April 5, 2005
It is quite ironic: only a decade or so after the idea of the United States as an imperial power came to be accepted by both right and left, and people were able to talk openly about an American empire, it is showing multiple signs of its inability to continue. Indeed, it is now possible to contemplate its collapse.
The neocons in power in Washington these days, who were delighted to talk about America as the sole empire in the world following the Soviet disintegration, will of course refuse to believe in any such collapse. But I think it behooves us to examine seriously the ways in which the U.S. system is so drastically imperiling itself that it will cause not only the collapse of its worldwide empire but vast changes on the domestic front as well.
April 9, 2006
Oil. We’re using it up like there’s no tomorrow. But there is.
Why is it, then, that nobody wants to talk about peak oil? We’re willing to discuss climate change; even send a tripartisan proposal to the governor in an attempt to move Vermont toward a less fossil-fuel driven energy portfolio. But the “P” word hardly ever gets any press. At what cost, this silence?
May 9, 2007
From Vermont’s founding as a Republic in 1777 until the early 1900s, its citizens were far more energy independent than we find ourselves now. The old-timers traveled and transported goods with an efficient blend of the original horse power and coal-fired steam trains. They heated largely with wood and built hundreds of small hydropower facilities—initially, mechanized mills that utilized raw waterwheel power and were later retrofitted with electric generators and complementary coal-fired steam-powered systems. Hence, the claim: “Hydro—the power that built Vermont.” Now Vermonters spend roughly $2 billion every year on out-of-state fuels for transportation, heating, industrial applications, and electricity. More than $1 billion pays for imported oil and gas alone.
May 17, 2010
A book review of Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post-Peak Oil World by Michael C. Ruppert
For me, Michael Ruppert is the Paul Revere of our present moment in history. Revere risked his life to carry news and vital communiqués to the leaders of the burgeoning secessionist movement in Boston all the way southward to New York and Philadelphia. On his historic night of “alarming” the countryside en route to the Lexington homes of the secessionist leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, a sentry confronted him and asked Revere not to make so much noise. “Noise!” exclaimed Revere, “you’ll have noise enough before long.”
December 9, 2010
Our world is in the midst of an endless list of crisis scenarios related to politics, the economy, credit, the environment, healthcare, security, human rights, energy, water, food, and the list goes on and on. Yet there is some reason for optimism, particularly related to our potential to transition to sustainable and clean energy systems. The world needs sustainable, decentralized clean energy as a foundation upon which communities can build sustainable, decentralized, and strong economies.
January 8, 2014
When the military scientists of an advanced technological nation deliberately explode their largest nuclear bomb (and 66 others) over Pacific islands and use the opportunities to […]
February 17, 2014
In 1969, Vermont took a vanguard role in the emerging environmental movement. The law known as Act 250 was a landmark attempt to preserve the state’s […]
February 17, 2014
As a Waitsfield citizen, parent and school board member for more than a decade now, I am writing in support of preserving our annual Vermont town […]
February 24, 2014
I know that many people in this movement for secession and decentralization are libertarian-leaning, and are invested in the movement because of their dissatisfaction with overreach […]
March 10, 2014
Current events in the Ukraine are reaching a global crisis level that needs to be discussed. The United States and EU have initiated a war for […]
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