’t feel more facts will do the job. “Antoine de Saint Exupery said, if you want to get people to build a boat, make them yearn for the sea. There’s a fantastic ocean out there, full of friends and fun and meaning and great music. I’d rather be sailing on it than drown in it. How about you?”

Alex Steffen, 15 Feb 10
WorldChanging

When We Talk Zero, We Sound Crazy. When Bill Gates Does It, Bankers Pick Up the Phone.

On Friday, the world’s most successful businessperson and most powerful philanthropist did something outstandingly bold, that went almost unremarked: Bill Gates announced that his top priority is getting the world to zero climate emissions.

Now, I’m not a member of the Cult of Bill myself (I’m typing this on a MacBook), but you don’t have to believe that Gates has superhuman powers of prediction to know that his predictions have enormous power. People who will never listen to Al Gore, much to less someone like me, hang on Gates’ every utterance.

And Friday, Gates predicted extraordinary climate action: zero. Not small steps, not incremental progress, not doing less bad: zero. In fact, he stood in front of a slide with nothing but the planet Earth and the number zero. That moment was the most important thing that has happened at TED.

What, exactly, did he say, and why is it so important?

Gates spoke about his commitment to using his massive philanthropic resources (the Gates Foundation is the world’s largest) to make life better for people through public health and poverty alleviation (”vaccines and seeds” as he put it). Then he said something he’s never said before: that is it because he’s committed to improving life for the world’s vulnerable people that he now believes that climate change is the most important challenge on the planet.

Even more importantly, he acknowledged the only sensible goal, when it comes to climate emissions, is to eliminate them: we should be aiming for a civilization that produces no net emissions, and we should be aiming to live in that civilization here in the developed world by 2050.

Obviously, that’s a big goal. Because he is the world’s biggest geek, to explain how he plans to achieve that goal, Gates put up a slide with a formula (which we can call the Gates Climate Equation): CO2 = P x S x E x C Read the complete Post.

The Observer Debate

Is there any real chance of averting the climate crisis?

By James Hansen

Professor James Hansen is director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
His latest book is Storms of My Grandchildren.

Nasa’s James Hansen was the first to point out the perils of climate change to the US Congress. Here, he begins a heated debate with experts from around the world, from China to the threatened Maldives, and argues that our leaders must be shaken out of their complacency. But will they show enough courage at next week’s Copenhagen summit to take the first steps to saving the planet?
Absolutely. It is possible – if we give politicians a cold, hard slap in the face. The fraudulence of the Copenhagen approach – “goals” for emission reductions, “offsets” that render ironclad goals almost meaningless, the ineffectual “cap-and-trade” mechanism – must be exposed. We must rebel against such politics as usual.

Science reveals that climate is close to tipping points. It is a dead certainty that continued high emissions will create a chaotic dynamic situation for young people, with deteriorating climate conditions out of their control. Read the complete Post.

By NED POTTER

Oct. 5, 2009 —

How serious is the world’s situation? Bad enough, says a leading Australian scientist, that the world will have to produce more food in the next 50 years than we have in the thousands of years since civilization began, and will have a tough time keeping up. Read the complete Post.

By Rex Weyler VPOE

George .. since you are one of the sane voices that may help humanity avoid catastrophe, I’m compelled to offer a few notes regarding population, which you recently suggest is not an important ecology issue.

1. it is important. Human reproduction is critical, rich, poor, starving, middle class, smart, stupid, whatever. We must stabilize human population growth and if we do not do it with wisdom then nature will do it decisively. and ..

2. Mother nature is not sentimental .. her methods are brutal.

Please don’t discount the need for humanity to stabilize population. Please. You’re voice is too important. The idea that a focus on global population is a distraction  from the real issue of consumption in the wealthy nations is just an unnecessary and erroneous dichotomy. There is NO reason that being aware of the problems of human population growth, diminishes anyone’s awareness of over consumption. These are NOT mutually exclusive observations.

Environmental impact of humanity = Population X Consumption X the technological and biological feedback factors.

We are currently adding 75 million people to the planet every year.

That is the equivalent of 10 Londons! .. every year!. To even provide the most basic infrastructure and food for 10 new Londons of people every year is an ecological nightmare. Read the complete Post.

How to Boil a Frog - eco-comedy
SNEAK PREVIEW - Don’t miss this focus group screening of the rough cut of the new eco-comedy, How to Boil a Frog.

Meet director, writer, Jon Cooksey, laugh, worry, and give us your opinion.
Q&A after the screening.

Wed. Sept. 23, 7pm – 9:30pm
Langara College - Room A130
100 West 49th Avenue
Vancouver, BC

Admission is free

Brought to you by: Vancouver Peak Oil, Village Vancouver, Langara College, and New City Institute

T-shirts will be for sale for those who have cash or check - You know you want one

Make friends, Make fun, Make trouble

BLUE NORTH FESTIVAL OF ART AND SUSTAINABLE CULTURE presents - How to save Civilization with a Movie - an eco-workshop with:

Teri Woods McArter - Co-Producer, How To Boil A Frog (documentary film by Jon Cooksey)
Rick Balfour- Architect, Urban Planner; Balfour and Assoc., Metro Vancouver Planning Coalition
Vandy Savage - Animation Supervisor, How to Boil a Frog; Communications Vancouver Peak Oil Executive

Join us for a FREE Illustrated lecture and discussion.

Get a sneak preview of the new film, How to Boil a Frog, created and produced on the North Shore. Get informed about strategies to transition into New Normal by building resilient communities from author, architect, urban planner, Rick Balfour. And find out how we won the People’s Choice Award for our 1 minute animated film teaser.

Date: Saturday, April 4th, 2009
Time: 10:00 am - 11:30 am (registration onsite at 9:30am)
Location: John Braithwaite Community Centre - Anchor Room ground level
145 West 1st Street, North Vancouver

Cost: FREE

www.howtoboilafrog.com
www.plancanada.com

For more information visit: www.bluenorthfestival.ca

I can’t help but feel frustrated when I read Newsweek articles like that one below that only go as far as advocating a Business As Usual (BAU) or a Technofix just-in-time-to-save-our-asses solution (In religious jargon – False Messianic promise) to Climate Change and Peak Oil.

By Philip Be’er VPOE

In his Hierarchy of Needs, Abraham Maslow laid out in a graphic format, what human beings need to thrive http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm

Try to find the need for nuclear, fossil or even “low carbon” energy sources, for cars or of any other kind of mechanised transportation in the pyramid and you’ll see that they simply play no role in what human beings require to be healthy, wealthy and happy.

According to Professor Abraham Maslow, we do need Clean Air, Food, Water, Sleep and Shelter to survive. When we also get our safety and security needs met this creates a stable environment conducive to developing socially and emotionally. When we set up our societies in ways that allow us to have our Esteem Needs met, then we also have a shot at realising our personal potential.

Read the complete Post.