Links to Useful sites

Selected Readings Oil Supplies Climate Discourse Agriculture
Democracy Forests Models Permaculture and ecovillages Critique of Neo-classical Economics
Alternative Energy     Sustainable Housing  

Selected Readings

See Sharon Beder home page:  http://homepage.mac.com/herinst/sbeder/home.html

Reading 1: Beder, S  2005 'Critique of the Global Project to Privatize and Marketize Energy', Envisioning a Renewable Public Energy System, Korean Labor Social Network on Energy (KLSNE), Seoul, South Korea, June 2005, pp. 177-185. 
 http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/critique.html

Reading 2: Beder, S. & Gosden, R., 2001 'WPP: World Propaganda Power', PR Watch, 8(2), 2001, pp. 9-10. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/wpp.html

Reading 3:  Beder, S. & Shortland, M., 1992 'Siting a Hazardous Waste Facility: The Tangled Web of Risk Communication', Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 1, no 2, 1992, pp139-160. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/risk.html

Reading 5: Beder, S. 1999 'Best coverage money can buy ', New Internationalist, July 1999, p. 30.  http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/media.html 

Reading 6: Beder, S. 1999, ‘From Green Warriors to Greenwashers’, PR Watch, Vol. 6, No. 3, 3rd Quarter 1999.  http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1999Q3/g2g.html

Reading 7: Beder, S. 2000 'Costing the Earth: Equity, Sustainable Development and Environmental Economics', New Zealand Journal of Environmental Law, 4, 2000, pp. 227-243. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/esd/equity.html

Reading 8:  Beder, S., 1995, 'SLAPPs--Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation: Coming to a Controversy Near You', Current Affairs Bulletin, vol.72, no. 3, Oct/Nov 1995, pp.22-29.  http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/SLAPPS.html

Reading 9:  Beder, S., 1998 'Challenging the Corporate Agenda', Renewing Australian Planning? New Challenges, New Agendas, edited by Brendon Gleeson and Penny Hanley, Urban Research Program Forum, ANU, Canberra, 1998, pp. 83-98. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/planning.html

Reading 10:  Beder, S., 1998 'Public Relations' Role in Manufacturing Artificial Grass Roots Coalitions', Public Relations Quarterly 43(2), Summer 98, pp. 21-3. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/PR.html

Reading 11: Beder, S., 2000 'The Corporate Assault on Democracy', Australian Rationalist 52, 2000, pp. 4-11. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/talk.html

Reading 12: Beder, S., 2002 'Casting Doubt and Undermining Action', Pacific Ecologist 1, March 2002, pp. 42-49. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/pacific.html

Reading 13: Beder, S., 2004 'Consumerism – an Historical Perspective', Pacific Ecologist 9, Spring 2004, pp. 42-48. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/consumerism.html

Reading 14: Beder, S., 2005 'Critique of the Global Project to Privatize and Marketize Energy', Envisioning a Renewable Public Energy System, Korean Labor Social Network on Energy (KLSNE), Seoul, South Korea, June 2005, pp. 177-185. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/critique.html

Reading 15:  Beder, S., 2005 'Digging your own grave', in The Ideas Book, edited by Linda Carroli, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, Queensland, 2005, pp. 30-39. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/grave.html

Reading 16: Brown@, Lester 2001 Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth  chs 2,3 http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Eco_contents.htm

Reading 18: Douthwaite, R. 1996 ‘Creating enough elbow room’ in his Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies for Security in an Uncertain World. Pages 1, 2 & 3 & chapter 2 panels: ‘Service sector jobs may be in decline’, ‘Japanese banks may cause financial meltdown’, ‘Bioregions or spatial fields?’  http://www.feasta.org/documents/shortcircuit/index.html?sc2/c2.html

Reading 19: Douthwaite, R. 1996 ‘Cutting the monetary tie’ in his Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies for Security in an Uncertain World. Pages 1 , 2 & 3, & chapter 3 panels: ‘Differences between local and national currencies’, ‘How LETS earnings are treated for tax’, ‘Paper currency replaces LETS in America’, ‘Cash attitudes vs LETS attitudes’, ‘The dollar that does not want to be money’, ‘Mutual currency business provides businesses with cheap capital’, ‘Why do governments let banks create money?’  http://www.feasta.org/documents/shortcircuit/index.html?sc3/c3.html

Reading 20: Douthwaite, R. 1996 ‘Epilogue: The Future, and It Works’ in his Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies for Security in an Uncertain World.  http://www.feasta.org/documents/shortcircuit/index.html?epilogue.html

Reading 21: Douthwaite, R. 1996 ‘Introduction’ in his Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies for Security in an Uncertain World, Pages 1 &2. http://www.feasta.org/documents/shortcircuit/index.html?intro.html

Reading 22:  Douthwaite, R. 1996 ‘Life from the land’ in his Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies for Security in an Uncertain World. Pages 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5, & Chapter 6 panels: ‘Last-minute hunt to save lost Irish apple varieties’, ‘Pure no more? Seed mixtures cut chemical use’, ‘Animal genes at risk too’, ‘Rural refineries required to replace oil-based chemicals’, ‘A farm where food is free’, ‘Solving the land problem’, ‘Pubs brew their own beer for only nine pence a pint’, ‘Strict rules make produce markets work’. http://www.feasta.org/documents/shortcircuit/index.html?sc6/c6.html

Reading 24:  Gilman, Robert  Spring 1983 'Mondragón: The Remarkable Achievement' In Context, http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC02/Gilman2.htm

Reading 26: Kingwell, Ross 'Oil and agriculture: now and in the future'  http://www.aspo-australia.org.au/References/Kingwell-Oil-in-Agriculture-2003.pdf [accessed 1 Nov 07]

Reading 27: Korten, David C.  1995 A NOT SO RADICAL AGENDA FOR A SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL FUTURE http://www.pcdf.org/1995/radical.htm 

Reading 29: See interview with James Lovelock
‘The End of Eden’ James Lovelock Says This Time We've Pushed the Earth Too Far By Michael Powell Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, September 2, 2006; Page C01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR2006090101800.html

Reading 31: Mayo, E. & Norberg-Hodge, H., 1966 ‘Foreword’ in Douthwaite, R. Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies for Security in an Uncertain World. http://www.feasta.org/documents/shortcircuit/index.html?foreword.html

Reading 33: Sharma, SK The Village, Gandhi and Governance  http://www.peoplefirstindia.org/9village.htm  

Reading 34: Matthew Simmons 2000 "Revisiting The Limits to Growth: Could the Club of Rome have been correct, After all?" http://www.greatchange.org/ov-simmons,club_of_rome_revisted.html

Reading 35: see Ted Trainer's web pages for additional material

Reading 36: Turnbull, Shann 2002 'A new way to govern'

It can be downloaded from http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/uploads/A New Way to Govern(1).pdf 

Academic reviewers whose university library gives them access may wish to use the "working paper" version that contains, References, Tables and Figures not in the hard copy version. It can be downloaded from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=310263

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Environmental Discourse

Rockridge Institute http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/ George Lakoff formed this organisation to apply his work on human cognition and metaphor to reframing public debates from a progressive perspective.

Playing at Catastrophe: Ecopolitical Education after Poststructuralism by Noel Gough http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/EPS/Educational-Theory/Contents/44_2_Gough.asp

'SOS' By Eduardo Galeano ZNet http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=2350

'Media Power - Manafacturing Consent' http://www.bilderberg.org/censored.htm

FAIR  Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting    'ACTION ALERT: Peter Jennings Cries Wolf' September 18, 2002  http://www.fair.org/activism/jennings-wolf.html

GMWatch.org  http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=1&page=1

'GM crops 2000: The unmaking of a genetically modified PR campaign' Sunday 21 January  2001, Produced by Stan Correy, ABC Radio National: Background Briefing  http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s231839.htm

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Models

•Simulator for Ecosystem models, including Daisyworld, forests, grasslands etc http://gingerbooth.com/courseware/pages/demos.html#daisy

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Forests

'The Timber Mafia', Four Corners, ABC TV, 29 July, 2002 - video footage of interviews, and transcript  http://abc.net.au/4corners/content/2002/timber_mafia/a>

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Climate

  1. ‘Global meltdown: Scientists fear that global warming will bring climatic turbulence, with changes coming in big jumps rather than gradually’ by Fred Pearce, The Guardian, Wednesday August 30, 2006 http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1860560,00.html

  2. CSIRO research on climate change and Australia http://www.dar.csiro.au/impacts/future.html

  3. Tim Colebatch 'Scientist's alarm on climate gas', The Age, August 4 2003  http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/03/1059849277119.html 

  4. Crispin Tickell 'Communicating climate change' in Science Magazine Volume 297, Number 5582, Issue of 2 Aug 2002, p. 737 http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/297/5582/737?ijkey=4BwspNQwbde7E&keytype=ref&siteid=sci

  5. http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/yourhome/technical/fs10.htm

  6. http://www.housing.qld.gov.au/initiatives/smarthousing/elements/environmental/index.htm

Oil Supplies

Books Energy Investment Advice Co Impacts on Agriculture & Population Alternate Energy
Overview of Arguments Official Oil Data Oil & Neo-classical Economics Newspaper Articles

2006 update

'Peak Oil Forecasters Win Converts on Wall Street to $200 Crude' By Deepak Gopinath Aug. 31 2006 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=arur.i7moHMs&refer=home#

Books

  1. John Gever et al, 1991 Beyond Oil, University Press, Colorado
    1. This is out of print and I haven’t been able to get hold of a copy yet.  However, it is extensively discussed.  For instance, they claim that once net energy analysis is taken into account, US coal reserves will be depleted (in the sense of being an energy ‘sink’) in 42 years, not 250.  It doesn’t sound like they analyse the Australian data, but I suspect there would be similar problems.
  2. Brian Fleay 1995 The Decline of the Age of Oil: Petrol Politics: Australia’s Road Ahead, Pluto Press, Australia.  Brian Fleay is a retired civil engineer and an associate of Murdoch University’s Institute of Sustainability and Technology Policy Feb 2001.
    1. Fleay argues that global oil production will peak between 2003 and 2012.  However, what was most interesting, however, was his reporting of Gever et al’s modelling of the effect on US GNP of varying estimates of domestic oil production.  While starting from different levels, the time at which decline in GNP began was insensitive to domestic production, and depended largely on the time at which world oil production began to decline.
    2. ‘Climaxing Oil: How Will Transport Adapt’ TCPA Public Lecture by Brian Fleay. Review by Alan Parker.  http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/wa/bta/pbug/1999/a>
    3. A search on ‘Brian Fleay oil’ on GoEureka will send you to online versions and reports of many papers and presentations by Brian Fleay, including the Vital Issues Seminars held by the Federal Parliamentary Library.
  3. Kenneth Deffeyes 2001 Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage, Princeton University Press.
    1. While the following authors criticise some technical details of Deffeyes’ book, they argue that his estimates of a peak in oil production around 2004 may be too hopeful.  Laherrere argues, for instance, that ‘if the present recession stays for years and extends to the world the demand will be constrained for several years.  The world oil production will flatten and the peak could be a bumpy plateau around 2000.  They agree with him, however, that ‘there is nothing plausible that could postpone the peak until 2009’.
    2. Both agree with Deffeyes’ rejection of the USGS figures.  Deffeyes describes the statistical methods the USGS relied on to produce their figures, and explains what is wrong with them (p134)

Critiques of Deffeyes’ Hubbert’s Peak

  1. By Jean Laherrere Jan 6, 2002 http://www.hubbertpeak.com/laherrere/Deffeyes_comments.pdf (very technical)
  2. By Ron Patterson, posted 21 Sep, 2001 http://www.hubbertpeak.com/deffeyes/reviewpatterson.htm

Oil Index

Articles by Simmons & Co International (energy investment advice)

If you follow the 'Energy Research' and 'Simmons News' button at the top of the page: http://www.simmonsco-intl.com/default.htm

  1. Our Energy Crisis: Is it real?  How does it get resolved? Presented to Conoco Senior Management Retreat, Mar 11, 2001
  2. 1Q01 Reported oil and natural gas production trends still waiting on the “Big Lag”, May 30, 2001
  3. Energy in the New Economy: The Limits To Growth Presented by Matthew R. Simmons to the Energy Institute of the Americas, Oct 2, 2000
  4. The North Sea: Oil production has peaked! The GOM model must come to the North Sea, Oct 18, 2001
  5. 3Q’01 Production Analysis US Production: “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” Nov 21, 2001
  6. The Middle East:  The Energy Solution Or The Energy Problem?  IPAA 2002 Mid-Year Meeting, Tucson, Arizona, 20 May, 2002  
  7. Matthew R. Simmons presented "The Global Energy Scene" at the Simmons & Company and Pareto Conference held in Oslo, Norway.21 May 2002
  8. Matthew R. Simmons presented "Is There A Gas Crisis Ahead?" to the Energen Corporation Board Retreat in Greenbriar, West Virginia. 21 June 2002s

Oil Index Ý

Overview of arguments

  1. World: Oil And Gas Industry  - Peak Oil: an Outlook on Crude Oil Depletion - C.J.Campbell - Revised February 2002   http://www.mbendi.com/indy/oilg/p0070.htm  posted on Mbendi, which describes itself as ‘one of the world's leading mining, energy and international trade websites’
  2. Oil as a finite resource: When is global production likely to peak? March 1996, Updated March 2000 by James J. MacKenzie http://www.wri.org/wri/climate/jm_oil_000.html, posted on the World Resources Institute web site
  3. The World Petroleum Life-Cycle by Richard Duncan & Walter Youngquist http://dieoff.org/page133.pdf, presented at the PTTC Workshop “POEC Oil Pricing and Independent Producers” Petroleum Technology Transfer Council, Oct 22, 1998  (detailed region by region analysis of production peaks)
  4. Jean Laherre ‘OPEC and the global energy balance’ 28 September, 2001 http://www.oilcrisis.com/laherrere/opec2001.pdf
  5. Trainer, T. 1997 ‘The death of the oil economy’, archived at http://dieoff.org/page116.htm, from Earth Island Journal, Spring 1997.  Lecturer in Professional Studies at the University of New South Wales.
    1. Trainer refers to Campbell and Laherre, Petroconsultants Pty. Ltd., 1995, their ‘World Oil Supply 1930-2050’ report written for oil industry insiders and priced at $32,000 per copy, which concludes that world oil production and supply probably will peak as soon as the year 2000 and will decline to half the peak level by 2025. 
    2. Trainer is the author of The Conserver Society, and Towards a Sustainable Economy, amongst other things.  Most of his work analyses the social and economic changes required for us to achieve a sustainable and democratic society in a world of resource scarcity.
    3. Ted Trainer Global Crisis (updated and online version of Abandon Affluence: London, Zed Books, 1985) http://www4.tpgi.com.au/users/resolve/globalcrisis/part1.html - min

    4. Trainer, Ted Sep 2003 'Renewable energy: what are the limits? http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/D74.RENEWABLE-ENERGY.html 

  6. Future sources of crude oil supply and quality considerations  by J.H.Laherrère   http://www.hubbertpeak.com/laherrere/supply.htm
  7. Alternative Energy Sources by Walter Youngquist, Consulting Geologist Eugene, Oregon, October 2000 http://www.hubbertpeak.com/youngquist/altenergy.htm
  8. The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre Newsletter no 7, July 2001 http://www.energiekrise.de/news/aspo/Newsletter007.pdf
  9. Submission to the Cabinet Office Energy Review by the The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre  2001 http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/innovation/2001/energy/submissions/ODAC.pdf  

  10. 'Myths and Realities of Mineral Resources' Copyright 1997, Walter L. Youngquist  http://www.capstone.edu/geodest/Chap27Myths.html

  11. My PowerPoint slide show on oil depletion and its implications (read the notes pages for the argument) 

  12. Karey Harrison and Ian Richards Energy Use and Oil Supply (print out notes pages for argument to go with slideshow)

  13. Youngquist, W. 1999 ‘The post-petroleum paradigm-and population’, Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Vol 20, No 4, March, archived at http://dieoff.org/page171.htm. 

  14. Brian Fleay 'Natural Gas "Magic Pudding" or depleting resource' http://www.stcwa.org.au/beyondoil/Natural_Gas_Magic_Pudding.pdf 

  15. Robinson, Bruce Feb 2003 'Australia's Oil Vulnerability'  (2002 version available at http://www.stcwa.org.au/papers/data/oil_vuln.doc )

    1. Bruce Robinson and Sherry Mayo  2006 ‘Peak Oil and Australia; Probable impacts and possible options’ Society of Exploration Geophysicists of Japan Conference, Kyoto, 27 November 2006 http://www.aspo-australia.org.au/References/Bruce/Japan/Kyoto-paper-Robinson-Mayo-2006-v8f.pdf

    2. Bruce Robinson 2008 ‘Peak Oil: Will the rate of global oil production start to decline soon? And what might this mean for WA transport planning?’ Engineers Australia, Transport Panel 27 March 2008 http://www.aspo-australia.org.au/References/Bruce/Transport-Panel-March-2008-v3.ppt

An explanation of net energy

  1. Detwyler, T. 2000 ‘Shrinking net energy from fossil fuels’, archived at http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/courses/geog100/petrol-shrinknete.htm? ,

Oil Index Ý

Newspaper Articles

BBC News Online: ‘Events: The Money Programme’ archived at http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/events/the_money_programme/1014236.stm accessed 29 September 2003

Forbes.com ‘Cheap oil: enjoy it while it lasts’, archived at http://www.forbes.com/global/1998/0615/0106022a.html

Official US figures from Energy Information Administration

EIA Long term world oil supply forecasts, based on data supplied by the US Geological Survey (USGS) http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/presentations/2000/long_term_supply/sld001.htm

BP data

'BP Statistical Review of World energy 2001' http://www.bpamoco.com/downloads/837/global_oil_section.pdf

Oil Index Ý

Impacts on agriculture and population 

  1. See Fleay, 1995, above
  2. Youngquist, W. 1999 ‘The post-petroleum paradigm-and population’, Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Vol 20, No 4, March, archived at http://dieoff.org/page171.htm. 
  3. Tony Boys, 2000 ‘ Agriculture and energy in Japan – 2000 to 2050 http://www.net-ibaraki.ne.jp/aboys/21fee.pdf
  4. Tony Boys, 2000 ‘Causes and lessons of the “North Korean food crisis” http://www.net-ibaraki.ne.jp/aboys/dprke.pdf
  5. Excerpt from William Catton Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change http://dieoff.org/page15.htm
  6. David Pimentel, Maria Tort, Linda D’Anna, Anne Krawic, Joshua Berger, Jessica Rossman, Fridah Mugo, Nancy Doon, Michael Shriberg, Erica Howard, Susan Lee, & Jonathan Talbot ‘Ecology of increasing disease: population growth and environmental degradation’, in Bioscience, vol 48, No 10, Oct 1998. http://dieoff.org/page165.htm  
  7. http://www.theecologist.org/article.html?article=313
  8. Living Planet Report http://www.panda.org/livingplanet/lpr00/a>
  9. The Global Crisis by Ted Trainer http://www4.tpgi.com.au/users/resolve/globalcrisis/part1.html#min
  10. Ted Trainer Alternatives http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/#SUMMARY_ANALYSES
  11. 'Local Food, Global Solution' in The Ecologist http://www.theecologist.org/article.html?article=313
  12. "Cuba exports city farming 'revolution' to Venezuela"  22 April 2003 By Magdalena Morales, Reuters  http://www.enn.com/news/2003-04-22/s_3912.asp 
  13. Cuba Exports City Farming 'Revolution' to Venezuela By Magdalena Morales 
    22 April, 2003 Reuters  http://www.cityfarmer.org/venezuela.html#venezuela 
  14. City Farmer: Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture
          http://www.cityfarmer.org/urbagnotes1.html#notes 
  15. Urban Agriculture http://www.dal.ca/~dp/reports/simovic2st.html 

  1. Pannell, D. 2000, ‘Salinity Policy: A Tale of Fallacies, Misconceptions and Hidden Assumptions’, http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/dpannell/dpap0008.htm, Salinity Policy Fallacies3.doc  23/10/00.

  2. Dr Ross Kingwell    Oil and Agriculture: Now and in the Future,
    http://www.aspo-australia.org.au/References/Kingwell-Oil-in-Agriculture-2003.pdf

 

Oil Index Ý

Critiques of ‘neo-classical’ economics (‘economic rationalism’ in Australia) (*in relation to energy)

  1. *Herman Daly ‘A catechism of growth fallacies’, in his Steady-State Economics, http://dieoff.org/page88.htm
  2. Margaret Kennedy Interest and Inflation Free Money, archived at http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~roehrigw/kennedy/english/a>
  3. *Charlie Richardson ‘Where do we stand in relation to Oil Supply?’ critique on neo-classical economics interpretations of oil resources http://www.ecotransit.org.au/campaigns/goodoil/supply.php
  4. Paul Ormerod 1994 The Death of Economics, John Wiley & sons, NY
  5. James K. Galbraith  ‘How the Economists Got It Wrong’ The American Prospect, Volume 11, Issue 7.   February 14, 2000. http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/print/V11/galbraith-j.html commenting on the Jan 2000 American Economic Association meeting.  Galbraith argues that the empirical evidence ‘flatly contradicts’ five of the leading ideas of modern economics.  However, these ideas ‘continue to form part of the core ideology of the economics profession, particularly as understood by outsiders. And they equally continue to underpin many economists' interventions in the policy sphere.’
  6.  Other articles I have read argue that despite its empirical inadequacy, the one virtue of neo-classical economics is its internal coherence.  My own research shows, however, that not only is neo-classical economics empirically inadequate, it is also internally contradictory.  I can show that the key assumptions that have to be true for the model to work logically cannot all be held true in the real world at the same time.  The implication of this is that neo-classical economics is politics and dogma masquerading as theory.   
  7. Money reform I did a Google search which lead to a translated link.  From that link go to Homepage: www.geldreform.de after you have used the Google link, which automatically translates the site.  The following link takes you to the untranslated site, if you scroll down the page you will find links to a number of English works online, including the whole of the text from which the Kennedy reading (16)is taken (and  for which a direct link has been provided under 'Selected Readings' above).  http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~roehrigw/a>
  8. Action on Money http://www.newint.org/issue306/action.html  (list of organisations and references.  Does not include links to all the organisations listed, although if you do a search you should find many of them.)
  9. Transaction Net http://www.transaction.net/money/a> 
  10. DOUGLAS SOCIAL CREDIT http://douglassocialcredit.com/a> 
  11. see the Naom Chomsky  archive at http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/index.cfm

  12. Hanson, .J 2000, ‘A means of control’, archived at http://dieoff.com/page185.htm, revised 15/02/2000.

  13. Garret, K. (producer) 2001, 'Natural Capitalism - A lecture by Amory Lovins', ABC Radio National, Sunday 28/01/01, transcript can be found at: www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s231834.htm

  14. Natural Capitalism web site: http://www.rmi.org/a>

  15. 'Natural Capitalism Cannot Overcome Resource Limits' Ted Trainer, Social Work, Univ. of NSW, Australia. http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/D50NatCapCannotOvercome.html 

 

Oil Index Ý

Alternate Energy 

  1. Can solar sources meet Australia’s electricity and liquid fuel demand? Ted Trainer. Faculty of Arts, Univ. of N.S.W. http://www.aie.org.au/material/trainer.htm

  2. WHY CAN'T AMERICANS SWIM IN EFFLUENT? 
    Iceland's 21st Century Energy Policy
    David Case is the executive editor of TomPaine.com.
    Editor's Note: This article is part of a series contrasting how Europe and the U.S. are addressing climate change, made possible by a grant from the German Marshall Fund of the United States. http://TomPaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/4459
  3. Alternative Energy links: http://www.webmesh.co.uk/energy.htm
  4. Home Power Magazine http://www.homepower.com/magazine/feature_article.cfm
  5. Road to Ruin:  An Interview with Jan Lundberg   http://www.culturechange.org/about_jan.htm 
       
    This site has a lot of interesting discussions on these issues
  6. Bicycles in Cuba A Fresh Wind From the South: Cuban Bike Revolution by Christian Huot  http://www.culturechange.org/issue12/bicycles_in_cuba.htm  
  7. Arcata Community Library Bike Project 
    http://www.culturechange.org/library-bikes.html     
  8. Pedal Power Produce: non-oil transport for organic food security!  http://www.culturechange.org/pedalpowerproduce.html 

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 Oil Index Ý

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Democracy

  • Read my paper overviewing the different interpretations of democracy:  Karey Harrison 'Representative vs indirect democracy: building and maintaining partipatory democracy for large organisations', 2003

  • The "Gandhian Constitutions for Free India" by Prof Shriman Narayan,
    published 1946; edited, annotated and republished by People First, 1999 at http://www.peoplefirstindia.org/index.htm  provides a model of indirect democracy that worked for 1000s of years in India before European colonisation dismantled it.

  • SK Sharma, The Village, Gandhi and Governance  http://www.peoplefirstindia.org/9village.htm 

  • We have been so often told that The Westminster System is the best in the world, tried and true, if it ain't broke don't fix it, etc. etc.  We have the best in the best of all possible worlds. 

     

    I don't think many people today believe that (if they ever did).  But the task of imagining alternatives let alone trying them out, seems so daunting even to experts in the fields of politics, management and administration, that it is much easier to accept the torpor of a conservative, let-it-be approach.  And that's what people do in droves - accept things the way they are - not because they hold any strong beliefs in the present system but simply because the alternatives seem too hard.

     

    Well things aren't really so grim.  There is a better way and its not really new.   Alongside  (but within) our modern societies, have evolved plans for different ways of organizing them.  Its possible to keep good ideas alive even over centuries, if a few keen, dedicated minds choose to do so.  Dr Shann Turnbull of Macquarie University in Sydney is a bit like a curator of an intellectual museum.  He has helped to keep a strand of alternative political thought alive and well, while most others in his field have demurred to or leapt on a range of fads that have tied up our academics and business leaders throughout the 20th century.

     

    Dr. Turnbull's book A New Way to Govern is not about some new-fangled scheme to save the world, dreamt up by an individual eccentric in an ivory tower.  From his hands-on experiences in the corporate world and in academic research he has pursued the belief that the way things are done in "management" or governance (of corporations and societies) can and need to be done a lot better.  For example the subtitle "Organisations and society after Enron" draws attention to one of the latest failures of governance in our type of social system but it could just as well be called "Organizations after the Great Depression" - the same logic applies.

    It can be downloaded from http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/uploads/A New Way to Govern(1).pdf 

    Academic reviewers whose university library gives them access may wish to use the "working paper" version that contains, References, Tables and Figures not in the hard copy version. It can be downloaded from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=310263

  • See http://home.earthlink.net/~rflyer/coopmondragon.html for information on the Mondragon Cooperatives, organised on the sort of self-management principles discussed in the articles above.
  • For more links to workers cooperative information see http://www.wiscinfo.wisc.edu/uwcc/links/workerlinks.html

 

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Permaculture and Ecovillages

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Sustainable Housing

Air conditioning and energy use

Rod Myer 'Cool air an ill wind for power', The Age, July 31 2003 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/07/30/1059480407368.html

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