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Climate, politics and the narrow vision of futurists
Climate, politics and the narrow vision of futurists Most people know the tale of the blind men and the elephant. Each describes a part of the elephant. The elephant is said to be like a pillar by the blind man touching the elephant’s leg. The one touching the elephant’s tail says the elephant is like […]
Eternity, nature, society and the absurd fantasies of the rich
Eternity, nature, society and the absurd fantasies of the rich Professor and author Douglas Rushkoff recently wrote about a group of wealthy individuals who paid him to answer questions about how to manage their lives after what they believe will be the collapse of society. He only knew at the time he was engaged that […]
Saudi retreat on oil IPO highlights dearth of reliable information on world oil reserves
Saudi retreat on oil IPO highlights dearth of reliable information on world oil reserves Since late 2016 the financial media has been abuzz about what would likely be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) ever: The sale of 5 percent of the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, which is wholly owned by the government […]
10 years after the oil price spike: Is peak oil a process rather than a moment?
10 years after the oil price spike: Is peak oil a process rather than a moment? Ten years ago this week—July 11, 2008 to be exact—the price of a barrel of oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit an intraday high of $147.27, its highest price ever. By the following autumn the world economy […]
OPEC production increase shows it’s still fighting U.S. shale oil
OPEC production increase shows it’s still fighting U.S. shale oil It felt like opposite day as traders bid up the price of oil last week even as OPEC announced an increase in oil production that should have sent prices downward. The cartel decided it had room to move because of outages in Venezuela, Libya and […]
Leaked U.N. climate change report shows inverted thinking on growth
Leaked U.N. climate change report shows inverted thinking on growth The Reuters news service managed a genuine journalistic coup by getting an advance copy of a U.N. climate change report not due out until October. Given what the report says—it’s dire—and the fact that the climate isn’t going to stop changing while the report gets […]
Plato’s dream and our modern nightmare
Plato’s dream and our modern nightmare In a recent conversation a friend of mine described our modern understanding of the world around us as a conspiracy theory of the grandest proportions. We posit theories which tell us that the phenomena we witness are merely ephemera resulting from an underlying structure of whirring particles—not even atoms […]
The toxic price of convenience
The toxic price of convenience As many as 110 million Americans may be drinking water contaminated by a toxic class of chemicals that according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are used in “stain- and water-repellent fabrics, nonstick products (e.g., Teflon), polishes, waxes, paints, cleaning products, and fire-fighting foams (a major source of groundwater […]
America’s ‘Cadillac Desert’: Is there a substitute for fresh water?
America’s ‘Cadillac Desert’: Is there a substitute for fresh water? Thirty years after Marc Reisner penned Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water his prophesy is being fulfilled. As the chalky rings which mark previous higher water levels around Colorado River reservoirs grow ever wider, Grist reports that major disputes are now afoot […]
Information overload, sustainability, and the emerging organization
Information overload, sustainability, and the emerging organization Nafeez Ahmed, an exceptional journalist who writes at the intersection of resources and society, understands the complexity of the ecological predicament we humans face. In a piece he wrote last year, Ahmed asserted that our current arrangements are approaching a convulsive crisis point. One reason for this is […]
Is the CEO obsolete? A look the emerging organization
Is the CEO obsolete? A look the emerging organization Recently, the writer of a guest editorial in The Guardian Weekly proposed a solution to what ails the world’s business schools: Shut them down. The author, Martin Parker, claims there are 13,000 business schools on the planet and he says that’s 13,000 too many. He says […]
The global village and the surveillance society
The global village and the surveillance society Media savant Marshall McLuhan coined the term “global village” in 1962 in his book The Gutenberg Galaxy. Today, we take the concept of an electronically connected global population with instant access to practically every plugged-in person on the planet as a fact of life. We often see our […]
Fake news, algorithmic sentinels, and facts from the future
Fake news, algorithmic sentinels, and facts from the future The suggestion that social media outlets need to police so-called “fake news” rings true on its face. Who wants to read news coverage known to be false? But what rates as “fake news” will be harder to define than we think. And, putting algorithms in charge […]
Migrant caravan: Foreshadowing the future and reflecting the present
Migrant caravan: Foreshadowing the future and reflecting the present The march of hundreds of Central American migrants through Mexico has inflamed tensions between the Trump administration and the Mexican government and focused attention on the United States’ southern border. The ostensible reasons for the march are familiar: The migrants were fleeing corruption, social and political […]
The troubling realities of our energy transition
The troubling realities of our energy transition I recently asked a group gathered to hear me speak what percentage of the world’s energy is provided by these six renewable sources: solar, wind, geothermal, wave, tidal, and ocean energy. Then came the guesses: To my left, 25 percent; straight ahead, 30 percent; on my right, 20 […]
