Wow. This could be a game changer, if true.

The debate has always been: can shale gas be safely extracted from the Earth without poisoning drinking water? For more on that debate, see: Gasland the Movie.

The debate was never if this was a profitable business, until now…

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Money is pouring in” from investors even though shale gas is “inherently unprofitable,” an analyst from PNC Wealth Management, an investment company, wrote to a contractor in a February e-mail. “Reminds you of dot-coms.”

“The word in the world of independents is that the shale plays are just giant Ponzi schemes and the economics just do not work,” an analyst from IHS Drilling Data, an energy research company, wrote in an e-mail on Aug. 28, 2009.

Company data for more than 10,000 wells in three major shale gas formations raise further questions about the industry’s prospects. There is undoubtedly a vast amount of gas in the formations. The question remains how affordably it can be extracted.

2011 Vermont Permaculture Design Course

Utilizing the incomparable Whole Systems Research Farm permaculture site in Vermont’s Mad River Valley, our design studio resources, and a team of leading facilitators, Whole Systems Design, Keith Morris and Lisa DePiano present the first of many permaculture design courses to be offered in the coming decades.  This certification course will be held July 31st to August 12th, 2011 at the Whole Systems Design Studio and Research Farm site. 

This course offers an unparalleled opportunity to gain hands-on applied permaculture skills immersed within one of North America’s most diverse and intensive permaculture research sites.  Participants will engage with high-performance home and community resource systems that will be more resilient in the face of problems posed by peak oil, climate change, environmental toxicity, and the inability of existing economic and social systems to deal with such challenges.

This course includes the standard certificate curriculum but goes way beyond the typical Designer’s Certification Course by utilizing the background of skills-based trainings offered in Whole Systems Skills, and information-based study.  Students in this course will not walk and is filled with practice-based, learning-by-doing experiences, not only concept away from the experience without basic post-peak oil resiliency literacy including: how to plant a tree, fell a tree, split firewood, harvest biomass with a sycthe and sharpen it, sharpen and maintain other basic tools, perform earthworks, plumb basic waterworks and harvest water, inoculate mushroom logs and spread mushroom patches and innumerable other hard skills available to us via our working homestead, farm and practitioner-teachers.

Unlike at many permaculture course, we will actually be practicing these techniques on the farm throughout the course.

Course Highlights

• Immersion and practice in one of the most sophisticated permaculture sites in North America.

• Living at a beautiful site in the heart of Vermont, in the Mad River Valley.  See more here.
  

• Ecological design and engineering pioneer John Todd anchors a team of guest instructors and visiting presenters.
  

• Field trips to regional sites to see models of permaculture strategies in action.

There will be a first-come-first-served opportunity for a 3 day applied permaculture practicum after the course where a small group of course students will have the opportunity to practice permaculture all day, each day, on the research farm site.

Course Instructors

Keith Morris – Propect Rock Permaculture

Lisa DePiano – Montview Neighborhood Farm

Ben Falk, M.A.L.D. - Whole Systems Design

Cornelius Murphy – Whole Systems Design

To learn more and register for a place in the course, please visit our website.

I was once in the camp that listed the following arguments for nuclear energy:

• It is the least evil energy source commercially available today.
• France gets 70% of its electricity from nuclear and they do a good job of keeping it safe.
• The 3 mile island accident in 1979 was completely contained and was due to human error.
• The Chernobyl disaster was due to a flawed reactor design combined with incompetence and sabotage.
• While the waste of nuclear is nasty and has enormous half-lives, new breeder reactors reduce it dramatically.

In light of the Japanese disaster, nuclear energy is clearly not worth the risk of irradiating the entire planet, our food supply and permanently damaging our DNA. Let’s help the Japanese people and put nuclear energy into the dust-bin of history with this up-coming benefit.

Source: MPG

April 11th is the one-month anniversary of the devastating earthquake-tsunami-nuclear-plant disaster in Japan. On this night at the Sala Rossa, Japanese musical artists Emi Honda, Maya Kuroki and Yuki Isami have organized a fundraising event to aid evacuees and the recovery of the area. More than 250,000 people had to evacuate their homes, and many of them lost everything from their lives. The rebuilding of damaged towns and fields is expected to be an ongoing effort for years. So many countries are already trying to help them and sending a lot of donations. All Japanese people are deeply grateful for the world’s support.

The aim of this event is to raise money for the recovery of northeastern Japan and to reconsider the role of nuclear energy in modern society, given its proven disastrous potential. The leaking Fukushima Daichii reactors are a few of 431 nuclear energy reactors in 29 countries. There are 18 in Canada alone (IAEA, Nuclear Technology Review 2010). Are we prepared to face the consequences when events such as this occur? There are many potential angles to this topic, many relating to the lifestyles we choose. We are sincerely hoping this event will serve as a forum for such discussion and all viewpoints are welcome.

Lineup for “REACTOR”

music performance:

? Tamamushi /Maya Kuroki(Dynamo Coleoptera) +Tomomi Morimoto+Alexis Farand+Martin Gauthier
http://mayakuroki.com/en/oeuvres.php

? Elfin Saddle
http://www.elfinsaddle.com/

? Yuki Isami + Reiko Yamada(composer) + Keiko Devaux
http://www.yukiisami.com/

? Aya Aikawa
http://ayaaikawa.weebly.com/

? Taikonauts
http://www.myspace.com/taikonautsdrummers

? Monday Night Choir / 20+ members multi-language singing group lead by Dina Cindric

other content:

? Talk/ Discussion with Sebastian Weissenberger (Institute of sciences of the environment, UQAM) and Pierre Jasmin (President, Les Artistes pour la paix). Interview by Geeta Nadkarni/ former CBC journalist

? Short film WURLD by Elfin Saddle
http://www.elfinsaddle.com/power/leaf/film/

? Raffle tickets / Gifts from local eco-friendly businesses
Constellation Records (record label)
Alfalfa (organic grocery store in Jean-Talon market)
Phonopolis (used record store on rue Bernard)

? “Ideas for Life” : Art & Craft & Baking sale and display

This event is Pay What You Can (suggested $10), or $20/person donation and receive a raffle ticket.

All profits will be donated to Red Cross Japan to help evacuees and the general recovery of the area.

Monday, April 11 at 6:30pm - April 12 at 12:00am
Location
La Sala Rossa
4848 Boulevard Saint-Laurent

This energy breakthrough would most likely be implemented first in parts of the world where there is no centralized electrical grid. Still, I could see many homes in Quebec choosing to live “off the grid” and install a system like the one described below.

Source: Cryptogon

Scientists today claimed one of the milestones in the drive for sustainable energy — development of the first practical artificial leaf. Speaking here at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, they described an advanced solar cell the size of a poker card that mimics the process, called photosynthesis, that green plants use to convert sunlight and water into energy.

“A practical artificial leaf has been one of the Holy Grails of science for decades,” said Daniel Nocera, Ph.D., who led the research team. “We believe we have done it. The artificial leaf shows particular promise as an inexpensive source of electricity for homes of the poor in developing countries. Our goal is to make each home its own power station,” he said. “One can envision villages in India and Africa not long from now purchasing an affordable basic power system based on this technology.”

The device bears no resemblance to Mother Nature’s counterparts on oaks, maples and other green plants, which scientists have used as the model for their efforts to develop this new genre of solar cells. About the shape of a poker card but thinner, the device is fashioned from silicon, electronics and catalysts, substances that accelerate chemical reactions that otherwise would not occur, or would run slowly. Placed in a single gallon of water in a bright sunlight, the device could produce enough electricity to supply a house in a developing country with electricity for a day, Nocera said. It does so by splitting water into its two components, hydrogen and oxygen.

The hydrogen and oxygen gases would be stored in a fuel cell, which uses those two materials to produce electricity, located either on top of the house or beside it.

UFO’s and ET’s are topics that will leave most folks shaking their heads and discounting any information that follows. But as far as I’m concerned, any technology that gets us off the addiction to “fossil” fuels and into a world of almost free and limitless energy is a good thing.

Further, it seems to be just a matter of time before world governments admit the real presence of alien civilizations and their history of contact with them. The question then becomes, how do we maintain global independence and sustainability while not becoming dependent on alien “free energy” technology.

For skeptics who discount that such energy technology could be kept under wraps, consider that many types of alternative, free energy technologies such as “cold fusion” have been vigorously discredited in the past despite them being proven as valid (see this 60 Minutes story from 2009).

The reason these technologies have been suppressed is that the permanent war economy is fueled by Oil and Natural Gas, and to make a peaceful transition to another abundant source of energy would upset the status quo that likes to control society by maintaining a state of scarcity consciousness.

Source: AOL News

The revolution in Egypt will probably repeat itself in a half dozen other countries in the near future. And while the usual suspects will be blamed (ruthless leaders, corrupt politicians, social media, people’s desire for freedom), the true cause of these revolts will be due to an unsustainable economy based on excessive debt that produced a lack of jobs, and massive food and energy inflation.

The case of Egypt should be studied well because it will repeat itself everywhere – not just in the 3rd world – until countries come back into balance and find a sustainable way to live.

Source: OpEdNews.com

No wonder then that the chief fear of Western intelligence agencies and corporate risk consultants is not that mass resistance might fail to generate vibrant and viable democracies, but simply the prospect of a regional “contagion” that could destabilize “Saudi oil fields.” Such conventional analyses, of course, entirely miss the point: The American Empire, and the global political economy it has spawned, is unravelling — not because of some far-flung external danger, but under the weight of its own internal contradictions. It is unsustainable  — already in overshoot of the earth’s natural systems, exhausting its own resource base, alienating the vast majority of the human and planetary population.

The solution in Tunisia, in Egypt, in the entire Middle East, and beyond, does not lay merely in aspirations for democracy. Hope can only spring from a fundamental re-evaluation of the entire structure of our civilization in its current form. If we do not use the opportunities presented by these crises to push for fundamental structural change, then the “contagion” will engulf us all.

Research credit: Carolyn Baker

A profound and inspiring article…I’m sure the federal reserve banking system, which lends us our own money and charges us interest for the privilege, would NOT agree!

Source: Times Online

Heidemarie Schwermer, a middle-aged secondary school teacher just emerging from a difficult marriage, moved with her two children from the village of Lueneburg to the city of Dortmund, in the Ruhr area of Germany…

“I began to realise that I lived with so many things I didn’t need. So I decided that I wouldn’t buy anything without giving something away. That’s how it started. Then I began to really think about what I needed, clothes for example, and noticed that I could easily get by with what I could hang on ten coathangers. Everything else I gave away. I had so much stuff in the house that was superfluous. Getting rid of it was a relief.”

…

Ideally, Schwermer would like to lead by example and give other people courage to change their attitudes towards money and how they live in and contribute to society. The pressure to buy and to own, she feels, has intensified in recent years. Consumerism is essentially about “an attempt to fill an empty space inside. And that emptiness, and the fear of loss, is manipulated by the media or big companies.” There is a fear, she says, that in not buying or owning an individual will fall out of society. The irony, she claims, is that material goods can never plug a spiritual hole and shopping and hoarding are more likely to isolate people than bring contentment.Does she intend to start a revolution?

“No, I think of myself as planting the seed,” she says. “Perhaps people come away from my lectures or seeing me being interviewed and decide to spend a little less. Others might start meditating. The point is that my living without money is to allow for the possibility of another kind of society. I want people to ask themselves, ‘What do I need? How do I really want to live?’ Every person needs to ask themselves who they really are and where they belong. That means getting to grips with oneself.”

Does she really think that she can convert other people to her life philosophy? “Yes, that’s our future. One day we will all live without money, because we don’t need it and because it is only a burden. We’re the way we are because it’s how the system allows us to be. We can buy everything we want but we need so much less than we realise. If you think that the capitalist system we live in now is the only system, well that’s just ridiculous.”

“We are going to run out of oil in ten years. We don’t have infinite resources. That just isn’t sustainable.” Is her own itinerant lifestyle sustainable? She thinks so.

For many Scandinavians and Europeans, skiing isn’t just a sport, it’s how they get to work.

Source: Montreal Gazette

…at Le Massif in the Charlevoix region, where a $230-million expansion is under way, green transportation is a major theme. The project, which should be completed by 2013, will offer dedicated rail service from Quebec City, gondola service from the train station to the base chalet and various types of green transportation on site (including dog sled and electric vehicles). A new hotel will be heated and cooled using geothermal and solar energy.

Mont Sutton, in the Eastern Townships, now composts organic waste from its four restaurants, buys local food when possible, provides shuttle service for its employees and guests from the village to the mountain, and encourages carpooling on its website and through occasional lift-ticket discounts. Along with five other Quebec ski hills, Mont Sutton is running an awareness program to get clients and bus drivers to stop idling their engines in ski-hill parking lots (and elsewhere).

…

So if you must downhill ski or board, and apparently many of us must, it’s important to support these changes and to encourage more. Here are some other tips on skiing green to keep those mountains white:

- Take a bus or a train to the ski hill whenever possible. Check the ski-area websites to see if they are served by bus or rail. Also check out express-ski.com,which offers bus transportation from Montreal and lift ticket deals to several ski destinations, including Killington, Le Massif, Mont Tremblant, Mont Ste. Anne, Smugglers’ Notch, Stoneham, Stowe, Sugarbush, Whiteface and Sejour.

- Carpool whenever possible. Check ski station websites to see if they offer a carpool coordination service. You can also coordinate with other skiers and find group travel deals at qc.bougex.com.

- Take your own food and drinks. Even if some resorts do offer recyclable dishes and packaging, you will waste less energy, reduce waste and save money by taking your own food in your own containers.

- Don’t idle your engine at the hill or elsewhere. It’s bad for your engine, wastes gas and pollutes big time. The vehicle will warm up faster as you drive.

- Buy or rent used equipment at places like Play it Again Sports and La poubelle du ski.

More:
- Sustainable Slopes
- Keep Winter Cool