Megalomaniacs Anonymous

Enlightened Self-Interest

2006-07-23T07:45:00.000Z

The idea of enlightened self-interest is common to most spiritualities and religions: in a nutshell it is the idea that by performing an apparently selfless and altruistic act, someone is in reality directly looking after their own interest.

Buddhists know the concept as Karma - that the act of helping another will return in some subtle and different way to the helper, although at the time there appears to be no immediate reward for the action.

Christianity takes a similar view with a slightly different emphasis: that those who actively pursue what at first appears to be their own self-interest will suffer for it, but those who pursue the interest of the greater 'whole', asking for no reward for themselves, will find to their surprise that they benefit directly from their actions at some later stage:

"Whoever seeks his own will pursues his own glory; yet whoever seeks the will of the one that sent him, the same is true, and yet there is no unrighteousness in him"

"Whoever loves his life shall lose it - and whoever hates his life in this world shall keep it in the next"

The one single force in the world which consistently provides for another without asking anything for itself is nature. Nature has provided humanity with all the bounties which have enabled us to become the enlightened species that we have, apparently in control of our own destiny. We have taken freely from nature.

What reward does nature have from this? Apparently nothing at first glance: yet now there are 6 billion of us on the planet, and nature's bounty is becoming depleted. It is becoming obvious that nature holds all the cards: if humanity is to survive, we must live within the boundaries which nature imposes. Yet the extent of these boundaries has been determined by the extent to which we have taken from nature, without taking care to replenish as we go.

Very soon the creed of greed will hit a brick wall. Those who have unremittingly pursued their own self-interest will suddenly find that there is no more to be had. Yet for some people, there will be a surprise benefit.

Some people will be prepared. Anyone who over the past few years has listened to the concerns about global warming, and acted upon them, will suddenly find themselves in an advantageous position. Although cutting energy use, and spending hard-earned cash on solar panels, wood burning stoves and home insulation, would seem at first glance to be an altruistic act which has little immediate reward, there is an extremely direct personal reward waiting further down the line.

Because as the big surprise becomes apparent - that although global warming is a huge threat, the greater threat is simply the exhaustion of fossil fuel supplies - those who made sacrifices earlier on will suddenly find that their solar panels, wood stoves etc give them heat and light whilst others, who have all the time been pursuing a much more selfish agenda, will have to go without.

When the crisis hits, the rush for renewables will exhaust the ability of suppliers to supply them, and those who do manage to get hold of the technology will pay a huge price for it. Meanwhile, those who acted simply to look after the planet will be quite comfortable and empowered - and rightly so.

But there is still time, for those who can read the writing on the wall. The power cuts and job losses are on their way. We all need to be thinking about what happens next.

One thing is for sure - the only way to survive will be in co-operation. The power of community can see us through. But only if we all act in the interest of the greater whole - in the new resource-poor world ahead, 'everyone for themselves' will be the way to destruction.

Love and peace,

Solar Bud

Merciful Release

2006-07-15T00:49:00.000Z

Yay! My apocalyptic album is finally available for general worldwide purchase, from Absoluteness.

It's a small thing, but means a lot to little me . . .

Lovely summer, innit. Bit hot sometimes, tho - but the eletric storms make up for it!

A Thought For Easter

2006-04-16T18:52:00.000Z

I found this excellent article over Easter, which pretty much echoes my own take on things:-

Every Good Friday since 2004, I remember the crucifixion by watching Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ on DVD. Since becoming aware of Peak Oil, something about the movie really stands out. It’s the way Gibson portrays Satan. It’s totally different than Hollywood’s typical depiction of evil. Gibson’s interpretation of Satan isn’t a little girl with her head spinning around, hissing and vomiting pea soup, but an androgynous character who is attractive to both men and women. Gibson’s Satan doesn’t announce a demonic presence by the smell of brimstone or some gaudy, outlandish attire. He isn’t shrill or threatening and doesn’t menace or portend harm. He lurks around unnoticed in the crowd, blending into the background. He whispers gently in your ear instead of shouting. He is the seductive voice telling you that you really need that Hummer H3, the compact model that gets 13 miles per gallon instead of 8 mpg. Gibson’s Satan is the one in the driver’s seat of our modern, petroleum-based civilization careening toward the cliff that is Peak Oil while we all look out the window and enjoy the scenery.

Since I became aware of Peak Oil and accepted it as reality, I see Gibson’s Satan everywhere.

Today, most politicians tout their pro-growth economic policies. Can you imagine a politician running for office on a no-growth economic plan? Of course you can’t. Why? Because the assumption of economic growth underlies everything we do today and how we plan for tomorrow. The term “investment” would not exist if we took away the assumption of continual economic growth. Without economic growth, entire industries go away. Corporations disintegrate. Millions of jobs and family nest eggs disappear. It’s no wonder almost all politicians are afraid of Peak Oil. Our leaders in Washington and the corporate special interests who keep them in power can’t even imagine a no-growth economy let alone start planning for it.

When I see politicians talking about pro-growth economic policy as the Peak Oil clock approaches midnight, I see Satan smiling.

We recently moved into a new house and we had to transport all the “things” we have accumulated over the years. Of course, we “needed” many more “things” after we settled into our new nest.

I heard Satan whisper in my ear, “you deserve more nice ‘things’ Neal. Go out and accumulate more material goods. That’s what will really make you happy.

”Today, we debate the teaching of “intelligent design” in our schools. How did it all begin? Our earth is too unique, too perfect for life to be an accident. God must be the creator. No! Keep God and religion out of our schools! Don’t distort science with religious ideas! But wait. The Book of Revelations talks about a judgment day where wars, famine, pestilence and natural disasters bring the human race to its knees. Hey, isn’t that exactly what Peak Oil and Climate Change will do to us? Why aren’t we talking about how it might end for us in the classroom? It seems like the Bible and science are on the same page there.

When I hear rancorous political debates about teaching “intelligent design” in our classrooms, I hear Satan laughing.

Many Evangelical Christians believe abortion is THE political issue of the day. Should abortions be legal before the first trimester? No way! That’s a baby! That’s murder! Life begins at conception -- the moment the sperm and egg meet. But why not before conception, when the sperm is trying to find the egg? It intends to find it. That must be life. Hey wait, the first time I looked into my wife’s eyes, I wanted to have a child with her. Doesn’t life begin there? Let’s get real. We are never going to figure out what to do about abortion. There are way too many grey areas to get entangled in – rape, incest, birth defects and the mother’s health come to mind. Not to mention that making abortion illegal will not necessarily even reduce its incidence. I admire people’s compassion for innocent, unborn life. But context is everything. A world without fossil fuels can’t support anywhere near the 6.5 billion people on the planet today. I’m not saying we should abort more babies to reverse population growth. My point is the abortion issue is a gross misallocation of our time and energy considering the future we are heading into. Why can’t we all agree on some common sense ideas to reduce unwanted pregnancies so we can devote the bulk of our energy toward saving our civilization from collapse?

When I hear Evangelicals obsess about abortion, I hear Satan whispering “rock-a-bye baby” in their ear.

Then there’s the Terri Schiavo case. I’m confused. Were those political charades about keeping one clinically brain dead person alive? Or was that about keeping all clinically brain dead people alive? No? But I thought it was about the sanctity of life. What about clinically brain dead people with no health insurance? Should we keep them alive? If so, where should hospitals send the bill? Given the immanent baby boomer demographic bomb, the rising cost of healthcare and growing ranks of the uninsured; that’s going to be one humungous hospital bill.

When I saw the political opportunism in the Terri Schiavo case, I saw Satan conducting an orchestra of the absurd.

What about gay marriage? Marriage is a sacred institution and needs to be protected! How dare them there fags make a mockery of marriage! Hold on a minute. A gay couple can’t reproduce. If there are more gay marriages, won’t that lower the population growth? What was that I said about population pressure, resource depletion and habitat destruction in the Book of Revelations?

When I heard Senator Rick Santorum say that gay marriage was a “threat to our civilization” I knew Satan wrote that speech.

Today, NASCAR is the most popular sport in America. I used to love NASCAR as a kid in the 1970s. I remember watching Richard Petty and Kale Yarborough race on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. But since I discovered Peak Oil, I find NASCAR’s popularity dark and ironic. We are talking about 30 cars plastered with advertisements, driving at insane speeds for 500 miles in a circle and ending up where they started. Usually, at some point in the race there is a spectacular, multi-car crash. Isn’t a NASCAR event the perfect metaphor for the destiny of our consumerist, car-centered culture? By the way, do you think NASCAR will still be the national sport when we are rationing gasoline?

When I see NASCAR on T.V., I see Satan in the stands cheering.

Every day 30 million Americans listen to Rush Limbaugh on the radio. Rush never talks about problems and solutions. He spends most of his show demonizing liberals and cheerleading for his ideological views. Listening to his show is like listening to a 3 hour political commercial. Rush’s popularity has given birth to a counter force in political hack radio – Air America, the liberal, anti-Rush channel. When you consider the tragic costs of bad public policy decisions today, partisan political radio is a disaster for America. It feeds our egos with divisive rhetoric when we desperately need to come together as a country. It is also a vehicle for disinformation about our energy situation. Rush Limbaugh used to say on his show, “There is more oil in the world than we can possibly ever use.” Recently he has backed off that bizarre claim. Now he spreads lies like, “If the wacko environmentalists would let us drill in protected U.S. areas, we wouldn’t be dependent on foreign oil.”

When I hear Rush Limbaugh on the radio blaming our energy problems completely on environmentalists, I hear Satan saying “dittos Rush.”

Speaking of environmentalists, denial is rampant among the hard-core Greens. Do these people really think we are never going to drill in ANWAR so that we can protect the caribou? I’ve got bad news for the Greens. When Americans start loosing their jobs and life savings because of Peak Oil, we will be drilling in the Grand Canyon if there is any oil there.

When I see environmentalists block new oil exploration everywhere thereby giving defenders of the petroleum military industrial complex an easy scapegoat, I see Satan patting them on the back. Now we come to the Devil’s Thanksgiving Day dinner – the “War on Terror.” The Iraq War is the scrumptious, hot gravy poured on top of 9-11 – the delicious, freshly sliced turkey breast. The Middle East is an immaculate table setting for this demonic indulgence with 2/3 of the remaining oil right there where the three major religions started. Hundreds of years of religious conflict combined with a mother-load of the magic fuel that feeds the world economy, a tasty treat indeed for the Prince of Darkness.

When I remember the horrible events of 9-11, I see Satan salivating at the head of the table waiting to feast on more warm flesh.

What are we doing in this supposed war? We have zero chance of rounding up and/or killing all the “terrorists” in the world. This is because they are in every country and we don’t know who they are or where they are hiding. Is there someone with a roster of all the “terrorists” in the world so we can check them off one at a time? If there were such a thing, that roster would be growing like a cancerous tumor. It’s just common sense that the more Arabs hate America, the more terrorist recruits al Queda has available. How is America doing in the polls on the Arab street? And we want democracy in Saudi Arabia? I can just see the al Queda party candidate running against the Bush family friend – Prince Bandar. Can you say ARAB OIL EMBARGO REDUX? With all the blood and treasure we have spent on this project you would think after five years somebody would demand evidence that we are making SOME progress toward SOME goal. Nope, we just let it go like it is somebody else’s problem. Yet at the same time the “War on Terror” consumes the attention of our media and our national psyche. Do we torture or don’t we? Should the government spy on us or not? Should an Arab country run our ports? What about the weapons of mass destruction? Was there a link between Saddam and Al Queda? Our collective energy is getting sucked dry by a phantom menace when at the end of the day it’s about the oil stupid! Where would we be if every word uttered and dollar spent on this Middle East quagmire was instead focused on an Apollo or Manhattan alternative energy project? That is exactly where we would be if Bill Clinton could have kept his inner demon in his pants. I have to believe Al Gore would be leading a “War on Oil Dependence” instead of a “War on Terror.”

Every time I hear President Bush give a speech on the “War on Terror” I see Satan doing an end zone dance and spiking the football.

I could go on with more examples of Satan in the driver’s seat – the national debt, lobbyists run amok in Washington, America’s get rich quick/gambling culture, internet pornography, Fox [propaganda] News – you get the idea.

So when will Jesus take the wheel? That depends entirely on the version of Jesus most of us decide to worship and follow.

Inevitably, Peak Oil means we are headed for some very tough times. History shows us that when societies are stressed, religion is easily perverted and used as a means to control people or advance evil agendas. On the other hand, we can find real answers to our energy dilemma in the teachings of Christ. We will all have serious moral and spiritual choices to make soon. This is especially true for the wealthy, powerful and privileged among us.

I’m not a Biblical scholar but it makes perfect sense to me that a “way of life” that contradicts most of what Jesus stood for is not something that will stand the test of time. God (i.e. nature) simply will not allow us to run an economic system and culture that requires us to live collectively like locusts much longer. Our wakeup call is coming. Peak Oil and Climate Change will force us to spiritually evolve or suffer the inexorable laws of nature until we “get it.” The longer we fight this reality, the greater the cost in human tragedy. We are indeed in a war but the enemy is inside each and every one of us. If we are God’s children and the earth is God’s school, our fossil fuels dilemma is the final exam.

So my fellow children of God, here are the questions for our final exam:

Will we follow the Jesus who defends the wealthy and our materialistic way of life at any cost or will we follow the Jesus who wants us to reassess our definition of success and reinvent a new way of life that bring us in balance with our finite planet?

Will we elect more Tom Delays or more Roscoe Bartletts?

Will we worship the Christian Crusader Jesus or the Prince of Peace?

Will we accept chaotic oil wars in the Middle East hoping for the rapture to save us or will we work together to build a sustainable energy future for our children and grandchildren?

Will we follow Satan’s front man posing as Jesus or will we surrender our heart and soul to the real Jesus and honor his sacrifice with good works and deeds?

How are we doing so far? In my mind, not good but it’s way too early for a verdict. In a strange way watching Mel Gibson’s Passion every Good Friday gives me hope that we will pass God’s test. Much was said and written about the violence in Gibson’s film. There were also fears about the film generating an anti-Semitic fervor among Christians. That fear turned out to be totally unjustified. Every time I watch The Passion I realize why. Gibson’s choreography of Christ’s suffering gives me an overwhelming feeling of humility and sense of self-reflection. After experiencing on film the price paid for my sins, as a Christian the last thing I think about is passing judgment on someone else. I think about how I might live more like Christ lived. This is exactly what Gibson intended. It’s also a timely reaction to a work of art in today’s world.

Symbolically, Gibson’s fist is shown in The Passion nailing Jesus’ hand to the cross. He did this to show his own culpability for Christ’s suffering and death. This movie was obviously very personal for Mel. He believes Satan had the upper hand in his personal battle with addiction. Overnight, Gibson was handed what most Americans dream of – a lifestyle of the rich and famous. But the more he ate of the good life the emptier he felt. There just wasn’t enough. Deep down Mel must have felt we all need to be saved from ourselves or he wouldn’t have risked millions of his own money to make this powerful movie. The popularity of Mel Gibson’s Passion has made him a cult hero among Evangelical Christians. Gibson’s next movie to be released the summer of 2006 is Apocalypto, about the collapse of the Mayan Civilization. Here are the quotes from the trailer:

“A great civilization is not conquered from without”

“Until it has destroyed itself from within”

“When the end comes”

“Not everyone is ready to go”

Perhaps this is another timely spiritual message from Mel, especially for all the rapture-ready Christians in America: An up close and personal view of what a collapse of a civilization looks like. Hope lives fellow Peakniks!

Budding Talent

2006-01-20T00:00:00.000Z

A big 'hello' to another SolarBud in Canada, an awesome solar pyrography artist. I've added a link to his fascinating site of beautiful and striking artwork.

Apologies for the lack of posting recently, but, well, no point in repeating myself, is there . . . ?

My first album will be commercially available soon, hopefully. Just with a distributor for approval. Fingers crossed!

Children of the Evolution

2005-10-08T09:44:00.000Z

A fascinating article by one of the original discoverers of 'permaculture'. Here's an excerpt:-

The die off scenario is actually the whole end to the development of intensive, settled agriculture, civilization and industrialization—all of the last 6000 years swept into the dustbin of history. What goes with that is a very large drop in human population in a relatively short time, like 100 years—possibly back to some sort of hunter-gatherer type of organization, with a much depleted resource level and without the capacity to use the resources we would can use now. And, you get a complete regrowth of wild nature and you get that cycle starting again, but without the possibility of it going to the fossil fuels stage. But even that I don't think is the end of the human story. Given that fossil fuels represent hundreds of millions of years of stored energy—effectively the surplus of the abundance of Gaia as a self organizing organism, the living earth. You could say that now we've dug it all out again, in a way we've done nature's task—humanity's task is now over. We've put it all back into the atmosphere, recycled all the biological elements, and nature will now use that to develop to a higher level of energy. And humans will just be swept away in that.

So it is possible, and I'm not being fanciful, if you have a look at how big fossil fuels are, as the earth's storage of energy, you see that we are talking about a dynamic that is geological in scale. It's actually even bigger than the ice ages. So it's silly to discount the possibility of any order of change that humans have experienced before—even the ice ages are smaller than what we are now involved in.

That's at the God level, perhaps. That's for the earth to decide, anyway. We can't do anything about that, we're not God, we're not Gaia, yet we're understanding systems at a scale which are well above our capacity to have any influence over. We just have to worry about what it means to be human and to continue to attempt to live out that story.

Stone Alone

2005-09-22T10:04:00.000Z

An old friend of mine, Nick, once said in a moment of clarity, "Let's start a religion. I'll be God!"

This week I noticed this article, basically proposing the need for a new nature-based but technological religion, where nature is our sacred provider and technology is the key to accessing power from it.

So it's not just me, then!

The End Is Nigh

2005-09-01T10:24:00.000Z

. . . is the title of another excellent post on deconsumption.

I think it was William Blake who wrote, "The truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believed"

Runaway Global Warming

2005-09-01T09:20:00.000Z

. . . is not necessarily as bad as it sounds.

When public figures talk about "Runaway Global Warming", what they reallly mean is that the climate is out of the control of the human race.

It does not necessarily mean that the warming trend would continue exponentially, only that for a period of time we would be on the receiving end of the natural conclusion of the trend we have created. We would only have to endure a period of tribulation with the environment directly proportional to the offences committed against that environment.

In other words, if we can endure the results of our own mistakes, then we will be able to progress once again as a species. Not necessarily fatal.

This is why the "Wrath of God" is actually fairly tame in comparison with the "Wrath of Emptiness" - because it comes to chastise and to correct, not to destroy.

Death of a City

2005-09-01T08:31:00.000Z

The best coverage I have found anywhere of the tragedy in New Orleans is on Ran Prieur's excellent blog.

May Nature forgive us all.

We Can't Afford Our Gasoline

2005-08-30T09:18:00.000Z

. . . is the title of this clever and amusing flash movie.

Well, what a week. Oil above $70/barrel, and Hurricane Katrina destroying New Orleans and killing people. My other half and I watched "The Day After Tomorrow" for the first time the other night, then turned on the news to see the USA being battered by a huge hurricane.

"The Wrath of God", some might call it. But as global warming is "anthropogenic" - human-induced - perhaps this destruction is more of a lesson in how we can be gods: if we are battered into submission as a result of our apalling disrespect for the planet we inhabit, then perhaps we will learn to take responsibility for our own existence here.

Traditionally, the Wrath of God came upon people who had behaved badly and abused their special status as favoured species on Earth. It came to chastise and to correct. Perhaps we should take note, and change our ways. Perhaps it is just that the largest polluting country in the world is currently being battered and humiliated on international television - by nature itself.

Fame at Last!

2005-08-16T09:19:00.000Z

The local press seem to have picked up on my little home Green Cottage recently.

A couple of weeks ago the local BBC station GMR interviewed me, today I am in the Manchester Evening News and tomorrow I will be on Channel M - the local TV station for Manchester.

I just hope that the fortune follows soon!

Green Fingers

2005-08-10T08:44:00.000Z

Here's a brief description of my little back garden, reproduced from the Powerswitch forums:-

"I live in a terraced house, but I've still managed to cram a fair bit in.

I have some raised veg beds with potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, onions, peas, beans, sweetcorn and stuff in, which seem to have done OK. I have a mini-greenhouse which I've tried to grow peppers in, but those have failed dismally this year.

Apart from the storage space I've set aside for logs for my wood burner, most of the rest of the garden is given over to herbs and fruit trees - I have an apple tree and a pear tree. I also have a few non-edible bushes and flowers and the like, for a bit of biodiversity. You need flowers in any case, in order to get the bees in, to pollinate your fruits etc.

The only other things I have are a blueberry bush, a raspberry cane and a grape vine. I like the idea of low-maintenance fruiting plants, which just produce food every year without effort like planting and harvesting vegetables.

I'm currently digging a small pond too - I'm hoping to get some toadspawn in the spring. I desperately need an organic remedy for the thousands of slugs and snails which I get every year, especially when it gets wet! Toads would be the ideal answer. "

The New Ageless

2005-08-10T08:38:00.000Z

My new E.P. is now available for download.

Enjoy!

The Fate of Ancient Sunlight

2005-07-20T18:19:00.000Z

. . . is my new track, featuring samples of Dr Colin Campbell of ASPO. Now available on the new e.p. "The New Ageless" (first track).

Enjoy!

I Seed it Coming

2005-07-14T18:39:00.000Z

A few good articles on the web today, one from the BBC News site talking about the design of future cities. It seems that China will have to house an extra 400 million people in the next 12 years (!!!!), and has decided to use the opportunity to build seven new cities from scratch.

The lucky guy who gets to design these cities is doing so right down to the molecular level, integrating all aspects of human life so that the cities are largely self-sufficient and in tune with the environment. Features like methane cooking gas, generated from sewage, roof-top gardens and more, are all included in the design. According to the BBC article, the cities look like gardens of Eden.

The second article is from the Deconsumption blog (which I have now duly added to the index on the right), and is a superb analysis of the singularity which awaits humanity in the not-too-distant future. The author shows our present condition as analogous with the coming of age of a wayward teenager, and posits that, as in the evolution of a single individual, the challenge will 'separate the wheat from the chaff' - the latter analogy once again invoking the imagery of a great harvest from the Revelation of St John.

I was delighted to read that that author thinks it inadequate to describe the coming evolution of the species merely as a spiritual evolution - the spirit (being a person's motivation and disposition) certainly being a part of it, but some extremely material changes are also going to have to take place. As usual, the whole of the change will be greater than the sum of the individual facets to that change.

Finally, a very interesting analysis of wind power from the Institute of Science in Society. It seems (oddly enough) that the wind blows exactly when we need it: "in winter when the wind blows, the chill factor goes up and so does the need for electricity; in summer just when everyone is returning home for their tea in the early evening that’s when the onshore winds obligingly come into play.”

There seem to be a lot of these 'natural homeostats' - another example might be a wood stove. When the air temperature outside the house drops, it creates a greater pressure differential between the firebox of the stove and the top of the chimney, resulting in a greater draught through the stove, which in turn makes the fire burn hotter - automatically, just when you need it. Another example might be a solar thermal collector, which heats your stored water throughout the day during the winter months, giving a maximum base load for the wood stove to top it up when you light it in the evening.

A good day for reading. Plus my solar hot water system gave me my first warm shower today, after only 4 hours of collecting on a cloudy afternoon after power-on!

Santiago Dreaming

2005-07-14T16:14:00.000Z

In correspondence today with Harry Beer, son of an old teacher of mine called Stafford Beer, I was directed to an old Guardian article about "Cybersyn", a project Stafford was working on back in the 1970s with Salvador Allende of Chile, and which was never finished due to Pinochet's coup.

It was an amazing project, a kind of "socialist internet, decades ahead of its time". Stafford was a remarkable man, and a very influential thinker.

I've written a new dance track on the subject of Stafford, entitled "It's the Beer Talking". It's the third and final track on the new e.p. "The New Ageless" (download link on the right). Enjoy!

Gone Solar at Last!

2005-07-12T13:55:00.000Z

At last I have my solar hot water system installed. The electronics aren't wired up yet, but the panel is on the roof, and people are banging around in my loft installing the plumbing as I write.

It looks great. It'll be even better if it works!

Schsorry Guys

2005-07-04T10:11:00.000Z

I take it all back about Schnews. Today I found an excellent article about making biodiesel on their website - a link from a new web site called Greenpowered, which I have added to the links on the right hand side of this page. Looks very interesting, especially the 'how-to' section where members can add their home-grown alternative energy systems design.

Here is a description of my own wood-fuel heating system, originally posted on Powerswitch:-

I have a 10kW stove with a back boiler for hot water and also central heating which heats my little house thoroughly from top to bottom. I have a radiator in every room.

The DHW cylinder (a large one with a second coil in the bottom for solar when I get it!) is in the room above the stove so it heats up by convection from the stove with no pump. There is an overflow radiator connected to it on the chimney breast in the bedroom.

This is handy because it means that even during a power cut half the house will still be heated (living room\ main bedroom) by convection and radiation and I will still have a full cylinder of hot water.

On the return pipe from the cylinder to the stove is a pipe thermostat set at 70 degrees centigrade which is connected to a pump which pumps water round the radiators. So when I first light up the stove, it heats the water cylinder as a priority, but when the fire goes out at night, the pump to the radiators switches off with the falling temperature, so that the insulated cylinder still gives piping hot water in the morning.

". . . And I Feel Fine . . . "

2005-07-01T14:20:00.000Z

More Biblical apocalyptic references today, this time in the latest ASPO newsletter. Who would have thought it. But then, as Albert Einstein (someone also fascinated with the relationship energy enjoys with matter and information) famously said,

"Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind".

Meanwhile, the tone of the mainstream British press is getting more and more urgent in regard of climate change, and the Government's message to the people is: "do it yourself!"

"Do it yourself". Now, why on Earth didn't they just say that in the first place?

A Real Pea-Souper

2005-06-28T08:57:00.000Z

The plot is getting so thick, it's becoming completely transparent. Further revelations about the American military-industrial complex's involvement in the World Trade Center attacks from former MI5 spy David Shayler, combined with detailed information from former weapons inspector Scott Ritter about the forthcoming US invasion of Iran.

Just when the whole Peak Oil issue is starting to come out in the mainstream media, along with the implications for the global economy. Barely a day goes by without some new revelation about it all.

I suppose a point will come when reading about it all ceases to have any meaning or use, and growing food and chopping firewood will become priorities for the majority. I have a feeling that the next 12 months will see some huge changes in public attitudes around the world - if not downright panic in some quarters.

Shocking

2005-06-24T21:37:00.000Z

Here are some amazing photographs of the beautiful but terrible phenomena sweeping across Britain in this new climate-changed age . . .

The Harvest of the Earth is Ripe

2005-06-24T15:30:00.000Z

Well, it looks like it's finally happening. Oil above $60, refineries maxed out because they can't cope with all the low-quality high-sulphur oil coming onto the market as 'light sweet' production capacity is reached, and doubts that we will get through this winter without supply problems.

Rising prices of petrol, heating oil . . . you name it. Peak Oil is here. All the main headlines are energy-related, from British Gas putting up their prices by another 15%, to British Airways slapping more fuel surcharges on flights.

And on it goes . . . electric storms and flash floods after the second heatwave in a fortnight . . . power supplies getting cut off to thousands of homes . . . villages getting swept away now every year on a regular basis . . .

What can it all mean?

On this Day . . .

2005-06-22T08:00:00.000Z

. . . in 1941, Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, taking Josef Stalin completely by surprise.

Hitler proclaimed that the mobilisation of the German army in "Operation Barbarossa" would be the "greatest the world has ever seen".

But, in the fashion of true megalomania, he underestimated his enemy, and the defeat of his army at Stalingrad marked the beginning of the end of the Third Reich.

To this day, though, the name of Adolf Hitler commands a fascination seldom, if ever, repeated throughout history. Truly one of the great megalomaniacs of all time.

Kill and Cure

2005-06-19T10:52:00.000Z

On the subject of the misinterpretation of Christianity, and in stark contrast to the article mentioned in my last post, this story on the BBC news site tells of a Romanian nun who died recently during an 'exorcism'.

She was schizophrenic, and apparently the Romanian Orthodox priest decided that she was possessed by the devil, and should undergo exorcism by crucifixion, during which she died.

The priest, apparently, is unrepentant, saying that she has been freed from her ailment, and that his methods are standard practice in Romania.

Odd that religion should get such bad press in the world, isn't it.

Power to the People!

2005-06-15T16:50:00.000Z

I found today on Ran Prieur's excellent blog, a link to a piece about Jesus' 'Third Way' of militant nonviolence.

It's very rare that I find a piece on Jesus so spot-on in its understanding and analysis. Anyone remotely interested in spirituality and the value of human being is highly recommended to read it.

It is sad that there is so much misinterpretation and misunderstanding of Jesus' message today, even (and sometimes especially) amongst self-professed 'Christians'. It is so true that faith denies both knowledge and understanding, and yet sometimes it is all we have to cling to in crises for which we are unprepared.

Of course, it is a faith that knowledge and understanding will come later - even if that should be after death. In reality, knowledge and understanding do come later, as a product of experience in the form of wisdom. There seems to me to be no reason to suppose that the experience of death itself does not bring its own wisdom. Certainly, each of us will experience death in some way or another every day of our lives.

But life still goes on . . .

Inside the Job

2005-06-13T15:17:00.000Z

Well, well - a former Bush team member, the chief economist in the US Labor Department, has now said that he thinks the World Trade Center attacks of 11th September 2001 were an 'inside job' and controlled demolition.

Attacking your own country from within - that's proper megalomania. Especially when your own country has the largest and most dangerous military establishment in the world . . .

The plot thickens!

Moron Greed

2005-06-13T10:01:00.000Z

. . . sorry, that should be "More on Greed" - over on the Energy Resources list. The era (error?) of capitalism continues unabated . . .

> If greed is not self interest, consider this. Average
> wages for an American in 2001 where $29,000.
> Obviously, if you make more than this it must be
> greed, right, unless you refuse your pay raise or
> donate it to the government for taxes. (of course, I
> have now idea what you make, but I don't make that
> much). I say greed can make the whole pie bigger by
> creating new products and ideas that improve peoples
> lives.

I make around £12,000 p.a. - not sure what that is in $US. One option you haven't considered is that you accept your pay rise, then reduce your working hours so that you can spend time chopping logs, growing food and looking after your family. Or use the extra money to pay off your mortage and other debts, and then quit your job to do the above.

Wanting to have enough to live on comfortably isn't greed, it's natural. But after a certain point, more material possessions actually begin to reduce the quality of life, rather than improve it - I'm sure you're familiar with the concept of diminishing returns. That's why I work part-time, and spend my spare time on the above activities, rather than earning £24,000, driving a big car, and jetting off around the world three times a year. In the long run, those things turn out to be liabilities rather than assets. Self-interest lies in moderation, not greed.

In reality, the "pie" from which we all must eat is our resource base. I fail to see how greed can increase the size of our resource base. Shortage of supply is the underlying reality behind human economic existence on Earth.

Maybe you can illustrate for us some circumstances in which one person taking part of someone else's slice of the 'pie' has resulted in a product or idea which has improved the lives of people across the globe, irrespective of status, to make your point more clearly.

> It is not greed which has driven our existence on
> earth to the brink of catastrophe, it overpopulation.
> The societies guiltiest of overbreeding are those that
> have the fewest capital resources. Even in the USA,
> it is generally the poorest that have the largest
> families. Is this coincidence.

No - it is no coincidence. Poverty is the flip side of greed. You can see it in the Middle East, where a few greedy people hoard the wealth they accumulate by selling off their country's natural resources, and do not use it to lift their people out of poverty. This means that ordinary people, instead of being able to rely on a health care system, education etc to support them, need to have families as large as possible to support them. Where you find greed, you will find poverty and overpopulation. You need to look at *why* people have a lack of capital resources. Is it because they have been disenfranchised by the greedy? Eskimos don't have many capital resources, yet surely they have one of the most sustainable lifestyles and lowest birth rates around! How do *they* figure in your argument?

I am not a communist, or even a socialist in the traditional sense, but an interesting case in point would be China, a country built on anti-greed,pro-equal distribution of wealth principles. A country which has brought its birth rate right down by introducing state controls on birth. By your reckoning, their policies should result in overpopulation. In fact, those countries with the highest birth rates are those most closely affiliated with capitalism. Greed needs poverty in order to exist, just like murder needs a victim. Excess in a greedy society requires slave labour elsewhere.

Again, Russia, after a century of socialism, has one of the fastest declining birth rates (and indeed populations) in the world - more so than the USA. How do *they* fit into your argument?

> Keith and Mick said "I'm free to do what I want any
> old time." By that definition, greed is not a
> violation of freedom.

By that definition, neither is murder! Do you have a scientific definition of 'freedom' for us here?

>> > Greed is the violation of freedom, and, as the book
> > says, the wages of greed
> > are death - either of the society, or of the
> > individual, or both.
>

> This is Roman 6:23. The correct quote is "For the
> wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal
> life through Jesus Christ our Lord." You should be
> embarrassed when an atheist catches you misquoting the
> book.

I wasn't making a quote, just communicating a truth. It is clear from elsewhere in that book that greed is a 'sin' - i.e. a crime against both one's self and one's neighbour:-

"You shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour." - Exodus 20:17

Jesus said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." - Luke12:15

I refer to that book as a reference for the truth, not vice versa. The fruits of greed are self-evident on our planet and in our society. Just look at the burden the 'diseases of the rich' put on our otherwise awesomely equipped health care systems.

I read a good quote recently:- "capitalism is a very well-organised system,the purpose of which is to turn natural resources into garbage". And as anyone familiar with systems theory will know, "the purpose of a system is what it *does*".

>> > Thus, self-interest (i.e. life not death) lies in
> > moderation rather than greed.
> >>

> Modern governmental agencies attempted to distribute
> food to famine areas for free. What incentive do they
> have to hurry food to the famine area. I think food
> would arrive much faster in an uninterfered with free
> market. However, the government steps in and
> interfers with the marketplace to appease the people
> who feel they are being cheated. This discourages
> people who would otherwise speed food to the famine
> area. But don't take my word for it. Thomas Sowell,
> Basic Economics, Pg 40.

In your example, what would the starving people pay in exchange for food?

Who are the people you say 'feel they are being cheated'? People who are starving to death?

I haven't read Sowell's "Basic Economics", but I would suggest that basic human decency says that if people are starving to death, you feed them. And then provide them with the means to prevent the situation arising again.Well, as long as that doesn't result in your starving to death yourself, of course. Am I wrong? Who knows - they may even return the favour one day.

Dig for Victory!

2005-06-12T13:12:00.000Z

For a quick guide to feeding yourself all year 'round from your back garden, have a look at this wartime leaflet from the Ministry of Agriculture.

The parallels between post-cheap-oil Britain and wartime Britain go on and on. We may well resort to coal liquefaction for transport fuels, too.

Maybe a bit of the 'wartime spirit' and healthier, less wasteful lifestyles wouldn't do us any harm at all.

The Creed of Greed

2005-06-07T23:03:00.000Z

I don't know about you, but personally I'm sick to the back teeth of the old capitalist "greed is good for you" argument. Here's what I had to say to someone peddling that garbage over on the "Energy Resources" list:-

> Is self interest a bad thing? Eliminating greed (self
> interest) could in fact resulting in a not caring
> about the self, to the extent that concern about
> continued existance may not matter.
> Do rich industrialists create more good by investing
> in jobs or giving away their resources?
>

This is the confused thinking which typifies the classic capitalist argument. Greed is NOT the same as self-interest.

In times of hardship in a society, the penalty for greed is death. When resources are so scarce that they have to be rationed, and co-operation is the only path to survival, the greedy are normally eliminated by the majority for endangering the viability of the whole. It is greed which has driven our existence on Earth to the brink of catastrophe.

Stafford Beer, the eminent cybernetician and advisor to Salvador Allende of Chile (the former democratically elected president) amongst others, defined freedom as "the maximum autonomy available to an individual without threatening the viability of the system as a whole", where viability means the capability of independent existence.

Greed is the violation of freedom, and, as the book says, the wages of greed are death - either of the society, or of the individual, or both.

Thus, self-interest (i.e. life not death) lies in moderation rather than greed.

Mother of all Brick Walls

2005-06-01T16:26:00.000Z

People accuse me of pessimism on a regular basis. It was therefore a big shock to me to read this thoroughly concise online presentation about Peak Oil, and discover that in fact, in the cold light of day, things are actually quite a lot worse than I had imagined.

Not for the faint-hearted. But I was consoled by the fact that most of the recommendations the author makes are measures that I have already implemented at home.

Sometimes being right is the worst feeling in the world. I suppose that's why politicians are happy to make a career out of being wrong.

Can You Dig It?

2005-05-28T08:45:00.000Z

I was chatting with a colleague the other day about all the new airport facilities being built in the UK, and the new roads too, and we were wondering how on Earth we are going to be able to get rid of it all and reclaim the prime arable land underneath after the oil peak.

No fossil-fuel powered diggers . . . fancy digging up a runway with a pick-axe? No - me neither.

We came to the conclusion that the best way to do it would be to plant trees as close to the tarmac/concrete as possible. Over time, as the trees grew, their expanding roots would destroy the road/runway, and do all the hard work for us. Obviously trees have the advantage of atmospheric cleaning and wood-fuel and building material by-products.

And for a while, we would have beautiful tree-lined motorways and runways :-)

Apeakolypse Now!

2005-05-28T08:36:00.000Z

Looks like the dogs-on-strings brigade have cottoned on to Peak Oil. The above-titled article has appeared as the main story in "Schnews", the 'underground' direct action community rag.

Who knows? They may even take time out from drinking cider and creative composition of their jobseeker's diary to get a job, buy (or build) a house and fit it out with energy efficiency and renewable energy measures. But hey - it's probably easier to wait until their Local Authority fit out their Council flat with the stuff for free, innit.

Down with the system.

Green Fingers

2005-05-27T19:05:00.000Z

Looks like there might be hope for the free market after all. It seems that now everyone with a garden, no matter how small, can buy everything they need to turn it into their own little slice of paradise.

This BBC article details how - and notably mentions that a survey of gardeners 'aged 15 to 34' reveals that three-quarters of home horticulturalists refuse to use chemical pesticides. It looks like a new generation is being brought up on permaculture and organic farming in their own back yard.

Very fortunate really, as backyard farming is going to be essential after the peak in world oil production. The cry is being echoed across the pond, where proposals are flying around to turn the cities into farms. Truly growing food locally seems to be a pre-requisite for power - it passes the crucial test of being something which is not just good for one, but is good for all.

Once we have planted our food in the spring, grown it in the summer and harvested it in the autumn, we need to store it for the winter. An obvious method is freezing, but if the power fails, you're going to go hungry after your little store de-frosts! Other ways to store food include drying and canning . . . those of us with cellars could be lucky! (I am not one!)

The Kraken Wakes

2005-05-23T14:28:00.000Z

Interesting that in this BBC poll asking what readers of that news site want to see more coverage of, the "peak in oil production" has already taken about a third of overall votes (15:22 GMT May 23rd 2005).

Looks like the underground is going mainstream. And the mainstream always ends up in the ocean . . .

World Kilowatt Dollar

2005-05-18T10:24:00.000Z

The celebrated scientist Buckminster Fuller wrote a book called "Operating Manual for Space Ship Earth", and in it he proposed a global currency based upon energy. The currency unit was to be the "World Kilowatt Dollar".

Interestingly enough, this essay on that fantastic site Energy Bulletin seems to be proposing exactly that. An incisive and exciting prophecy for the new meaning of monetary value.

Another example of the "New Improved World Order" (NIWO) in action . . .

You can actually get "World Kilowatt Dollars" from the World Service Authority (along with your World Citizen's Passport), but I'm not sure who actually takes them, if anyone. Perhaps the WKD's day is coming soon, though.

A summer chill

2005-05-17T10:13:00.000Z

It occurred to me that after climate change stops the Gulf Stream, winters for UK residents may end up actually being warmer than summers.

Summers will resemble Siberian summers in their chilly beauty. However, it is during the summer that you must chop and stack wood to dry out for use the following winter. If you burn all your wood in the summer, you might freeze to death in the winter. But in winter, you chuck on the fuel and get the house as hot as you can, so that the bricks will hold the heat.

So we might end up shivering in July, and saying, "brrr . . . can't wait for winter!"

It's only natural

2005-05-16T19:45:00.000Z

Well, it seems that even Oxford University (mind you, what do they know?) think that renewables are the way forward for the UK. I have always suspected that it takes a genius to state the obvious.

Amazing how statistics are 100% context-dependent. Like the fact that wind farm opponents point out that currently wind only supplies 2% of Britain's electricity. If for some reason we suddenly lost access to the Russian gas we are hoping will supply 70% of our power by 2020, then wind would suddenly supply a much larger proportion of our power, and all of a sudden people might be very grateful for it.

Mind you, David Bellamy, the opposition's major spokesman, is getting increasingly desperate these days. I wonder if he has a solar collector on his roof. It seems that the biggest threat to Britain's flora and fauna is . . . climate change.

If the hat fits . . .

2005-05-16T18:53:00.000Z

You're lucky. Mine didn't quite fit and I damaged the chin-strap, so had to have a frenuloplasty today.

Bit sore, but otherwise highly recommended to anyone suffering from strangulation of the bishop during holy communion.

The power of modern medicine! Actually, the nurse advised me that this particular operation has been performed since Roman times. Was very impressed with the new non-opiate-based general anaesthetic, too. Had an appetite for a ham sandwich immediately upon 'coming round'.

Big thanks to my girl Gaynor who has looked after me today. I'm lucky there - she's a star. Rewired the pipe thermostat to my wood stove after the installer had done it wrong. My kind of woman!

Return to the Source

2005-05-15T15:41:00.000Z

. . . no, not a psychedelic club night for 'yoghurt-weavers', but an article on Peaknik's blog explaining God's relationship with people in the context of the coming global crisis. Satisfying backup for my theories about a religious/spiritual connection with the forthcoming energy and environmental crises.

It seems to me that the connection between religion and nature is a fundamental one. As religion concerns one's own fundamental nature, it seems obvious to me that there can be no separation between the nature of one's self and nature in general.

Looks like that in the next world, physical power (energy) and political power will be one and the same. Prometheus unbound, indeed. Better get rubbing the metaphysical sticks together.

Energy from Brimstone?

2005-05-15T15:26:00.000Z

Readers may be entertained by this thread I started over at the peakoil.com discussion boards.

Everyone who added a comment could easily be a member of Megalomaniacs Anonymous, I reckon.

Love and peace, (wo)man!

Energy Farmers

2005-05-15T15:14:00.000Z

I read an article recently (can't remember where it was, unfortunately) that struck me with its simplicity.

It pointed out that true human civilisation began when we stopped being hunter-gatherers and became farmers, nurturing nature for our own purposes using an infinitely sustainable cycle.It then pointed out that the industrial revolution made us hunter-gatherers again; this time of energy resources. We are still in that hunter-gatherer phase of seeking out and consuming nature's bounty wherever it may be found, and the fruits are fossil fuel deposits.

In order to progress once more to civilisation, this time a global technological civilisation with a global consciousness born of a global communications system (the internet), we must once more become farmers - this time of energy. Renewable energy exploitation is to the next phase of human evolution what the first crops were to the last.

Welcome to the Group

2005-05-15T14:19:00.000Z

Hi, I'm Solar Bud, and I'm a Megalomaniac.

Whether you believe that power is power like James Howard Kunstler, or that power is love like Wizard Prang, its eternal allure is difficult to ignore. Deep down, everyone wants a crack at megalomania, but of course the mundanities of life tend to take precedence - and quite rightly so, of course.

I was fascinated by the megalomaniacal tendencies of the Project for the New American Century, so I decided to try to undermine them with a Project of my own, the Project for the New Celtic Century. The hit count is just under 700 at the minute, so taking over the world is running a bit behind schedule. I have even tried to calm the Muslims.

My latest effort involves brainwashing people with music, but I haven't had much feedback so far. Either the effort has resulted in catatonia or euphoria - or it is possible of course that it hasn't resulted at all.

Of course, one way of looking at megalomania is that it is simply a passion for being able to do things - as in personal empowerment. A true megalomaniac though seeks not just what is good for one, but what is good for all. After all, the power of spiritual fusion is second to none in potency.

So, these pages are dedicated to the pursuit of power in all its forms. Best to be upfront about it, I think.