Joe Tainter: “Surplus, Complexity, and Simplification”
What are the key differences between complicated and complex? How can we better understand energy and society through these key distinctions?
Society featured
Power: Chapter 5. Overpowered: The Fine Mess We’ve Gotten Ourselves Into
Power is essential; without it, we would be literally powerless. But one can have too much of a good thing. How much power is enough? How much is too much?
Frankly: Meeting the Future Halfway
At end of long week I offer a short riff on: What is the Great Simplification? What have I learned in doing the first 25 episodes? What is a framework for responses?
A Personal Definition and Incomplete History of Gaianism
An ethical global perspective is necessary today. We must find the unity of Earth and the world. It would be helpful if we had a word, better yet a name, that encapsulates this unity.
The Greatest Crisis Facing the Nation May Not Be Climate Change
What’s left once you take facts out of the policy debate? Anarchy, nihilism, chaos — just the sort of conditions aspiring demagogues and oligarchs feed off — and get phat while doing it?
Skyrocketing Population and Carbon Dioxide: Watershed Moments Wrap-up (Episode 63 of Crazy Town)
The astute listener will recognize the trends in population and greenhouse gas emissions over the course of our chronologically arranged episodes on watershed moments in history.
Standing at the edge of change
The world’s population of humans stands at the edge of rapid change and the future appears unimaginable.
Five takeaways from the Harvard Ecological Spiritualities Conference
So even while there were beautiful reminders of our connection to nature at this conference—talks, posters, and so on—there was, and will continue to be, far more reminders of our broken relationship, which Gaians and other ecologically spiritually minded folk should, and I hope will, continue to work toward healing.
“We Cannot Delete Our Way Out Of This”: Learning In The Maze
We are ultimately telling children and teachers to slow down, to consume information more deliberately. Share more sparingly and stop and think before you do.
Wixárika community takes back financial autonomy in historic vote
After four years of struggle, the Wixárika community of San Sebastián Teponahuaxtlán in Mezquitic, Jalisco, will directly receive federal resources to manage amongst themselves without the intervention of local officials or political parties.
Why Juneteenth Celebrations Should Acknowledge the 13th Amendment
A military order, the Emancipation Proclamation, did not formally end slavery. Chattel slavery was formally abolished in the United States via democratic process, by the 13th Amendment.
Alone in a sea of marshmallows
We can collectively reclaim the daylight of our attention, our right to decide what matters and what we wish to tend to.
