Morning No: No Pigs In Heaven

by: Natasha Chart

Wed Sep 02, 2009 at 06:00

- The AFL-CIO lays out the what's what on the economic situation for 18-35 year olds. Main takeaways: more of them are unemployed, fewer of them can afford to build savings or get health coverage, they're deferring education or planning for a family because of the expense, and just over a third of them are living with their parents.

- In what's likely the best news coming out of Afghanistan of late, opium profits have declined, so fewer farmers are growing it.

- Droughts are driving Kenyan farmers off their land and into slums.

- Droughts, plus debt caused the expense of paying for synthetic inputs and patented, genetically engineered seeds, are driving growing numbers of Indian farmers to suicide.

- Executives at the banks we all bailed out are going to get stock option windfalls this year.

- Obama urges the public to take steps to avoid catching the flu, particularly due to concerns about the new H1N1 swine flu. Seriously, wash your hands.

- In product quality, and it can sometimes be a good thing, there's always room at the bottom.

- If we want to keep our democracy, we need to have a functional social compact that treats all Americans as deserving.

"Energy Determines Biological Success"

by: Natasha Chart

Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 17:30

"The crucial factor in all of this is net energy. - Richard Heinberg

Before a certain critical mass of human population, and barring natural disasters, the world's ecosystems in had generally been trending towards increasing the amount of soil and living species. Fueled by sunlight, what was once a poisonous, lifeless ball of rock became ever more welcoming as net surpluses of that energy were cumulatively stored in the form of chemical bonds.

Fueled by fossil sunlight, humanity is currently engaged in the process of returning the planet to its bare, poisoned, inhospitable state.

Though even our fuel might not last much longer. Richard Heinberg's recent review of coal reserve studies indicates that there's only 20 years to go before we hit peak coal. He says there aren't 250 years worth of the stuff to burn even if burning it weren't going to destroy the Earth's ability to support us.

Apropos of this, via hyperlocavore, here's Heinberg talking in 2007 about Peak Everything: