Couple good TED talks

Saw a couple really good videos recently on TED...

Chip Conley: Measuring what makes life worthwhile (strong believer):
http://www.ted.com/talks/chip_conley_measuring_what_makes_life_worthwhile.html

Reminds me of a good blog on simplicity: Becoming Minimalist

And this funny one from Dan Phillips: Creative Houses from Reclaimed Stuff:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/dan_phillips_creative_houses_from_reclaimed_stuff.html

Dan's a funny guy and eloquently describes our human tendencies to think in predictive ways.  Very interesting and nice houses.

What a way to go... movie

Well this is the first post in a while. I'm going to try to get back to posting weekly after a long break. A lot has happened in the past 6 months! The world is going to crap at an accelerating pace, (drought, natural disasters, a massive nuclear disaster, economic crisis in the US and EU, but on the positive side, I am now a dad!

Being a father is something else. It puts everything in a new perspective. I can't help wondering how screwed up the world will be when he's 20. Take this documentary, What a Way to Go. It's one man's story of how he learned about Peak Oil and Climate Change.  It's 2 hours but worth watching.

Power of Community

Finally saw this film on how Cuba survived their version of Peak Oil. It's an inspiring recounting of what Cubans did when the Soviet Union collapsed along with 90 per cent of their incoming oil supply.

See: The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

The government allowed the development of every spare bit of land, regardless of who owns it. In a few short years Cubans changed their diet, modes of transportation (bikes, buses), commerce (localized), and became independent and resilient. This is a model the rest of the world must use as more countries are hit by energy shortages.

The video was produced by Pat Murphy, Megan Quinn Bachman and others at Community Solution, a wonderful organization that promotes sustainable solutions in the face of Peak Oil. Check their site for excellent resources and presentations. In 2008 I attended a conference organized by CommunitySolution, in Ann Arbor Michigan. It was an excellent conference, with over 350 attendees. It was my first exposure to the German Passivhaus building standard which in my opinion is far superior to LEED. See the Canadian Passive House site for more info.

In order to survive Peak Oil, North Americans need to find low energy solutions to transportation, housing and food production as well a localized economy. Changes can't wait for Government policy, but are occurring right now in pockets called Transition Towns. Google it here. See Transition Ottawa for an example.

Limits to economic growth

This 30 min video raises some good questions about the sustainability of the global economy.

It relates to the video on the exponential function, in that limits exist in all systems that depend on growth. These systems cannot be sustained unless a new "steady state" paradigm is adopted. A society based on well being instead of accumulation of material wealth, for example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26o22Y33h9s

Description:

Radical sociologist David Harvey asks: is it time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?

The secret Powers of Time

This is a great video about how our perception of time affects us - our well being, our health, our values. It also shows how entire societies are collectively shaped by their perception of time. Worth watching just for the animation too...

http://wimp.com/secretpowers/ [10 min]

It reminds me of the Slow Movement which began in Italy around food. I once read a book called "In Praise of Slow" and one of its conclusions was people who 'stop to smell the roses' live happier lives than those who race against time.

It turns out that the above video is from a great website similar to TED, called The RSA:

For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action.

The importance of understanding the exponential function

In 8 parts, exponential growth is explained in simple terms. It's really worth watching all of them. I found the way he explains exponential growth through easy to grasp examples compelling. He's right that our inability to comprehend the significance of this mathematical function is our biggest shortcoming. It relates to every known problem on the planet (population growth, resource consumption, climate change..)

Eat Local

Manufactured Landscapes DVD

To follow up on my last China post, I wanted to mention the movie Manufactured Landscapes. This is a documentary featuring vivid photography by Edward Burtynsky. Photographers and environmentalists alike should see this film.

Burtynsky gives an unbiased view into the dark ugly underbelly of our global industry. The viewer is left to decide whether what they see is beautiful, ugly, avoidable or just an unfortunate consequence of our global industrial system.

Tiny Chinese fingers toil for hours to assemble everything from electronics to squirt bottles. Did you know practically all zippers in the world were made in China? Something to watch. Trailer below.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Leaving Oil (before it leaves us)

Food Inc.

A friend loaned me this video, and for the love of food, see it. What an eye opener. Here is an interview with the producer and with the author of the The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Food Inc - official site

Monsanto's official rebuttal to the movie.

Watch the 3 minute trailer:

Interview with Rob Hopkins, founder of Transition Towns

I have seen this video a couple times now, and some of the concepts that strike me as most interesting are:
- comparing stages of addiction to stages of contemplation/action on peak oil
- recognizing that each of us is at a different level on the contemplation/action scale, and the motivations each of us need are different.
- that we need to rethink suburbia, not escape from it.

Have a look if you haven't seen it yet. Click Read more or watch on YouTube (52 min)

Small scale farming

Just watched a neat video on small scale farming, on the Peak Moment Youtube channel.



Enjoy!

Video: Farm for the Future

This is one of my favourite videos. It's a 48 minute BBC documentary on the effect of peak oil on global farming and the approaching food crisis. It explores smaller scale farming, permaculture, peak oil and climate change.

Highly recommended!

Video: Yesterday's Future

35 minute compilation of several good documentaries:

Video: 45-min Peak Oil Documentary

Video: The Days After Peak Oil