Articles by David Roberts

Edens Lost & Found

Check out Edens Lost & Found, a four-part PBS series (and book, and newsletter, and curriculum) about how four cities -- Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Seattle -- are working to transform urban environments to integrate nature and improve quality of life. Apparently the first two episodes have already aired; Los Angeles and Seattle are coming up this Spring. Sounds interesting. Check your local listings.

Global Public Media

I'm sure everyone but me already knew about this, but Global Public Media is a kick-ass site that contains interviews with all sorts of smart people about a range of issues relating to a "post-carbon world." It's eaten about half my day so far. Right now I'm learning about permaculture and the central importance of soil from David Holmgren. Visit at your own risk.

Peak oil: catastrophic or merely unpleasant?

On EnergyBulletin, permaculture-guy Toby Hemenway does his part to cool off some of the more overheated peak oil apocaphilia. He doesn't deny the basic physical facts of peak oil, but he says for peak oil to be truly catastrophic, the following five propositions must be true:

1. Our demand for oil is unchangeable and is not significantly affected by price.

2. We are so badly addicted to oil that we will watch our civilization collapse rather than change our behavior.

3. Significant oil conservation is not possible in the time frame needed.

4. Even with conservation, demand will be more than oil plus alternatives can possibly meet.

5. Society is so fragile that it cannot withstand large shocks.

In fact, Hemenway says, all five are false.

He makes a good case, and I don't really dispute it. But if someone did want to dispute it, I think it would go something like this:

Outsourced linky post

Over at Peak Energy, Big Gav has one of his patented long, link-filled, impossible-to-summarize posts, covering several things I wanted to mention, thus saving me the trouble. Go read it.