Banff Transition

ClubOrlov: “As for the rest of us, who are itching to do something useful within the confines of existing legal framework and economic reality, there is just one path: the path of emergency preparation, with the added twist that the emergency in question has to be accepted as permanent. Community emergency preparation is about the only type of officially sanctioned activity that may allow us to prepare for collapse.

“The first and obvious part of preparing for the permanent emergency is to construct systems that will allow some, ideally most, of the population to survive in the long run without access to transportation fuels, or to any of the technology that comes to a standstill when starved of transportation fuels. The second, equally important part involves laying in sufficient emergency supplies of food, medicine, cooking fuel, temporary shelter for displaced persons, and so on, to allow some, ideally most, of the population to survive in the short run, while the transition non-fossil-fuel-based existence is taking place.”

 

The Oil Drum: Vaclav Smil, professor of Environment and Environmental Geography at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, has written a new book called Energy Myths and Realities. In the book, he looks at a number of things he considers myths:

1. The future belongs to electric cars
2. Nuclear electricity will be too cheap too meter
3. Soft-energy illusions (local generation, etc.)
4. Running out: Peak oil and its meaning
5. Sequestration of carbon dioxide
6. Liquid fuels from plants
7. Electricity from wind
8. The pace of energy transitions

 

Swans Commentary: “Evident over-production and over-supplies worldwide, a crippling US-led debt burden, trade imbalances that may well turn into proactive protectionist policies (i.e., trade wars), an entire generation drifting toward graveyards (not just in the U.S.), unable to spend any longer, manufacturing dreams that cannot be realized as people are willing to work pennies on the dollar to desperately dig their way out of poverty, and a dearth of intellectual knowledge are not going to bring the economy back to what it should not have been in the first place.”

 

Post Carbon Institute: This article explores the coming energy crunch in more detail by looking at existing government planning and awareness, and the implications of what international recognition of Peak Oil as early as 2012 might mean. The hard news is that there is no ‘Plan B.’  The future is likely to be more chaotic than you probably think. Peak Oil is being examined closely and taken seriously by military analysts, but not civilian authorities.  The few plans that do exist on the civilian side are decades old.

 

Costco: This THRIVE 1 Year 1 Person Food Storage package contains 84 #10 (gallon size) cans. $799.99 after $200 OFF.

Grains and rice have a shelf life of up to 30 years
Freeze-dried foods have a shelf life of up to 25 years
Dehydrated foods have a shelf life of up to 15 years

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