Mini Break  

Back next week.....

Links:

* WorldChanging - Where's Global Warming on the U.S. Political Agenda?
* WorldChanging - China Eco-Cities Update
* Plenty - Global Warming Grab Bag
* Clean Break - The open-source approach to clean energy
* TreeHugger - EcoGeek of the Week: Gavin D.J. Harper
* After Gutenberg - Improving Energy Efficiency in Buildings
* Boston Globe - The new dirty energy
* Toronto Globe And Mail - Newfoundland faces oily tipping point
* Falls Church News Press - The peak oil crisis: hurricanes and meltdowns
* ZNet - What is holding up the delivery of the long-awaited Iraqi oil law?
* Lew Rockwell - Ron Paul And The Matrix
* Toronto Globe And Mail - Fake summit protesters provoked violence: Union
* BBC - Genoa police 'admit fabrication'

* Jay Hanson - Can American government survive "peak oil"?. The latest round of neo-malthusian doom mongering - accompanied by a condensed and refreshed version of dieoff.com at "War Socialism".

I'll be blunt (even moreso than usual): don't fall for this crap, even if it does have a nifty title graphic - it's bollocks and will poison your mind. A more accurate title would be "War National Socialism" (or perhaps "War Ecofascism") and it is based on a scientifically unsound campaign of fear.

Once a new form of government is in place, the following nine strategies would provide a start towards mitigating the net energy shortfall:

1) Increase our fraction of global net energy (divert energy from competitors) directly by military action.
2) Increase our fraction of global net energy economically by increasing asset values (e.g., pumping-up the stock market and real estate prices).
3) Reduce energy demand by eliminating unnecessary economic activity.
4) Reduce energy demand by reducing human population levels (e.g., closing our borders, deporting as many as possible and discouraging births).
5) Plant “Victory Gardens” throughout the country.
6) Heavy funding for basic energy research.
7) Pollution control rollback, streamline permitting (no EIS, etc.) for alternate energy. No more permits for fossil fuel power plants. No more funding for roads. No more building permits except in special cases.
8) Full-on conservation, local energy production to minimize grid vulnerabilities, and a crash alternate energy production program. (Conservation will help under a government that limits economic activity).
9) Free mass transit.