Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Vuosi 2008

aarni — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:26:50 -0700

Nyt sitten eletään sen todellisuuden kanssa, jonka vaikutukset näkyvät aina muutaman vuoden viiveellä. Öljyhuippu The US Energy Information Agency www.eia.doe.gov/ipm/t11d.xls tilastojen valossa näyttää samaa kuin aiemmin: Öljyn globaali tuotantohuippu saavutettiin 2005, kuten emeritus prof. Kenneth Deffeyes kirjoissaan oli ynnännyt.

Jälkipyykki on öljystä riippuvaisen maailman uutisissa: lannotteiden hinnat nousevat, valuuttoja arvotetaan uudelleen ja talous yskii.

Ensin Peak Oil 2005, sitten Peak Growth, Peak Water, Peak Consuming... Peak Lifestyle and bussines as usual.

Hinta ei indikoi - geologisesti on jo selvää, että Meksikon Canttarel-öljykentän ja Pohjanmeren kenttien romahtanut tuotanto on saanut seurakseen maailman suurimman jättiläisen, Saudi Aramco:n Ghatarin

EIA lists the production for Saudi Arabia as dropping by a million barrels per day over the last two years. www.eia.doe.gov/ipm/t11c.xls11

Pankkien konkurssit ovat murheista pieniä. Kyse on koko rakenteen muutoksesta.

Seuratkaa Geologi Kenneth S. Deffeyesin sivustoa. http://www.princeton.edu/hubbert/current-events.html

Post Oil Finland Relocalization Group

New! Eco-fiction novel on sustainable living

stevehinton — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:18:34 -0700

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Sweden’s deputy Prime Minster Sweden’s grossly overstates sustainable development focus in BBC debate program

hipnot — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:58:33 -0700

In a debate on BBC World on Sunday the 18th May, Sweden’s Maud Olofsson continued to promulgate the myth of Sweden’s sustainability focus. Not inasmuch as what she said, but in what she did NOT say.
(for details follow http://www.bbcworld.com/Pages/ProgrammeFeature.aspx?id=196&FeatureID=753)

When asked about sustainability reporting she cited the Government’s mandated reporting (starting this year) from public companies as an example of the government’s investment in sustainable development. She also cited Sweden’s carbon dioxide taxes on petrol and diesel. From this year, about 38% of what the motorist pays for petrol goes to energy and carbon dioxide tax respectively.

Two good things on the face of it that should be putting Sweden on the rode to reduced fossil fuel dependency. Maud Olofsson even managed to add that although mandating sustainability reporting from public companies, the government mandates these companies are run at a profit. With a hint of pride in her voice she made it clear that Sweden could combine economic growth and responsible business.

Not quite true. What Maud omitted was, that in demanding profits from state companies they are putting profits before promoting sustainable development of Sweden. Two glaring examples: the state run airports authority, whilst touting its environmental program on one hand, is planning to increase air travel and thereby emissions over the next few years. Another example comes from the state owned railway. Finding it hard to keep profits up in the face of meagre investment in new tracks and rolling stock, they are now putting up their prices. The increases are expected to result in customers flying more and driving their cars more.

But what about the all those millions that come from carbon dioxide taxation? Last year, according to information published by The Swedish National Financial Management Authority, carbon dioxide tax amounted 25 billion kronor, about 5 billion dollars. Surely this money should be spent on promoting sustainable development? Unfortunately, the transparency demanded by the government on reporting from its companies is not carried over to reporting of their own activities. The same authority gives us no idea of where all that money goes in its reporting of spending.

To my knowledge there is no direct reporting of how this money is being used. The worst case scenario is that is being used to fund vehicle industry research, or even to build more roads.

One thing is sure, despite all ranting about sustainability reporting, hard facts about activities that are putting Sweden on the route to sustainability are hard to find. With one of the world’s highest per capita carbon dioxide emissions, and with Sweden being the country in Europe most dependent on the motor vehicle industry, how long will it take before the Swedes themselves wake up to the fact that for every day that passes, they are increasingly at risk that coming fossil fuel scarcity will cause more than just economic damage.

Stephen Hinton

Coordinator HUB

Peak Oil has happened

aarni — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:38:18 -0800

Peak Oil has happened

The US Energy Information Agency www.eia.doe.gov/ipm/t11d.xls (MS Excel spreadsheet) has May 2005 as the peak.
The EIA lists the production for Saudi Arabia as dropping by a million barrels per day over the last two years. www.eia.doe.gov/ipm/t11c.xls

How ready are we here in Scandinavia to solve all the coming changes? I am badly worried bout Finland.. Finland is a disaster to nature and biggest consumer of hydrocarbon products in Scandinavia. Tragically Finnish cities and landscape continues built whole life structure and living basing on cheap and forever flowing oil. Like nothing has happened.

Post Oil Finland Relocalization Group

Swedish report reflects how it is no longer believable as leading nation for sustainable development

hipnot — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:07:51 -0800

According to today’s Swedish daily, Svenska Dagbladet, a new report from the Swedish Royal College of Technology, KTH, supports an earlier proposal that three national authorities receive grants of SEK 500 million (about 50 million Euros) per year over a period of years to get Swedes to cycle more instead of driving their cars. The report reflects the sad state of sustainable development in Sweden. Firstly it identifies that business as usual, even given a good dose of technology optimism will absolutely fail to meet goals. Secondly it is just another haphazard shot in the dark from the country that announced the goal to break oil dependency by 2015 and convinced many that Sweden was leading sustainable development only to deliver nothing since the announcement over two years ago except a poorly written final document published and circulated for comments.

The KTH Climate report, commissioned by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, states that Sweden will not reach its goals of an 85% reduction in Carbon Dioxide emissions by 2050 merely through increased use of renewable fuels and introduction of more efficient technology. This even taking into account breaking current trends of increased travel and road transport. What is needed, says the report, are behavioral changes.These include working from home, planning cities to increase the level of local service, increased use of rail transport, and holidaying locally.

Jonas Åkerman, one of the authors, sees increased cycle traffic as one area of major potential. The Swedish Road Administration, the Swedish Rail Administration and Nutek - the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth agree. Even the Swedish Government cites cycling as a preferred strategy to reach environmental goals.

A couple of reasons why all the albeit good intentioned and minutely calculated thinking appears so ludicrous: firstly, Sweden is a very cold country, the roads and cycle paths are slippery the whole of the winter season. Studded winter tyres or equivalent are mandatory on cars. Cycling in the snow and ice is dangerous and no fun except for the most hardened enthusiasts. Secondly, spending all that government money is really only going to pay wages for planning, information and advertising professionals and the building of cycle paths. All aimed at appealing to the good nature of folks to get on their bikes more.

All this appealing to good folks' nature with a 50 million Euro budget per year pales in comparison to the advertising budget Volvo targets towards Chinese and other workers – including in Volvo’s home country Sweden - to get them to abandon their bikes to drive a Volvo instead.

Can the Swedish approaches really be taken seriously? The largest Swedish export is motor vehicles, among them Saab and Volvo. Can they really expect, regardless of the amount of money they spend on persuasion, their own people to abandon their cars and cycle, going back to conditions of the early 50s? This at the same time as the economy is kept afloat by car sales to the very nations that are abandoning cycling? Can Sweden be seen as a nation leading sustainable development? Sadly, I think not. True innovation, bold political and social moves are needed for a nation to be seen as believable when they set targets and strategies for sustainable development. The question is, which one dares to be first?

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Augustimötet på Lyckås herrgård

hipnot — Thu, 31 May 2007 11:30:49 -0700

Start: 2007-08-31 18:00

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

No more events

aarni — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 11:33:29 -0800

Start: 2007-03-04 13:31

Post Oil Finland Relocalization Group

Post Carbon Sweden update

stevehinton — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 10:09:18 -0700

Just to keep you up to date.... Oil commission. The report on how to break oil dependency was released amid a gush of, well, not very much. See earlier postings.

Oil Awareness. The meetup dot com service is so brilliant we decided to use that instead of the relocalize net platform. From a start a couple of year's ago of three rather wary people sitting in the lounge of the local Sheraton complaining about the prices of beverages we have grown to 52 web members and about 10-12 active meetups in real life.

Eco Units. A group has convened to look into the possibility of setting up an eco-unit just outside Stockholm. We have not set up a home page for them yet (and anyway it will be in Swedish) but we believe that eco-units could present a practical path to relocalization. Read more about Eco units the Eco Unit community site S

Synthetic Diesel I was interviewed by the BBC radio about by views on ethanol, which Swedes are having a love affair with. (not released yet - maybe they couldn't get all the swear words out *just joking*) We are rather interested in the Possibility of synthetic diesel on the other hand, where local plants convert biomass to high grade fuel which can be used in existing vehicles, especially key service vehicles like ambulance, tractors, fire engines, etc. The inventor of the KDV process, Dr Koch, agrees that local plants make much more sense. Read more on AVBP's website.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Oil Awareness meetup

stevehinton — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 09:38:22 -0700

Start: 2006-09-27 19:00

End: 2006-09-27 21:35

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

News from Sweden:Daily newspaper slags off oil commission report.

stevehinton — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 12:05:00 -0700

Daily newspaper slags off oil commission.
Comments on the oil commission’s report have been very few in the Swedish media. Perhaps because it was released during the holiday period or because the issue is so complex, that in criticising the report you show how much you do not know. SvD, the right wing Swedish national daily newspaper, however, takes the Oil Commission to task for “giving us a vision of wood-burning

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Relocalisation meeting on Sweden's West Coast

stevehinton — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 13:06:00 -0700

The Stockholm oilawareness meetup held its monthly meeting on a farm just outside Lerum. Local landowners got together with Oil awareness members and Post Carbon Sweden members to take a first look at relocalisation possibilities in the area. Follow the link to see photos and meeting notes. http://avbp.net/html/lerum.html.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Swedenâ€™s oil independency: digging into details

stevehinton — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 11:50:27 -0800

Digging into details to understand Sweden’s oil dependency

Most people who start to discover Peak Oil find themselves confronted by their lack of knowledge as to how things work in the society they live in. The good news for those living in Sweden is the transparency of its institutions. The bad news is the work required to cut through all the details to see the bigger picture. Let’s explore the question of the role of energy in the economy.

Two statements heard quite often are that the percentage of GDP of energy is growing less. And that Swedes are actually using less energy now than in the 70s. The other thing we often here is that oil independence is easy to attain as a large percentage of energy used is either renewable or nuclear, neither threatened by oil prices.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

When is innovate the right strategy?

stevehinton — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 07:46:27 -0800

When is innovate the right strategy to use to address a business or organization challenge? If the challenge is similar to challenges in the past, the sensible thing is not to re-invent the wheel, but use well-known solutions. If the situation is novel and temporary, a quick fix may work. But if the situation is novel and permanent a new approach is called for. As we see it, the world is approaching a novel situation: the end of cheap fossil fuel, an end to endless economic growth and the growing negative effects of environmental degradation on health, agriculture and climate stability. Increasingly, forward thinking organizations like the UK’s Live Work http://www.livework.co.uk/home.html and the US Rocky Mountain Institute http://www.rmi.org/ are suggesting an End-use/Least Cost services approach.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Swedish banks upbeat about economic growth, oil independence absent despite stagnating production by big three oil companies.

hipnot — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 23:57:35 -0800

Stockholm 8th February 2006. Despite intentions of oil independence by 2020, and all that will mean as the economy transitions,â€? business as usualâ€? is a strong force in Sweden. The same day the Swedish press published figures showing how production and acquisition of new reserves in the worldâ€™s largest oil companies is declining, Swedish banks Nordea and SEB forecast economic growth for 2006 and 2007. Whilst the good news is that Swedes will see an improvement in their consumption, these developments and attitudes make Sweden more vulnerable to coming energy shortfalls.

According to SvD, Shell, and Exxon showed slightly lower production figures for 2005 compared with 2004. Hurricanes included, these falls in production were not unexpected. Exxonâ€™s total production was 4,235 million boe (barrels of oil equivalent) in 2004, 4,065 in 2005. Shellâ€™s production fell by 6.7 percent from 3,772 million boe in 2004 to 3,518 in 2005. BP showed a slight increase, producing 3,997 million boe in 2004 and 4,014 in 2005.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Article from the future: Retford manages transition from fossil fuel

stevehinton — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 00:43:35 -0800

Retford was slow in coming to the realization that "business as usual" may not keep local citizens' standard of living at an acceptable level. As they saw energy prices hike many were concerned the local economy was in danger of spiraling down out of control. Many others found it incomprehensible that energy security could be synonymous with economic security.

Fortunately, the neighboring city of Porena had embarked upon a successful sustainable development process several years earlier. They turned to Porena city manager, Aaron Heathcliffe, for help. They have now managed to start activities rolling in eight major areas involving just about everyone in the area. Part of the reason for Retford's success was getting people involved in a way that built a sense of urgency and importance. But how serious and urgent was the situation? Says Jeff Small, coordinator for the Sustainable Development Office of Retford: "Our starting point was one of a need to understand the situation from the point of view of security of living standards.

The national government had delegated responsibility for sustainable development down to the local level. We had received a list of goals to strive for."? Jeff continues,"how urgent was the situation? We had no idea. Some people were saying oil depletion would mean energy price hikes above the annual 4-5% we were seeing. Others were saying market mechanisms would prevail. Interestingly, very few actually knew how things worked in the local region. And even fewer could navigate the figures needed. We found ourselves comparing apples and pears. For instance; how much food do we need (often measured in calories), how much food do we grow (measured in tons) how much energy needed to grow food (measured in liters of diesel)"?.

It was just this need to understand the situation that prompted Aaron Heathcliffe to use a data gathering and modeling approach. Based on the local council's own GIS (geographic information system) he asked the office to set up a project group to find out how the living standard basics were provided. These included water, housing, food, jobs, transport etc. All figures and explanations were to be put into the GIS system so project members could"fly" through the area to gain an understanding of how these systems were working. Jeff Small again; "The exercise was a real awakening; for example, we do not grow enough food in the area to feed all the population. There is massive commuting every day, and parts of the area are not served by public transport. The system was extremely useful.

The group could ask the operator to, say, "show us the number of people living out of walking distance of public transport""“ and we could see immediately the information in graphic form on the map"?. It was the process of gathering the data that started to create both awareness and multilateral cooperation. For instance, it started to become apparent what was NOT known about water supply. People are just used to turning on taps, and very few had a view of the sewage treatment processes. The data gathering exercises produced very clear and comprehensive information, which the project published. Pictures from the studies helped create awareness for what was to come. It was the next phase however, that really created the impetus for change.

The project team started to bring in representatives of every stakeholder organization. Each basic element of living standard was mapped against the relevant stakeholder organization. The local business association, residents' association and gardening club got very active early on. The next step was to ask representatives to review the data, and to evaluate it. They got as the starting point the government goals and security of living standards. They were to come up with risks and priorities.

A database related to the GIS system stored geographical positioning data, the issue description, risk and priority. All the data could be aggregated to give a general overview of the risk of potential of shortfall or excess for local residents. What was interesting was that from the point of view of each stakeholder organization's purpose, as stated in their articles of association, the current situation was not really producing the sort of results they were after. Local businesses were struggling, resident's associations complaining of falling standards, food quality was poor¦ Oil depletion risks were changing the situation from uncomfortable to downright disastrous. Aaron Heathcliffe commented; "we never mentioned politics once. What was interesting was that no-one really disputed where the priorities lay. Maybe some had different ideas about how to solve them, but this fact-based method helped build a basis for consensus"?.

At this point, the stakeholder organizations were invited to send representatives to work out a plan of action. The plan would include commitments by each organization, so only representatives with enough mandate were sent to the action planning. The plans were based on the shortfall vs excess evaluations. Excess would be a resource to use to mitigate shortfalls in other areas, by for example trading with other areas. In the end, the groups had worked out about eight major areas to tackle and strategies for each. Commitments from the various stakeholder organizations were not enough, however, for real changes to be brought about. For instance, one scheme involved reducing commuting by job-swapping. Although the local business association had set the scheme up it needed employees to volunteer for the changes. To sweeten the deal, anyone who swapped their job would be given a free travel permit. Anyone who gave up their car would be prioritized for housing and so on. So the next step was for each stakeholder organization to invite their members and members of the public to presentations. The office of sustainable development decided to stage a large exhibition in conjunction with the local May fair. Large displays took visitors through the analysis the project groups had gone through, and other displays asked for volunteers. Most of the key area booths took the form of displays with four sections. In the middle they showed how the area works today - what we have - the left pane showed - why we can't go on

the right pane: what we need
and the bottom pane what we must do.

The next set of displays talked about managing the transition, and the need for overall coordination of efforts. People would then drift to the display get involved just before the exit. One group is planning to re-build some parts of the town to make easy walking access. And they are talking about a canal for energy efficient transport of heavy goods. One priority is diesel for the construction machines. They want to dig ditches and create the conditions for permaculture before the machines become useless.

Jeff Small is excited; "from what looked to be a dark future we are hopeful we are headed for an easier, more social life, with a feeling of being closer to nature!"

This is an extract from the coming sequel to the book "Inventing for the Sustainable Planet http://www.avbp.net/html/porena.html

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Story from the future - how NY went to a LETS

stevehinton — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 00:16:37 -0800

As he swipes his LETS card at the candy store English visitor John Oxley finds it hard to imagine his last visit to New York. Way back in 2007 the dollar was the only currency available. â€œPeople were spending most of their waking hours scrambling frantically for the Legal Tender.â€? He remembers. â€œItâ€™s not the LETS introduction in itself, LETS is just a systemâ€? he says: â€œitâ€™s the change in attitude â€“ the way people look out for each other.â€? John is enthralled by the way LETS has spread. â€œHey, I arrived here, got a LETS Card, a mobile terminal, entered my skills and terms, and within minutes I was getting offers to come and help out. I had fun washing up at the fast food counter one morning and then went and acted as adviser to a collaboration project the next day. I am practically one of you!â€?

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Visit from the future to a re-localised community

stevehinton — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 00:01:11 -0800

In my quest to find out how a standard of living could be produced for all sustainably, that is efficiently and with minimum impact on the environment and health, I visited PORENA again. The country of PORENA abolished work as we know it some time ago after they realized paid work was actually fueling the development of a non-sustainable society. The whole system was threatening the environment, peopleâ€™s health and creating a society that was not pleasant to live in. Many people were actually â€œout of workâ€? which was draining resources.

On the one hand, PORENA had set up strict rules for emissions of all kinds into the environment. On the other they made housing, education, food etc free. They also focused on producing a standard of living for all cheaply, environmentally and in a socially sound way. Removing the stress on the individual â€“ meeting physiological needs â€“ is at the heart of the PORENA way. How they managed this is still unclear to me, but to make a start I was invited to meet the management of the city of PORENA for an Interview.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Robert BÃ©riaultÂ´s campaign for peak oil action is heartfelt, compassionate and well formulated

stevehinton — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 03:08:07 -0800

Robert BÃ©riault wants the world to wake up to Peal Oil. And he broadcasts the message not so much with graphs and figures, but with a message crafted from his own reality and heart. At the centre of his message is his concern for his granddaughter.

With a compelling use of pictures and words in Powerpoint format he takes us chapeter by chapter from "Will oil Peak" through "what can we do about it".

Definately material to read and pass on to friends.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Eco villages: much to learn from existing projects in Sweden

stevehinton — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 08:52:22 -0800

Eco.villages have been around for somw time in Sweden. Several are rather sucessful in reducing energy impact, recyling and local food growing. Maybe most important, they are getting along with each other.

I recently found a study completed by an American researcher which could help anyone interested in knowing more about re-localisation.

see http://www.ekoby.org/index.html

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Advanced mapping software to aid re-localization

stevehinton — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 07:58:04 -0800

Many municipalities and local authorities use advanced mapping tools like the ones we saw in the TV series â€?The Districtâ€? where â€?compstatâ€? would visualize crime statistics on a map of the city.
This is the way it works, I think. It comprises a set of digitalized maps as well as a database that holds information connected to location. An advanced set of commands can get maps to print on screen with the information overlaid.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Boycott one company a day

stevehinton — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 05:50:42 -0800

http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/11/03.html#a1328

is the link to a list by Dave Pollard of companies and brands to avoid based on their environmental or social practices.

he also suggests a few to support!

Interesting reading.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Market economy failings: warning signs appearing in Sweden

stevehinton — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 04:17:03 -0700

Many agree with the efficacy of the basic market economy model (goodsâ€™ and serviceâ€™s prices are set by sellers, and increase with demand and decrease with competition) in generating a living standard

However, many also see with dismay the downside of this way of organizing our daily lives: extraction and dumping of huge amounts of resources, high levels of fossil fuel use, greenhouse gas emissions etc.

Forgetting the luxury consumption side and concentrating on the must haves, we can see that market economy models in themselves is challenged to provide what people need when it is not in abundance. (see diagram)

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

A sign to post on your e-mails, door, website, blogs - you name it.

hipnot — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 12:21:37 -0700

http://cogs.avbp.net

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Pathways to local food systems using a complimentary currency system like COGS.

hipnot — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 01:34:57 -0700

Robert Waldropâ€™s paper presented at the recent Community Solution conference offered ideas on how to set up local food systems. Based on his paper this article explores how to use our COGS currency or a similar complementary currency system to speed development of the community. As Robert says, this is not a cookie cutter recipe, take what you need and leave the rest!

fig 1 Local Food System
As you see from the diagram a group gets together to invest legal tender to buy what is needed to produce food. The group invests their voluntary time in the system too. What comes out is food, both as raw material but also preserves and even shared cooking rosters in community kitchens or restaurant duties.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

END OF SUBURBIA SHOWING

hipnot — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 06:55:41 -0700

Start: 2005-11-08 18:30

End: 2005-11-08 21:30

Teaser:

First showing in Stockhom area at HANINGE FolketsHus

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Peak Oil - nÃ¤r oljan sinar

stevehinton — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 04:23:19 -0700

Start: 2005-10-19 17:00

End: 2005-10-19 19:30

Teaser:

Social Network venture Sweden is running a Peak oil event in Stockholm and showing excerpts from End of Suburbia

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Time for Plan B - all think tanks should rise to the challenge

stevehinton — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 04:18:46 -0700

Matt Simmons, financial advisor to the energy industry has released this presentation which spells out the urgency of the situation.
http://www.simmonsco-intl.com/files/ENERGY%202050%20Policy%20Bri efing.pdf

Energy production is at its maximum, exacerbated by hurricane Katrina. Demand is rising, and unless we start decreasing the energy intensity of the way we live the coming shortfall will not only impact economic growth, but cause extreme physical hardship.

Now is the time for all think tanks - ours included - to step up our efforts to find low energy solutions and maybe more importantly - new approaches to business and money.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Modelling re-localisation of communities using Ecolanguage

stevehinton — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 03:22:49 -0700

I just became aquainted with the Ecolanguage diagramming system developed by Lee A. Arnold. (See http://ecolanguage.net/).

I wonder if anyone else has had the opportunity to explore its uses and specifically modelled for example, complementary currency or re-localization?

It looks like it has potential and I will probably be giving it a go to model COGS (circle of gifts http://xcogs.avbp.net.)

Dave Pollard's blog of environmental philosophy, creative works, business papers and essays contains the image above which shows some of the potential of the system.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Low Energy-Living Fiction. Novel available as e-book

stevehinton — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 13:46:36 -0700

just a plug for my e-book which I am releasing in a new version. it's eco-fiction or relocalization - fiction.

Read more and download here: http://avbp.net/html/porena.html

Max Wahlter, a journalist specializing in science and technology, decides his new career is in sustainability. Having come across an innovation technique called Image Streaming he proceeds to create a vision of the sustainable society, publishing the results on his web log.

The book, Inventing for the Sustainable Planet is a collection of his weblog postings, drawings, musings, verifications and observations.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Web-based clearing

stevehinton — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 09:47:22 -0700

We need to collect experience of creating web-based clearing for local currencies. As far as I can see we have some experiments going
http://xcogs.avbp.net is a gift currency start - up (my baby)
The weblets platform is being used for that.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/weblets Experience so far: stable system used in several installations, but due to lack of experience we cannot seem to get it running on our server yet.

Then Kim Dixon at http://www.seabay.org.uk is starting a forum using the OCP platform http://ocportal.com/Experience: in set-up phase

Please let us know of other initiatives.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Take a look at UTOPIA from the relocalisation viewpoint

stevehinton — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 06:41:11 -0700

St. Thomas More: Saint, knight, Lord Chancellor of England, author and martyr, born in London, 7 February, 1477-78; executed at Tower Hill, 6 July, 1535.

In 1516 his book Utopia was published, today Utopia is used as a general term for a place or state of ideal perfection. In common usage this word now denotes something impossible.

However, if you go back to the book itself you will find a lot of sensible, localized, sustainable practices.

Here are some excerpts commenting aspects of relocalization.

In the relocalized community most people work with agriculture

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Want to visit a re-localised community? Come with me...

stevehinton — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 07:57:00 -0700

one of my favourite innovation techniques comes from Win Wenger (www.winwenger.com) called Image Streaming. The techniques allow you to "visit" places which have solved a problem you are concerned with, and during your visit you can pick up a whole load of innovations.

During one such visit I came across a re-localised community called PORENA.

The country of PORENA abolished work as we know it some time ago after they realized paid work was actually fuelling the development of a non-sustainable society. The whole system was threatening the environment, peopleâ€™s health and creating a society that was not pleasant to live in. Many people were actually â€œout of workâ€? which was draining resources. On the one hand they set up strict rules for emissions of all kinds into the environment and on the other they made housing, education, food etc free. They also focused on producing a standard of living for all cheaply, environmentally and in a socially sound way. Removing the stress on the individual â€“ meeting physiological needs â€“ is at the heart of the PORENA way. One day I was invited into the office of the community manager...

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

If the world were 100 people

stevehinton — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 12:15:56 -0700

Artist Allyson Lucca asks: If we could see today's world population as a small community of 100 people... what would it look like?

And she illustrates it beautifully in sound and pictures. A reminder of what drives us who have a passion for sustainable development.

Click on the link to see the presentation http://www.luccaco.com/miniatureearth/miniature_earth.htm

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Wales first to demonstrate how replacement schemes might work

stevehinton — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 04:40:25 -0700

As part of mobility week a Welsh Local authority offered car owners a full year's free use of public transport in return for them giving up their car for scrap. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/4246678.stm) Some 30 people took up the offer. What I see as significant is the initiative shows us the basis of a very powerful "script". Let's face it people need a certain level of security. If swapping somethng gives more security whilst lowering energy intensity you have a winner.
Going further...
Free relocation and maybe free accomodation for a while to people with long commutes who move to their area of work.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Oil awareness in Sweden

hipnot — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 06:26:50 -0700

Prize-winning journalist (BOO.COM) Gunnar Lindstedt tells us why in Sweden oil companies, the business establishment and politicians are doing everything to hide the coming oil crisis.

Due in the bookshops next month.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

GIFT CURRENCY EXPERIMENT

hipnot — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 03:43:03 -0700

Just in its early stages, we release an "on paper" version of gift currency CIRCLE OF GIFTS. We believe complementary currencies can support re-localisation and would like to get going on a Post Carbon experiment.

Curious to hear your feedback (and offers of help with the next stage, online clearing) http://cogs.avbp.net

Clearing portal is at http;//avbp.net/ocp Come and try it works internationally!

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Working multilaterally may be a key to maintaining living standards in low energy living

stevehinton — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 03:37:45 -0700

Our group have been using various techniques to answer the question: how can communities offer a dignified standard of living as cheap energy depletes?

One answer comes surprisingly from NASA. They are a competence centre with a large purse, and have to put together huge projects into programs to produce both a result in terms of technology but also commercially and socially.

The basics of program management or multi-project management are not widespread outside industry, but we believe may show the way for post carbon development. Read the white paper and get back to us.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

POST CARBON SWEDEN Starts

hipnot — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 02:41:23 -0700

This is the first entry for the group.

We are happy to be a part of POST CARBON, and look forward to greeting many new members. And work together to ensure we hand on to our children and grandchildren an equitable, less energy intensive society.

Meet us at the Stockholm oilawareness meetup.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

First ever showing of END OF SUBURBIA in Sweden

hipnot — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 02:35:57 -0700

Start: 2005-11-08 17:30

Teaser:

Haninge ABF have kindly offered to sponsor a showing of END OF SUBURBIA at FOLKETS BIO, Haninge Centrum.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

OIl awareness meet up on Skeppsholmen

hipnot — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 02:26:12 -0700

Start: 2005-10-19 19:00

End: 2005-10-19 21:00

Wednesday, October 19, 2005 at 7:00 PM

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Syftet med POST CARBON SWEDEN

hipnot — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 02:17:17 -0700

Vi arbetar för en planerad, ordnad, rättvis övergång från det nuvarande energi intensiv samhälle till, vi hoppas, en mer mänsklig hälsofrämmande tillvaro.

F.n funderar vi på formen (idell förening antagligen) och hur vi skall forma en bild av vad Sverige har för tilgång och utmaningar när det gäller övergången.

Några viktiga temor

- Samarbete över organisationsgränser
- komplementär valuta
- stadsnära odling av mat
- Walking cities

Vi ordnar inga möten själva just nu utan deltar i oilawareness.

Se http://oilawareness.meetup.com/207/

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Oil Awareness meetup

hipnot — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 01:54:48 -0700

Start: 2005-10-19 19:00

End: 2005-10-19 21:00

Teaser:

Stockhom Oil Awareness will meet on Skeppsholmen Wednesday, October 19, 2005 at 7:00 PM

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Urban walking map encourages people to leave car at home and get out more!

stevehinton — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 13:33:29 -0700

Huddinge, in Greater Stockholm, is the first municipality in Sweden to get its own urban walking map. The map will combat increased sedentary living and growing waistlines by encouraging people to get out and walk more. This â€œactivity pharmacyâ€?, as well as detailing walking routes in the area, lists exercise providers, places to visit and even cafÃ©s to entice people out. The initiative demonstrates one simple pragmatic approach to meeting the health, environmental and urban planning challenges of the liquid-fueled transport society. Hopefully, Huddingeâ€™s 89,000 inhabitants and planning departments will be in better shape and better prepared to meet the effects of rising fuel costs as oil becomes scarcer.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

OIL AWARENESS MEETINGS IN STOCKHOLM

stevehinton — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 13:25:19 -0700

Start: 2005-10-12 19:00

End: 2005-10-12 21:00

Teaser:

We attend the OIL AWARENESS meetings regularly. Why not attend the next one there are 16 members already!

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

End of Suburbia

stevehinton — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 13:19:39 -0700

Start: 2005-11-08 18:30

End: 2005-11-08 21:00

Teaser:

In the municipality of Haninge, Sweden, the ABF workers' education organisation is sponsoring a showing of EOS, the first in Sweden to our knowledge.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Discussion in the main stream media about oil depletion and its implications in Sweden.

Frances Oommen — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 17:14:59 -0700

Hi,

I understand that in Sweden in May 2003, Professor Kjei Aleklett of Upsala University reported, (at the meeting of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil) the following information.

That there had been thirty media interviews (in Sweden) on TV, radio, in magazines and in newspapers, "in the past year" to alert citizens to the "end of oil".

I would like to know how this information was presented and how it was received by the citizens.

I would be pleased to know which media outlets took the initiative to share the information with the people who live in Sweden.

I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

Post Carbon Sweden (Stockholm)

hipnot — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 23:49:02 -0700