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by Jan Lundberg
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The unsustainable U.S. economy and coast-to-coast consumer society that
uses more oil than any other nation will keep up its energy gluttony until
supplies finally give out.
Because oil is the most critical part of our energy mix, and it supplies
critical materials and chemicals besides fuels, a sudden, crippling oil shortage can
paralyze most of the work, commerce and law enforcement going on in this
country. |
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by Jan Lundberg
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The dominant culture reaches deep inside us like a hidden, secret implant,
limiting our behavior and even our ability to think. Fortunately, it can
be excised. I have experienced days on end without it, but some people
are more prepared than others to appreciate its existence. Leaving the
United Paved Precincts of America (a.k.a. the USA) helps a lot. But the
ingrained myths of modern society -- especially technology's infallibility
in uplifting and amazing us onward to an artificial paradise -- help to
close minds. |
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by Robert Jensen
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Editor's note: this is a chance for reader feedback for an important work in progress.
We live amidst multiple crises -- economic and political, cultural and
ecological -- that pose a significant threat to human life as we understand
it.
There is no way to be awake to the depth of these crises without an
emotional reaction. |
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by Brent Blackwelder
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 President Obama triumphantly entered office with the popular promise of moving the United States to a cleaner energy basis, but his actions to date, along with those of the Congress, have promoted two types of dangerous energy developments: off-shore oil drilling and nuclear reactors.
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by Sarah (Steve) Mosko
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There’s no shortage of finger pointing as the now worst oil spill in U.S. history continues its assault on the Gulf Coast’s ecology and economy.
A USA TODAY/Gallop Poll taken in late May, for example, found that 73 percent of Americans feel that BP (British Petroleum) is doing a ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ job of handling the crisis, and 60 percent evaluated the federal government’s response in the same unfavorable terms. |
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by moth
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[Updated June 19 with related stories] Ken Salazar, Interior Secretary, has exposed his sullied hands in this scandal, brought to our attention by Culture Change correspondent moth. He knows intimately the sagebrush ecosystem and has been monitoring pipeline proposals and water issues in Nevada.
Why is the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) forcibly removing Nevada's wild horses?
Is the reason the Ruby Pipeline connections?
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by Peter Crabb
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One of the brilliant insights in Daniel Quinn’s 1992 novel Ishmael is that modern industrialized people do not know how to live. Humans have long been cut off from the contingencies of nature, first as a consequence of discovering the wholly unnatural skill of growing reliable food supplies in one place, and later as a side effect of learning how to manufacture wholly unnatural objects and environments. The resulting alienation from nature and from our ancestors’ nature-adapted ways of life left us clueless and susceptible to being sold ideas about how people should live, usually by the most audacious psychopath in the group. |
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by Jan Lundberg, oil industry analyst
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Culture Change was asked about the impact from the Gulf oil gusher on the price of gasoline in 6 months, 12 months and 18 months from now:
It might be an interesting question for debate, with many
possible opinions. There are too many variables to make forecasts with any
certainty, so prognosticators would have to exclude all but one or
two factors. There are these non-textbook questions: Will hurricanes
wreak havoc? Will there be migration and refugees from the Gulf?
Could a BP bankruptcy result, triggering broader corporate failures?
The dismantling of BP or the massive downsizing and selling off of its assets are possible if criminal penalties plus anticipated fines prove as
devastating for the corporation as its behavior has been for the Gulf of
Mexico. |
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by Shirin Wertime
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During the 20th century, access to cheap and abundant sources of energy helped transform the world in countless ways. Extraction of fossil fuels led to a massive expansion in economic growth and agricultural production, and was one of the bases of a six-fold increase in human population. Petroleum, the most sought after fossil fuel, had the largest role in this transformation. |
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by Keith Farnish
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Coming to the writings of Urban Scout afresh, I’m immediately surprised that I hadn’t embraced him earlier -- maybe it was his apparent coolness that put me off, but then he makes a point of addressing this in one of the chapters of his new book, “Rewild or Die”. |
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by Jan Lundberg, oil industry analyst
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News Release
For immediate release
Washington, D.C. - If 100,000 barrels a day of crude oil are gushing out
of the damaged sea-floor well underneath where BP’s offshore oil rig used
to perch, what can be done to offset this pollution immediately? Time is
of the essence for the global ecosystem, not just for a part of the Gulf. |
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by Jan Lundberg, oil industry analyst
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The impact of the Gulf oil disaster on the national psyche and the economy have barely begun. When Florida, a more substantial state than Louisiana, is hit by the unprecedented pollution assured to have lasting effects, the quickened erosion of confidence in government, industry and modern technology may accelerate the end of this current phase of U.S. society. |
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