Synthesis/Regeneration back issues from September 2007:
There is no shortage of energy.
Sep 22, 2007; ... Consider the following two assertions: 1. There is already more energy than we need. 2. No matter how much energy is produced, it will not be enough. These two statements appear totally contradictory. Yet they are both true. It is similar to ...
Global warming: too much energy.(80% Less Energy)(Report)
Sep 22, 2007; ... The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is increasing and the temperature is rising along with it. This phenomenon is usually called either global warming or climate change. Neither name is adequate to convey the danger and the challenge. Global warming, says Bill McKibben, ...
Why 80%?(80% Less Energy)(Report)
Sep 22, 2007; ... When late last year the S/R editorial board decided to tackle the question of how to reduce the United States' energy consumption by 80%, it was the first time I had heard that figure. In the months since, however, I've been hearing "80%" from all kinds of sources. On April 14, for ...
Livestock a major threat to environment: Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).(80% Less Energy)(Report)
Sep 22, 2007 ... November 2006, Rome. Which causes more greenhouse gas emissions, rearing cattle or driving cars? Surprise! According to a new report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in C[O.sub.2] ...
Clean coal, forest biofuel and other fairy tales.(80% Less Energy)(Viewpoint essay)
Sep 22, 2007; ... Two of the biggest, most dangerous lies being promoted in response to global warming are that clean coal exists and the world's forests are adequate to provide biofuel. Dirty coal and industrial forest harvest for energy only accelerate the root causes of looming Doomsday for the ...
Can efficiency and renewables stop global warming? Consume, consume, consume.(80% Less Energy)(Critical essay)
Sep 22, 2007; ... Would someone please tell the Sierra Club Exec Board that the idea of an "environmentally friendly car" makes as much sense as a "non-violent death penalty?" While the vast majority of those concerned with global warming consider reduction of unneeded production to be at the core of a sane ...
Energy reduction in Los Angeles.(80% Less Energy)(Report)
Sep 22, 2007; ... The "if you build it they will come" mentality of Field of Dreams may work for attracting the souls of lost baseball players, but trying to get L.A. residents to leave their cars at home and use new streamlined and comprehensive mass public transit may prove a to be another ball game ...
Is a modest health care system possible?(80% Less Energy)(Critical essay)
Sep 22, 2007; ... The health care system in the US is generally regarded by economists and activists as over-scaled and inefficient. Health care consumes nearly 15% of the US GDP (high as compared to most industrialized nations) while providing insured access only to about 85% of the population. Moreover, ...
Energy use in biologically intensive farming.(80% Less Energy)(Report)
Sep 22, 2007; ... At a time of Peak Oil and Peak Natural Gas there is concern over an external energy crisis that is beyond one's control. Peal Oil means the highest point in available supplies and the beginning of a decline in availability. The challenge of Global Warming is connected to this phenomenon ....
Letter.(Letter to the editor)
Sep 22, 2007; ... I enjoyed the article, "The Real Costs of Transportation." [Synthesis/Regeneration 43, 4-8--Ed.] My default mode of transportation is a bicycle, although I do own an automobile that seldom sees the light of day and is not exposed to much moonlight, either. As a bicyclist, I ...
Why a Zero Waste energy approach is the only sustainable energy future.(80% Less Energy)(Report)
Sep 22, 2007; ... Regardless of our personal opinions, climate chaos (climate change is far too mild a term for the reality) is at the top of the international agenda. Certainly, one can argue that other matters are more critical, but that is the reality. The hype between the denialists, the ...
Powerdown: learning from Cuba.(80% Less Energy)(Excerpt)
Sep 22, 2007; ... [This article is taken from portions of Richard Heinberg's Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World (2004), New Society Publishers, Chapter 3, The Path of Self-Limitation, Cooperation, and Sharing.--Editor] If humankind is to avoid ruthless competition for ...
Ten ways to prepare for a post-oil society.(80% Less Energy)
Sep 22, 2007; ... Out in the public arena, people frequently twang on me for being "Mister Gloom'n'doom," or for "not offering any solutions" to our looming energy crisis. So, for those of you who are tired of wringing your hands, who would like to do something useful, or focus your attention in a ...
Climate change depends on system change.(80% Less Energy)(Reprint)
Sep 22, 2007; ... Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth has helped dramatize the enormity of the global environmental crisis. The scale of the threat posed by industrially induced global warming, and the short time in which to take meaningful action to prevent catastrophic consequences, make the question of ...
Big enviro groups holding back anti-warming movement.(80% Less Energy)
Sep 22, 2007; ... The heat is on environmental groups and politicians to churn out proposals for stabilizing the planet's rising temperatures, but some environmentalists say existing plans to cool climate change are timid. Their criticism reveals a rift between two approaches: preserving the American way of ...
The plot against Mexican maiz.(Biodevastation)
Sep 22, 2007; ... The "diableros" (hand truck hostlers) from Lagunilla market clustered around La Lupita's Ricos Tacos in the rough and tumble barrio of Tepito were not smiling. "Yesterday these cost me 6 pesos. Today, it's 8. Tomorrow, who knows, 10?" complained Rodrigo Aldama, 28, pointing at the three ...
Breeding rural poverty and environmental degradation.(Biodevastation)
Sep 22, 2007; ... On January 22 the Lula administration announced it will increase federal funding for Brazil's sugar-based ethanol industry by almost $6 billion over the next four years. One day later, President George W. Bush declared in the State of the Union address his goal to reduce US use of gasoline ...
New Fort Detrick "biodefense" laboratory may reflect a Bush germ warfare effort.(Biodevastation)(President George W. Bush)(Viewpoint essay)
Sep 22, 2007; ... Although no foreign power has threatened a bioterror attack against America, since 9/11 the Bush administration has allocated a stunning $43 billion to "defend" against one. Critics are now saying, however, Bush's newest "biodefense" initiative is both offensive and illegal. ...
The cultural connection: Zionism and the United States.(Thinking Politically)(Report)
Sep 22, 2007; ... Not long ago, I met Eyal Naveh, an Israeli historian, who explains that the United States has been the "model" for the Israeli state and society. He claims that the US was first a model for the Zionist pioneers, then for the founders of the state of Israel. Like the US, Israel was to be an ...
If not now, when?(Thinking Politically)(Viewpoint essay)
Sep 22, 2007; ... On February 27, 2007, I participated in my first open act of civil disobedience as part of the Occupation Project. I, along with St. Louis local chapter President Chuc Smith, three other veterans (Jim Allen, Harry Wyman and VFP office manager Cherie Eichholz), and Military Families Speak ...