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At the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in March 2009, Western Washington University professor Don J Easterbrook, PhD made the strong case for another cycle of global cooling. According to Easterbrook there have been 23 periods of climatic warming and cooling over the last 500 years. Each warming and cooling cycle lasted 25–30 years (average 27 years). Recent measurements of global temperatures suggest a gradual cooling trend since 1998. According to his research, the cooling trend will be reinforced as the sun enters a cycle of lower radiance and the Pacific Ocean changes from its warm mode to its cool mode. NASA recently announced that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) has shifted to its cool phase, virtually assuring several decades of global cooling. NASA reinforces Easterbrook's assertion on a trend towards global cooling. A global cooling trend will translate into greater energy use through the use of heating oil and natural gas to keep homes warm. ("Solar Influence on Recurring Global, Decadal, Climate Cycles Recorded by Glacial Fluctuations, Ice Cores, Sea Surface Temperatures, and Historic Measurements Over the Past Millennium"; see also US Senate Minority Report: More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims: Scientists Continue to Debunk 'Consensus' in 2008," 11 December 2008.) "Absent cheap oil, auto-dependent suburbs and big cities will collapse, along with industry and mechanized agriculture; serfdom and horse-drawn carts will stage a comeback; hunger will cause massive die-back; otherwise impotent governments will engineer "designer viruses" to cull the surplus population; and Asian pirates will plunder California. A dazed and crippled America will regroup around walkable, human-scale towns; organic local economies of small farmers and tradesmen will replace an alienating corporate globalism; strong bonds of social solidarity will be reforged; and our heedless, childish culture of consumerism will be forced to grow up."Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Trailer for "A Crude Awakening: the oil crash" here's where to get the film: Learning from Cuba's Response to Peak Oil -- optimism funny post-oil man -- pessimism Here's electricity generation using wood to create "wood gas." This was used a century ago before cheap propane pushed it off the market. Here's a cheap "wood gas" generator that can feed an internal combustion engine or a mini-turbine. Here's another cheap "wood gas" generator for running internal combustion engines. Here's the Imbert gasifier that was used in Europe during WWII. Here's FEMA's pilot gasifier from back in 1989. For cooking, the cheapest source of energy is wood. But usually it is used quite inefficiently. Here's an outfit that has produced a small, high-efficiency wood stove that can be used indoors.
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