Year: 2012

Sustainability & Rio+20 – June 24

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– Al Jazeera interviews Hopkins and Heinberg on sustainability and Rio+20
– Sharon Astyk: Yet Another Last Chance to Step Up that We Blew…Ho Hum
– The Shifting Boundaries of Sustainability Science: Are We Doomed Yet? (3 articles on sustainability in PLoS journal of biology)
– New book: Planetary Sustainability Plan in “The Blueprint: Averting Global Collapse”

Public health and austerity: A troublesome combination

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The modern end-of-the-world imagination often seeks out great Hollywood-style cataclysms: an asteroid collision, all-out nuclear war, a solar flare that wipes out the electrical grid, even a worldwide epidemic that leaves few alive. Less compelling is the possibility of relentlessly rising death rates that finally overwhelm birth rates and quietly set worldwide population on a downward path.

The REAL reason conservatives always win

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For Energy Bulletin, this article should be titled, “The REAL Reason Cornucopians Always Win.” The author is a former associate of George Lakoff, and shares his commitment to analyzing framing and political discourse. He writes:

“Progressives need to engage in a values-based strategy that builds trust across the issue silos. We need to focus on building communities of shared identity that bind us together.”

ODAC Newsletter – June 22

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Oil prices plunged to less than $89/barrel this week, an eighteen-month low, amid deepening economic gloom. Suddenly everyone is in the business of predicting just how far the oil price might fall – Credit Suisse has forecast $50/barrel – and for how long. One particularly interested and anxious observer is likely to be Vladimir Putin. With around 50% of Russia’s revenue coming from oil and gas the Kremlin is worried about the potential for a budget shortfall.

Funding for lending – but who will invest?

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Since the financial crisis began, nef has called for more effective use of Quantitative Easing (QE) to support the real economy and fund investment in low-carbon infrastructure. In common with many other monetary experts, we see this as both eminently desirable and entirely possible. The Bank of England and HM Treasury finally seem to be coming round to this view, according to last week’s announcement of ‘Funding for Lending’. So why am I totally unenthusiastic about this scheme?

System Failure: We are approaching the end of society as we know it — And that may be a good thing

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Paul Gilding says it’s time to stop worrying about climate change; global crisis is no longer avoidable. He believes the Great Disruption started in 2008, as spiking food and oil prices signaled the end of Economic Growth 1.0 based on consumption and waste. Coming decades will see loss, suffering and conflict, but he believes the crisis offers us both an unmatched business opportunity as old industries collapse to be replaced by new ones, and a chance to replace our addiction to growth with an ethic of sustainability.