Wednesday, November 29, 2006

NO MORE FOSSIL FUEL

Another veggie (bus) tale!
BGB - Episode 1: Genesis of the Bus
BGB - Episode 2: Bonnaroo or Bus(t)

You guys are awesome! Thanks for sharing it!
BGB - Episode 3:

I'm posting Episode 3 first so that it can be watched from 1st to 3rd on the blog. This is an interesting story about some college grads who bought a schoolbus, painted it green, converted it to a veggie oil-consuming bus and traveled from the east to the west coast in it! Enjoy! All in the spirit of trying to live without oil!

Small Food Battles Giants

Recent movement of local food vs. corporate food. Poughkeepsie Journal.
Click here for article.

The Big Green Bus

Click here for their website.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Tonight's Reading Links

Green Living Tips e-subscription

Nothing New Under the Sun blog

Spain requires new buildings use solar power

More politically-natured links for reading on Peakonomics and Poilitics.

washingtonpost.com: Another Way

Click here for story. (Might need registration)

A band of idealists in the mountains of North Carolina is trying to build a low-energy lifestyle. But must we all live like hippies in the woods to make a difference?

By Joel Achenbach
Sunday, November 19, 2006; Page W10

"THE SOLUTION TO THE ENERGY CRISIS turns out to be, in part, mood lighting. You go with one gentle bulb, a 10-watt number that shoos away enough of the darkness to keep everyone at the table identifiable. We're having a delicious, if arguably dim, meal on a pleasant summer evening at a place called Earthaven. It's an "ecovillage." It's in western North Carolina, east of Asheville, in a notch in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We're off the grid, and deep inside one version of the human future.

Susan Lathrop and Kim Rylander, known in the village as Suchi and Kimchi, are hosting me and my guide, Earthaven resident Greg Geis, as I try to figure out how a bunch of suburbanites who've fled mainstream America are able to live in the boondocks half an hour by car from the nearest small town, without electrical lines or water mains or flush toilets or streetlights or microwave ovens or washing machines or home entertainment systems or electric garage door openers or fake-log fireplaces operated by remote control or any of the other things that most people consider essential to survival."


Click here for Earthhaven's website.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

ECOHOOD

Here's one to bookmark! Click here.

This is another link to a teacher in Arizona not unlike Path to Freedom's urban permaculture system! This looks absolutely awesome! I sure wish it weren't wintertime around here! You have to watch all of his videos. They are great and give some of us more of an idea of how water catchement systems work and so on.

Via treehugger tv, a purely inspiring video of Path to Freedom's Accomplishments

Click for video here.

Two of my top ten favorite websites to visit have cooperated on showing a video which looks at the accomplishments of Path to Freedom regarding their urban homestead. Path to Freedom is one of the avenues of information that I've crossed that truly has inspired me to do what I have done so far. Unfortunately, they didn't show their oven they made! They have inspired me to make an outside oven as one of my goals for the future.

After seeing this video, my general wish for today is for some CALIFORNIA SUN!!

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Collections of Thought Related to Peak Oil After U.S. Political Races

Hello. Please forgive my absence from this blog as I, once again, became caught up in trying to save the world. They didn't mention my name but I was one of those who helped turn Indiana blue in my district this past Tuesday, contributing to the wave across the nation. The results could be disastrous or they could be instrumental or they could be totally non-effective in regard to peak oil and its implications. Nonetheless, there will be a change of course.

There have been so many times I've wanted to post some things relating to peak oil but to offer up an in-depth analysis takes time and effort when absorbing all that I am reading. My apologies for not taking time to do so. I keep figuring that there are so many peak oil-related blogs and websites out there now that my contributions only become a repeat of what has already been said or distributed. Anyway, here are some of things I've been reading, absorbing, and mulling around in my head.

Will the Democratic party be instrumental in our peak oil goals? I'm ambivalent. I don't think the American populace will ever succumb to the idea that we need higher gasoline taxes to use to prepare for a powered down world. California was the litmus test on that one. Our Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels continues to propose more highways in our state using the power of eminent domain to do so. He also believes using all of our subsidized corn for ethanol production will save us. Hmm. Okay. Also, my local trail building leader is planning on using the power of eminent domain to score a piece of land for sale by a railroading company because they refuse to let the city have it despite funding from a grant from a state environmental agency to do so. I guess this is a reversal in the thinking I had about eminent domain in which companies would takeover land from private citizens--this would be land taken away from a company in the name of economic development and growth, I guess? I guess it'll be good to walk but I'm not sure if it would be ethically right to use a law that I was not favorable to in the first place. Finally, on a nicer note, Energy Bulletin has a nice article noting that China is now perusing the peak oil websites. Maybe they will possibly absorb the implications of peak oil and pay heed more than the collective "we" here in the developed regions of the world?

I've learned that California turned down a proposition that would tax producers and the taxes would've been used to subsidize more green alternative energy producers. Again, the issue of higher gasoline prices burned that one out in a hurry!

And what does this mean? What was Murkowski trying to pull? Will his successor Palin continue on? Do we need this NG pipeline? Is it being built for future enterprizes or is it just a reconstruction to replace an old line? Of course I know we're going to need the NG because our consumption goal is to go nowhere but up.

Then there is this article written by a Palestinean living in the U.S., titled "War on Iran". So will we still invade Iran even with a political change in our House and Senate? What will Bush41's people who are ever so quickly being re-installed decide to do? Baker, Gates, etc., (Iran/Contra) are not as flashy, vocal, and Machiavellian as the neocons but they are still known for some shady tactics....I guess, as have been many in our halls of government. All I wish to see is a different approach. Some great ideas have come across the internet-s of which I've been reading lately. First of all, we could totally repeal all of the no-bid contracts of our American multinational companies involved in Iraq and offer bidded contracts to Iraqi businesses only. This would allow the Iraqis to build up their own infrastructure and provide more acceptable inside employment rather than those working for the rebuilding companies as traitors for working with American companies. They would probably get paid better, too. We also should allow them to control their own oil fields and we should help them with negotiations with foreign oil companies so that everyone, including Iraq, gets a good deal. Our troops are their to protect the profiteers now. .....Meanwhile, back at home, we could invest more money into paying off debt and then focusing on conservation and recreating our own infrastructure in a Manhattan project sort of way. Dream on, right? I guess so. But there are plenty of "green" people on both sides of the political spectrum who would agree that we need to powerdown. The economic approach as well as a diplomatic approach, I feel, is the way to go in Iraq. As the economic infrastructure improves, we can pull our troops out. This way, we would not be leaving them high and dry. This needs to be done quickly, though. We don't have much time to waste, do we?

Here is the article I was telling you about from Energy Bulletin regarding the recent 4 months of China hits they've been getting. Interesting.

Here's another little diddy on John Tester, soon to become Montana's Senator. He's an organic farmer. He may not be a staunch peak oil advocate but anyone promoting using less fossil fuels or pesticides in farming is a-okay in my book! He sounds very promising to me, and would more likely listen to someone concerned about fossil fuel depletion.

It's getting late. Will blog more hopefully this week. I've also been pondering the high tech things I would like to see saved if we have to pick and choose when things start to go. I'll make a list for another entry later but 2 things that pop into my head right now include everyone's favorite "the internet" but I also would hate to see our zoos flounder. They harbor many endangered species that I would hate to see perish. More later.

God bless all. I love ya. Yep. Everyone!