dagblog - Comments for "ASPO Conference: Adapting to future scenarios"

Seems like the energy

Donal — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:59:36 +0000

In reply to Did you see Krugman's latest

Seems like the energy industry debate is full of false dilemmas: fossil or nukes? wind or nukes? solar or fossil? —as if one must unreservedly embrace one or the other will destroy us. I prefer solar and wind—but done properly, not thrown up willy-nilly because there is government funding in them thar hills.

Did you see Krugman's latest

artappraiser — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:50:19 +0000

In reply to ASPO Conference: Adapting to future scenarios

Did you see Krugman's latest op-ed, "Here Comes the Sun"?

...But Solyndra’s failure was actually caused by technological success: the price of solar panels is dropping fast, and Solyndra couldn’t keep up with the competition. In fact, progress in solar panels has been so dramatic and sustained that, as a blog post at Scientific American put it, “there’s now frequent talk of a ‘Moore’s law’ in solar energy,” with prices adjusted for inflation falling around 7 percent a year.

This has already led to rapid growth in solar installations, but even more change may be just around the corner. If the downward trend continues — and if anything it seems to be accelerating — we’re just a few years from the point at which electricity from solar panels becomes cheaper than electricity generated by burning coal....

Thanks, Donal. I really

Oxy Mora — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:22:09 +0000

In reply to ASPO Conference: Adapting to future scenarios

Thanks, Donal. I really respect you for taking the time to attend and bring us a report. It has been ages since I attended a conference like this and reading the report I feel I did attend. Wish I had the
"energy" to do so.

Another find on Energy

Donal — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:39:13 +0000

In reply to ASPO Conference: Adapting to future scenarios

Another find on Energy Bulletin:

Occupy Main Street

I have made only one foray to the OWS nearest me: Occupy Seattle. Living on South Whidbey Island, where 25,000 people occupy a few scattered towns and much rural farmland and forests, the only possible 1%-ers own vacation estates. Protest there and we’d only be shouting down long driveways at the gardeners – who are our friends. We could occupy Wells Fargo (the only national bank with a tainted reputation) but they are just an outpost – and the tellers are our friends.

So I made 3 gallons of soup with local beans, local grains, local tomatoes, local carrots and local oregano and took it in a pot I bought at the local thrift store so I could leave it with the occupiers at Westlake Plaza on my way to a meeting in Seattle. At least I could fill bellies as my “sign” expressing my personal disgust with the banking system robbing us of our democracy and our scant wealth. All I found were police vans and cars – no tents and scattered people possibly shopping. The occupiers had been moved, but I didn’t know where. The soup went to the meeting and I went home at the end of the day knowing at least that cooking a soup filled with love and respect was an action of sorts.

I just ran across this Dark

Donal — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:49:34 +0000

In reply to ASPO Conference: Adapting to future scenarios

I just ran across this Dark Optimism article at Energy Bulletin, and it relates to the Occupy + Transition discussion I just witnessed:
OccupyTransition, or ‘this Halloween I dressed as the economy’

Now, at first glance, all this confrontation might seem a world away from working diligently to improve the resilience of our local communities, but I believe that the links are strong, and I hope to see them grow even stronger. Let me explain why.

Both Transition and Occupy are founded on a belief that the current economic system is leading us to a future that none of us desire and, although peak oil seems to be a new term to many of those at OccupyLondon, we also share a strong strand of concern over climate change.

I feel like you and Donal

Verified Atheist — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:56:05 +0000

In reply to So why are people going to

I feel like you and Donal have been talking past each other recently (neither one understanding the other), and this comment isn't really helping. I've been trying to be better about not getting involved in others' disputes, but I really respect both of you, and it's been hurting me to see the way y'all keep missing each other's valid points.

Thanks. Not at all I have

Flavius — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:35:07 +0000

In reply to ASPO Conference: Adapting to future scenarios

Thanks.

Not at all I have thought about. And after reading this still not something I will think about.But I'm interested in your dispatches from that front.

So why are people going to

Elusive Trope — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 06:21:12 +0000

In reply to ASPO Conference: Adapting to future scenarios

So why are people going to conferences when the real change is happening in the streets?