On the emerging copper shortfall, mainstream media notices
Denying there are limits to resources doesn’t negate this fact. It only makes it harder when limits appear because we are unprepared.
Kurt Cobb
AI: Storytelling, communication and B.S.
Artificial intelligence is like artificial sweeteners, not as compelling as the real thing and potentially hazardous to our health.
Silage and the silence of the corncrake
Dublin, Ireland. We are seeing the first good days here, leading up to the golden days of mid-summer, and I’ve been talking to elderly friends here in the Irish countryside about what they used to do when the sun shone. The answer, of course, was that they made hay. When farmers heard the cry of … Read more
Faster and faster: The pace of climate change keeps surprising us
The acceleration of climate change is in the news more and more.
Little things mean a lot: The world’s microbiome under threat
The smallest living things in the world may be the most important to us humans.
Platinum: It doesn’t have to run out to become unavailable
The first stage of scarcity is not running out, but having less and less available. Platinum may end up being a good example in the coming year.
Dangers from future technologies? It’s the current ones that are killing us
It is fashionable to be pessimistic about new and emerging technologies. Less fashionable is dealing with the existing technologies that are already killing us and the biosphere.
Another offering from our tech overlords: A climate change solution without sacrifice
The late Eric Sevareid, a CBS reporter and commentator, coined what is now known as Sevareid’s law: The chief cause of problems is solutions.
Hazards of a connected world – Should you forgo the Internet of Things?
You should be very, very cautious about any device that uses the word “smart” in its name.
Chinese imagine genetically engineered radioactivity-resistant soldiers
Radioactivity-resistant soldiers? Life tries to imitate art.
What the dramatic drop in European demand for natural gas showed us
Energy-thrifty Europeans cut energy use dramatically in the wake of the loss of Russian natural gas imports. Will they go further?
Despoiling the final frontier: Satellite mega-constellations threaten ozone layer
Satellite mega-constellations are coming to a sky near you and the results could over time be catastrophic for the ozone layer unless something is done.