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Tag Archives: resource insights
Climate change: The feel-good catastrophe
Climate change: The feel-good catastrophe Last week my newly adopted home of Washington, D.C. had two back-to-back days of summer in the middle of winter. The first day the temperature reached 78 degrees (when the high is normally 48 degrees). That was a new record. The next day the high was 82 degrees (normally 49 […]
The stock market swoon and our hatred of (some kinds of) volatility
The stock market swoon and our hatred of (some kinds of) volatility The steepest one-day point drop in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average last week shook stock investors into an awareness that all is not sweetness and light in the financial markets. The sudden downside stock market volatility had been preceded by […]
Ruin is forever (revisited): Why your death isn’t as bad as that of all humankind
Ruin is forever (revisited): Why your death isn’t as bad as that of all humankind It should be obvious that the death of an individual human being isn’t as bad as the death of all humankind. But that’s only true if you accept the following premise laid out by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his upcoming […]
Who will drink the last glass of water in Cape Town?
Who will drink the last glass of water in Cape Town? Because Cape Town sits between picturesque beaches and mountains, it is a favored travel destination. And, its weather during the summer is described as “almost too perfect.” That’s in part because it rains very little in the summer in this second most populous city […]
The energy of Bitcoin, the information economy and the (possible) decentralization of the world
The energy of Bitcoin, the information economy and the (possible) decentralization of the world The near vertical rise and fall in price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin in recent months has been accompanied by reporting about the energy used to run the Bitcoin network. The amount is enormous, more than enough to supply the entire country […]
Protagoras and the Anthropocene: Can man still be the measure of all things?
Protagoras and the Anthropocene: Can man still be the measure of all things? The ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras is famous for his saying that man is the measure of all things. Though we don’t know much about Protagoras or his written work except for quotations appearing in other ancient works, the general view is that […]
Hawaii’s existential choice: Tourism, food and survival
Hawaii’s existential choice: Tourism, food and survival Hawaiians used to feed themselves quite easily on this island paradise. With the arrival of Europeans and Americans came European and American ideas about plantation agriculture. Hawaii became a producer of coffee, sugar, pineapple, papaya, rice and other plantation crops. While destroying Hawaii’s diverse food system, the growers […]
Is Washington tacitly operating under a new monetary theory?
Is Washington tacitly operating under a new monetary theory? In 2002 when soon-to-be-dismissed U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill warned then Vice President Dick Cheney that the Bush administration’s tax cuts would drive up deficits and threaten the health of the economy, Cheney famously answered: “You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.” In the wake […]
Do we have the wrong model of human nature?
Do we have the wrong model of human nature? Are we wrong to believe that competitiveness must and always will be the central animating principle of human action? Media studies scholar Michael Karlberg thinks so. In fact, he believes that another animating principle, mutualism, is both central to human interaction and necessary to aid human […]
Human well-being, economic growth and so-called decoupling
Human well-being, economic growth and so-called decoupling Some people claim that humans—called breatharians—can live on air alone. Others claim we can have economic growth without increasing our resource use, so-called decoupling. Neither claim withstands scrutiny though here I am only going to deal with the second one. Hidden beneath the claim of decoupling is the […]
Agriculture and climate change: Is farming really a moveable feast?
Agriculture and climate change: Is farming really a moveable feast? There is a notion afoot that our agricultural production can simply migrate toward the poles in the face of climate change as areas in lower latitudes overheat and dry up. Few people contemplate what such a move would entail and whether it would actually be […]
Look at the big picture, avoid groupthink, remember history
Look at the big picture, avoid groupthink, remember history A friend of mine recently outlined as follows his method for thinking about important issues: Look at the big picture, avoid groupthink, and remember history. First, the big picture. People too often think only about the narrow field in which they work or the community or […]
The Italian experiment and the truth about government debt
The Italian experiment and the truth about government debt Money is a slippery concept. Today we think of it as paper certificates and coins. But actually, anything that is generally accepted in trade can be considered money. The rise of cryptocurrencies is demonstrating this truth. In wartime scarce but desirable and easily transported commodities such […]
