themes:

main index

forthcoming events

Ecolonomics

contact & background info.

training & lectures

archive index

articles & papers index

related info.

Free Range Network

Energy Beyond Oil Project

Community–Linux Training Centre Project

Salvage Server Project

Paul Mobbs
Mobbs' Environmental Investigations & Research

Training, Lectures and Workshops

This page is a directory of the various projects that I am currently working around, and the workshops and presentations/lectures that have been develop for each.

Projects/themes:

• Energy Beyond Oil
  Energy Beyond Oil is the Free Range Network's research project on energy and the environment. The project began looking at issues such as peak oil and peak gas, but has now expanded to include all a variety of issues, from electronics to drinking water, that are going to become problematic as the human race runs short of energy and resources over the course of this decade.
• Climate Change
  In the mainstream environment movement climate change is represented as the single biggest threat to the future of the human species. This isn't incorrect, but it doesn't completely express the role of climate change within the human development paradigm. In reality climate is just one of the major threats (along with water, energy and resource depletion, habitat/biodiversity destruction and population growth) that we must solve in the next few decades. In my work I stress the need to integrate solutions to climate change within a wider re-formulation of human development in order to solve the other serious problems we will have to face during this century.
• "Less is a Four Letter Word"
  "Less is a Four Letter Word" was the Free Range Energy Beyond Oil Project's research initiative after 'Energy Beyond Oil' (see above). The aim of the 'less' research was to look at energy and resource use as a function of our economic paradigm – in short, "more" – and look at how peak oil, peak gas, and the scarcity of key resources, will force a re-alignment of our social and economic framework to deal with future shortages – i.e., "less". Note that if you've had the 'Energy Beyond Oil' short presentation, 'Less is a Four Letter Word' is the next 'chapter' in the debate.
• The Great Outdoors
  The Free Range Networks' Great Outdoors Initiative is all about developing the skills to adapt to the constraints of energy and resource depletion. There are a whole lot of skills that we need to re-learn in order to manage with "less", but to learn we must actively practice these skills, which for many will entail spending money they may not have or getting tied up with official red tape (planning permission, building regulations, etc.). However, there's one easily accessible activity we can undertake to learn these skills – we go camping!
• Limits to Technology
  "Limits to Tech.", or The Ecological Boundaries of the Digital Age, has been developed in association with the Free Range Salvage Server Project. It considers the implications of resource depletion on modern society – especially our use of cheap consumer electronics and our increasing reliance on computer-based digital communications networks. It examines the way in which the characteristics of modern consumer electronics tend towards developing more energetic and complex systems, and why this process is ultimately limited by the availability of the highly specialised materials that modern digital electronics requires to function.
• Liberation Gastronomy
  Liberation Gastronomy (aka. 'Energy and Food') was the next research project after 'Less is a Four Letter Word' (see above). It has two strands: Firstly there's the theoretical 'Energy and Food' presentation that explore the issues of energy, global food supply, globalisation and consumer culture. This is essentially picking up debate where 'Less is a Four Letter Word' leaves off. The other strange, which at the moment has the working title of 'Liberation Gastronomy', look as practical issues such as food preparation and sourcing as a means to begin the transition to a new way of living. There is only one essential energy resource for the human species – food. If energy supply is the major problem we face then by learning to adapt our needs to secure the key energy supply – what we eat – in our lives we can begin the process of living in a more sustainable way.
• Practical Simplicity (aka. 'Going Deep Green')
  Practical simplicity' is the new strand that's emerging to follow-on from the 'Energy and Food' research. Having sorted (theoretically!) the essential issue of food supply, the practical simplicity work looks at managing and making-do in other aspects of our life – mostly consumer goods and home heating. The core of the activity relates to auditing how we are living now and, through a process of elimination and substitution, finding ways to drastically reduce that level of consumption to something that more sustainable.
• Free and Open Source Software
  FOSS is a different model of using information technology that abandons the idea of proprietary information and programs in favour of shared development. Though a large and complex issue, the most useful output from this movement to date has been the Gnu/Linux operating system. The aim of the sessions below is to outline the advantages of FOSS.

Energy Beyond Oil

Energy Beyond Oil is the Free Range Network's research project on energy and the environment. The project began looking at issues such as peak oil and peak gas, but has now expanded to include all a variety of issues, from electronics to drinking water, that are going to become problematic as the human race runs short of energy and resources over the course of this decade.

Events contained within this group:

Climate Change

In the mainstream environment movement climate change is represented as the single biggest threat to the future of the human species. This isn't incorrect, but it doesn't completely express the role of climate change within the human development paradigm. In reality climate is just one of the major threats (along with water, energy and resource depletion, habitat/biodiversity destruction and population growth) that we must solve in the next few decades. In my work I stress the need to integrate solutions to climate change within a wider re-formulation of human development in order to solve the other serious problems we will have to face during this century.

Events contained within this group:

"Less is a Four Letter Word"

"Less is a Four Letter Word" was the Free Range Energy Beyond Oil Project's research initiative after 'Energy Beyond Oil' (see above). The aim of the 'less' research was to look at energy and resource use as a function of our economic paradigm – in short, "more" – and look at how peak oil, peak gas, and the scarcity of key resources, will force a re-alignment of our social and economic framework to deal with future shortages – i.e., "less". Note that if you've had the 'Energy Beyond Oil' short presentation, 'Less is a Four Letter Word' is the next 'chapter' in the debate.

Events contained within this group:

The Great Outdoors

The Free Range Networks' Great Outdoors Initiative is all about developing the skills to adapt to the constraints of energy and resource depletion. There are a whole lot of skills that we need to re-learn in order to manage with "less", but to learn we must actively practice these skills, which for many will entail spending money they may not have or getting tied up with official red tape (planning permission, building regulations, etc.). However, there's one easily accessible activity we can undertake to learn these skills – we go camping!

Events contained within this group:

Limits to Technology

"Limits to Tech.", or The Ecological Boundaries of the Digital Age, has been developed in association with the Free Range Salvage Server Project. It considers the implications of resource depletion on modern society – especially our use of cheap consumer electronics and our increasing reliance on computer-based digital communications networks. It examines the way in which the characteristics of modern consumer electronics tend towards developing more energetic and complex systems, and why this process is ultimately limited by the availability of the highly specialised materials that modern digital electronics requires to function.

Events contained within this group:

Liberation Gastronomy

Liberation Gastronomy (aka. 'Energy and Food') was the next research project after 'Less is a Four Letter Word' (see above). It has two strands: Firstly there's the theoretical 'Energy and Food' presentation that explore the issues of energy, global food supply, globalisation and consumer culture. This is essentially picking up debate where 'Less is a Four Letter Word' leaves off. The other strange, which at the moment has the working title of 'Liberation Gastronomy', look as practical issues such as food preparation and sourcing as a means to begin the transition to a new way of living. There is only one essential energy resource for the human species – food. If energy supply is the major problem we face then by learning to adapt our needs to secure the key energy supply – what we eat – in our lives we can begin the process of living in a more sustainable way.

Events contained within this group:

Practical Simplicity (aka. 'Going Deep Green')

Practical simplicity' is the new strand that's emerging to follow-on from the 'Energy and Food' research. Having sorted (theoretically!) the essential issue of food supply, the practical simplicity work looks at managing and making-do in other aspects of our life – mostly consumer goods and home heating. The core of the activity relates to auditing how we are living now and, through a process of elimination and substitution, finding ways to drastically reduce that level of consumption to something that more sustainable.

Events contained within this group:

Free and Open Source Software

FOSS is a different model of using information technology that abandons the idea of proprietary information and programs in favour of shared development. Though a large and complex issue, the most useful output from this movement to date has been the Gnu/Linux operating system. The aim of the sessions below is to outline the advantages of FOSS.

Events contained within this group: