PowerSwitch

Backburning is one issue but another problem is that it had been incredibly dry over Jan and Feb so everything was tinder dry. The weather conditions on Saturday were absolutely worst case scenario and were predicted to be so. Everyone in Victoria was told not to travel on Saturday unless absolutely...

I'll bring the mulled wine

Right, that's it - where's my copy of 'Independence Day'? Or maybe 'Supervolcano', or 'The Day After Tomorrow' - dammit, this calls for some serious escapist uber-doomwatching. I am off to watch the X Factor!! It's many episodes of Buffy for me! Oh I'm right with you folks - my preferred form of es...

Weirdly the SA power situation did affect my friend's underwater hockey trip. She went swimming in the sea in Durban, not realising they pump the raw sewage into the sea during the many power cuts because they can't treat it. - very nasty case of Delhi belly resulting in a visit to hospital and miss...

I think I've got around 16-20 (I keep thinking of more so maybe its 21+) but my list includes some warmer climate things: avocado, almonds, olives,3 types of citrus. Not all are producing fruit yet - I have no olives off my trees yet but my neighbour has excess so we're trying out preserving them fo...

What a coincidence - my friend and neighour is underwater-hockeying in SA too - the Aussie women won last time so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her! Hope they can keep the lights on for her

I watched the video last night - very interesting. As the lady days this is just how much the median family are struggling, imagining what it is like for those less well off. Also when a huge chunk of the population struggles to keep its head above water what does that do to the country?

Chuckled at the survivalist post. I appreciated JD's (reposted) humor too but I thought his listing of (OK) food prices in Japan was a bit ironic 'cos I just read an article that Japan had run out of butter! - http://business.theage.com.au/japans-hunger-becomes-a-dire-warning-for-other-nations/20080...

Bob Carter gave a seminar to a bunch of earth scientists (including some with an interest in paleoclimates) at a local uni (I have a friend there). I'm told it was more of a lobbyists-style presentation than a scientific seminar and didn't go down well with the assembled boffins some of whom knew a ...

I noticed that Prof Beddington is a population biologist - a chief science advisor that understands overshoot could be interesting....

This speech may be a veiled message to the Saudis/OPEC. The Saudis want to avoid too high a price as they don't want the world scared off oil altogether but they also seem keen on seeing how high an oil price the world can take before it goes hell-for-leather for alternatives see eg the recent OPEC ...

This speech may be a veiled message to the Saudis/OPEC. The Saudis want to avoid too high a price as they don't want the world scared off oil altogether but they also seem keen on seeing how high an oil price the world can take before it goes hell-for-leather for alternatives see eg the recent OPEC ...

I'm with Clv101 - Fatih Birol has been quite a bit more candid that many of his colleagues in the IEA over the years.

The jevons paradox issue is important if you are talking about reducing emissions but less so if you're talking about increasing resilience of a town to an oil shock. Jevons paradox also counts on normal market forces operating eg supply and demand. If there is legislation to reduce emissions as a r...

Planting pah! Some of us are enjoying late summer... I'm harvesting: tomatoes (what the mites have left), eggplant, courgettes, french beans, corn (now finished), sweet peppers, cucumbers, lemons. Still to come are spuds, pumpkins, grapes (if the birds leave any), almonds, pears and apples Already g...