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Jonathan at Past Peak posted an interesting anecdote about how modern medicine completely failed for one guy when the solution should have been the first thing from their lips. The data on the true effects of the harmful ingredients in the consumer products today is woefully under-reported or perhaps even suppressed, and this is a dismal example of how little even the medical community understands. (Of course, always remember my co-worker’s favorite quote: “The plural of anecdote is not data!”)

Upon examining the map of the shift in U.S. Hardiness Zones provided at Groovy Green, it appears my area has shifted from Zone 9b to Zone 10a in the past 15 years. I'll be taking a more critical eye to the traditional advice for raising any given plants in this area to ensure the heat won't kill 'em...

DJEB put up a great post today about the basics of passive solar and how to take advantage of it in your home. He includes quite a few simple and practical solutions that you can employ even if your house isn't perfectly designed for it. Of course, if you have the luxury of designing a new house remember that passive solar is one the most low-cost, high-return investments you can make.

Andrew Leonard at salon.com has an interesting post about the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, an organization working to bring sustainable technology to the poor. In the course of their learnings, they've archived a wealth of on-line information on low-cost do-it-yourself projects. Their collection of links include plans for making advanced pieces of technology using cheap, accessible tools -- methane digesters, circuit boards, high-efficiency stoves, and so forth.

I've come across some sites in the past week with some very encouraging information and strategies. Oil, be Seeing You by author Richard Embleton takes a view remarkably similar to my own regarding the best approaches to mitigating Peak Oil effects. An excerpt:

I am not one who believes that survival, other than for a very few, consists of rugged individual survivalism on an isolated homestead in the midst of the wilderness or in reverting to a hunter-gatherer existence. We are social beings. Long-term survivability after energy decline must center on community, whatever form that community might take. The survivability of communities well past peak-oil, however, is far more than a case of self-sufficiency. It is also a matter of self-reliance, of having within the community the full measure of skills needed for survivability, of being able to produce or locally acquire everything that that community needs to function.

For the vast majority of us working to transition to a comfortable post-Peak Oil life, our resources are seriously limited. We’re short of available time, money, land, and skills, and our windows of opportunity for acquiring all of these are rapidly shrinking. So, the more help we can get to build our future efficiently and cheaply, the better.

OtherPower has great information and products for building your own power, water, and heating systems from scratch. Done correctly, you can save quite a bit of money by building up your own systems.

Greener Shelter discusses a number of sustainable house design strategies. While they don’t have detailed plans, it might get you thinking in new directions for further research.

I recently came across a great website called Blue Girl, Red State with some excellent perspective on sustainability and environmental issues. They recently posted a collection of conservation tips I thought I'd share here.

An excerpt from the post:

If everyone would run their electronics through a zip-strip and flip that switch off when the electronics are not in use, it would save a tremendous amount of energy, at both the micro and macro levels. While we are making modest adjustments that are capable of having a huge impact: Never purchase another incandescent lightbulb for as long as you live. Buy the flourescent bulbs that are all the rage. They aren't a fad - I've been using them since the early 90's, when they first came out and cost through the nose. Now my light company is paying a rebate on the purchase of them in the form of credit on your monthly bill. Total cost after KCP&L subsidizes the purchase: $.99 - and you will save that much in three months time in saved energy consumed by each bulb. When you buy a new TV, get an LCD; skip the power-suckin' Plasmas and CRTs.