Briefing Papers

End of the “Oilocene”: The Demise of the Global Oil Industry and of the Global Economic System as we know it.

Tim Clarke draws on recent research on fossil fuel extraction to argue that the global oil industry in deep trouble. Since oil plays such a key role in the world economy, since 2008 any semblance of economic growth has been fuelled by astronomically greater quantities of debt . The challenge Ireland and other countries will soon face is managing a fast economic and energy contraction and implementing sustainability on a massive scale whilst maintaining social cohesion.

Water Commoning – Extending the public debate about water policy in Ireland

Feasta's new Water Commoning Group aims to extend the debate about water policy in Ireland and to establish water commoning as something worthy of serious and critical consideration.

Why negotiations and the IPCC are unlikely to make sure we’ll be safe

"It is astounding to realise that the international community has failed 20 times to sufficiently address climate change. For how long do we have to keep telling ourselves that it all will be different this time around?" asks Erik-Jan Van Oosten. He explores the reasons why the current negotiation process is unlikely to succeed before going on to propose a Plan B: CapGlobalCarbon.

An introduction to ecological economics

This updated essay by Brian Davey forms part of a Nottingham University open source radical engineering course. It explains where economic growth comes from, rival understandings of it in economics and what problems it causes. It also introduces “ecological economics” which is a concept system that recognises these problems and seeks solutions to them within the bio-physical carrying capacity of the planet.

From our archives: using common resources to solve common problems

In this article that was originally published in the second Feasta Review in 2004, James Robertson provides a useful summary of the reasons for making a switch to a commons-based economy, which is the backbone of initiatives such as CapGlobalCarbon, community currency, basic income and land value tax.

New currencies and their relationship with fiat currency

Graham Barnes writes that "creating and maintaining a currency without any interaction with fiat is clearly a challenge. It's like asking fish to reinvent water while they are swimming around in it. But if we consider the main forms of interaction with fiat, some clues as to the management of the difficulties may emerge."

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