When Risk Assessment is Risky: Predicting the Effects of Technology

By David Ehrenfeld, originally published by Post Carbon Institute/Foundation for Deep Ecology

June 13, 2013

NOTE: Images in this archived article have been removed.

This essay comes from the book ENERGY: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth Published by the Foundation for Deep Ecology in collaboration with Watershed Media and Post Carbon Institute.

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When Risk Assessment is Risky — David Ehrenfeld

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David Ehrenfeld

David Ehrenfeld is a proffessor at Rutgers University and a leading conservation biologist. He was the founding editor of the journal Conservation Biology, was a longtime columnist for Orion, and is the author of several books, including Becoming Good Ancestors: How We Balance Nature, Community, and Technology and The Arrogance of Humanism.

Tags: Deepwater Oil, Energy Infrastructure, energy-reality, risk management, Technology

Bill Rees: A childhood moment on a Canadian farm led to ecological footprint analysis

By Robert Jensen, Countercurrents.org

A childhood moment on a Canadian farm shaped Bill Rees’s understanding of ecological limits, leading to the development of ecological footprint analysis and decades of warnings about global overshoot.

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Chokepoint: The New Urgency of Ending Our Fossil Fuel Addiction

By

Join us for the free, online event “Chokepoint: The New Urgency of Ending Fossil Fuel Addiction” on May 6, 2026 with panelists Nate Hagens and Kumi Naidoo, and guest moderator, Gaya Herrington.

April 14, 2026

Solar panels aren’t as “clean” as we like to think

By Kollibri terre Sonnenblume, Macska Moksha Press

Solar power has enabled off-grid living and low-carbon energy, but its industrial supply chains and large-scale rollout come with environmental costs we cannot ignore.

April 14, 2026