Goldilocks Technology – A Preliminary Checklist
In this Frankly, Nate offers preliminary guidelines for what might be termed ‘Goldilocks Technology’ – not too hot (dopaminergic gadgets) and not too cold (stone age tech) inventions for the future.
Britain’s ‘broken’ water system: a history of death, denial and diarrhoea
If evidence collected in timely fashion by an independent agency stands up in court, legal routes to compensation become a viable option for customers. This in turn should provide a considerable motivation for water providers – private or otherwise – to finally start cleaning up their shit.
The Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
On August 9th, we honor the world’s Indigenous peoples. Let’s move beyond stereotypes and recognize the ideas, movements, and rights of all peoples formerly and still subject to the violence of fossil colonialism.
MM #12: Human Supremacy
The problem isn’t being an exceptional product of evolution. The problem is thinking we’re the pinnacle of evolution: that we’re better than the rest; somehow transcendent so that we are not mere animals. Ironically, it is in distancing ourselves from animals that we become monsters.
Dark oxygen: We don’t know what we don’t know
The discovery of oxygen production in the deep ocean without light (and therefore without photosynthesis) is upending ideas about the evolution of life and origins of oxygen in the atmosphere.
Towards a Degrowth Border Perspective
Global freedom of movement entails the right to move, but also the right to remain – that is, the assurance that one’s livelihood is not endangered by the advance of the capitalist system and the economic growth of rich countries.
Rural ‘buffer ring’ can reduce urban heat island effect by more than 0.5C
Rural land cover surrounding a city has the potential to reduce the “urban heat island” (UHI) effect and cool the city centre by more than 0.5C, new research shows.
Between Optimism and Despair: The Messy Middle Paths Through Climate Breakdown
In the escalating drama of climate breakdown — especially as we navigate the apparent crossing of the 1.5C warming threshold — a binary is emerging that wastes a huge amount of time, energy and passion, needlessly limiting our vision to confront and adapt to our situation at all levels of society: Are we (optimist) solutionists or (realist) doomers?
The first farmers often made landscapes more biodiverse – our research could have lessons for rewilding today
Our latest research shows farming and other human-driven ecosystem changes increased diversity as often as they reduced it.
Janine Benyus: “Biomimicry: Applying Nature’s Wisdom to Human Problems”
In this episode, Nate is joined by Janine Benyus, who has spent decades advocating for biomimicry – a design principle that seeks to emulate nature’s models, systems, and elements to solve complex human problems in ways that are sustainable and holistic.
MM #11: Renewable Salvation?
Ramming the iceberg wasn’t the coal’s fault. “Renewable” drive would be just as capable of meeting the same fate.
The Regeneration Handbook: Healthy groups
Although regeneration begins with us as individuals, we eventually have to join with others for it to ripple out into the world. We need other people not only to share in the work but also to shed light on our blind spots and remind us we aren’t alone.
