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Category Archives: Environment
Why 4°C?
Why 4°C? Climatologists say that civilization can’t survive global warming of 4oC over the pre-industrial average. Some climatologists even say that civilization can’t survive 3oC. A temperature increase of 4oC over the pre-industrial average sounds fairly trivial so why would that cause civilization to collapse? First, for Americans, a 4.0oC temperature increase corresponds to a […]
The case for … making low-tech ‘dumb’ cities instead of ‘smart’ ones
The case for … making low-tech ‘dumb’ cities instead of ‘smart’ ones The Ma’dan people in Iraq weave buildings and floating islands from reeds. Photograph: Esme Allen/TSPL High-tech smart cities promise efficiency by monitoring everything from bins to bridges. But what if we ditched the data and embraced ancient technology instead? Ever since smartphones hooked us […]
Degrowth and Decolonisation in the Red Zone
DEGROWTH AND DECOLONISATION IN THE RED ZONE Hello world. Welcome to Glasgow. Welcome to Scotland. We are drawing on Glasgow’s radical past to inject hope and urgency into the moribund COP process. YOUR VISION OF our country may be an idealised one of lochs brimming with salmon and glens filled with deer, but in reality […]
New Documentary: Headwind”21
New Documentary: Headwind”21 Wow, I was taken aback somewhat by this new documentary just released in September. Of course, I’ve known for quite some time that the “green” and “clean” and “renewable” labels affixed to different projects are nothing more than hype and PR. However, the fact that the people in charge of all of this actually […]
Donella Meadows: Sustainable Systems
Donella Meadows: Sustainable Systems
Janet Yellen Admits The “Net Zero” Grand Reset Price Tag Will Be $150 Trillion
Janet Yellen Admits The “Net Zero” Grand Reset Price Tag Will Be $150 Trillion For years, the climate change lobby was laser-focused on just one aspect of the “climate change” crusade: the end – which supposedly is some world where the temperatures no longer rise due to fossil fuel emissions (because we now live in […]
Property ownership in a small farm future
Property ownership in a small farm future And so we come to the thorny issue of landownership and property rights in a small farm future, which I discuss in Chapter 13 of my book. A lot of people I encounter profess complete disdain for the very idea of ‘owning’ land, usually along the lines of […]
‘I’m afraid we’re going to have a food crisis’: The energy crunch has made fertilizer too expensive to produce, says Yara CEO
‘I’m afraid we’re going to have a food crisis’: The energy crunch has made fertilizer too expensive to produce, says Yara CEO The world is facing the prospect of a dramatic shortfall in food production as rising energy prices cascade through global agriculture, the CEO of Norwegian fertilizer giant Yara International says. “I want to say […]
Climate adaptation: resilience, self-sufficiency and systems change
Climate adaptation: resilience, self-sufficiency and systems change This weekend marks the beginning of COP26. After being delayed for nearly a year because of COVID, diplomats, scientists, corporate lobbyists, NGOs, students, demonstrators, corporations, heads of state, and many, many other invited and uninvited guests are already making their way to Glasgow Scotland for what has been […]
“Cry Me A River”
“Cry Me A River” I got a Facebook message early this week from a friend in Sacramento CA that said after over 200 days with no rain, she got 4.83 inches in a 24-hour period from the latest extreme rainfall that occurred over northern California. Others have reported up to a foot of rain in […]
Climate Change and the Limits of Economic Growth
Shutterstock CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE LIMITS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH If economic growth ushered in this era of climate change, how can economic growth also be part of the solution? Since the nineteenth century, human society has experienced extraordinary but uneven economic growth thanks to the energy unleashed from fossil fuels. That growth, and the greenhouse […]
Returning to a 1970s Economy Could Save Our Future
Returning to a 1970s Economy Could Save Our Future We’d contract energy use by half. Shrinking consumption is the solution we can actually live with. Second of two. A society that consumes less energy and stuff could rehumanize society and heal the biosphere. [Editor’s note: Read part one of this two-parter here.] Thanks to bright green […]
Tech Won’t Save Us. Shrinking Consumption Will
Tech Won’t Save Us. Shrinking Consumption Will Beyond the ‘blah blah blah’ of climate summits lies the real solution our leaders refuse to acknowledge. First of two parts. Oversold: Forget carbon storage, direct air capture, hydrogen power and the Earth relentlessly mined to support ‘green tech.’ Image from Shutterstock. Since 1995 there have been 25 global […]
Permafrost: a ticking carbon time bomb
Permafrost: a ticking carbon time bomb In Sweden’s far north, permafrost beneath the Stordalen mire is up to thousands of years old. Sheltered by snow-spattered mountains, the Stordalen mire is a flat, marshy plateau, pockmarked with muddy puddles. A whiff of rotten eggs wafts through the fresh air. Here in the Arctic in Sweden’s far […]
Revenge of the Real World
Revenge of the Real World The status quo response would be amusing if the consequences weren’t so dire. Rather than stare at empty shelves, you have two options for distraction: you can don a virtual-reality headset and cavort with dolphins in the metaverse, or you can trade various forms of phantom wealth that always go up (happy happy!) because […]
