President Obama Asks For Our Help

Meetup did a great job with this video! We are doing what we can to help with Bright Neighbor.

An Update About Al Franken

Woo Hoo! I was right! Way to go Al!

World Leaders Admit The Planet Is Screwed

Well, world leaders are finally fessing up to Einstein’s folly – that the spread of nuclear weapons and technology of mass destruction cannot be controlled.

Eventually, there are going to be very big explosions in a city near you.

So party while you can, and be a good human. That means trying to help other communities so they don’t blow you up, and vice-versa.

This means all kids on earth need to get along or we will certainly witness one of mother nature’s big bangs.

Merry Christmas!

Planting A Food Garden On The Whitehouse Lawn To Fight Back Against Monsanto

Imagine the message it would send around the world if we planted a food garden on the White House lawn. The folks from Kitchen Gardeners International have come up with a new campaign called “Eat The View“, which is a petition to get our government to do just that.

It would be one way we could fight back against Monsanto.

If you haven’t started planting your own garden yet, I highly suggest you get the book “Teaming With Microbes: A Gardeners Guide To The Soil Food Web”.

Why Oil Companies Need $150 Per Barrel Of Oil – The Case For Destroying The Rewable Fuels Standard

The following is a letter to the EPA written by David Blume that was just published in Renewable Energy World.

by David Blume, Author

The purpose of the Renewable Fuels Standard is to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, reverse the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, and eventually end the toxic releases from petroleum, coal, and other fossil fuels. The idea is to replace these fuels with clean alternatives like ethanol, which, unlike fossil fuels, are based on captured solar energy that is constantly renewed.

When the alcohol industry agreed to sacrifice the Clean Air Act’s oxygenate standard in exchange for its proposed Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), I was staunchly opposed. Advocates of the RFS said it was a more honest, direct way for us to work toward making our fuel renewable and American, and to wean ourselves from the toxic waste of the petroleum industry (otherwise known as gasoline).

Make no mistake about it: historically, gasoline has ALWAYS been a substance into which oil refineries dispose of whatever waste remains after making valuable products. Just as in the cattle industry, where half of the steer sells as US $15/lb. steaks and the other half ends up as cheap hamburger, in the petroleum business, half of a barrel of oil becomes gasoline. Quite frankly, no one wants to dispose of the 21 gallons of poisonous leftovers at the bottom of each barrel (just how much carcinogenic benzene, toluene, or xylene does anyone really need?)

The Clean Air Act’s oxygenate standard made sure that many of the toxic components in vehicle exhaust would be thermally decomposed (read: burned) to carbon dioxide, rather than remaining as Kevorkian carbon monoxide and a witch’s brew of volatile organics. Destroying these toxins in vehicle exhaust relies on the presence of plenty of oxygen to do the job, and alcohol is about 30% oxygen. Since the act was a regulation that had to do with our health, no discretion existed for waiving oxygenate. That standard was all that stood between Big Oil’s profits and hundreds of thousands of deaths each year from respiratory and cancer illnesses. It also was permanent-it had no expiration date.

But in a poor bargain, we traded a standard based on citizens’ health for one based on economic and environmental values, i.e., the Renewable Fuels Standard. The oil companies insisted that we couldn’t have both, but if we would let go of the oxygenate standard, they would not stand in the way too much on the RFS. Of course, they lied and then only permitted an RFS level that we were already meeting prior to passage of the legislation, so that the regulation had no teeth to increase our use of renewables (very clever of those oil companies).

Well, we did manage, over much opposition by Big Oil, to increase the RFS modestly above the existing level, and investment into the Midwest to make alcohol took off. Big Oil mistakenly thought it could keep the alcohol genie in the bottle…but much to its dismay, the genie escaped and started building distilleries in 2005-6.

Now at the time the bargain was made to trade in the oxygenate standard, I complained to everyone in congress and in the alcohol industry that the RFS would be very easy to waive. It was easy to predict all sorts of conditions where governors or the executive branch could say something like, “These environmental regulations are all well and good, but if they get in the way of economic interests, we just won’t be able to afford to do the right thing.”

“No, no,” the RFS advocates retorted, “we will make sure that a ‘no backsliding’ provision is written into the new legislation.” Well gee, that tidbit didn’t quite survive into the final draft. Now some oil-saturated governors are trying to use their statutory power to get the EPA to waive the standard, so oil companies won’t be forced to use farmer’s fuels.

Instead of cleaning up our air, dealing with Peak Oil, reducing dependence on foreign oil, and reversing global warming, we are doing exactly what I feared. We are talking about simply setting aside the RFS for reasons that ignore health, ignore national security, ignore our dependence, ignore our war to control Mideast oil, and ignore planetary climate stability in favor of simple short-term economic gains. The proposal is even more disingenuous, since the alleged economic gains are not even real. For instance, there is no shortage of corn, no matter what you read in the press. We just had the best crop in 33 years, and we are still trying to find silo space to store the huge surplus. We have increased the amount of animal feed we send around the world to record levels, which is a direct result of our increased alcohol fuel production. We use only cornstarch for alcohol, and all the non-starch parts of the corn become high-quality animal feed. More corn production for alcohol means more animal feed, which means more food. It’s simple.

Now that the data is coming in, we are seeing that in addition to the utterly nonexistent corn shortage, grain price increases have no basis in ethanol or the RFS whatsoever. In fact, the price increases result almost exclusively from the rising price of oil and greater demand for meat in China and other developing countries. If it were not for alcohol fuel, the price of gasoline would be even higher than it is today, and the net effect on a citizen’s pocketbook would be many times the alleged effect of ethanol on food prices.

This attack on the RFS has been planned since the day it was first passed. Because as we run out of oil, the fossil fuel industry plans to replace petroleum with more tar sands, oil shale, and coal to liquids. As the EPA, you are well aware that these fuels will increase greenhouse gas emissions scores to thousands of times the emissions from petroleum. They will also increase the pollution of our air with countless tons of metals and volatile gases, pollute what water is left after we drain the aquifers to make synfuels, and irradiate/poison the planet with radioactive particles and mercury from coal.

But for these environmentally foul fuels to be economically viable, the price of a barrel of oil needs to climb to about $150. Biofuels, on the other hand, can be produced realistically, ecologically, and sustainably for less than $70 a barrel, without any breakthroughs in technology. If biofuels, and in particular ethanol, increase in volume, the economic viability of all the alternatives that Big Oil wants to develop are in jeopardy. And that’s a good thing, since as the EPA, you know for certain that development of these fossil alternatives to petroleum are unbelievably incompatible with continuation of life on Earth as we know it.

No, the RFS is not a discretionary guideline to be set aside, as powerful economic interests and their tamed politicians dictate. The RFS is a health standard meant to protect all living things from the total degradation of our planet. You in the EPA are charged with the responsibility to act as a bulwark against corporate environmental irresponsibility, and doing the right thing requires more than standing firm on the RFS. Far from being waived, the standard needs to be increased annually, bear no expiration date, and remain in force until every single Btu of energy this country uses is renewable. Ultimately, that means an end to fossil fuels and an economic and energy system based on the sun.

A call to action:

The window to submit comment on this critical EPA waiver is closing June 23rd, submit written comments today, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0380, by one of the following methods: One the web at http://www.regulations.gov, follow the on-line instructions for submitting comments, by E-mail: a-and-r-docket@epa.gov or by fax: (202) 566-1741.

Learn more about David Blume’s Fight to Save The Renewable Fuels Standard.

David Blume is author of Alcohol Can Be A Gas and Executive Director of the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture.

Peak Oil Crash = Simultaneous Government and Market Failures

No one said it would be easy to implement fixes for peak oil or climate change, and it is evident it will only occur with a bottom up and top down approach.

For years now, we have heard the Peak Oil predictions of Kunstler, Simmons, Heinberg, Blume, and other authors preaching their Peak Oil prophecy. As reality begins to pry the fingers from the ears of people who have long ignored our global problems, a critical mass of people have begun to ask “So what are we going to DO about it?”

What are we going to DO about Peak Oil?
What are we going to DO about rapid climate change?
What are we going to DO about market failure?
What are we going to DO about government failure?
What are we going to DO about fixing the food system?
What are we going to DO about fixing the transportation system?

Why is government failing? No one seems to agree, and it is BECAUSE no one seems to agree that man made laws are resisting adaptation to live with nature’s reality. After all, in a consumer driven planet, how can governments force consumer choice if choice is still abundant?

It is exactly for this reason that markets are failing in a growth-oriented global economy. Since resource scarcity is real, we are no longer able to have as much choice of supplies for real world items such as wheat, gasoline, and water.

But we have plenty of crappy niche Web 2.0 applications rushing to save the day, don’t we? Not enough engineers are focused on real world solutions such as local alcohol fuel and food production made from permaculture systems. Software jockeys are too busy drinking and coding Java to look up and see the ship is crashing on the rocks as both government and markets fail at the same time.

And while local municipalities are now actively creating Peak Oil Task Forces and sustainability commissions to help address the issues, they are powerless in the face of consumer choice. After all, money in people’s pocket means permission to consume. While these task forces seek to offer plans and advice for reducing carbon emissions and decreasing our dependency on fossil fuels – we are lacking the human willpower to change in time to mitigate a population and food disaster.

It is for this reason that these task forces can skip budgeting for “Outreach Programs” designed to talk about Peak Oil problems – and begin to look at funding implementing tools designed to support hyper-local communities, such as Bright Neighbor.

Yes, I am biased because that is my company’s solution (and competition is sure to follow). Right now, municipalities could implement tools to quickly help people learn to grow food at home, safely meet and collaborate with their neighbors, buy, sell, and barter at a hyper-local level, lend things out to one another, make ride sharing simple, among many other communications improvements. One problem is that people can do many of these things using a variety of tools available to them, but there needs to be an aggregated set of tools that eliminates redundancy.

For instance, if a community ends up using five different neighbor-to-neighbor applications, there will be neighbors that never connect. An immediate fix for Peak Oil, climate change, market failure, and local food systems would be to deploy an all-in-one tool that addresses life-support systems, supported by local governments or neighborhood leaders. If all the community members with Internet access and mobile devices in a single neighborhood coordinated to use a single communications system, then the chances of that neighborhood collaborating to help one another grow gardens, share resources, and generally improve their community are greatly increased.

It is the mission of Bright Neighbor to deliver community living tools that we can use now, instead of waiting for things to get worse. Why shouldn’t you be able to find someone in your neighborhood who has a 30 foot ladder right now? Or coordinate music jam sessions while bringing pot luck dinners created with locally produced food? Or help single moms locate other single moms that live around them to safely meet one another and share soccer-mom duties.

There are many ways to get started with Bright Neighbor, and they are life affirming reasons, not “doom” tools. We can gain value from better community living systems today. That is why we are excited to announce Bright Neighbor is now actively seeking pilot communities and neighborhoods looking for community organization and sustainability tools.

To sign up your neighborhood for a Bright Neighbor test run, please visit Bright Neighbor.

How Would You Spend $150 Billion Dollars?

Our intelligent money spenders in Congress are out to spend another $150 Billion dollars of our collective hard-earned money to keep paying contractors to shoot people in the Middle East.

My question is… instead of spending that money on continued warfare, how would you spend $150 Billion?

Things to consider:

- We have the technology to free ourselves from the needs of oil.
- We could create great paying jobs used to implement the technology used to free ourselves from oil

I’m open to suggestions.

Secrets To Making Money With Peak Oil

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, there are ways thou shalt be able to maketh ends meet while the economy takes a crappeth on itself!

Know a Baby Boomer with a bank account?

Seriously. You might be able to siphon off of them for a bit longer while they can still muster the cash to fill their RVs and motor coaches with affordable fuel. After all, it’s the older crowd that has most of the money (resorts are full of them), while the younger crowd is starting to feel the burn of debt. No doubt hordes of twenty-somethings will be moving back in with mom and dad soon (if mom and dad still have a house). I don’t want to brow beat people anymore though. It’s too late for that… the crash is already happening, and the stage is set for some big event to fully usher in a completely totalitarian state. People didn’t have the backbone, temerity, or organizational skills to stop that from happening. That’s the power of TV entertainment for ya.

For those that tried, kudos to ya. It’s hard to spark change when even peaceful protesters are being shot and killed these days. But if people REALLY wanted to change the system, it could be done.

The problem is there is no leader able to break through to the world able to convince enough people that the world is everyone’s oyster to share. Everyone is clinging to what little pieces they think are theirs, which just goes to prove that there are lots and lots of people on the planet who think highly of themselves, controlled by a tiny percentage at the top. But now as the reality of Peak Oil really gets under way, we each have to think critically about ways to keep putting food on the table, making a living, and not getting desperate and turning to crime.

Here We Are
First comes economic pain – as we are seeing right now. Mortgage defaults, layoffs, and rising costs of living. Sales declines of all kinds are contributing to the recession, while some niche companies like survival goods are seeing spikes in sales. An ominous sign of things to come for sure.

It really is going to come down to coming to terms with reality, and making lemonade from the fact that your future may not be going according to plan. Life gets pretty scary when your monthly bills multiply like rabbits on E. Pressures will rise at work, and you might be coming home and taking it out on (Insert person or pet here). It might have been that new car you bought, or that massive mortgage. It could be the fact that you bought whatever advertisers made you and your friends think was cool, so everyone got the latest ‘thingamajig’ in different colors, with awesome add-on accessories to boot.

That’s what we’ll call “The Former Economy“. It’s all our collective fault, not any single person’s – so why not start making yourself more valuable? Now is as good a time as any to turn those useful skills you have into the ability to be happy while learning to live with less.

Can you farm?
Can you build or create useful things that help people?
Can you sell those useful things?

Now is the perfect time to learn new skills
You’ll need them. I sure see a lot of “For Sale” signs these days, and it’s only going to multiply (HINT: maybe you should wait to buy whatever you are planning on buying and get a killer deal later on.)

No matter what, remember that scarcity is a frame of mind. You still have much more than many other people, even if you have to downsize or you lose possessions. If you lose your job or your house, you are still alive and kicking enough to go earn an honest living, even if it means a temporary setback in your living standards. I’m just as vulnerable as you.

The best part about suffering is when you realize how awesome it is to redeem yourself and become a do-gooder.

Fun Bonus!
I’m always curious how people find “Lawns to Gardens”. Here are just a few search terms that have routed people to this Blog.

working jobs we hate so we can buy shit
safest place to be in nuclear war
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Peak Oil survival
Oil Shocks and economic collapse
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war with Iran
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Paris Hilton sex
Paris Hilton blowjob

What The Housing Bubble, Stock Market Crash, And Gas Shortage Means For Advertising

BOOM!

Here we go, folks. What all of us freakozoids have been warning about all along. You are bearing witness as the first turds pierce the blades of the fan as the proverbial shit hits it. The news reports keep spinning it that all is fine, and that the problems can be contained. I have been e-mailing back and forth with John Schoen of MSNBC about this for a while now, and he dismissed our conversation as speculative, writing:

It’s true that there are plenty of reasons for concern, and a number of things that could go very wrong. But, having done this for nearly 30 years, I’ve also seen a number of very plausible warnings of impending catastrophe come and go. That’s not to say they’re wrong. But when you talk about tearing the social fabric, you’re getting into Hollywood disaster scenario territory.

Well John, I’m standing by the claim that drastic emergency measures need to be taken to change course from a massive crash, especially if/when the US and Iran head into their Title Bout. I have a feeling we will swing first, even if we try to tell the judges they did.

But that is beyond the control of any single news journalist or Peak Oil / Advertising blogger. What I can tell you are the things happening in the world of Advertising.

Buyers are aware of price declines in big ticket items, so they are waiting to purchase
People who bought a house are willing to lose their deposit in order to save big money as home builders drop their prices. In other words, if the house hasn’t closed yet, people are dumping their contracts to “re-buy” the house at a new, lower adjusted price. After all, would you want to pay $400,000 for a house that is now worth $350,000? Or a car at $35,000 when you could wait and get it at $25,000? I didn’t think so.

This means businesses are going to take massive hits on profits
Some businesses are even willing to go into the red to make sales, just so they can hit their sales numbers. Eventually, heads are gonna roll in all categories: Managers, suppliers, worker bees, etc.

This means that recently laid off people will tighten their spending
And when people tighten their spending, those sales just keep on drying up like the Amazon. And when sales dry up, advertisers try all sorts of neat things like piling on incentives, blow out sales, and other gimmicks. What really matters is if the product/service you are selling is essential.

Pretty soon, top management dogs and middle managers are going to have to deal with the stinky reality of Peak Oil. It is appearing in many forms… a multi-headed hydra of a beast. Of course, the capitalists running the US can’t deal with reality like adults, so they want to go shoot people. I can understand the anger, but there are lots of understanding people out there to help deal with anger and self destruction, and maybe our politicians and business leaders should sign up for some classes.

I’m offering one, since I just quit my job working for Clear Channel. I’m flattered the company is proud of my work, and I have fully enjoyed my tenure there. Working in Corporate America certainly hardens your skin for the real world of cut throat business, and many people are genuinely nice and don’t mean any direct harm to the planet. But we all suck-suck-suck away at the earth every time we buy something, and advertising is engineered to help convince you to buy something. (Hypocrite alert: Yes, I buy things).

What we are facing is entropy, the 4th Law of Thermodynamics, and the world’s most historical case of “What goes up must come down”. No amount of “Sex in Advertising” is going to fix this one, kids. (Unless what you are advertising IS sex, which I anticipate will happen as people grow desperate for food). The only thing I’m not sure about is how long it will be before a person can get a handjob for a carrot.

Now enjoy this video.

Presidents, Politicians, And Priests: False Gods

Insomnia. It’s a frequency thing these days.

I just can’t help thinking about which of the people in this world with the power to end it will do so, and I’m not sure we’re gonna colonize space in time. Let’s face it – as oil, natural gas, fresh water, and farmland runs out, we are entering a deeper phase of scarcity, increased confusion, and rising violence. Throw in that global warming thing and we have ourselves a recipe for catastrophe soup.

Right now, we must choose whether as people of the world we will collectively fix this planet, or we will all perish. I mean, the system that keeps us fed, clothed, and transported is breaking, no matter where you live. It’s a global system, and we’re all in this together. Meanwhile, the United Nations has been reduced to a beacon of false hope as the big player countries are quickly making new alliances based on their geography, resources, and information awareness.

Here’s a thinking exercise for you: Imagine dividing up a classroom of students, and assigning them each the role of a country. The kids that are picked as China and Russia start huddling, pooling together their armies and create their own little cooperation agreements to take a stand against the kids representing the US, Mexico and Canada.

I don’t even know how to ponder the Middle East thing. Good luck to you leaders with that.

But one thing is for sure… we had better quickly figure out how to keep feeding ourselves as the oil crash kicks in – or some false God is going to end life on this planet. Or who knows, maybe we are supposed to do it by design. I don’t subscribe to any religion other than that all things are energy, and the Universe has defined sets of laws.

You don’t need to be the smartest monkey to figure out that there are too many people on the planet. Or as Phil Collins puts it:

Too many men
Too many people
Making too many problems
And not much love to go round
Can’t you see
This is a land of confusion.

I guess I’m just seeing too much violence in the world as some people are cheering on Armageddon. As far as I know, all religious texts tell you to mind your own business and if it does come, it’s not for you to say when.

And it’s not for some President of a nuclear armed nation to say when, either. Or a group of politicians. Or priests. Or a set of people who have a certain religious world view and are blind to any suggestions otherwise. Anyone can latch onto and internalize verses from books that have been translated many times, have had words and meaning twisted, and that contain cultural views from a long time ago.

But if you go deep, deep to the core of all of them, even the ones you read – the ultimate truths are presented clear as day. I choose to live by those truths, which means that even if you hate me for pointing out that humans have the smarts to fix the world rather than destroy it, I still love you too.

And for cryin’ out loud… start growing food at home, get to know your neighbors, and actively work for peace in this world.