We Gotta Eat 'em to Save 'em
On tiny plots, a new generation of farmers emerges
Vandana Shiva and the Earth Democracy (audio)

The photo of stunted corn tells why grain farmers don’t like trees in their fence rows. Don’t like fence rows at all, in fact. The trees suck the moisture away from crops, as you can see. But what’s going on here? The corn in the other photo, just across the fence, growing the same distance from the same trees, is tall and healthy. Why aren’t the trees robbing moisture from this corn?

More wind than we thought?
On the Brink of a New Era in Energy (interview with Siemens CEO)
Gerry Wolff at TREC-UK updates the Desertec story (video)

Montgomery Panel Passes Redevelopment Plan
A New Enforcer in Buildings, the Energy Inspector
Questioning the direction of transportation policy

G8 Summit: Feed the Hungry or Fuel Hunger?
G8 Calls for Decisive Action to End Hunger, Recognizes Role of CAADP and AGRA at L'Aquila Summit
U.S. working group on the food crisis statement on the G8 in L’aquila, Italy

The crisis of economic institutions is leading to Capitalism 3.0. The sooner “peak oil “is accepted as an undeniable fact, the shorter and less traumatic the historic transition will be.

The film HOME by Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a beautifully shot panorama of the Earth and the damage done to it by modern humanity. It includes a moving narration about the evolution of the Earth, nature, agriculture, humans, and the crises of habitat destruction, energy depletion, climate disruption, degradation...of the environment, health, economic disparity, and more. They are well integrated in the film, but many assumptions in the script make this film hard to recommend unless accompanied by a reality check on energy and the value of traditional ways.

Nigerian Peace Remains Elusive After Oil Region Truce
Obama Visits Africa's 'Oil Gulf'
West Africa: Another Stab at the 'Resource Curse'

Last week one of the three main French trotskist group – Worker's Struggle – published an editorial denouncing "degrowth" as "reactionary". I am no fan of French style degrowth. Most of the time, it is hardly more than a revolutionary mythology repackaged as ecology and in my humble opinion, anybody telling that the best way to solve today's society's problems is to destroy it entirely is better off the farthest away possible from any real power. Yet the red hard-liners' reaction is interesting because it highlights one of the industrial world's most pervasive delusion : the faith in science as an all-powerful mean to manipulate reality.

IKEA is as bad as Wal-Mart
When will the recovery begin? Never
Goldman Sachs and The Great Unbalancing