Banff Transition

The Archdruid Report: “The role of ecosystem limits in sustainability is tolerably well understood. Less often grasped, because of its unwelcome implications, is the second category of limits that has to be addressed, which might best be called complexity limits. … This is why, for example, I’ve suggested here that the internet is not going to make it very far into the post-abundance future. To keep the internet up and running takes a vastly complex technological structure, ranging from gigawatts of electricity from centralized power plants, through silicon chip factories and their supporting industries and supply chains, to universities that can train people in the wide range of exotic specialties that keep the net functioning.”

 

Low-tech Magazine: “Recycling animal and human dung is the key to sustainable farming
Flushing the water closet is handy, but it wreaks ecological havoc, deprives agricultural soils of essential nutrients and makes food production dependent on fossil fuels. For 4,000 years, human excrements and urine were considered extremely valuable trade products in China, Korea and Japan. Human dung was transported over specially designed canal networks by boats.”

 

Low-tech Magazine: “One way to solve the large energy losses of pedal power generators is not to produce electricity at all but power devices mechanically, whenever possible.”

 

Winter Watch: “Every 10 percent increase in global food prices equates to a 100 percent increase in anti-government protests, according to a recent report from the International Monetary Fund. Looking at recent increases in foodstuff commodities — up a total of 45 percent since the arrival of QE2 last year — it’s no wonder there are revolutions, civil wars and riots breaking out across the globe. According to the IMF, a  45-percent increase in foodstuffs should quadruple the levels of unrest, and that seems to be precisely what’s happening”.

 

Casaubon’s Book: “[S]udden evacuations tend to leave people hanging for a time, and during that time people need to eat. … For the very short term, there’s the bug-out bag. This is simply a light pack of urgent necessities – food (the kind that doesn’t require much, if any heat or cooking – this is the place for cup a soup, instant coffee, dried fruit and power bars), a change of clothing, essential documents, something to do with your hands and brain…, water, toilet paper, emergency supplies like matches, a space blanket, medications, small first aid kit… “

 

Post Carbon Institute: “The farmers’ market saves energy by carving it out of the processing, packaging, and retail segments of the food chain, which are much larger than the transportation segment. From this perspective, the backyard garden offers all of the advantages of a farmers’ market, and then some.”

 

Post Carbon Institute: Excerpt from Richard Heinberg’s new book The End of Growth, which is set for publication by New Society Publishers in July 2011.

“There are seldom-acknowledged factors external to financial and monetary systems that are effectively choking off efforts to restart growth. These factors, whose impacts are worsening over time, were briefly alluded to in the Introduction; here we will unpack them in more detail, discussing limits to oil and other energy sources, as well as to food, water, and minerals. We will also explore the increasing cost of industrial accidents and environmental disasters—and why, in the wide wake of global climate change, those costs are likely to escalate to the point that disaster avoidance and recovery will constitute a major portion of future government and private spending.”

 

Casaubon’s Book: “The food crisis is manifestly just that – a crisis. At the same time, there’s another side to this coin. Rising food prices are to some extent good for farmers…. How do you balance the merits and demerits of food prices? One way would be think historically, because in purely historic terms, it is entirely normal to spend a lot of your income on food.”

 

Open Source Ecology: “Open Source Ecology is a movement dedicated to the collaborative development of tools for replicable, open source, modern off-grid ‘resilient communities.’ By using permaculture and digital fabrication together to provide for basic needs and open source methodology to allow low cost replication of the entire operation, we hope to empower anyone who desires to move beyond the struggle for survival and ‘evolve to freedom.’”