3/1 • Exploring the Lean Green Anthropocene

Reading for Tues. 3/1
1. Heinberg, Afterburn, pp. 133-160.
2. Watch this Documentary: "The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil"

2/25 • Imagining Postcarbon Society

Reading for Thurs. Feb. 25th
Richard Heinberg, Afterburn, pp. 103-131

Eco-Philosophy Discussion Group: First Meeting, Wed. Feb. 24th 5:30 at the Buttonwood Tree

The first meeting of the Exophilosophy Discussion Group will be held at The Buttonwood Tree (605 Main Street, Middletown) on Wednesday, February 24th from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Last the last meeting of our exophilosophy class last semester Fall 2015, Patti Vassia had the excellent suggestion that our discussion group start with the book we didn't get to read last semester, Jacques Valle's seminal book Passport to Magonia. I'm excited to be getting this started and invite anyone interested to join us. I've posted some links to  materials by Jacques Valle, including one of his famous papers that I really love, called "Five Arguments Against the Extraterrestrial Origin of Unidentified Flying Objects."

Following the meeting, at 7:30, The Grays will be performing at the Buttonwood Tree, so there's time to get a bite to eat after the discussion and then catch some funky jazz inspired by our off-world friends, so come hang out for a truly ufological evening of fun. 

Jacque Vallee links

Floating Gently Back to Earth

"The decline in resources available to support societal complexity will generate a centrifugal force that will break up existing economic and governmental power structures everywhere." Heinberg, Afterburner, p. 101

Some arguments for localization and the decentralization of food, finance, education and other basic social support systems.

Themes

• why civilizations collapse - the diminishing returns on investment due to costs of increasing complexity
• how fossil fuels created an energy bubble in the form of industrial society that cannot continue.
• an ever-greater proportion of investment capital being directed to the energy sector - remember: the difference between net and gross energy?

Scenarios for Society Simplification

A. Continued (ever-more desperate) BAU (business as usual)
     - restarting economic growth with stimulus spending and bailouts

B. Simplification by austerity
- cutting domestic social spending, withdrawing safety nets

C. Centralized provision of basics
Governments directly providing jobs and basics to the general public while downsizing expendable features of the economy (military and financial sectors) and taxing the wealthy

D. Local provision of the basics
Local governments, ad hoc social movements, NGOs, small businesses, churches and cults, gangs, cooperative organizations, families and neighbors - step in to provide basics of existence.
- cooperative banks
- volunteer efforts
- farmer's markets
- car and ride share
- local currencies
- co-housing

Banding together to grow gardens, keep chickens, reuse, repurpose, repair, defend, share, do without.

Dimitri Orlov's classic essay "Closing the Collapse Gap: The USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US"

2/23 • Fingers in the Dike

Reading for Tues. Feb. 23rd
Heinberg, Afterburn, pp. 73-102

Recommended 
Several Films about Peak Oil

Notes from Heinberg's Afterburn, Ch. 4, 5 & 6

1. Energy is the single biggest issue we are facing as a species 
(the close connection between economy and energy usage)

2. One way or another we are moving towards a renewable energy system. (Remember: the difference between 'gross energy' and 'net energy')

3. Declining EROEI on energy resources means the END OF GROWTH. (The end of a growth economy means the end of consumerism, end of credit, end of expansionism)

4. Politicians will only respond when it's too late to do something meaningful. "What is needed is an attractive new paradigm that might lead us to proactively reduce our energy consumption." 

Eg. Voluntary Simplicity, The Transition Town Movement, Permaculture

5. Preparing for Resilience vs Sustainability

6. The Beginning and End of Consumerism
From overproduction to the new ethic of consumerism.

"Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an every-increasing rate."
                                        Economist Victor Lebow (1955)

The Happy Planet Index

Key points from Heinberg’s Afterburn, Chapters 2&3.

Gross vs net society

While energy production is increasing, net energy is decreasing

It takes energy to get energy (EROEI)

“Energy profit margins are declining fast” (p.23)

Prior to industrial society (the use of fossil fuels), energy margins were small. 

Labor-saving devices and also energy-consuming devices.

Important chart: volume of in situ energy resources.

“Unless our investment of energy in producing more energy yields an averaged profit ratio of roughly 10:1 or more, it may not be possible to maintain an industrial (vs agrarian) mode os societal organization over the long run.” (p. 26)

The relatively low energy profit ratio of renewable energies.

Moving towards a simply, poorer, slower economy.

But isn’t the economy recovering?

Yes, but it’s mostly “uneconomic growth” - rises in GDP (gross domestic product) which do not translate into rises in standard of living.

Approaching Peak Debt: Diminishing returns in GDP from creations of new money (debt)

Enter the Banksters: creating money(credit) out of thin air and giving it to their buddies.

General ramifications for post-peak society:

Decentralization, Simplification, Localization

2/18 Politics of Energy and Consumer Society

Reading for Thurs. 2/18:
Richard Heinberg, Afterburn, pp. 37-65

Peak Oil / Gas presentation

A very uplifting talk about a radical model for carbon-neutral, sustainable aquiculture

2/16 • Society Beyond Fossil Fuels

Reading for Tues. 2/16
Richard Heinberg, Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels, pp. 1-36.





Recommended:
1. This presentation by famed oceanographer/adventurer Sylvia Earle.
2. If you do Netflix, watch this great Sylvia Earle documentary on streaming Netflix called Deep Blue

2/11 Climate Change continued

Reading for 2/11
Colbert, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, pp.  236-278

Syllabus for Sustainable Living

2/9 Climate Change cont.

Reading for 2/9
Colbert, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, pp.  173-235

Sustainable Living - Question Spur Schedule

Sustainable Living - Question Spur Schedule

5. TH 2.4 Katy Losty & Kristen McQuillen 

6. TU 2.9 Thalia Novotasky & Brianna Pach

7. TH 2.11 Ryan Peterson & Ryan Roussel

8. TU 2.16 Mathew Titor & Edsel Vazquez

9. TH 2.18 Mikaela Baril & Andrew Cruz

10. TU 2.23 Matthew Gorneault & Travis Jacobs

11. TH 2.25 Gianna Lionetti & Katy Losty

12. TU 3.1 Kristen McQuillen & Thalia Novotasky

13. TH 3.3 Brianna Pach & Ryan Peterson

14. TU 3.8 Ryan Roussel & Mathew Titor

15. TH 3.10 Edsel Vazquez & Mikaela Baril

16. TU 3.15 Andrew Cruz & Matthew Gorneault

17. TH 3.17 Mid-semester Book of Questions Share

Spring Break

18. TU 3.29 Travis Jacobs & Kristen McQuillen

19. TH 3.31 Gianna Lionetti & Katy Losty

20. TU 4.5 Brianna Pach & Ryan Peterson

21. TH 4.7 Ryan Roussel & Mathew Titor

22. TU 4.12 Edsel Vazquez & Mikaela Baril

23. TH 4.14 Andrew Cruz & Matthew Gorneault

24. TU 4.19 Thalia Novotasky & Brianna Pach

25. TH 4.21 Katy Losty & Kristen McQuillen

26 TU 4.26 Ryan Peterson & Ryan Roussel

27. TH 4.28 Mathew Titor & Edsel Vazquez

28. TU 5.3 Mikaela Baril & Andrew Cruz

29. TH 5.5 Matthew Gorneault & Travis Jacobs

2/4 Climate Change Continued

Reading for 2/4
Colbert, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, pp.  133-172.

Glaciation, Geological Periods and Extinction Events on Planet Earth