Darn it, that’s just not true
As most of you know we’re reviving that SunDay on Sept 21—the fall equinox—with a nationwide celebration of renewable energy, part of the protest against the lies and inaction of this administration.
Energy featured
Review: On Oil by Don Gillmor
Canadian author Don Gillmor is known for his insightful, often satirical commentary on Canadian culture and history. In On Oil, he examines oil’s place in modern life from a largely North American and particularly Canadian perspective.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS): The frivolous gamble of European climate policy
If we were to understand the climate crisis as a large-scale socio-ecological crisis, we could look at different future scenarios in an open way. These could be about technological solutions as well as changes in the ways we organize our lives. However, this debate remains at the margins.
Factcheck: Why expensive gas – not net-zero – is keeping UK electricity prices so high
The UK’s high electricity prices have become intensely political, with competing claims over the cause of rocketing bills and how best to get them down.
Complexity, energy, people and inequality
Summing up, I believe there are many indications that the ever increasing complexity clearly shows diminishing returns and that people will turn their backs on global capitalism and modernity (whatever that is).
And We’re Off
I’m going to update you regularly on SunDay in these pages as the day approaches, because I think that our job is not just to understand the climate catastrophe but to prevent as much of it as we still can.
Pedro Prieto — Fragile Electric Grids: Did Renewables Cause the Blackout in Spain?
In today’s episode, Nate is joined by Pedro Prieto to discuss the recent blackout in the Iberian Peninsula, exploring its causes, impacts, and the role of renewable energy in the stability of the electric grid.
Jean-Marc Jancovici — Sobriété vs Poverty: Preparing for a New Cultural Paradigm
In this episode, Nate is joined by energy expert and educator Jean-Marc Jancovici, who shares insights from his ongoing work advising governments and the public on the limits of our economic systems amid growing energy and ecological constraints.
Energy transition: the end of an idea
Pretty much the last nail in the coffin for the idea that there’s going to be a smooth transition out of fossil fuels and into renewables that can rescue the existing high-energy global economy in anything like its present form comes courtesy of Jean-Baptiste Fressoz and his 2024 book More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy.
From City to Sink: Urban Carbon Removal as Promise and Practice with Duncan McLaren
In this talk, Duncan will survey how cities are engaging with carbon removal – reviewing the realistic scope of possibilities such as carbon negative building materials, and carbon removal through urban waste management; and suggest ways in which urban carbon removal could be governed to contribute to goals of justice and sustainability.
The Meaning of Energy Security: Why Be Beholden to Foreign Suppliers?
Real energy security comes with reducing reliance on foreign fossil fuels through efficiency, solar, wind, ground source heat pumps, and etc., which are available to all countries.
The threat that shall not be named
And it will be up to Gaians to promote a right relationship with the living Earth, based on respect, deference, and atoning for decades of exploitation—just not as individuals, but as economic, political, and cultural systems, even as the levels of climate denial and climate disruptions crescendo and pull apart the economic, political and social realities we’ve known our entire lives.