Letters to the Editor
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one thing's for sure
well organic/sustainable agriculture sure can't keep the world in cheeseburgers. better develop a taste for lentils, folks.
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Leverage Science
Kuntsler is great. Odd his first book was on the failure of the suburbs, and it was about community and architecture. But the books fit well.
Yes, we have to leverage the scientific discoveries we have, which gives us an advantage over 400 years ago or 100 years ago. But that will still mean returning to some older methodologies. I don't see a contradiction. I don't think science will be able to solve all our problems, or provide the incredible energy of oil. When I bicycle to work, am I returning to the "past?" That way of looking at things is just plain lame.
For instance, the World Bank has made Bangledesh an export economy that sends shrimp to London, while Bangledeshi's stave. This will have to be overthrown. The Bangledeshi's will get to eat ... shrimp, if the hurricaines don't get them first. They live below sea level and they have ruined the protective mangroves to raise ... shrimp.
I again point to Cuba as a laboratory in the real world of a whole country dealing with peak oil ... now. And they don't have solar powered tractors yet. Of course, in the U.S. we would hope to have more assets than poor countries - after all we raped them for it.
How about this, we can raise fresh water Tilapia fish in tanks ... in the basement. I understand they are vegetarian, and produce 1.8 output to every 1 input. They are not endangered. Science!
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luckily, the us is prepared.
our foresighted leaders enacted the guano islands act in 1856:
"Whenever any citizen of the United States discovers a deposit of guano on any island, rock, or key, not within the lawful jurisdiction of any other government, and not occupied by the citizens of any other government, and takes peaceable possession thereof, and occupies the same, such island, rock, or key may, at the discretion of the President, be considered as appertaining to the United States."
http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/48C8.txt
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In China, it is called "night soil"
Night soil is human manure, and it is commonly used in Asia as fertilizer. Ours tends to go into the rivers, and then into the sea, which oddly enough is where much of our fertilizer goes (as agricultural runoff). We need to start thinking of our planet as a spaceship, where we recover the nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium we need to the extent possible, rather than flushing it away.
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@Elydog
When I bicycle to work, am I returning to the "past?"
No, of course not. Bicycling is not returning to the past, it's exactly what I've been talking about. It's a modern, intellegent application of appropriate technology. If everybody lived close enough to their job to bike or walk to work, and did, or even if everybody who does live close enough did, we wouldn't have an energy crisis and the fuel saved could be used for really important things. Like growing hops and barley.
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@froggy: NY Agriculture and Local Food
I hope you're still reading because this might be the link you're looking for:
http://www.aem.cornell.edu/research/researchpdf/rb0207.pdf
There must be a more popular press version, but this is the long form--81 pages! Very cool research and worth at least a good skim.
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Who Says That 6 Billion People Is A GOOD Thing?
I hate to say it, but there are just waaaay too many people on the planet, and the earth's resources cannot support us indefinitely. A big die off would probably be a good thing in the long run. I know that's a fucked up thing to say, and I struggle with the idea myself, but I really think this is something we have to face up to as a species.
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Re: nightsoil
Marshall,
in the US it's called humanure and zoning laws are the only thing keeping it from being the perfect fertilizer for growing human food. Here's a link where you can read about processing it:
www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.html
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froggy, you read about that research Right Here
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/10/09/population_and_diet/
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@ andgraham: That 'rational allocation' isn't so simple.
andgraham wrote
I disagree that land shortages will be an issue[...]Eventually, changes in land use will reflect the best uses and you will probably have plenty of grazing land if it is needed. Commercial development/people and farms and grazing will occupy space accordingly.
During the massive post-WWII suburbanization in this country a vast amount of highly productive farmland was built over. That process usually destroys the qualities of the soil that made it productive in the first place. Because soil is a complex, dynamic ecology that evolves over very long times, it is not as simple a matter as tearing down the strip malls, office parks and tract housing developments. The resulting open space will need many years of careful remediation to return to a sustainable, productive state. Given that we can expect this will take place in a resource-restricted economy, it will take a great deal of careful, creative thinking to bring this about.