04 November 2011 »
In books, catastrophism, food, hindu, luddite, magick, overpopulation, ovo, prohibition, religion
ACME, you remember, was the company that made all those safes for Coyote to drop on the Roadrunner. If only it were that simple.
Everyone simply can’t go “back to 1911″ – there wouldn’t be enough energy there to support our wasteful habits. The last viable population density must’ve occurred, in fact, around 1911. After that – the crowd. The utopian reversionism I’m proposing, I guess, is only possible for a self-chosen elite.
Petroleum was a rare commodity in 1911 – like whale oil today. Stoves burned wood – a renewable resource. Plant an acorn, reap a cord of fixed sunlight. I’m not saying everyone should to it now. I’m saying that we – carefree luddites – will burned wood in our ornate victorian stoves, while everyone else poisons themselves with petrol & electricity.
The alchemists tell us that not all forms of heat are simply the same calories delivered by different tech. The heat of a brooding hen, heat of a manure pile, heat of a woodstove – & the heat of a nuclear reactor disaster – are qualitatively different, not just quantitatively.
Woodfire has been used since the cave people discovered fire. It comes from heaven (as lightning) – it warms the Zoroastrian temple in Persia, the Vedic sacrifice in India, the Celtic bonfire on May Day, the outdoor barbecue invented by buccaneers on Hispaniola. Woodfire is basic everyday magic. It transforms food alchemically. It alchemizes the domestic hearth. It engenders visions. It is the body of the djinn.
Frankly we no longer care very deeply about the end of the world. It’s too late for “everyone” to go on gulping down oil & shitting out pollution. The only solution to the energy crisis is voluntary poverty, as Ivan Illich used to say – so the secret is to learn to enjoy it.
Frenchfry oil, wind power, solar panels, nuclear power plants – none of them will allow the whole world to go on sucking up oil & other forms of dead energy like us Americans in 2011 – like it’s “going out of style” (which it is) – so let’s just do without it, & revert to 1911, comrades. Abandon the suckers to their doomsday scenarios (Rapture, Global Warming, Peak Oil, band, whimper), & stoke up your ACME woodstove with aromatic pine, & sit around it all winter with the complete works of Balzac, Scott, Dumas, Stevenson, Proust. Roast some apples. Simmer your poppy-head tea. Dream on.
16 May 2009 »
In overpopulation
Towards environmentally sustainable populations
Optimum Population Trust
18 April 2009 »
In overpopulation
“Overpopulation is the only problem,” said Dr. Charles A. Hall, a systems ecologist.
Worst Environmental Problem? Overpopulation, Experts Say
07 August 2008 »
In overpopulation, socialism
the one-child policy has been a devastating failure that was based on a shaky assumption: namely, that the world is overpopulated, and so reproduction must be controlled. Additionally, “one-child” is an example of a social-engineering program that was launched to correct the unintended consequences of an earlier social-engineering program that encouraged large families
WendyMcElroy.com: China’s One-Child Disaster
20 July 2008 »
In blog, overpopulation
Save a life by not starting one
Don’t Have Kids!
10 April 2008 »
In overpopulation
The agent of Japan’s death is simple: depopulation.
Captain Cassowary: The Hard Truth: Japan is Dying
16 March 2008 »
In overpopulation
European women, better educated and integrated into the labor market than ever before, say there is no time for motherhood and that children are too expensive anyway.
European Union’s Plunging Birthrates Spread Eastward – New York Times
16 March 2008 »
In overpopulation
With just a single exception, the non-Muslim population of every country in Europe now has a birth rate at below replacement levels.
The Corner on National Review Online
10 December 2007 »
In overpopulation
They should pay 5,000 dollars (4,400 US) a head for each extra child and up to 800 dollars every year thereafter.
Medical Journal of Australia: Parents should pay climate change tax on extra kids
22 November 2007 »
In overpopulation
when Toni terminated her pregnancy, she did so in the firm belief she was helping to save the planet.
Meet the women who won’t have babies – because they’re not eco friendly | the Daily Mail
10 September 2007 »
In 9/11, overpopulation, subgenius
The most important question facing the human race is how we respond to the interconnected crises of Peak Oil, climate change, overpopulation, and other resource conflicts.
www.oilempire.us – a political map: 9/11 & Peak Oil Wars
14 June 2007 »
In overpopulation
a convergence of Britain’s hard-left and hard-right over the issue of immigration
Reason Magazine – Hit & Run > The Green Xenophobes
