Consumption & Demand

Economic Growth And Climate Change — No Way Out? (updated)

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Humankind has reached a fork in the road. The business-as-usual path implies robust economic growth with a rise in the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to anthropogenic climate change…Considered alternatives invariably lay out a vision of the future in which emissions steadily decline while economies continue to grow. Is such a vision realistic? This essay questions standard assumptions underlying this “have your cake and eat it too” view.

The Jive Economy

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What started out as a case of The Emperor’s New Clothes now has America looking like the world’s biggest nudist colony, with everyone in the long chain of power and authority admiring each other’s splendid new (imagined) pimp suits. George W. Bush (remember him?) wasn’t kidding when he discounted the function of objective reality in our national life, saying, “we make our own reality.” This apparently hasn’t changed much with a new chief at the top.

Renewables & efficiency – Feb 2

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-Windfarm boost for north-east industry
-China Leading Global Race to Make Clean Energy
-Government to reward renewable energy homes with higher feed-in tariffs
-IMF plans $100bn injection into economy to fund energy efficiency
-Wind Power Grows 39% for the Year
-Powering a Green Planet: Sustainable Energy, Made Interactive

Review: Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller by Jeff Rubin

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Jeff Rubin, former chief economist at Canadian investment bank CIBC World Markets, is not your typical economist. He gets peak oil…And now, in his bestselling book Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, he argues that oil prices, temporarily dampened by the deepest post-war recession on record, will soon be vaulted to new highs as the economy begins to recover, which in turn will thrust the world into yet another recession right on the heels of this one.

Open Letter to President Obama

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Many of you watched President Barack Obama’s recent State of the Union speech…It is the position of Post Carbon Institute that the President, however well-intentioned, is overlooking critically important considerations.

In the open letter below, we call on President Obama to face reality and ask our fellow Americans to do the same. We are seeking the support and endorsement of our community…

 

Are cities sustainable in a post-peak oil world?

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-Depletion of Key Resources: Facts at Your Fingertips
-Cities, peak oil, and sustainability
-Reconsidering Cities
-Peter Newman: The Crash, Peak Oil and Resilient Cities
-Where do we go from here?

Solutions & sustainability – Jan 29

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-Oil Is Too Important To Burn In Cars
-Beyond rhetoric
-three paths to a low-car city
-Saving Sub-Sahara Africa a Drip at a Time
-How Can Haiti Be Sustainable?
-Straw Homes That Would Have Foiled the Wolf

Vision for Sustainability, Resiliency by Post Carbon Institute

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What will we do post growth, post cheap energy, post resource abundance and post climate change? The Post Carbon Institute (PCI) convened its first meeting of Fellows this weekend in Berkeley to address these concerns. Many there and elsewhere have argued that these transformational changes are already becoming evident.