West Virginia’s Elk River Chemical Spill and How We Measure Progress
It’s a cruel irony for the 300,000 West Virginians forced to turn off their taps for five to ten days earlier this month after a chemical spill contaminated their drinking water supply that their inconvenience and, for some, illness and suffering,...
America’s Feel-Good Oil Bonanza
Think back to early 2004. Oil cost around $40 per barrel1—on the high side compared to the previous few decades but not much out of the ordinary. Gasoline still cost under $2.00 a gallon for most of the country....
Why a conservative economist moved to the country
This summer, Paul Solman and a film crew from PBS Newshour visited the Martenson homestead to capture the message behind the Peak Prosperity movement.
Ecological Artist Basia Irland and Her “Ice Books” Engage Communities and Restore Rivers
Engrossed: A young girl “reads” ice-book text comprised of Fremont cottonwood seed (Populus fremontii) beside the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Basia Irland is a sculptor, poet, and installation artist who has focused her creativity on rivers for thirty...
Holmgren’s ‘Crash on Demand’: be careful what you wish for
It is a rare occurence that I disagree with David Holmgren. One of my heroes, and the co-founder of permaculture, I generally find his intellect formidable, his insights on permaculture revelatory, and his take on the wider patterns and...
Shale gas, peak oil and our future
The following interview with Richard Heinberg was originally published in Flemish at the Belgian website De Wereld Morgen. The interview was given in conjunction with the release of the Dutch translation of Richard’s Book Snake Oil: How Fracking’s False...
Doria Robinson on scaling up community resilience in the shadow of Chevron
When I was in the US in October I met Doria Robinson, Executive Director of Urban Tilth. Urban Tilth is a non-profit urban agriculture organisation in Richmond, California, in the northern part of the San Francisco Bay Area. I was blown...
Putting Boundries on Selling Stuff
I was asked recently about my “theory of change” in the light of ever-increasing power of corporations that put profits ahead of sustainability of people and the planet. I agree that concentration of corporate power, combined with weakening civic...
Post Carbon Institute’s Top 10 Initiatives in Our First 10 Years
• The Energy Reality Campaign (2013) Nation-wide campaign to increase energy literacy by providing free educational resources to activists (including the book ENERGY: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth, free online essays,...
Taking Action in a Decade of Change
A lot has changed over the last ten years. On September 26, 2003 — the day that Post Carbon Institute was given its official tax-exempt status by the IRS — the Cushing WTI Spot Price for a barrel of...