Mar 12, 2011 | Collapse of Industrial Civilization
Faith in a centrally planned economy operating under the flimsy guise of cartel-State “capitalism” was supreme, as were greed, self-absorption and an overweening sense of entitlement to consumerist “prosperity.” Both corrupt political parties enthusiastically embraced the bubble-culture of fraud and speculative excess, for they too benefited from the illusory glow of “permanent economic growth” and the ever-richer contributions from the fiefdoms, cartels and Financial Elites who gained the most from the credit-based frenzy.
Mar 9, 2011 | Feature Articles
During the weekend of February 25-27, hundreds of people gathered at the Millenium Harvest House in Boulder, Colorado to attend the “Our Local Economy: Lives in Transition” conference organized by Transition Colorado founders, Michael Brownlee and Lynette Marie...
Mar 9, 2011 | Feature Articles
People of conscience face two crucial challenges today: (1) Telling the truth about the dire state of the ecosphere that makes our lives possible, no matter how grim that reality, and (2) remaining committed to collective action to create a more just and sustainable world, no matter how daunting that task. It’s not an easy balancing act, as we struggle to understand the scope of the crisis without giving into a sense of hopelessness.
Mar 7, 2011 | Economic Meltdown
The entire global financial system is a gigantic Ponzi scheme. It is designed to keep everyone enslaved to perpetual debt. If at some point the debt spiral gets interrupted in some significant way, we are going to witness an economic disaster that is going to make what happened in 2008 look like a Sunday picnic.
Mar 5, 2011 | Climate Change/Environment, Feature Articles
Limits to freshwater could restrict economic growth by impacting society in four primary ways: (1) by increasing mortality and general misery as increasing numbers of people find difficulty filling basic and essential human needs related to drinking, bathing, and cooking; (2) by reducing agricultural output from currently irrigated farmland; (3) by compromising mining and manufacturing processes that require water as an input; and (4) by reducing energy production that requires water. As water becomes scarce, attempts to avert any one of these four impacts will likely make matters worse with regard to at least one of the other three.
Mar 3, 2011 | Energy Depletion
In other words, if one traces a reasonable trajectory from current developments in the Middle East, the handwriting is already on the wall. Since no other area is capable of replacing the Middle East as the world’s premier oil exporter, the oil economy will shrivel — and with it, the global economy as a whole.
Mar 2, 2011 | Collapse of Industrial Civilization
We know how dramatically these situations can change the face of the world – most recently the collapse of the Soviet Union was due in large part to crashing energy markets that left the Soviets unable to buy adequate wheat on world markets. When the bread runs out, the riots begin and the world changes.
Mar 2, 2011 | Food Security
Like so many chirping miner’s canaries, about 400 people met last weekend in a Boulder church and hotel to talk about what might perhaps best be called “collapse preparedness.” The occasion was a conference called “Our Local Economy in Transition: Exploring Food Localization as Economic Development,” organized by Transition Colorado, the local arm of the “Transition Towns” movement.
