How to Set Up and Run a Bicycle Repair Company
Posted by Chris Vernon on November 19, 2009 - 10:14am in The Oil Drum: Campfire
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: bicycle, green business, repair, transportation [list all tags]
1. Introduction
Many of the articles that discuss the causes and effects of humanity's unprecedented energy use are entirely theoretical, offering little practical guidance for the everyday reader.This essay offers respite to all the people who confront our collective energy problems with a furrowed brow and an expression that is puzzled by the continuous stream of theoretical insights that explain our current circumstances. This essay confronts our collective energy problems in more practical terms - with an adjustable spanner and a puncture repair kit at the very least.
Enter the Elephant
Posted by Nate Hagens on November 15, 2009 - 10:45am in The Oil Drum: Campfire
Topic: Sociology/Psychology

In The Happiness Hypothesis , psychology professor Jonathan Haidt compares human brain/behavior to a man riding an elephant. There exists a complex choreography between our newer rational cortex (the 'man'), and our older, more primitive brain structures (the 'elephant'). His point was that our brains can accomplish amazing things when we mesh our analytical abilities with our baser emotions and impulses, but that quite often the 'elephant' (our limbic and reptilian cores) unwittingly assert their dominance, and in the process override any rational, reasoned intentions. In aggregate we are a society that has become both habituated to and confused by 'more facts'. After writing about, thinking about, and interacting with others about the challenges society faces with respect to resource depletion, I am becoming convinced that confronting the 'man' with facts, although necessary to better understand our predicament, will be almost completely ineffectual when it comes to altering our course.
Below the fold I posit that before any meaningful mitigation towards energy, environmental and social challenges occurs, facts will become secondary and accessing raw emotions will be required for change.
In effect, exit the man, enter the elephant.
Take a deep breath
Posted by Nate Hagens on November 11, 2009 - 7:27pm in The Oil Drum: Campfire
Topic: Sociology/Psychology
Tags: social psychology [list all tags]
The following is a brief guest commentary by an anonymous TheOilDrum reader on coping with general limits to growth anxiety.
If you have your own Campfire topics generally related to resource depletion, please email them to the editors.

What "Lower Consumption" Means
Posted by Nate Hagens on November 5, 2009 - 10:06am in The Oil Drum: Campfire
Topic: Demand/Consumption
Tags: consumption [list all tags]
Note from the author (Dan Allen): As a high-school teacher, I wanted to give my thoroughly-industrial, suburban-NJ students a more detailed peek at their upcoming post-industrial future. I felt the need to challenge their prevailing mindsets regarding our resource-depletion predicament: the “shorter showers & change the light-bulbs” crowd, the “engineers will surely come to our rescue” folks, and the “problem? -- what problem?” people. This essay and the before/after comparison chart that follows are part of my ongoing (unsanctioned) attempts at doing so.
Tricking and Treating the Future
Posted by Nate Hagens on November 1, 2009 - 9:50am in The Oil Drum: Campfire
Topic: Environment/Sustainability

We live in some pretty incredible times. The realization that we have borrowed so much from the future (US current deficit is 41% of expenditures!!)that we'll likely not be able to pay it back using our current economic model and existing wealth distribution is slowly starting to dawn on people. At times the implications seem overwhelming. But this Halloween Campfire post is a quick reminder that despite our massive challenges, (and that we are human, imperfect, and mortal) - we can find joy, fun, meaning and satisfaction in many everyday, low throughput ways - we just have to decide to do so. That's both the trick and the treat.
Meeting Energy Decline Part-Way - Potatoes?
Posted by Nate Hagens on October 28, 2009 - 7:20pm in The Oil Drum: Campfire
Topic: Miscellaneous

Before 1999 I had never grown a thing in my life except for chia-pets. I then bought a house in North Carolina which had an existing smallish garden of cherry tomatoes, spinach and blueberries, which over the next 4 years, I turned into a 360 square foot garden with numerous geometric shaped raised beds. This introduction to gardening was more of an art form to me - I didn't care about the end result so much. Fast forward 10 years and I have a larger, more serious garden. In addition to kale, corn, garlic, eggplant, tomatoes, wormwood, peppers, squash, beans, and peas, this year we planted 10 12 foot rows, 6 25 foot rows and 2 40 foot rows for a total of 330 row feet of potatoes. This post is about the energy return from my 15 bushel basket harvest and substituting gardening, at least at the margin, for fast neural hijack.
America 2.0 By Jay Hanson
Posted by Nate Hagens on October 25, 2009 - 10:30am in The Oil Drum: Campfire
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: jay hanson [list all tags]
Though it may not be apparent to most, we are in the social crisis of our era. It is becoming increasingly clear we won't be able to service our large and growing debts in relation to the existing infrastructure and geopolitical landscape. How this and the myriad social, environmental and energy related issues get prioritized will require incredibly tough decisions, ones that will only get tougher the longer we delay.
Planning for Water Contingencies
Posted by Gail the Actuary on October 21, 2009 - 6:14pm in The Oil Drum: Campfire
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
We know that fresh water is essential to life. While we can survive for weeks without food, even a few days without water can be a problem. One rule of thumb as to the amount of water needed for drinking is two quarts (1.9 liters) per person per day. If one includes uses other than drinking, obviously more is needed.
In uncertain times, the question is what, if anything, we should be doing with respect to backup planning for water. We can think about this question on both a short term and longer term basis. In some instances, the issue may be more one of supplemental water (beyond what the city system is willing/able to provide) for irrigation of crops.

The Speech Obama Needs to Give
Posted by Gail the Actuary on October 18, 2009 - 10:30am in The Oil Drum: Campfire
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
This is a guest post by R. Daniel Allen Ph. D. Dr. Allen teaches at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in New Jersey.

Campfire Open Thread
Posted by Super G on October 10, 2009 - 7:35pm in The Oil Drum: Campfire
Topic: Miscellaneous
Lots of the TOD staff are here in Denver for the ASPO-USA meeting. Consider this a Campfire open thread.

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