A great video introduction to the post peak-oil future facing America. A little out of date now (as everything is, with this speed of change), but a really good look at the future that faces the American Dream. This is just the cut down version – the full version is available from www.endofsuburbia.com.
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Archive for September, 2008
25 Sep
Background: The End of Suburbia Video
24 Sep
Interview with Transition Towns’ Rob Hopkins
A great interview with Rob Hopkins, the international face of the Transition movement, and author of The Transition Handbook.
Buy the book, and get a move on.
20 Sep
Preparation: Peak-oil kitchen gadgets
OK, time for another light-hearted one . We’ve been baking bread as part of our after-peak-oil preparations, and it turns out that all our standard two-litre pyrex bowls are way too small for serious home self-sufficiency. So it’s time to go for the classic – one of those huge cream-and-white mixing bowls that [...]
19 Sep
Resilience: Coping with the energy crisis at home (2)
This is the second post in my series looking at our personal resilience, and what plans we need to put in place to make sure that we are in a position to help our local community through any deep potholes on our otherwise Gentle Descent. These posts are not designed to provide long-term solutions, rather [...]
17 Sep
Inspiration: La Ferme de Sourrou
This post was triggered by seeing this photo posted over at Powerswitch on avoiding the need for refrigeration. I think it is just such an uplifting picture – amongst discussions of doom, gloom, and rampaging hordes seeing it just makes my heart ache. The sheer organic nature of the construction, the multiple levels of greenery, [...]
17 Sep
Resilience: Clean drinking water post-Peak-Oil
The number one item on my domestic resilience list is maintaining access to clean, safe, drinking water.
Coming from Brisbane, where the dams that supply our drinking water recently bottomed out at around 14% capacity, I am keenly aware of the importance of available water. With increasingly unpredictable weather in the UK, and water treatment works subject to flooding and blackouts this [...]
17 Sep
Preparation: Peak Oil Ironing
Ok, so this is a little bit frivolous, but an electric iron will be too powerful for our PV batteries to handle, so how will we iron Post-Peak-Oil? The answer is probably that we won’t (we barely do as it is) but for the occasional wedding or funeral it’d be useful to have something. So [...]
11 Sep
Transition: Lewes Pound launched by Mayor of Lewes
The new Lewes Pound has just been officially launched by the Mayor of Lewes in front of an audience of over 450 people. Speakers included Rob Hopkins from Transition Totnes and Polly Toynbee from the Guardian. I’m a little ambivalent about the long-term impact of local currencies, but their introductory paragraph gives a good feel for the reasons they [...]
9 Sep
Background: Oil to hit $300-a-barrel
A really interesting interview with Charles Maxwell has just been published by Barrons, in which he explains why he thinks we’re heading for $300-a-barrel oil. He is predicting peak oil arriving in 2015:
At some point, doesn’t it come down to lowering consumption or tapping alternative sources of energy?
Right, and we will probably do both. Ten years [...]
5 Sep
Preparation: Protecting your fridge from Blackouts and Brownouts
As energy becomes more expensive and we all start our descent, we will no longer be able to depend on constant, reliable, electricity through the electricity grid. Don’t believe me? Have a look at this story on the National Grid from the Times. So in a post-peak-oil world it looks like we need to get [...]
