ASPO
sastyk | September 21, 2010Well, we've finally got a mostly-complete ASPO Conference schedule. The problem is exactly the sort of problem you'd really like to have when running one of these - that there are just too many serious thinkers who need a spot. It is really tough to finalize the conference schedule when every day you are receiving calls that say things like "This is Bianca Jagger, Chair of the Human Rights Foundation, calling to say that I'd like to speak at your conference on the connection between Climate, Energy Depletion and Human Rights...here are the texts of my UN speeches if you'd like to see them…
sastyk | September 20, 2010I'm really excited about the ways that ASPO-USA is evolving. ASPO's role has been to raise awareness about Peak Oil, and it is serving to expose the issue in new ways. I joined the board of an organization that I'd once criticized publically for being elitist and dominated by old white guys because those same gentlemen challenged me to help fix the situation - and we are. Peak oil is emerging as the site of alliances that simply can't be achieved in climate change or on the economy - but because the peak oil community is diverse and crosses ideological lines so powerfully, those…
sastyk | August 4, 2010I'm about to go out of town for three days to a conference on dealing with poverty issues, energy depletion and climate change, and I'm a little nervous. We've had no babies born since Meadowsweet's appearance two weeks ago, and I have three does due in the next week - not only am I a little nervous about abandoning Eric and Phil-the-Housemate to delivering baby goats (which has historically been a she who did the birthin' of the boys job), but I'm also a little sad at the thought of missing all the fun!
Still it is a good and important thing, and it reminds me to let y'all know about…
sastyk | July 26, 2010Once upon a time, I advised people looking for a peaceful and happy future to choose land under which there were no energy resources. I should have taken my own advice - I'm on the fringe of the Marcellus Shale and the discussion and debate is becoming heated here. Like everyone, I don't particularly want a natural gas flare and dig across the road from me, but that alone wouldn't be enough to make me object - they have to drill somewhere, and Americans use a lot of energy. NIMBYism itself isn't sufficient. What's much more important is that I'm not convinced that the results will be…
sastyk | July 7, 2010I'd been planning to write this post for several days, and then late last night, got a nasty surprise that changed the focus of it for me. By now many of you will have heard that Pepsi bought a blog on science blogs and is using to to establish credibility by writing a blog focused ummm...on food and nutrition. Note long pause for your comments...feel free not to censor.
Let me be clear - my fellow science bloggers and I were blindsided on this - there was no advance notice, and let's just say that a lot of us are pretty pissed. All of us suffer credibility hits here, but for me and the…
sastyk | June 14, 2010I spent my weekend in Washington DC with folks from the Association for the Study of Peak Oil, talking about the future of peak oil research and advocacy. It was an interesting weekend, but for a farmgirl who spends most of her waking hours during the summer outside and working in the dirt, it was a strange weekend. Two hermetically sealed 8 hour train journeys to Washington and 48 intense hours in a equally hermetically sealed hotel gave you that "I'm in the Matrix" feeling.
I admit, I don't sleep well in a room with windows that don't open and such, and even though I could have technically…