Transition Culture

24 Feb 2006

Reflections on EcoBuild at Earl’s Court 2.

EcoBuild is the biggest green building exhibition in the UK, and ran over 2 days, 22nd and 23rd February. I went up for the first day, to give a talk called ‘Designing for Transition’. The event was in a huge hall and was very well attended. There were hundreds of stalls, everything from Government Agencies to community development groups and from architects to solar energy companies. It was great to see that the mainstream is starting to take the concept of more sustainable building seriously, and that so many people from within the industry attended. It was heartening to observe the diversity of people who attended, and the degree to which people were aware of the need for changing current practices. There were some wonderful things, some of which I’ll touch on over the next few days, but in this post I want to touch on one of the things that struck me most, the prolific abuse, in my eyes, of the word sustainable.

Read more»

21 Feb 2006

‘Cancel That Apocalypse’ – Delusional peak oil nonsense from Bloomberg.

I wrote last week about peak oil denial, and the many forms it takes. **Bloomberg.com** recently published a staggeringly ill-informed piece by Matthew Lynn called Cancel That Apocalypse – The Oil Crisis Is Over which begins *”forget that order for a funny- looking electric car. Take the solar panels off the roof. Don’t worry about hoarding tinned food for the long economic slump that is about to engulf the world. Why? Because the oil crisis we were all concerned about less than a year ago is quietly going away”*. Hmmm. I sense a case of peak oil denial…

Read more»

15 Feb 2006

Peak Oil Hits Primetime Irish Evening Radio.

**Five Seven Live** is RTE’s main evening radio news programme. Until now peak oil hadn’t really featured in the Irish media at all, but all of a sudden here we are, a weeklong series of articles on the subject, featuring Colin Campbell, Matt Simmons and other peak oil luminaries. The presenter, Philip Boucher-Hayes did an excellent job of condensing this complex subject into five 8 minute pieces. He really got under the skin of the issue, and didn’t shy away from telling it like it is. I was especially struck by

Read more»

14 Feb 2006

One man’s efforts to prepare for the Peak.

**Kicking Our Fossil Fuel Addiction: one man’s efforts to live sustainably – by John Watson**

*This article is one of a series produced by the Totnes Sustainability Group that are published each week on different aspects of sustainability in the Totnes Times. This piece appeared two weeks ago.*

It is said that the most important thing in reducing one’s energy demand is determination. If you lack this perhaps the following facts may help:

Read more»

14 Feb 2006

Iran as Nuclear Threat? – don’t believe the hype.

Things get more worrying each day as regards Iran and the US and Britain’s sabre rattling in their direction. I want to draw your attention to two articles and two books that will help you to make sense of what is going on at the moment. The Iran Crisis and Peak Oil by Charles Whalen sets out very clearly what he thinks is going to happen over the next few months, and it won’t be pretty. He talks of US military action leading to oil prices over $300 a barrel and to a meltdown in the Middle East.

Read more»