The devastating impacts of the Gulf Oil Spill live on in coastal Texas and Louisiana, says writer and industry critic Antonia Juhasz, and they will continue to do so for decades.

Few of us ever come into contact with crude oil, which Juhasz points out is a much different substance than the 30 weight we might add to an automobile's crankcase.

The final report on the BP oil disaster, released earlier this month by the US Marine Safety Board, was a sweeping indictment of the company's performance, Juhasz says, and was equally critical of the other parties involved.

Consideration of the negative environmental and social impacts of petroleum should not be confined to the material itself, Juhasz argues. The BP blowout makes it clear that extracting, delivering and refining oil is also a big part of that problematic equation.

 Antonia Juhasz will talk about oil-related issues in the gulf coast and Afghanistan at the Community Church of Sebastopol, Tuesday evening, Oct. 18. The event begins  at 7 pm.

While state and federal educational standards concentrate on the basics, to the exclusion of almost everything else, proponents of Eco-literacy are finding ways to bring the outside world into the classroom. And vice versa.

The Center for Ecoliteracy's decision to concentrate on tools and frameworks, rather than developing detailed curricula, was deliberately made, explains Creative Director Karen Brown. That allows parents and teachers seeking to promote their work to approach it from a local policy-based perspective instead of getting caught up in debates over standards and details.

Eco-literacy is almost 180 degrees away from the indoor-oriented lifestyles of many students in the 21st century, observes Karen Brown, Creative Director for the Center for Eco-Literacy in Berkeley. That's a big reason why it's so important.

French farmers stuff geese with carbohydrates to produce fatty livers for pate. Humans are doing much the same to themselves by consuming too much sugar. The consequences, only now becoming apparent, will likely be devastating.

US policy for decades has emphasized making cheap food available, promoting dairy, corn and other grains. This has successfully supported those sectors of American agriculture, says Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California /San Francisco. But while farmers, and especially food producers have profited, consumers are paying a double price.

Federal crop subsidies have effectively held down food prices for American consumers. But Dr. Lustig suggests there is a downside to that, too.

The explosion in the use of high fructose corn syrup is a factor in the rampant occurrence of fatty liver disease, but it's not the whole problem, Lustig says, citing global data from several sources.

In Lustig's view, sugar, and fructose in particular, should be regulated as a toxic substance that can have adverse health affects, just as we do with alcohol, which has similar metabolic consequences. But he knows that's not likely to happen any time soon.

There has been a lot of concern raised about the increase in obesity in contemporary America, and while that is warranted, Dr. Lustig adds that not a cause of other health problems so much as an indicator that complications are likely.

Chris Martenson's Crash Course works two ways: as a three and a half hour intensive study of trending economic changes, and as a guide for coping with them as they unfold.

In preparing his Crash Course, businessman turned cautionary writer and speaker Chris Martensen says he begins with a brief analysis of the three E's. The first is the Economy.

There are myriad warnings of looming shortages these days, everything from oil to water, food to soil. And they can virtually all be traced back to something the world has an excess of—people.

Chris Martenson will appear live at the Sebastopol Grange at 7 pm on Thursday, Oct. 13, to talk about his Crash Course. Get event details here.