Earth’s Limits: Why Growth Won’t Return, By Richard Heinberg

Earth’s Limits: Why Growth Won’t Return, By Richard Heinberg

But there are seldom-acknowledged factors external to financial and monetary systems that are effectively choking off efforts to restart growth. These factors, whose impacts are worsening over time, were briefly alluded to in the Introduction; here we will unpack them in more detail, discussing limits to oil and other energy sources, as well as to food, water, and minerals. We will also explore the increasing cost of industrial accidents and environmental disasters—and why, in the wide wake of global climate change, those costs are likely to escalate to the point that disaster avoidance and recovery will constitute a major portion of future government and private spending. Along the way, we will examine how markets respond to resource scarcity (it’s not a clear-cut matter of incrementally rising prices).

An Interview With Michael Shuman: If We’re Serious About Localisation, All of Us Have To Go To Business School

An Interview With Michael Shuman: If We’re Serious About Localisation, All of Us Have To Go To Business School

I think localisation really is two pieces – one is ownership and the other is proximity. The particular spread of local food ideas has given a lot of weight to the proximity issue – that is, that the distance between farm to table should be a short one – but I think it’s given short thrift to the ownership issues, and I consider it just as essential that localisation involve local ownership of every node of a shortened journey that a good or service travels to get to the end user.

The Era of Cheap Food May Be Drawing To A Close

The Era of Cheap Food May Be Drawing To A Close

ORIGINAL ARTICLE U.S. grain prices should stay unrelentingly high this year, according to a Reuters poll, the latest sign that the era of cheap food has come to an end. U.S. corn, soybeans and wheat prices — which surged by as much has 50 percent last year and...
Oil And Food Prices, By Jason Bradford

Oil And Food Prices, By Jason Bradford

ORIGINAL ARTICLE Several years ago National Geographic magazine published an article on oil that included a stunning photo of mature steer and the barrels of oil needed to grow an animal to that size. I recently went looking for that picture, found it, and post it...