You may have heard some simple but plausible arguments to the effect that climate change is not really happening. Actually, some of the "arguments" aren't even arguments, they are assertions (e.g. "It isn't happening"). Other statements actually make use of real facts. These include the following: 
If you can get past a few anachronistic elements (for example, language that we now consider sexist) a lot of practical information can be gleaned from retro-techno resources like this 1940's article from the Popular Science archives (right).
Did you watch the television news during the Thanksgiving weekend? Seems like it was all about [Christmas] shopping and how retail sales are so important to our economy.
Have you noticed that a lot of people are using the term "sustainability"?
There are consequences to that kind of behavior.
In an earlier post, I told of how the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has set up a program in which builders can achieve third party certification on standards of environmental sustainability. This is known as LEED certification.
While not always using its proper name, I've addressed the startling concept of peak oil before in this blog. In previous posts, I've recommended The Party's Over, sometimes referred to as the quintessential peak oil book, and Blind Spot, a remarkably well-done 86-minute online video that addresses both the seriousness of peak oil and the reasons why people are only beginning to become aware that it is (or will be) a reality.
If you haven't been able to find the time to read The Party's Over, or watch Blind Spot, I'm offering you an eight-minute alternative today. The title, 91•86•90, probably won't grab you, but if you can get past the somewhat monotone narration, this is another well-done online video with a peak oil focus.
Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Chris Hedges released a column on the Truthdig blog this morning that is not for the faint-of-heart. I will now quote Mr. Hedges - remember, you've been warned.[W]e sit passive and dumb as corporations and the leaders of industrialized nations ensure that climate change will accelerate to levels that could mean the extinction of our species.
In the past when civilizations went belly up through greed, mismanagement and the exhaustion of natural resources, human beings migrated somewhere else to pillage anew. But this time the game is over. There is nowhere else to go.
The accelerating disintegration of Arctic Sea ice means that summer ice will probably disappear within the next decade. The open water will absorb more solar radiation, significantly increasing the rate of global warming. The Siberian permafrost will disappear, sending up plumes of methane gas from underground. The Greenland ice sheet and the Himalayan-Tibetan glaciers will melt.....
The safe level of CO2 in the atmosphere, [NASA scientist James] Hansen estimates, is no more than 350 parts per million (ppm). The current level of CO2 is 385 ppm and climbing. This already guarantees terrible consequences even if we act immediately to cut carbon emissions.
They are not endowed with human decency or compassion. Yet their lobbyists make the laws. Their public relations firms craft the propaganda and trivia pumped out through systems of mass communication. Their money determines elections. Their greed turns workers into global serfs and our planet into a wasteland.
The CEO of British insurance giant Lloyd's has just released a paper which predicts that the economic calamities we've been facing over the last few years are minor when compared to what is coming soon. Our global economy is based on the concept of growth and growth depends on energy, cheap energy to be exact. Therefore, when the paper predicts that the price of oil will soon hit $200 per barrel, the ramifications add up to a lot more than just a higher price at the gas pump.
As Dr. Ward admits, it will be difficult for many people to accept how bad he expects things to get. He acknowledges that the truly "bad times have not yet hit."
And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died.
-Revelation 8:8-9
Is something wrong with this picture? Has BP's CEO, Tony Hayward, lost any sleep over this? Does he have a conscience?
"We're stuck up a cul-de-sac in a cement SUV without a fill-up" James Howard Kunstler
So begins The End of Suburbia, a film that was regarded as alarmist and overly pessimistic when it first came out. However, in the last six years, many things have happened that might make reasonable people change their minds.
While higher energy prices, and higher prices for the products that use energy in their manufacture or distribution may have left many looking for somebody to blame, others are questioning if the so-called "American Way of Life" is sustainable or not.
A number of experts who appear in The End of Suburbia make a strong argument that the suburban way of life is not sustainable. In fact, it doesn't even appear to be enjoyable with all the long commutes, the traffic, and the expenses of maintaining a large house on a large lot, far away from the other places you need to go.
In addition to the large costs that suburbanites are shelling out, there are other costs borne by the taxpayer. Not many people realize that the wires, pipes, roads, and other infrastructure that make suburban living possible are subsidized with taxpayer dollars.
And isn't there something dishonest about the very essence of suburban living? The romantic names of subdivisions attempt to evoke an intercation with nature. But isn't it obvious that development itself is what is slowly but steadily using nature up and paving it over?
Instead of leaving the attentive viewer cowering in fear, The End of Suburbia leaves us with possible solutions. In particular, something called "The New Urbanism" is discussed.
Thanks to Top Documentary Films, you can watch The End of Suburbia right now!
If you've been following the news lately, you've heard a lot about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, I heard that BP's own shareholders are trying to sue the company.
One commenter posted to Snagfilms his belief that Heinberg's scenario was silly because if he didn't have any gasoline he would "just walk." It seemed like a strange and uninformed rebuttal to me. He completely missed Heinberg's point.
Juxtasposed amongst the footage of interviews with various experts, are American scenes, some rural, some urban, some suburban. Together they serve to reinforce the idea that we've built some enormous structures and enormous vehicles. How well do you think the United States will do when the price of oil goes back up over $100 per barrel?
Above: Even with oil at $70-$80 per barrel, our airlines are struggling.
The dramatic increase in population over the past 100 or so years could not have happened if not for agricultural and medical practices that require fossil fuels. Although the numbers appear to be rounded off, this graph speaks for itself. 
Roscoe Bartlett is not only a Congressman from Maryland, but also an award-winning scientist. He is one Republican who was embarrassed by the "drill, baby, drill" slogan that was promoted by some of the less-insightful members of his party during the 2008 convention. In Blind Spot, Representative Bartlett says that "we will transition [away from fossil fuels]; the question is whether we do it on our timetable or on geology's timetable." I wish that more politicians would speak the truth like that. 
