Elites, political disintegration, and ‘cliodynamics’
In his recent book End Times, Peter Turchin tries to lay out his story about social, political, and economic change for a popular audience.
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Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future: Excerpt
The case for manufactured protein is sometimes made on the grounds that its bacterially based processes are more energy efficient than plant photosynthesis. But it’s a misleading claim given the energy costs of producing the generated electricity and industrial plant needed in the manufactured route.
The Green Energy Transition Is Not Necessarily Just
While the idea of a just transition continues to play a significant role in policy debates, these conversations have largely neglected the fact that a green energy transition in the Global North will require vast mineral resources from the Global South as new technologies are deployed at scale.
Turning utility companies into investment vehicles
Over the course of a series of books, Christophers has researched the nature of different forms of rentier capitalism—in Britain and elsewhere. His latest book focuses on the way the infrastructure sector is financed in the post-privatisation era, in Britain and elsewhere.
Saying No to a Farm-Free Future by Chris Smaje
Who needs to read Saying No to a Farm-Free Future? Anyone thinking that the ecomodernist prescription might be a good idea; and anyone arguing with ecomodernists and looking for data to back up their feeling that “food” factories in megacities is not the best path.
Reshaping a resilient future in response to COVID-19
There is no better time than now to transform advancements in resilience science and practice into widespread action. Such action can create resilient and sustainable economies, societies, and ecosystems in a post-COVID-19 and increasingly unpredictable world.
Autonomous chaos: Self-driving vehicles block emergency services
Autonomous vehicles are touted as safer than vehicles driven by humans. Turns out there are some dangerous glitches.
Rishi Sunak Boasts That Oil Funded Think Tank ‘Helped Us Draft’ Crackdown on Climate Protests
Rishi Sunak has confirmed that a fossil fuel-funded think tank helped to draft his government’s laws targeting climate protests.
What Should Grow?
What ought to grow in the Global North, where colonialism and capitalism have led to sickening—literally and figuratively—overdevelopment?
Review: Saying NO to Ecomodermism. Smaje Versus Monbiot, It’s No Contest
How do those raised in a culture of separation from nature, with abundant exosomatic energy from fossil fuels and vast transportation networks, develop the knowledge, skills, and new culture that draws from the past while preparing for a very different future? Chris Smaje helps us out.
Archaeology Is Flipping the Script on What We Know About Ancient Mesoamerica
Recent archaeology emerging from ancient Mesoamerica is flipping the script of public understanding about the people and institutions that inhabited this world: the evidence tells us that cooperative and pluralistic government was at least as common as and more resilient than despotic states.
Building Strength
Our prize, the goal of our actions and our lives is to achieve the ecological civilization in which, as far as possible, humans interact with each other and nonhuman natural things for maximum mutual benefit.
