Rob Olason's Blog – December 2009 Archive (5)

"Here is my thesis: were all US cities to decide collectively that energy transition on an urban level had to commence at once, the embedded advantages of Philadelphia would suddenly become glaringly obvious."



Echoing Transition thinking, Macdonald argues that innovative responses to energy decline needs to happen at the city level. He believes that a mayor of a city in major economic decline is the likely candidate to propose bold new approaches. And such a mayor, and such a city… Continue

"Let’s walk through the logic. The most reasonable estimates suggest that, given a crash program and the best foreseeable technologies, renewable sources can probably provide the United States with around 15% of the energy it currently gets from fossil fuels. Since every good and service in the economy is the product of energy, it’s a very rough but functional approximation to say that in a green economy, every American will have to get by on the equivalent of 15% of his or her current income.… Continue

Italian Community goes "transition"

The BBC tackles reality programming in a documentary that measures how much electrical energy a family uses by the number of pedaling cyclists required to supply the electricity.

The shocking take away: 80 long distance riders can't keep up to a family of four.


One Long Ride

From the homepage of their website:



"Incredible Edible Todmorden aims to increase the amount of local food grown and eaten in the town. Businesses, schools, farmers and the community are all involved. Vegetables and fruit are springing up everywhere. Public flower beds are being transformed into community herb gardens and vegetable patches."



This is a really interesting holistic approach to involving a community in "resilence building" around food production.…



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