Sheffield Analysis Newswire Archive

It’s crazy, but it’s coming soon – from the same folks who brought us Iraq.

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A former senior British Army official in Iraq, James Ellery, admits the link between peak oil and the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq. Currently director of British security firm and US defence contractor, AEGIS, Ellery also whitewashes the massive corruption in Iraqi reconstruction projects.

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The peak oil balloon, it may appear, is finally going up. Not only have we seen obvious signs like the highest oil price rise in history on June 6 (coincidentally the anniversary of D-Day which began the liberation of Europe in the Second World War), but Gordon Brown, accidental Prime Minister of a former oil exporting (1980-2005) country, may also be one of the unlikely envoys of truth.

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The British state's attempt to push through detention without charge for 42 days is a precursor to a plan to impose indefinite internment, targeted disproportionately against Muslims and ethnic minorities.

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The Deep State and 9/11

The unthinkable — that elements inside the state would conspire with criminals to kill innocent civilians — has become not only thinkable but commonplace in the last century. A seminal example was in French Algeria, where dissident elements of the French armed forces, resisting General de Gaulle's plans for Algerian independence, organized as the Secret Army Organization and bombed civilians indiscriminately, with targets including hospitals and schools. [1] Critics like Alexander Litvinenko, who was subsequently murdered in London in November 2006, have charged that the 1999 bombings of apartment buildings around Moscow, attributed to Chechen separatists, were in fact the work of the Russian secret service (FSB). [2]

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Despite local opposition to proposals to turn Parkwood High School into a "city academy" plans are still going ahead. The time to fight them is now.

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Christian Aid is angry. The British government has just "eviscerated" the Climate Change Bill, claimed the agency.

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The rapid expansion of biofuel production worldwide has paralleled a dramatic rise in food prices. The expansion of biofuels has been supported by a wide spectrum of people, from environmentalists looking for "sustainable" energy to conservatives wanting to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil. With food riots spreading, the U.S. remains committed to an expansion of biofuel.

Biofuels are part of a larger movement toward green capitalism, the idea that we can scale down our energy use through technologies that improve the efficiency of the consumer society. Biofuels are emblematic of the dark side of green capitalism, which is focused almost entirely on the well being of the global upper class. Biofuels are a form of nationalistic environmentalism that is creating a foundation on which more extreme nationalists will try to wed the racist tools of yesterday with a version of "sustainability" that will include the destruction of the global poor.

Real solutions are both impossibly difficult and simple. The cooperative societies in which most humans have always lived are capable of supporting a high standard of living with far less resources than the individualized, consumer society. Enlightened political leadership would be helpful, but we can create a sustainable society without it. Indeed, we have to.

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The airline industry has no future. The same is true for airfreight. No air carrier has a viable plan to make a profit with oil at current prices—much less in years to come as the petroleum available to world markets dwindles rapidly.

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The Rocky Road to a Real Transition: the transition towns movement and what it means for social change. Paul Chatterton & Alice Cutler. The Trapese Collective. A free download available here (warning: it is a huge file): 2008. 41pp.

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I've already written about this in previous posts under the 'hidden holocaust' theme, but am prompted to re-address this issue given the way it's been dealt with by mainstream media and associated 'experts'.

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A debate in the London Independent has been shut after 81 comments,
the question was simple enough- should the last remaining Nazis be hunted?

I am unsure if this is a question of money or morality- but if they are
still alive and bought into the regime of Hitler (cf Germania illustration)

then why not?- you do not buy Utopian Ideal with the blood of a people.

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Coming to grips with peak oil, climate change, mass extinction, population overshoot, and the demise of our current lifestyle.

Monday 28th April. Film showing 6.30pm at Quaker Meeting House, St James St (near Cathedral tram stop) - refreshments available 6pm.

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One rebuff that has been used by many people who oppose the theory that the twin towers and the 47 story World Trade Centre 7 might not have collapsed due to the impact of the two jets and the subsequent fires is that nothing challenging the official story has been published in a peer reviewed journal, for example Noam Chomsky has said:

I am not persuaded by the assumption that much documentation and other evidence has been uncovered. To determine that, we'd have to investigate the alleged evidence. Take, say, the physical evidence. There are ways to assess that: submit it to specialists -- of whom there are thousands -- who have the requisite background in civil-mechanical engineering, materials science, building construction, etc., for review and analysis; and one cannot gain the required knowledge by surfing the internet. In fact, that's been done, by the professional association of civil engineers. Or, take the course pursued by anyone who thinks they have made a genuine discovery: submit it to a serious journal for peer review and publication. To my knowledge, there isn't a single submission.

And of course this point has has also been raised on Indymedia before and now there has finally has been a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal, The Open Civil Engineering Journal, 2008, 2, 35-40, a PDF of the article is attached and a text version follows.

See also the World Trade Centre Building 7 section of the 2006 Sheffield Indymedia feature on 11th September 2001 and the interview with Architect Richard Gage and Professor Steven Jones conducted by Chris Burnett, one of the founders of Indymedia in February 2008.

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The following graphs are from theoildrum.com, where they are introduced with the following text:

"The EIA’s newest International Petroleum Monthly (  http://www.eia.doe.gov/ipm/ ) shows World C+C (Crude Oil plus Condensate) production for January was 74,466,000 barrels per day, eclipsing the heretofore peak of May 2005 by 168,000 barrels per day. (thanks to Ron Patterson for the heads up and to Khebab for the quick graphics)."

 http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3835

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comments called for as protesters steal the limelight

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Most local and national journalism defaults to notions of an underclass of 'losers' without any analysis of how these 'losers' have been structurally excluded. The recent discovery of 'working class' and 'white' as a disadvantaged group is for purely cynical and sensationalist reasons.

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Awareness of Peak Oil, Climate Change, impending global economic implosion, topsoil depletion, biodiversity collapse, and the thousand other dire threats crashing down upon us at the dawn of the new millennium constitutes an enormous psychological burden, one so onerous that most people (and institutions) respond with a battery of psychological defenses-mostly versions of denial and distraction-in an effort to keep conscious awareness comfortably distanced from stark reality. I discuss this in "the Psychology of Peak Oil and Climate Change," chapter 7 of Peak Everything, where I conclude that the healthiest response to dire knowledge is to do something practical and constructive in response, preferably in collaboration with others, both because the worst can probably still be avoided and because engaged action makes us feel better.

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A take on abstract activism in motion, living, breathing, and coming damn close to performing miracles.

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The Reality Report interviews Philip Sutton of the Greenleap Strategic Institute and coauthor of a new report called “Climate Code Red: the Case for a Sustainability Emergency.”  http://www.climatecodered.net/ The report reviews disturbing new data and scientific understanding of climate change, explains why existing institutions have failed to respond adequately to the problem, and outlines an appropriate response.

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