Argentina is worth a minor note too – not just because it’s a pretty big producer – but also because there aren’t many big producers in the southern hemisphere compared to the northern one.
Therefore the way I see it the southern hemisphere harvests play a key timing role in tiding things over until the northern hemisphere ones start to come in.
Thanks for the addition. I’ll see if I can work it in with a mention.
I hope Bob is OK. Haven’t heard from him since yesterday.
Me too. He seemed depressed.
Yeah. I guess I picked the wrong day for gallows humor.
I understand, though. Went through a big spell myself after I finished my most recent book. Writing something like that can take a lot out of you and I really lagged through fall and early winter.
Bob seems to work to promote issues and papers he feels passionately about. He writes a bit as well. In short, he gives a heck of a lot. So, as I said before, I hope he’s OK.
Do you know if there’s an email link on his climate feed?
Not that I can see. This is kind of alarming, though. From last June.
He’s in Lubbock, he’s practically next door.
That is a bit concerning. Would feel better if we had another contact.
try coloradobob1@mac.com. From a blog he abandoned in 2007, but you never know.
OK. Thanks Miep. That’s a good shot.
He has a lot of stuff online and it’s all interlinked and comes back to that page, so it seems unlikely he’d leave a dead email address up. I looked around at Lubbock leatherworkers but couldn’t find anything that seemed likely. Nothing alarming in the newspaper either.
From what I see he’s an impressively accomplished person. A good reminder of what Texans can be, although I don’t know whether he identifies as such. Texas is such an easy target, but it’s also such a big place.
And yes, depression is an occupational hazard in this line of reporting. It’s so isolating, with all the denial, and the dying is so sad.
also this may be him. Has Lubbock note.
I’m pretty sure that is him.
With those interests, gotta be.
Well, I sent him a msg on facebook. Hope it goes through.
You should be able to see his most current email from the comments section of your admin page. From Bob’s comments you should see his IP address and email.
Guess fail on my part, that’s a dead email addy.
This is one of the things I hate about the Internet, that people can suddenly disappear and you never know why.
I hope I’m just being paranoid.
Hi Robert, thanks for yet another really comprehensive article, you really help us all see the bigger picture.
Scary times, I really hope we all start pulling together. United we stand, dived we fall.
Saw this as well. I guess the article needs to be 3000 words long. Will likely post a few updates.
I’m touched by the concern for Bob, and also hope he’s OK even though I’ve not been here long enough to develop a personal attachment of my own. Nonlocal community is one of the more interesting aspects of these interwebz, although as Miep noted sudden disappearances illustrate that online community is paper-thin (if you’ll pardon the expression).
Getting back to the article…food security. Oh boy. I’m torn on this, because the same global system that has led to all this overpopulation is part of the solution for mitigating starvation on the way back down. I’m a huge believer in local food systems, but also recognize that, say, if California had disconnected from the food grid we’d probably be in for an even rougher summer. Of course there’s a happy medium somewhere, but my point (and struggle) is how do we set up systems that are resilient and flexible, somewhat independent and also with backup systems to deal with the regional disasters that are increasing in frequency and severity.
In a word: downshift. How do we move to a lower level of everything? My sense is that all things being equal, we’ve got to get capitalist business out of food. The insatiable desire for profit and growth is the crux of the issue, and cooperative structures can provide a way out of that.
Circling back to online issues, there is the potential to develop and distribute local models across the globe – as well as the potential to watch cat videos until the whole thing comes crashing down around us. This forum provides encouragement for a small and scrappy group of pioneers in learning about the issues. And there are other forums for more applied things. I’m glad I stumbled in when I did; it’s good to see the support and care happening. Carry on!
I think these are good questions. Globalized food trade has helped mitigate hunger in some regions even as it seems to enforce the poverty that causes it in the first place, requiring large donations from international aid organizations. Resilient localities will help, but collapsing ones do not. And I think that’s probably what we need to focus on.
In principle trading food at the global level could play a valuable role in alleviating short term variability in harvest outputs in drought and the like by offsetting surpluses and shortfalls with each other, using modern systems to do it. In practice however it has been used to sustain unsustainable levels of people in places that have no hope of producing enough food locally if those supply chains collapse and therefore it has been used to create a far more vulnerable world rather than a more resilient one.
Furthermore the same globalised markets can act to transmit shocks long distance such that prosperous food unsustainable regions can out compete those living in food sustainable ones to buy the food that they need to survive. The problem this introduces is that when those poorer but food sustainable regions experience civil war or significant conflict – their agricultural output can be adversely affected through human factors. In this way the vulnerability of the unsustainable region is effectively exported onto the sustainable one… and from there onto both of them.
It absolutely presents problems when the system is unsustainable as a whole.
Robert Sir, there isn’t much left but gallows humor.
Memba the phrase that it posta focus one’s attention.
Twisted IRANIAN Commie bastid preverts trying to stunt & distort little tykes innocent brains.
Humanity – I love you; & community too.
I don’t know about conspiracy, but that’s more or less what I see coming down the road. Technology is developing at a phenomenal speed and the rate at which it is replacing humans in the work place is accelerating.
It is not known if Margaret Thatcher had Alzheimer’s Disease when she spoke in this video advocating techno-fixes & stiff lipped British ethics as THE solution to the greenhouse effect, & environmental degradation.
Techno-fixes & ethics will deliver us from the second law of thermodynamics.
The new ethics especially are a mental thing, as in faith healing & rain dancing.
Buying & selling along with compound interest can create real wealth for all, as well as human contentment.
Margaret saw the problem & she knew the solution.
Her “Conservative approach” is the answer because we love our land & heritage.
Ouch. They’re suffering a 60 year drought, now. I wonder how much of this is attributable to the Three Gorges Dam.
I find Joanna Macy’s ” Active Hope” a useful counter to the natural depression all activists seem to experience. Keep working, gather strength from the community, take off and have fun when you can, make hope an active verb as love should be. And then hug your grandchild or child to know why.
We need to Ban Fracking and implement a Residential and Commercial Feed in Tariff through out the Nation, this petition, starts in California.
“Solar is absolutely great as long as you stay away from leases and PPAs. Prices for solar have dropped so dramatically in the past year, that leasing a solar system makes absolutely no sense in today’s market.