December 10, 2006

Making solar popcornWhen the oil runs out, Bob Fiske will be ready. He talks us through some of the essential gizmos and gadgets for a life unplugged, items such as a self-powered fridge, a solar cooker, a “cool tube,” and “Active solar lighting.”
There are certain major areas of preparation I would focus on for a time when our fossil fuels are effectively spent or are at least out of the common person's reach anymore. These aren't supposed to be the 'Global Solution', but are small, numerous and repeatable by everyday folk, such that word of them and designs would be easily shared, if people saw them as successful and attainable.
First, though not necessarily more important, would be a range of ways to divest a household and a town from external energy imports, and I list some examples below.
»Keep reading 'Green Gizmos'
December 9, 2006

Man with a Plan Thomas Homer Dixon would approve of grid tie solar systems. These are sets of solar panels, batteries and inverters which power a house but also export their surplus energy onto the grid.
Homer-Dixon’s big idea is “resilience” – the need for society to improve its capacity to withstand shocks like power cuts, food shortages and terrorist attacks. He has just published a monumental book on the subject called The Upside of Down, the fruits of 5 years research.
The Big PictureIt sketches out the main threats facing us today, and the actions we all need to take to avert collapse of civilisation.
(The "Upside" of the title is that there are things we can do to make the collapse more tolerable, when it comes) But Homer-Dixon is not a survivalist. He is not even into the idea of living 100% off-grid. Director of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies in Toronto, he is an authority on what he calls “social adaptation to complex stress.” With his academic hat on he says the probability of complete breakdown of civilisation over the next 50 years is a relatively high 50%. Speaking as a human being and a father of a 20 month old son he told me “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see something really bad in the next twenty years.”
»Keep reading 'The Upside of Down'