Human’s effect on the planet has now reached geological proportions and as a species we are having a more significant effect on the Earth’s climate, geology, biodiversity and, hence, even evolution than any other single factor. We are now officially in the Anthropocene, according to the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London. This [...]
Book Review Reinventing Collapse- The Soviet Example and American Prospects Dmitry Orlov New Society 2008 When I met Bill Mollison at the International Permaculture Convergence in Croatia three years ago, all he wanted to talk about it seemed was cannibalism. He had traveled in Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union and told me [...]
Book Review Crash Course- Preparing for Peak Oil by Zachary Nowak Green Door Publishing 2008 Peak Oil is upon us, and collective action on a large scale seems unlikely. Technical solutions are chimerical. Each of us must decide what the future may hold and begin working on a plan to face that future. When Zachary [...]
Richard Heinberg has recently written about how our understanding of our place within ecological systems- the ability to see the “big picture” of energy flows and resource constraints on human activity- could be seen as a kind of “enlightenment”- a new vision of the world not necessarily obvious or intuitive but closer to reality than [...]
The new issue of Sustainability is out with a focus on food security and also bringing world-class articles and reports on: -the economic crisis -global food security -horse power -bringing back a canal and rail system to Ireland -renovating an old cottage -Irish transition Initiatives and much more. Available from your local newsagent/wholefood store or [...]
A recent trip up country took me first to Westport where I called in on the Sustainability Institute, home of the Irish Sustainability Magazine. Right: Sustainability editor Andy Wilson hard at work Andy Wilson’s creation of the Sustainability Magazine has been a remarkable achievement, bringing a much-needed serious journal into the Irish environmental landscape. Starting [...]
Essential reading: Rob Hopkins Interviews David Fleming. David Fleming, creator of Tradeable Energy Quotas (TEQs) and author of “The Lean Economy” gives the most enlightening and clear explanation of how nd why oil prices are being driven skywards, what we should be doing about it… and what is likely to happen if we dont. “The [...]
I have recently been experimenting with some simple charcoal making in an oil drum. I did a couple of demonstrations a few weeks ago for first a Biodiversity day and second the Slow Food “Munch at the Manch” events at the Manch Forestry project, near Dunmanway. Charcoal will potentially play an important role in the [...]