http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/ Humans have tinkered with the natural world since we appeared on the evolutionary stage. Our days may be numbered: As the home team, Nature bats last. en Copyright 2008 Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:40:31 -0700 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Even though it seems we've seen the end of $4 gas, the economy is not quite out of the woods. Demand destruction and a severely constricting economy have driven down the price of oil and its distillates. But the resulting economic bounce has resembled a dead cat tossed off a skyscraper. http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/10/endgame_for_the_world_economy.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/10/endgame_for_the_world_economy.html Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:40:31 -0700 article by Paul Roberts, author of The End of Oil in 2004, which appeared in the June 2008 issue of National Geographic. But I enjoyed the resulting letters to the editor even more. The six letters published in the magazine's print version covered a wide range of beliefs, and I print two in their entirety because they represent the end points as I've come to see them.]]> http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/crash_course.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/crash_course.html Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:14:31 -0700 earlier post, it occurred to me that it might have relevance to today's political drama. So I tracked down a few essays and put a contemporary spin on the year-old post. And while I'm on the dangerous topic of politics, I predict this Thursday's debate will be canceled by an October surprise (albeit perhaps a day early). The surprise might be a family crisis for Sarah Palin (as if her family isn't, by definition, a crisis), or perhaps something bigger. And maybe the debate will proceed on schedule, the McCain/Palin ticket hoping they can just let windbag Biden repeatedly stick his foot firmly down his throat. But if the debate proceeds on schedule and Palin actually sneaks a word or two in, I'm betting the McCain campaign will spend the entire week in damage control.]]> http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/reason_four_classics.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/reason_four_classics.html Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:47:11 -0700 Dr. Day-Ruiner. Dr. IHAN (short for I Have A Nightmare, wordplay on Dr. Martin Luther King's "Dream" speech). Dr. Doomsday. Prophet of Doom. These are the names given to me by friends. They are the nicest things people call me. You can imagine what others say. http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/what_i_hope_for.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/what_i_hope_for.html Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:11:08 -0700 sensu Weimer Republic. Ben "Helicopter" Bernanke is living up to his nickname, and he's getting a loan from Henry Paulson.]]> http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/dodging_the_bullet.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/dodging_the_bullet.html Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:20:01 -0700 Clusterfuck Nation, James Howard Kunstler is asking us to place blame squarely on Republican shoulders, asking us to re-brand the Grand Old Party as "the party that wrecked America." I've got no problem blaming BushCo and his Republican predecessors for putting us in these dire straits. But I think there's plenty of blame to go around.]]> http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/the_blame_game.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/the_blame_game.html Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:42:40 -0700 presentation to a room full of Honors College students, peppered with a few faculty and administrators. The response was overwhelmingly disappointing. Seems nearly everybody in the room -- and in the country, for that matter -- wants to keep the current game going, no matter the costs. They don't view civilization as a problem at all, evidence notwithstanding, and they think the solution to our fossil-fuel dilemma is to drive less and bicycle more.]]> http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/denial_back_in_style.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/denial_back_in_style.html Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:06:34 -0700 I admit I'm a doomer. But I don't think that's a bad thing. To be a doomer is to recognize the tragedy of the human experience. http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/on_being_a_doomer.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/09/on_being_a_doomer.html Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:31:11 -0700 recent post. It occurs to me that I've given hints about my relocation efforts, but I haven't revealed the whole tawdry story in one place. This post corrects the oversight, if it was one, if you're interested.]]> http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/08/location_location_relocation.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/08/location_location_relocation.html Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:15:16 -0700 People keep asking me why the price of oil has fallen from its recent spike to nearly $150/barrel. Trust me, I'm not responsible for the price decrease. Or the preceding price increase, for that matter. I'm surprised, too. I didn't buy oil futures, and yet the price of oil fell. http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/08/destroying_demand.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/08/destroying_demand.html Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:09:16 -0700 magnus opus as the basis for a luncheon talk I'll be giving next month to kick off the Honors College's once-a-month series. Students in the Honors College were asked to read Daniel Quinn's book, Ishmael, during the summer. Below, I've attached the draft transcript of my talk for your comments. If you're in Tucson this afternoon, I'll be reading from, and signing, my latest book at the main bookstore on campus. The gig's at 4:30 p.m., and I'd like to meet you there. _____________________________________________]]> http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/08/saving_the_world_a_transcript.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/08/saving_the_world_a_transcript.html Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:46:55 -0700 The life of a social critic has a significant cost: I have many acquaintances, but I've managed to offend most of my former friends. As an equal-opportunity offender, ever willing to speak truth to power, I'm largely an ascetic. To an increasing extent, I live as we all must die: alone. http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/08/what_i_live_for.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/08/what_i_live_for.html Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:24:26 -0700 interviewed on Arizona Illustrated tonight about my latest book, Living with Fire: Fire Ecology and Policy for the Twenty-first Century. I had chatted with the program's host, Bill Buckmaster, for about 30 minutes before we taped the segment. He took a few mental notes.]]> http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/07/taking_a_turn_on_the_televisio.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/07/taking_a_turn_on_the_televisio.html Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:12:15 -0700 The price of oil did not rise to $150/barrel in July, as I had predicted. Instead, the price climbed slightly above $147 before falling to about $120. John McCain would have you believe the plummeting price resulted from BushCo's promise to drill offshore. Most economists attribute the decline to a weakening economy, although they fail to admit the profound extent of the demand destruction here and abroad. What's the first law of holes? When you're in one, stop digging. Or, in this case, stop drilling. Since I was wrong about the price of oil, my views on other issues are suspect as well. I encourage skepticism about all that follows. http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/07/what_i_believe.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/07/what_i_believe.html Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:48:13 -0700 Oh, the conundrums faced by TPTB. Consider Ben Bernanke and the other goons at the Federal Reserve Bank: They have to raise interest rates. But they can't. If they raise them, thereby strengthening the declining American dollar, they destroy any hope for economic growth. And if they don't raise them, the dollar plunges straight down the toilet (the flush kind, not the composting kind). http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/07/the_jig_is_up.html http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/naturebatslast/2008/07/the_jig_is_up.html Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:18:48 -0700