Nicole Foss – New Zealand And The End Of Economic Growth

[Raúl Ilargi Meijer]

From yet another "gruelling" tour comes this once again highly recommended 1 hour podcast from New Zealand's GreenplanetFM radio, in whi
[See the full post at: Nicole Foss – New Zealand And The End Of Economic Growth]

[jal]

Mankind has been facing similar situations since the time of cave men.

This time, its a world wide event. We cannot leave our caves and go find another cave in another valley.

The changes to our social and economic structures will not result in the achievement of happiness for most people.

[Golden Oxen]

Another brilliant interview.

How fortunate we are to have such amazing insights and scholarship handed to us.

Thanks to The Automatic Earth’s founders for their gifts of knowledge and insights into the problems that plague us. Most appreciated and very grateful.

[Kodiak]

Great interview. Really much appreciated.

However, it leaves me wondering if your average guy on the street already aware of the current situation and having socked away a little money while everyone else was going into debt buying up over priced houses, what, when, and how would you use your money when the crash comes?

For example, it has been said the housing market in Australia is already on it’s way down, yet some way still to go! At the same time, from what you have said, there is a very real risk in leaving your money in the bank, waiting for things to unravel. So how would suggest folk negotiate this tricky situation?

And I wonder if large live stock are really the problem, or simply the way they have been managed/fed? The Allan Savory ‘Holistic Management’ way of doing things builds soils, restores ecosystems, everything closed loop, little in the way of external inputs, and produces a far superior meat.

Thanks again for putting so much time and energy into the AutomaticEarth. Cheers … Kodiak

[TonyPrep]

Good interview. However, I’m not sure that Nicole’s assessment of the Auckland housing market is quite right. Yes, there is a belief that property is a safe bet and a good investment, long term; our housing downturn wasn’t quite as bad as some other places. But ownership of multiple properties doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lack of houses. The houses are lived in, they aren’t bought simply to sit idle; that wouldn’t be a safe investment. It’s the draw of Auckland for immigrants that is exacerbating demand.

However, it’s definitely a bubble, but one that might blow for some time, unless there is a general global contraction.

[william]

I would like suggest a few things as far as taking care and positioning oneself well. First ownership of property only will be useful as long as it is yours and not an investment. Investments lock one in as far as taxes and legal requirements. Further many places have legislation in place for rent increases and funny requirements that cost too high.

But there is a way to place oneself within a new system outside of the system of debt. Suppose instead of growing into a landlord one grows into a prep gardener and a lifeboat connection to a bunch of others. Now you grow enough for yourself and connect to others with a bunch of emergency services.

Split apart our needs. We need fast food and it costs us big time. How much frozen and canned foods are we using. No one is butchering their own food for supper tonight. We can’t function in our society without fast food. We can though create fast food at home and eliminate huge dependency. I am working on bread that only involves mixing a liquid with a dry in a container, letting it rise, and cooking it. It is getting close to ok. I have chili that takes less than 1/2 an hour to prepare. I have a thin crust pizza that takes about an hour start to finish.

Next gardening. We need to each grow most of our foods. This is difficult in the north. Things don’t store so well. One needs to look closely at this problem and grow what will survive the winter. I have practiced permaculture last year and found parts good. This year I moved towards square foot gardening. I am taking what works in each and not solely committed to either.

Primary to getting successful gardening is soil. Forget chemical science and forget testing ph and so forth. These lead you down the wrong path. One hand full of soil contains more life then humans on the earth. Visualize yourself as feeding this universe that exists in your garden these little critters need so much. My garden becomes a tossed salad every fall. Leaves and other organic matter cover the garden approximately 8 to 12 inches deep. Tossed into this is 1 to 2 inches soil and topped with an inch of soil. Come spring there is no organic matter to be found – if there is you are starting your garden too early.

Finally what to do with your savings. If the collapse happens and there is no growth your savings will be useless in long term survival – don’t use savings you will not be successful. Become self sufficient. Where to invest? I will be putting my money behind military. Governments will at all costs try and save the military and feed it well. Businesses that feed the military will receive funds during a depression at least for the first decade of a long depression.

Keep positive. Look Cuba survives and the people seem happy enough without a lot of things. It will not be the end, Its been fun but we always knew we weren’t the worlds greatest exporter and receive much more than we export. Lets face it when it balances out we got more than our share of fun.

[Kodiak]

William,
Thanks for taking the time to respond. All of your ‘life skills’ type stuff seems to be spot on. However, I don’t think I will be supporting the military, if it comes to that, but who knows, right?

Kodiak

[gurusid]

Hi Folks,

For those interested in giving feedback on how the site ‘looks and feels’ go to this thread:

TAE 3.0: What do you want to see?

L,
Sid.

[agelbert]

[move]Yeah, I know that globe LOOKS like it’s rotating the WRONG WAY, But TRUST US, It’s REALLY rotating THE RIGHT WAY for ENERGY PROGRESS…[/move]

Ladies and gentlemen, I speak before you on a subject of paramount importance! We must stop spending outrageous amounts of totally unjustified GOBS of WASTEFUL energy in making devices that simply DO NOT generate more energy than is used to manufacture them!

I speak of that wasteful device called a PUSH MOWER! 😮 Have you any idea how much energy it takes to, like, HEAT metal to temperatures necessary to make the blades and bar for a push mower!!? :cwmddd:

Why is that important? Because we must be careful about building things that don’t run on fossil fuels. 😳 Uh, I mean we don’t want to waste one tiny bit of the energy we have, now do we? ;D

So how do we find the answer to this energy question scientifically, truthfully, objectively and without any fibs either? :icon_mrgreen:

Well, first we must take a Systems Approach (very scientific, you see ) to the issue.

A push mower lasts about 30 years. During that time a lawn is mowed about 6 times a year for a total of 180 times (average for 36.5 varieties of monocotyledon grass species growing at our United States of Texas land exploitation research parcels :evil6: ).

After carefully computing the number of blade rotations and BTUs generated by a, sniff, tree hugger human during this period, our team of Exxon scientists (:oops: I mean objective systems approach scientific personnel , of course :icon_mrgreen:) determined that the generated BTUs TO CUT THE GRASS ARE ONLY 25% of the BTUs needed to manufacture the push mower!

This waste is a great grass stain on our society. :sorry: :whip:

HORRORS!
Energy, energy, energy! We can’t go wasting the precious, lovely, cheap, wholesome, high energy density fossil fuels we are running low on to make push mowers. We need that fossil fuel for our power mowers!

You see, if we don’t make those silly, uneconomical, LOW EROEI push mowers, the ICE (internal combustion engine) powered mowers will do the job with an average of 70% time savings on mowed lawns. Everyone knows that time saved equals a humongous amount of BTUs!

You can then personally use all that energy to day trade fossil fuel stocks. Say what? Yeah, you can trade other stocks too but we are just trying to be objective here (Charlie, get that wise guy outta here. ;)).

This research was brought to you out of the kindness of the heart of the

Institute for the Scientific, Objective, Unbiased, Legal, Apple Pie Study of Accurate Assessments of NON-ICE powered Machines Damaging Our Oil Picture (ISOULAPSAANIMDOP). 8)

Our Corporate Headquarters are at P.O. Box 666, Cayman Islands.

[move]Don’t miss the ISOULAPSAANIMDOP research soon to be published on the subject of energy to manufacture the horrendously wasteful Snow Shovels :emthdown:- VERY LOW EROEI – versus Snow throwers/Blowers :emthup:… :evil5: :evil6: :LolLolLolLol: [/move]

[Author]

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