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"How Food Shapes Our Cities"
Carolyn Steel
Every day, in a city the size of London, 30 million meals are served. But where does all the food come from? Architect Carolyn Steel discusses the daily miracle of feeding a city, and shows how ancient food routes shaped the modern world. Understanding the flow of food will help us reconnect with what we eat (Recorded at TedGlobal, July 2009, Oxford, UK. Duration: 15:41)
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"Peak Oil Part A"
Chris Martenson
Energy is the lifeblood of any economy and a steady supply of energy is necessary to maintain the status quo, while an ever-increasing supply is needed to grow an economy. In this chapter, Dr. Chris Martenson explains that Peak Oil is not a theory, rather it is a description of how oil production increases over time, reaches a peak, then declines. Evidence points to a global production peak in the near future, which is troubling since the U.S. imports two-thirds of its oil and relies on it to much of its transportation and food production needs.
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"Energy Budgeting"
Chris Martenson
Petroleum has supplied the surplus energy that has allowed for social complexity, industrialization, and the modern conveniences that we enjoy. In this chapter, Dr. Chris Martenson explains that in the future our supply of surplus energy will decline due to the fact that increasing amounts of energy will be required to produce new energy. When poor net energy (ERoEI) returns are paired with peak oil production, it points to a return to a less complex society.
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"Energy and the Economy"
Chris Martenson
What if our exponentially-based economic and monetary systems are really just an artifact of oil? What if all of our rich societal complexity and all of our trillions of dollars of wealth and debt simply are the human expression of surplus energy pumped from the ground? In this chapter, Dr. Chris Martenson predicts what will happen when economic, population, and energy growth reach their natural limits.