An Outside Chance

Around the world in a shopping cart

Christopher Mims had just embarked on his study of the global retail supply chain when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. Quickly, he found, affluent consumers redoubled their efforts at the very activity Mims was investigating: “Confronted by the stark reality of their powerlessness to do anything else and primed by a lifetime of consumerism into … Read More

november, by grace

PHOTO POST So we’ve made it this far … and what’s not to love about this November in this place? When dawn comes cold, the frost shines so brightly that winter feels near. But by afternoon, in a sunny spot out of the wind, summer feels close too. With most of the south-migrating birds long … Read More

‘This is a key conversation to have.’

This afternoon Post Carbon Institute announced the release of the new book Energy Transition and Economic Sufficiency. That brings to fruition a project more than two-and-a-half years in the making. In May 2019, I received an email from Clifford Cobb, editor of the American Journal of Economics and Sociology. He asked if I would consider … Read More

‘Zero crashes, zero congestion, zero emissions’ – the perennial myths of autonomous vehicles

Also posted on Resilience For a hundred years the auto industry has held out visions of a trouble-free future for drive-everywhere society – and that future is always about 20 years away. Peter Norton urges us to see the current hype about automated vehicles in the cold light of the failed promises of the past. … Read More

Colonialism, climate crisis, and the forever wars

Also published on Resilience Two rounds of negotiation take centre stage, about halfway through Amitav Ghosh’s new masterwork The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis. In one, US State Department and Pentagon officials win agreement that carbon emissions connected with the military are to be kept out of the Kyoto Protocol – an omission … Read More

october turns

PHOTO POST It took until the middle of the month before we got October-like temperatures, but the sun holds to a steadier schedule, still rising predictably later each day and setting earlier. In the generous “golden hours”, with light slicing through the shadows from a glow near the horizon, fall colours grow more splendid by … Read More

Remembering Iohan

We stared through the dark windows at the ice-covered street, wondering … “Is he still going to make it here tonight?” It was the evening of December 21, 2013, several hours after a huge ice storm settled over the north shore of Lake Ontario. Hundreds of thousands of people were without electricity, including everyone in … Read More

making arrangements

PHOTO POST Two birds move near each other. An insect hovers next to a flower. A ray of light sneaks between two big trees. Temporary arrangements all, sometimes enduring an hour, sometimes a second. But if you can arrange to get your camera into the right place at the right time, you might make the … Read More

Your gas tank is not an oil well. Your battery will not be a power plant.

Also published on Resilience My car comes with an amazing energy-storage, demand-management-and-supply system; perhaps you’ve heard of it. It’s called the “gas tank”. Thanks to this revolutionary feature, if I get home and the electric grid is down, I can siphon gas out of the tank and power up a generator. In a more urgent energy … Read More

Sunshine, wind, tides and worldwatts

A review of Renewable Energy: Ten Short Lessons Also published on Resilience Fun physics fact: water carries so much more kinetic energy than air that “A tidal current of 3 knots has the same energy density as a steady wind stream at 29 knots (a fair old blow).” And consider this: “Ninety-nine per cent of planet … Read More

the otters and the others

PHOTO POST This post is mostly about “the others” – meaning those other herons who aren’t so well known as the Great Blue Herons. But some other others also have a way of popping into the photo opp when you least expect them. And even the Great Blues, which you see almost every time you … Read More

the fullness of summer

PHOTO POST The afternoon sun is hot, but the evening air cools. Gardens and marshes are lush and green, but golds and reds peek through. Fruits ripen, seeds swell. The fullness of summer is now. A young Spotted Sandpiper (the spots will come later) hunts in the shadow of lily pads. The full-grown pads easily … Read More